Car Buyers Yearn For Heated Seats More Than Literally Any Other Feature

Cars are more feature-heavy than ever before, especially when it comes to the comfort- and safety-focused niceties that make our lives that little bit easier. Of course, none of these things are strictly necessary, but they sure are great to have, so when buying a new car, we tend to set certain non-negotiables for ourselves — features we need to have, or we're walking away. AutoPacific just surveyed 19,000 drivers who said they were planning to buy a new car within the next three years in an attempt to find out just what we're looking for when it comes to a new car. As it turns out, the thing that the average new car buyer values above all else is simple: it's a warm ass.

That's right, the feature that 47% of the nearly 19,000 car buyers surveyed signaled they wanted more than anything else in their next purchase was heated seats. I mean, this doesn't really surprise me. When it's cold out, few things beat a heated seat. What really surprised me, though, is the fact that this feature didn't make AutoPacific's top 15 in 2025. I'm not totally sure why there was a surge in demand for heated seats. Maybe it's because of climate change, or maybe it's because car buyers have no money, so they figure heated seats (which cost an extra $150, on average) are an attainable feature they can actually afford on their next purchase.

Whatever the case may be, heated seats beat out a slew of other safety and comfort features for the top spot. The top five were rounded out by front and rear parking sensors (45%), rearward automatic emergency braking (44%), power front driver's seat (43%) and lane change assist (43%).

I've always been a bit baffled by the average car buyer, and AutoPacific's survey just reaffirms my belief that most of them are goofballs. I know that no survey is perfect, but I refuse to believe that we live in a world where having a nightvision camera system is a feature that is more in-demand than having all-wheel-drive. In fact, AWD came in dead last of the top 15 most wanted features, meaning it was beat out by other crucial features like "large animal detection (whatever that is), a dash camera, a wireless charging pad and a power front passenger seat.

Of course, depending on what sort of car buyers were after, they may have prioritized different features. AutoPacific says that when a respondent said they were looking to buy an electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid, their top must-have features were usually things like extended range battery packs and DC fast charging capabilities.

Overall, everyone wants more safety tech, and that's probably why you could argue that 11 out of the 15 top answers this year involved safety in one way or another. Still, the one thing the average car buyer values above all else is a nice, warm ass.