Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that can make or break your day. In the dead of winter, when you have to crawl into the frigid car or truck, especially one with vinyl or leather seats, having heated seat covers can make all the difference in the world. Certainly having a warm seat can make driving in cold weather more bearable for the average person. It can also be a virtual lifesaver for people who have chronic low back pain and or circulation problems. Keeping the low back and butt warm can help reduce the risk of a bad back “going out” on you. Another nice benefit of having a personal heater built into your seat cover is that when you are traveling with others, you can dial in the appropriate warmth that suits you without necessarily needing to overheat the entire cabin of the vehicle. This can be particularly useful for couples where one person tends to get cold, or have a harder time warming up, then the other.

Trying to make winter driving more comfortable for the driver and passengers has been an ongoing challenge for as long as there have been cars on the road. There have been all kinds of seat covers made from various materials including sheepskin seat covers, in an effort to keep people from freezing their butts off. If your car has cloth upholstery, you may think you know what we’re talking about. But believe me, until you sit on frozen leather or vinyl car seats, you won’t know how lucky you are that you chose to go with a cloth interior!

Steering wheel covers are another method that people use to try to make winter driving more tolerable. In fact, there are even heated steering wheel covers. This makes perfect sense as you clearly should not be expected to try to handle a vehicle with frozen hands on frozen steering wheel (while driving on frozen roads, no less!). But what about the rest of your body? Doesn’t it have the right to be comfortable too, rather than shivering and shaking? The answer is yes. And that is where heated seat covers come into play, and come to the rescue.

Today’s heated seat covers are usually made of a soft mesh material and contain a thin, carbon fiber heating element.  If you are reluctant to try one of these set ups because you fear it will be uncomfortably bulky, all I have to say is I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the fact that that is not the case whatsoever.  Especially when you consider the ‘bulk’ of the clothes you might be wearing in such weather to simply be able to tolerate getting into such a cold car!  These heaters also typically come with a unobtrusive cord that will plug directly into your 12v cigarette lighter, so you can easily and quickly get your seat warmed up to a comfortable temperature.  Most also come with a range of temperature settings, so it’s not like you’re either ‘on’ and cooking, or ‘off’ and freezing.  You can dial in what is comfortable for you.  Plus, you can even get seat warmers for motorcycles, ATVs and RVs.  So no matter what kind of vehicle you’re driving this winter, you can rest assured that you can drive it in warm comfort no matter what mother nature is dising out outside your vehicle.

While you can probably find one or two seat heaters like this in your local car accessories shop, you might be much better off looking at some online vendors as you will be offered a much wider selection of options as well as prices.  That is one of the wonderful things about on-line shopping; you can quickly and easily comparison shop for not only the best price, but you can also read about other customer’s experiences and reviews on many sites so you go into your purchase confidently.  One of the best sites for this kind of information, both for the customer feedback as well as price (and excellent customer service and return policies) is Amazon.com.

One more option many people appreciate when it comes to heated seat covers is using them for their best friends; their dogs.  And believe me when I tell you that your dog will be more than a little appreciative to have a nice, toasty seat to lie on in the truck seat next to you rather than freezing while waiting for the heater to get the cab tolerably warm.

So as you can see, there are all kinds of benefits to having a good heated seat cover.  And now you don’t have to have the latest and greatest $60,000+ Mercedes or BMW to enjoy one!  There is just no reason to suffer through another frigid winter, shivering and shaking until the car warms up.  Heck, until you get that heated steering wheel cover too, at least you can sit on your hands now to get them warmed up a little faster now!