Motorized Seats: Effortless adjustment – Car Feature of the Month

It’s one of the nicer features in the market, and one that’s very convenient especially if you like adjusting your seats throughout the course of a drive. It can also work if you find it hard to move the seats. 

The feature is more premium and will set you back a pretty penny because manufacturers usually bundle electrically adjustable seats with top of the line models only. Usually, mid variants will be kitted out with manual seats, but it’s one of the more worthwhile features. When shopping for your car, a feature like this is worth considering. Motorized seats are also more commonly found on the driver’s side only, while the front passenger usually makes do with less adjustability, or with manual seating adjustments. It’s also rarer to see this feature in cars priced under P1,000,000, but it’s not impossible. 

There is an electric motor located in the underpinnings of the seat. Depending on the number of ways the seats can adjust there will be a corresponding number of actuators that will move the seat in whichever way it’s configured to. Motor seats can also come with memory function, which allows you to save a seating profile. There is a small chip that can store data for access later. This feature also allows you to save different profiles for different purposes or drivers and is a nice addition on top of everything. 

If the manufacturer wants to add more, they have the option of adding knee support, seat tilt, adjustable lumbar support, headrest adjustment, and many more. The options are nearly endless, as long as it makes ergonomic sense. The number of adjustments can also depend on the type of car in question, a daily commuter car would more likely have the basic set of adjustments while a grand touring vehicle would be fitted with more options. 

Using this feature is easy enough. Just use the interface, adjust your seats to your liking and you’re good to go. Though, if you want to save a seating profile if your car supports that feature, you might have to long-press or push a combination of buttons to save the seating position after you’ve dialed it in.

The benefits to this feature are clear, you don't exert any physical effort to move your seat. This is a huge point in favor of people who aren’t as physically able. If the car has a seat memory feature, you wouldn’t have to worry about someone else changing your configuration, you can just revert it back to your seating profile and be on your way. 

Also, unlike a manual seat, you can adjust your seat on the fly. Adjust the recline, distance, tilt, or other adjustment points without exerting effort in traffic to get an optimal posture. This is especially useful for relaxing the muscles while stuck in traffic or getting a better view of the road. 

Though, a con that you have to deal with is the speed of the motors. If you want to recline all the way back, you will have to wait because the motors move at only one speed. Other than that, there are maintenance concerns. If the motor conks out, then moving your seat will then become very difficult, however, you can expect these motors to last the life of the car if not longer.