Indication for auto seat heat please.

It would be useful if the indicator for seat heat illuminated to show if they were on, and at which setting. Currently, when set to auto they appear to be off per the infotainment screen, but my senses indicate otherwise.

That's why it shows AUTO - the very low setting that comes on during preheating.

EldRick said:

That's why it shows AUTO - the very low setting that comes on during preheating.

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Well yeah, but it always shows "AUTO". The point is that you can't tell whether the heater is on or off when it says "AUTO". Seeing "AUTO" when your butt is cold gives you no joy whatsoever.

I agree with the OP. This would be very nice information to know.

The seat heaters don't warm up instantly. I would like to know whether I should manually set them to where I want or if I just need to wait.

Is there a way to just put it on manual? Trolled around the setup menus and didn't see anything.

I just want it to turn on when I tell it to and be off by default when I start the car. e.g. make it operate like every other car I've ever used.

BoltMaybe said:

Is there a way to just put it on manual? Trolled around the setup menus and didn't see anything.

I just want it to turn on when I tell it to and be off by default when I start the car. e.g. make it operate like every other car I've ever used.

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I believe it's in there, although it may only be when you preheat.

Think of AUTO as being half a dot. It warms the seat to maybe 60F when preheating, but seems like less heat than a single dot would produce.

In my Bolt, the seat heater remembers its setting between when the car is turned off then on again, but the dashboard forgets. So if I set both the seat heater and dashboard to 3 dots, then the seat goes back to 3 dots worth of heat the next time I start up the car, while the dashboard reverts to 0 dots. If I then press the dashboard control (which is showing 0 dots), the dashboard immediately displays 2 dots (because the "real" setting had been 3 dots, not 0 dots). The mismatch isn't important to me, so I accept it as a trivial foible of the car.

EldRick said:

That's why it shows AUTO - the very low setting that comes on during preheating.

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EldRick said:

Think of AUTO as being half a dot. It warms the seat to maybe 60F when preheating, but seems like less heat than a single dot would produce.

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1. How does one know the seat heat is active? Particularly when you first get in if you have thicker winter clothes on.
2. Do all four positions come on during preheating? Or both "Auto" seats (front)? Or just the driver's seat? And how would you know? Considering there is no indication that the front seat(s) are being heated, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect the same behavior from the rear seats - on but not indicated.
3. When used in the auto position while driving (not during preconditioning), what setting is the seat heat using? Low, medium, or high? It seems to vary (possibly based on interior vs exterior temps) because some mornings it has seemed warmer than others.

It would be nice to have feedback, other than by the seat of your pants, of what the seat heaters are doing. Considering the dots are already there, it would seem trivial to have one "illuminate" to the current setting.

Enzeder said:

It would be nice to have feedback, other than by the seat of your pants, of what the seat heaters are doing. Considering the dots are already there, it would seem trivial to have one "illuminate" to the current setting.

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Absolutely agree. And the same could be said for the auto recirculation setting - why not show a "air entering the car" or "air circulating inside the car" icon to show what the automatic system is doing? Right now if I'm approaching a truck belching out fumes I have to proactively switch the recirc to manual because I don't know if it's going to suck those fumes into the cabin or not.

SeanNelson said:

Enzeder said:

It would be nice to have feedback, other than by the seat of your pants, of what the seat heaters are doing. Considering the dots are already there, it would seem trivial to have one "illuminate" to the current setting.

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Absolutely agree. And the same could be said for the auto recirculation setting - why not show a "air entering the car" or "air circulating inside the car" icon to show what the automatic system is doing? Right now if I'm approaching a truck belching out fumes I have to proactively switch the recirc to manual because I don't know if it's going to suck those fumes into the cabin or not.

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Good point, Sean. Frankly, it's probably best practice to switch to manual mode in this case anyway - Auto could choose "fresh" air at any time.