Much like my kitchen last time I tried to make nachos, the auto industry is entirely out of chips. Carmakers are cutting features left and right to ration what little silicon is left, with General Motors in particular shipping vehicles without wireless charging, HD radio, or level 2 driver assist features. Now, the General is adding another feature to the chopping block: Heated seats.
Beginning as soon as today, GM will be removing heated (and, if they’re an option, ventilated) seats from some of the company’s best-selling vehicles. The move was discovered in a memo to dealers, discovered by Automotive News, which also details which Chevrolet and GMC vehicles will be losing the option:
- Chevrolet Blazer
- Chevrolet Colorado
- Chevrolet Equinox
- Chevrolet Silverado (Except High Country trim)
- Chevrolet Traverse (Except High Country trim)
- GMC Acadia (Except Denali trim)
- GMC Canyon
- GMC Sierra (Except Denali trim)
- GMC Terrain
Interestingly, the list makes no mention of the Tahoe, Suburban, or Yukon, despite their shared platform with the Silverado and Sierra. Whether that means they’re included or sell in such volumes that GM won’t touch their features isn’t clear. Similarly unclear is the effect of the change on Buick and Cadillac — a GM spokesperson told Motor1 that both brands would be affected, but declined to specify which models.
Buyers of affected vehicles will receive a credit of between $150 and $500, which seems like a pretty wide range of compensation for the omission of one consistent feature. Would you take a $500 discount on a car with no heated seats, or would you wait until the chip inventory settles down? I think I’d go with the discount — that couple hundred bucks gets you a lot of nacho ingredients.