- A Mazda owner in California is suing because she says her car’s heated seats caused her injury
- What’s not clear is specifically how her 2018 Mazda6 sedan inflicted damage
- We may not have to wait long to find out: a hearing is scheduled for February
Over the past couple of decades, heated seats have gone from a decadent item found on luxury cars to a common feature found on vehicles costing much less than your average new car. But one person is alleging grave problems with the bun-warmers in their Mazda — and is taking the company to court for a resolution.
Earlier this month, Kristine Dyvad filed a class-action suit in California stating the heated seats in her sedan are defective and have caused notable injuries to some who have used them. According to the complaint, Dyvad and other plaintiffs suffered burns from using the seat-heaters in their 2018 Mazda6 vehicles, while also asserting Mazda was aware of the defect, but failed to address it or enact a solution.
Muddying the waters, it is not made clear by the plaintiff as to the precise defect (a wiring short or overly warm factory settings, for example) nor was it explained how Dyvad’s burning incident occurred. Nevertheless, compensatory damages are sought for personal injuries sustained alongside statements the vehicle would not have been purchased or at least purchased for less if the plaintiff had known about the defect. Filed in the Superior Court of the State of California County of San Francisco, a hearing is scheduled for the matter in February of next year.
As a fun fact for yer next pub quiz, it is generally accepted that the first brand to introduce heated seats in a mass-market consumer setting was Cadillac, offering them in the 1966 Fleetwood. Company lore suggests engineers had been working on them for a decade by that time, filing patents for the idea some time back in the 1950s.
However, folks from Sweden can be rightly said to have been on the leading edge of making heated seats commonplace, with Saab including the feature for the driver’s seat of its groovy 99. This author remembers marvelling at bun-warmers on a Volvo 240 in the early ‘90s.
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