Heated seats are the top feature that new car purchasers desire.
Acura
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What comfort feature in your vehicle can you simply not do without? Or, if you were in the market for a new car, which feature would be your top priority? According to a recent survey, 47% of respondents indicated that heated seats would be their number one choice.
Market research and consulting firm AutoPacific surveyed 19,000 licensed drivers who plan to purchase a new vehicle in the next three years and ranked the 15 features and technologies they value most in their upcoming purchases. At the very top is the comfort feature that also tops my list (alongside remote start, which, surprisingly, didn’t make the cut).
Nearly half of the participants in the survey selected heated seats, which did not appear in the firm’s top 15 list for 2025. What accounts for the increased desire for heated seats since then? It’s unclear, but it’s certainly intriguing. In second place are front and rear parking sensors, with 45% of respondents expressing a desire for that feature in their new vehicle. The third spot goes to “rearward automatic emergency braking,” a feature that I genuinely value and consider vital for minimizing car-related injuries, yet I didn’t expect it to rank higher than all-wheel drive, adaptive cruise control, or wireless charging. You can find the complete list below.
AutoPacific
A couple of other notable aspects that leave me puzzled: all-wheel drive is in last place? In another survey last October, buyers indicated a preference for AWD over any other semi-autonomous driving feature. However, in this list, it ranks at the bottom. I understand this can be highly region-dependent, but I assumed that buyers would prioritize it over, say, auto parking! What about features like night vision and large animal detection?
What would your list include? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Heated seats are the top feature that new car purchasers desire.
Heated seats were the most desired feature among new car buyers, whereas features that are more commonly utilized, such as power seats, adaptive cruise control, and blind-spot detection systems, were ranked lower.