This article just caught my attention since the M has the option (2006 - I think standard on the upcoming 2007) of cooled seats.http://www.foursprung.com/2006....html

“If all passenger vehicles had ventilated seats, we estimate there could be a 7.5% reduction in national air conditioning fuel use,” says John Rugh, project leader for NREL’s vehicle ancillary loads reduction project.Such a reduction would translate to about 522 million gallons (1.97 billion L) of fuel saved annually, he says."

I'm not sure of how many barrels of oil 522 million gallons of gas compares to, but it's a good concept. I've only used my cooled seats when the car's been hot after sitting in the lot at work. For kicks, I'll have to try out raising the AC temp and using the cooled seats to see if my mpg goes up.

Then again, if we all drove a Toyota Prius, we'd save much more than the above, right? I'm sure the Enviros will love to know that I upped the mpg on my V8 by 1.

Wow...

Personally, I can't imagine using fuel consumption as a "supporting argument" for ventilated seats - i'd be more interested ni the safety factor and fatigue reduction.

The air-conditioned seats are phenomenal, I wish my G Coupe had them!

Interesting, indeed!

I suspect the effect will be nominal for any given car, but probably significant when taken over a large population of cars!

Z

little fishy on how these places come up with these numbers.....

ANyway, youd save FAR more money by tinting your windows then you would by having cooled seats, but one would obviously want to have both.

elwesso wrote:ANyway, youd save FAR more money by tinting your windows then you would by having cooled seats,

An excellent point!

Particularly in hotter climates. This would also protect the leather from cracking, etc.

Z

I've taken long trips on my car with A/C off or A/C on and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference on gas consumption. Put the Hammer down and it goes from 26mpg to 19

For some reason my Q seats don't cool as quick as my Friends M seats. I think maybe the size of the seat has something to do with it.

Oh yeah, his car is black on black tinted, Mine is also black on black non tinted "for Now"