General Motors Removing Heated Seats From Crossovers, Pickups Due To Chip Shortage
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It was recently revealed that General Motors is removing heated seats from a variety of crossover and pickup models, with heated steering wheels and ventilated seats also on the chopping block. The new changes are due to the ongoing microchip shortage.
Per a recent report from Automotive News, the feature deletion will go into effect starting next week on November 15th. Meanwhile, some range-topping trim levels may continue to offer heated seats.
The feature reduction is said to affect over a dozen nameplates, including the Chevy Colorado, Chevy Blazer, Chevy Equinox, GMC Canyon, and GMC Terrain. The Chevy Silverado and Chevy Traverse are also affected, with the exception of High Country trim levels, as are GMC Sierra and GMC Acadia models, with the exception of Denali trim levels.
Affected vehicles may also delete ventilated seats and the heated steering wheel. The heated steering wheel feature will be eliminated from several of the same vehicles starting November 22nd.
The changes are expected to remain in place through the 2022 model year. Looking ahead, the inclusion of these features with affected models in the future hinges on the availability of microchip supplies.
Customers affected by these changes will receive some kind of credit compensation, which could range between $150 and $500. It’s also possible that some models may be retrofitted with heated and ventilated seats when parts are available again in the future.
General Motors also indicated that it will reinstate a few features previously eliminated due to the microchip shortage, including digital temperature displays for some pickup models.
Unfortunately for customers, the deletion of heated seats could prove to be a major issue, given the huge popularity of the feature. The deletion of heated seats is the latest General Motors casualty in the ongoing chip shortage, with the automaker forced to cut production from a variety of facilities around the world, although some production has been reinstated as supplies fluctuate. The latest indication is that the chip shortage may last into the 2023 calendar year.
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Imagine telling our parents or grandparents that we canceled our order on our new truck because the seats and steering wheel won’t keep our ass and hands warm!! They would hand us a sheepskin throw and a pair of gloves and say, “You’ll survive, your ass is a long way from your heart and if you get desperate while you’re driving place your knee against the bottom of the steering wheel, cup your hands over your mouth and breathe hard a few times.”
I bought my 2021 Envision just in time. Fully loaded. Although not listed above, the 2022 did remove a few features. I think I would buy a vehicle without a steering wheel before not having heated seats. What a joke. Going to be interesting to see how large the price reductions are.
due to this idiotic policy decision I cancelled my 2022 GMC Acadia SLT, living in the Northeast heated seats and steering wheel are a great option especially with leather seats and steering wheel. Priority is with electric vehicles and with Mary Barra’s salary she could build her own factory making microchips.
My wife and I love The heated seats we have a 2013 GMC Sierra 1500 SLE and a 2013 impala LTZ both have remote start and heated seats it’s nice up here in Washington State during the winter’s.
Does anyone know if the dealers are responsible for notifying the customers of these changes being made to their orders or is it just gonna be sticker shock to most when they see the list of credits on their revised invoices for parts not included?
According to Cadillac Canada, it is indeed the responsibility of the dealership / salesperson to report on any delays in ordering / shipping or changes to customers order in a prompt and reasonable timeframe.
Wow, so much negativity going on as usual. Let’s put some perspective to this.
Tahoe/Suburban, Yukon and Escalade aren’t listed. CT4 and CT5 and Corvette aren’t listed. Silverado and Sierra are listed but it clearly calls out 22 model year.
This comes down to old electrical architecture and GM just can’t get the parts. Anyone think they’re really doing this purposely? Be patient, give it a few months and the shortages will continue to improve. Best of all, EVs won’t be impacted so all the complainers can order up the EVs.
Nobody thinks they want to do this. They’re saying that GM messed up really badly at the start of this, and it’s unacceptable. How they haven’t publicly removed their failed leadership over this is mind boggling. I guess because the market only cares about your ev efforts, and not actually making money.
And again, reity is, most buyers don’t want EVs. Stuff like this isn’t going to push people into an EV. It will just push them out of your brand, into a used car, or keeping their existing car.
GMC Fan….your name and comment are all one needs to read to know where you are coming from. But realize people here are commenting on things that are relevant, while you call them complainers and push them to EV’s. Many people out there do not want EV’s and people in the market right now have a right to to make comments, especially when the problems being experiences by GM are also due to poor planning. Their decisions are questionable at best. But you keep insulting customers since that is a great plan to help GMC as their fanboy.
If GM is the only company having parts issues, explain to me why Mercedes will not be selling V8s in 2022 model year. Why is BMW pulling features from their vehicles more significantly than GM? Ford is still bumbling the launch of the Bronco and still no F150s on the lots.
If you absolutely must buy a new vehicle now, suffer the consequences. I’ll wait until I can get exactly what I want.
Mercedes only needs to sell the V8 in the AMG brand. Since the sales are much smaller they can get away with a stop sale on that for a few months.
Great way for Mercedes to lose more credibility. They already lost a ton watering down the AMG line, why not eliminate the rest of their luxury credibility?
The luxury brands really need to recognize they need things like v8s to separate themselves. You can get a higher feature content in a kia Telluride now than many Mercedes products. If you’re saddled with only a turbo 6 or turbo 4 for power, then you’re basically selling “spend more for this Mercedes because people will think you’re rich”.
One of my local TV stations has tried to find a silver lining: used car inventories are low, so trade-ins and purchases of cars are beneficial, but a trade-in would go toward a really expensive new car. So much for silver linings.
My 2002 GMC Sierra has heated seats.
Yet another reason the GMT 800 vehicles are the smartest pickups and SUV’s on the road. Highly intelligent and financially smart people drive them.
Gullible money fools buy these new trucks/SUV’s.
Perhaps I’m crazy for thinking this, but would it not make sense for GM to reach out to the dealerships of the sold orders so that they can find out which customers are ok with the deletion of these options so that a credit could be issued and their vehicles be shipped out faster to them? Whereas, those who still want these features will be aware that it will prolong the delivery of theirs by perhaps months until adequate supply of chips can be found.
Maybe GM should contact Hostess Frito-Lays to see if they have any “old chips” laying around? 🤪
On Saturday I was ready to go to the Dealership. Already did my build after waiting for Leather Seats to become available in the 2022 GMC Canyon AT4 Off-road, maximum options All In. Then I read this article, I couldn’t believe it, not again. I live near Buffalo NY, heated seats & heated steering wheel are NOT an option, and as for the new truck it is now off the table. I am sure glad that I subscribe to GM Authority, yet so disappointed that the 2020 is off the table. As Big Game Al stated GM should reach out and see people that really need these options get them. But with me they lost a sale, Totally Sucks.
Funny to see all this excitement about heated seats. 25 years ago, GM would have 40% market share and heated seats did not exist. Now you won’t buy one because they are not available. C’mon!
Why all this fuzz? You are paying thousands for getting vinyl seats now called leatherette or any other funky name, and then pay more to heat up that vinyl, that sure it freezes down.
Get fabric seats and let your butt to heat them up in about 5 minutes.
For the wheel, get any of the ultra expensive North Face, Columbia or any other brand of gloves.
Why the people living in Yakutsk don’t complain? Just take a look at the map.
Why people in Florida or Arizona keeps ordering fully loaded vehicles with heated seats and still pay extra for a feature not used?
GM has not stopped building cars with the remote starter, so make sure yours have it, start your vehicle remotely, let it heat and problem solved.
I live in FL and use my heated seats all the time. It really made your back feel better on the trip to work. And yes I know that makes me sound like an old person.
This will be terrible for people who purposely paid thousands extra for a trim level to get the heated seats and wheel. From a Silverado standpoint there are plenty of folks who cringe at the styling differences between and LTZ and High Country and may have chosen to option and an LTZ to HC spec – now to not receive these features when their order comes in. I’ll admit I jumped ship from GM a month ago over their package limitations and forcing expensive and unwanted options at the consumer to get basic features. This is a total dealbreaker for a lot of people. Maybe Ford will do the same and I’ll receive my order without the seats and wheel I paid for. I figure it will cost upwards of $5K to retrofit the wheel, seats, HVAC module and programming using parts from a wrecker and over $10K through a dealership. They’re offering up to $500 in compensation?
Andy will not buy!
well, in was planning on a 2023 Traverse RS but won’t settle for deleted “Standard” features at the $50K price point. you can get a loaded Subaru XT with more features for $40K. or the Ford Explorer ST for $55 or a loaded Kia Telluride for $50k. GM better figure it out quick as consumers have plenty of options and i have not seen any other manufacturer dumping “standard features” …….. my 2011 Silverado has plenty of
life in her, but i like to upgrade at the 10-12 year mark and the 2022 Traverse RS was my #1 choice…..
Bought a 2021 Premier RS AWD in June. Completely loaded, paid just over 50 for it. Has 8,000 kms on it now, probably get $60,000 at auction for it no problem!
Just to update everyone on this issue. The 2022 Sierra AT4 Carbon Pro Diesel I ordered just arrived at the dealer this week. I can confirm that it was shipped without the chips for the heated/cooled seats and heated steering wheel. They are giving $150 in credits for this as well and offering the retrofit for both once chips are available. Unfortunately they really have no timeframe for when this will happen or what the process will be.
The important thing is that you will be getting these features instead of getting the full refund and not at all.
As I understand it, all of the required components should still be on your vehicle except of course for the activation microchips and semiconductor chips that operate them. In some cases, the control panels for the A/C which house the heated and cooled seat options has been replaced with a generic panel devoid of these buttons so that panel will have to be swapped out when the chips are available again. Not a big issue for retrofitting down the road as the idea was probably so that you wouldn’t keep pressing those buttons wondering why they didn’t work.
As for the inconvenience of taking it back to the dealership for retrofitting…. Just schedule your next oil change at the same time and it won’t feel like you’re having to do a special trip!
All will be good in the end. 😃👍🏻
Yeah the heated steering wheel just has the generic panel but the heated seat buttons are there as the should be. I’m not too worried about it knowing they will be added…but when it is -23 C like it is this morning they would be nice to have now! Haha