My 2015 RX's heated seats work great! They heat up very quick, and on the highest setting get very warm (hot), to the point that once they warm up I need to turn it to a lower setting. Either there's a lot of different opinions on the correct temperature or there is a quality control issue with different RX's heated seats.

Today we used the heated seats again and they felt a little warmer, however, it was milder today also. You're right though, there are lot's of opinions on the heated seats. Could it be related to how heavy some coats are and how long they are that affect the feeling of heat? My wife was wearing a winter coat and I was wearing a spring coat.

novaman

FYI, the reason for the polarization within this thread is most likely due to the observations of another similar RX thread:

RX450h has better heated seats. RX350 heated seat function is much weaker, even when compared to other cars.

That's curiously insightful news!

Do you have any information as to why there would be such a difference between siblings?

Are there any other not-so-obvious-but-significant differences?

I can't remember for sure how option pre-reqs work on every MY, and we know there are variations country-to-country how packaging works, but IMHO, the difference is perhaps not so much if an owner has a RX350 or RX450h, but what type of leather seats they have in their ride. I suspect the leather type, it's thickness, etc may interact with the underlying seat heating/ventilation system differently (that was/is part of the optional US Comfort Pkg): e.g. here in the US, at least on my 2013, the optional Premium Pkg included "perforated leather-trimmed interior", whereas if you paid for the even more inclusive Luxury Pkg it included the upgraded and IMHO more subtle (some would say it's thinner) "semi-aniline leather-trimmed interior".

FWIW, my RX350 seats get nice and toasty, but the heated Nuluxe seats in my IS get even hotter. I should try to get some measurements on the RX.

Regarding the RX 350, absolutely not true in my case. My RX 350's heated seats work better than my previous 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe and better than my wife's 2014 and 2007 Mustang and both of those car's heated seats worked fine, just saying my new RX works even better.

Anyway maybe it differs by year with the 350s, but you never hear 450 owners complain of weak heated seats. 450 owners prove me wrong!

That's because our 450's take so long to warm up that we are simply happy to have heated seats?

<grin>

Our seats get toasty warm (and I have heat before I go two miles @ 25 - so I'm not complaining at all).

My 450h heated seats suck

I wonder if more US RX450h owners posting here tend to have the Luxury Pkg, and therefore the (thinner?) semi-aniline leather --- aka a "more fully loaded option-wise vehicle" than perhaps the average RX350 some folks responding here may own. (I say that because my dealer told me, more but not all, of their relatively few RX450h tend to come in with the Luxury Pkg than RX350 did -- but that was back in 2012 so I have no real facts to back it up against folks posting opinions here in this thread.)

When I try to problem solve, I like to deal with facts as much as possible. To perhaps move beyond anecdotal opinions that are good for our souls , if we specify the potential variables involved with our view, we may discover a pattern as to which vehicles and/or seat types seem to be warm enough for our particular needs, e.g.:

• Do my seats get warm enough?
• General outside temperature during seat heater use?
• Cabin heating/cooling system status?
• Model Year & RX350 or RX450h?
• Leather or Semi-Aniline Leather Seats? (Do you have the US Luxury Pkg?)

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I'll restate my previous post into this format to begin if others want to join in:

• Do my seats get warm enough? Yes
• General outside temperature during seat heater use? 45-60F
• Cabin heating/cooling system status? ON - Auto; Windows closed
• Model Year & RX350 or RX450h? 2013 RX450h
• Leather or Semi-Aniline Leather Seats? Semi-Aniline

• Do my seats get warm enough? Yes
• General outside temperature during seat heater use? -10 to 40F
• Cabin heating/cooling system status? Auto set to 72°
• Model Year & RX350 or RX450h? 2014 RX350
• Leather or Semi-Aniline Leather Seats? Semi-Aniline

I have to turn the seat heater off after a couple minutes as it gets uncomfortably hot even on the lowest setting.

• Do my seats get warm enough? Yes
• General outside temperature during seat heater use?35-50F
• Cabin heating/cooling system status? Auto set to 67°, windows closed
• Model Year & RX350 or RX450h? 2013 RX350
• Leather or Semi-Aniline Leather Seats? Leather