kogutr

Hi all,

My wife drives a 2012 RX 350 and we both feel the ventilated seats are useless. We live in NJ so the summers and fairly hot and having the ventilated seats in July & Aug didn't do much.

We had the car in for service a few weeks ago and the dealer gave us a 2012 ES 350. The cooling technology was much better in the ES. Is it just our car or have others noticed the same?

JerryKK

You probably should post this in the RX forum.

jetman

...Or in the 2007-2012 ES 350 forum, since you received a 2012 ES as a loaner. This forum is for the 2013's.

As to the ventilated seats in the 2013's, on the few occasions I've had to use them, I haven't been overly impressed. In fact, I barely feel any air coming through the perforations in the seats. I would much rather have cooled seats, like in the Toyota Avalon, but they're not available in the ES 350.

bobraynard

The bottom of the seats are closer to the vents on the ES.
The seats sit higher up on the RX.
If you search in the RX thread you will see where someone has actually done a mod in an attempt to direct the air towards the bottom of the seat, more efficiently...

LexBob2

Are you sure about the Avalon having cooled seats? On the spec sheet for the 2012 model, it refers to them as ventilated. Maybe the 2013 will have them?

kitlz

It helps when vents are directed to the floor. While not a perfect system, I don't find myself sticking to the seats and my interior is black.

RXSF

ventilated seats need to be on full power and take time for them to make a noticeable difference. They are not really meant to work when the car is already hot from sitting in the sun, but instead are best if used when you are just starting off and the temp slowly rises around you.

MY100thcar

I agree,
I had a 2012 RX350 and the ventilated seats were almost usless. I also had a 2007 ES350 and those ventilated seat were better. IMO
I have a 2011 Tahoe LTZ and it has cooled seats and they are really cold !

jetman

To be honest, I really didn't research cooled seats in the Avalon, since I was going to buy the Lexus anyway. But my thinking came from a quote on the cars.com review of the 2013 ES 350, speaking about the Lexus only having ventilated seats:

"That's ironic since the Avalon has cooled seats that turned your chaps to ice."

Maybe the reviewer had it wrong. Here's a link to the original article:
http://www.cars.com/lexus/es-350/2013/expert-reviews/

If I misled anyone in my original post, I apologize.

LexBob2

No problem. It just peaked my curiosity since the Avalon and ES share a lot of the same features.

TomL51

You're absolutely correct. My 2010 cooled seats suck. Lexus should address this.

UncleBen

We have the ventilated seats on our 2013 ES350 and we like them. Are we overly impressed, no! But they are certainly not useless, especially on a hot and sticky day.

edh

My seats seem only OK in the ES. Better than an older M45 I had, but not nearly as good as an 2012 IS I test drove right before I bought the ES. My back actually got too cold in the IS after 15 mins, whereas I can leave the ES on full cold for hours and barely feel it.