I actually am fine with the heated seats in my Lexus cars that have them, the cooled seats however suck in the 460 and sequoia to the point I consider them a gimmick. The Audi however pulls air through the seat instead of pushing it at you and it WORKS, the fan for the seat is as loud as the 430s main fan at max though.

AC performance of the LSs is the best of any car I've ever been in in terms of speed and accuracy of requested temp and total insensitivity to outside conditions. I have gone out in shorts in -5 degree weather and never would know it's not 72 out. Same story going around in 101-105 degree in Florida.

Best heated seats and outright sheer heat output I've ever had would have to be my 03 truck. The seat heaters are too hot on max and cabin temps from the heater can get stupid.

 

Here's one in 2017 when I was driving my 2006 Camry SE in the Santa Clarita area (SoCal, near Magic Mountain). I was on my way home from a trip to SoCal and they were in the middle of heatwave. It actually got to 117F when I hit the Bakersfield area. The AC kept the cabin nice and cool

 

Uhm... Heat has to be dissipated in some way right? You would rather sit there with your butt and back on a hot seat? In any case, BMW has remote start option so that would take care of it.

 

Yes, LS430 has strong air conditioning and I love the smart swiveling vents. I don’t believe any car ever has had that, at least “smart” ones.

 

I think the ventilated seats on German cars are worthless. Give me the air conditioned seats from American brands any day.

 

Lol yep. We (USA) get it. A damn 2015 Buick, the cooled seats work great. Worthless in Lexus cars that I own and have owned.

 

I'm not really into tech at this deep level to know how well they work, but apparently some claim due to this 48V, *** works very smoothly in their opinion. BMW's 48v is not bad but MB"s is quite serious on at least one particular model. In any case, I think their MPG is good regardless.
You do have a point there. "Over implementing" is probably a better way to say it. IMO their NPI engineers and/or R/D management team were not doing their job right. When certain things randomly work or turn on/off themselves on a new vehicle, that's poor engineering or management execution.

 

Yeah, MB's 48V system is quite a bit more advanced than BMW's and others' 48V systems. Mercedes's system is the only one that doesn't have an accessory belt drive, or a secondary 12V battery. Most importantly their mild hybrid actually aids in off-the-line acceleration which effectively makes their inline 6 even faster than a stock B58. Most other brands' 48V systems are only there for highway coasting when the engine is shut off and smoother stop-start.

 

I dont use the cool seats in my mercedes that often, but it is nice that it remains on when you first turn them on, but after a while, they will shut off when you come to a complete stop so you dont hear them, and restart when you take off again. That is attention to detail.

 

If you go on the IS forums everyone says the same thing and it’s clearly a poor design. On my Durango, supposedly it pulls air out and I actually turn it off because it’s too cold after a while. When a crappy Dodge gets it right, I feel Lexus could’ve done better.

 

Definitely a poorly designed seat cooler on the IS. How is the ventilation function on the Plaid?

 

On the IS it's just fan that blows up your *** LOL

 

I wish it were just ambient air...not hot air

 

"It's Megamaid, she's gone from suck to blow."

I think the Buick seats do suck and blow? However they are, they work well.

 

I think you mis-read my post. I was commenting about the reliability of the German 48V, MB's in particular. I don't follow it closely and it may be batch related. However, if a battery dies but driver is unable to jump start, that's a big design flaw to me.