Carried my first adult passenger in the back seats today. She wanted a heated seat. The touch control on the back of the centre console didn't seem to work. Until.......

We consulted the manual, and it's pretty straightforward to switch them on from the front touch screen (but I wouldn't want to do it when driving). Once switched on, the controls in the back can reduce the heat or turn off the seat heating.

Am I missing something? Can the rear heated seats be turned on from the back? As ever, the manual isn't all that much help!

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Hello there,

I've just got a 2nd hand SEL '25 plate on Christmas Eve and my children were gutted the seats didn't heat on the homeward journey.

Sat on drive this morning & found on the screen there is a 'child lock' on the heated seats (& steering wheel). I've unlocked it and can now be controlled from the rear. I may regret that!

Let me pop out & note what I actually did....

So, select 'fan/person' icon bottom rhs.

Use the information & settings icons to check current situation & change your aircon seat settings.

Select rear and use the padlock icon.

Check rear button functions as expected.

Edited 26 December, 202526 Dec by tjn2060

Hi tjn2060, thanks for this.

There was no padlock icon on the screen for me assuming I'd pressed the right ones of course.

I pressed the '4 squares' icon - bottom left, then 'seats', then 'rear' and landed on a screen very similar to the photo in your post.

Then at second attempt, I found a screen that was exactly as you described, and all sorted, thanks again.

Edited 27 December, 202527 Dec by 100andthirty

On 26/12/2025 at 11:45, 100andthirty said:

Am I missing something? Can the rear heated seats be turned on from the back?

Are we meant to be using the voice control for this sort of action? "Hey Laura, turn on the nearside rear heated seat"

I tried that and the response to "Hey Laura........." was (in a male voice!) "I haven't been trained to do that yet".

6 hours ago, 100andthirty said:

I tried that and the response to "Hey Laura........." was (in a male voice!) "I haven't been trained to do that yet".

Sorry to hear that. My SE-L, which has heated front seats but not heated rear seats, allows Laura to control them. That's what made me wonder if the complexity of the touch-screen menus were irrelevant - we're meant to be using voice control.

Side note: article noting "...reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high..."
Link: https://www.wired.com/story/why-car-brands-are-finally-switching-back-to-buttons/

On 28/12/2025 at 14:20, TheAardvark said:

Are we meant to be using the voice control for this sort of action? "Hey Laura, turn on the nearside rear heated seat"

' Evening TheAardvark,

I had no idea this functionally existed in the car.

I have since watch many many YouTube videos, changed Laura's voice to be female and tried playing with all sorts in general while on the drive. I believe the voice use would be much much safer, such alot of the settings are buried in sub menus.

Thanks for identifying the capabilities of the car for me to investigate.