I Have a 2025 Subaru Forester Sport, I Am Very Disappointed In the Heated Seats, Only Heats to 90 Degrees, So Disappointed, I Can Barely Feel the Heat On High!

Donna sounds more like a Karen in my mind. A recall is only issued for a safety concern and technically not false advertising.

Disappointing? Sure but get over yourself.

Coming from a 1996 Honda Civic to a 2024 Impreza RS, heating is certainly a bit lacking. It's definitely true that the seat isn't warm to the touch before you sit on it. But it only takes a couple seconds before you feel the heat on your bottom. Donna definitely prefers her seat to be hotter while the low settings is more than enough for me, and I live in Minnesota.

One thing I notice is that all the tech that's embedded into the car has worked against it.

Worst issue that I'm not a fan of, is that the passenger recognizing camera prevents passenger side air vents to vent out any heat, thus making the car heat up slower. Sure, I can turn it on when I get into the car but why can't I customize the option is beyond me.

One other thing that I hated more and is a paid subscription is the Star Link remote start. For whatever reason, in Subaru's techs infinite wisdom, why is there ever a reason to have AC and heat turned on at the same time when it's turned on with remote start? They literally cancel each other out.

Again, the tech is impressive, but without the ability to fine tune any options, just namely AC and heat, I feel like refunding my Star Link subscription and just pay for a physical remote start instead.

In late October, I bought a 2025 Forester Touring and the heated seats will cook me out of the car! There are three temperature levels and I start with level three, after about five minutes I turn it to one or even off. Be sure that the wire connections under the seat are connected. Feet on the backseat floor can knock wires loose, especially things rolling under the seat. Good luck on this venture because everything in my Touring Model works excellent!

Sometimes I think that Subaru has a lawyer for a designer. All of the warnings and cautions that I have to put up with. Please, why must my Subaru Forester warn me of icy roads when the temperature reaches 37 degrees? Who decided that number and why?

Happy Holidays

I had the same issue with the heated seats on my new 2025 Subaru Forester feeling barely warm. I complained to the salesman and he didn’t see that anything was wrong with them. A few weeks later he texted me that there was a recall and they took the car back and reprogrammed it and now the heated seats work fine.

I fully agree. The heated seats in my 2024 Solterra Touring are the same. They barely get warm. And the ventilation in the seats is also incredibly lackluster. It has really been a disappointment, especially when its much for efficient for my EV if i could just use the heated seat instead of the cabin heat. I am also quite disappointed.

We have a 2025 Forester as well and I also am so dissappointed in the seat heat. We just traded in a 2022 Forester with great heated seats. I am not as disappointed as the previous complaint, but Subaru needs to correct this. You also do not get a garage door opener with the new Forester. What are they thinking

I have a 2025 Outback Wilderness. Presumably my seats don't heat above 90 degrees and I have after 10 or 15 minutes that mine are uncomfortably warm on the lowest setting. Yet my spouse puts hers on the highest setting and has no issue for an hour or more.

That suggests that different people perceive the heat differently. I note that we had the same perception in our previous Toyota. And what Jay says makes sense. Manufacturers of all appliances that heat people jump through hoops to discourage overheating.

You may want to talk to your doctor. I suppose your reaction to the seats could signal nerve damage of a blood circulation issue.

Why on earth would you want seats hotter than 90 degrees? Are you wanting to cook on them?

This is surprising to hear. I have 2 subarus currently and both of them get so hot when switched to high, that I can only tolerate it for a short time before turning them down to low. Is Donna perhaps a very "thick" lady? I could see that causing less heat to be felt.
Also $45k .....? On a Forester?
Somebody is either exaggerating quite a bit or got absolutely hosed on their purchase.

The seats in my 2022 Outback get plenty warm. I cannot even keep the heat level on the seats at its highest level for very long, as the level of warmth gets a little too toasty for my comfort level. My wife (who will turn up the heat in an instant if she feels cold) feels the same way.

I also have a new 2025 Forester. The seats do not get as hot as they did in my previous 2018 Forester.

This is absolutely unacceptable. My wife uses her heated seats in her 2015 Outback always due to having back issues. If this is Subaru's direction with new vehicle heated seats, then this is likely the last Subaru we'll buy.

My heated seats work great. I have to turn them down. How hot does this lady want them to get? Seems some people just want to complain.

I have a 2025 Subaru Forester Premium with (preferred) cloth seats. With setting at lowest option, the heat generated is perfect for me even to the point of being a bit too hot. OP probably has leather seats which are colder to start and take longer to heat.

Strong agree. The "heated" seats on the 2025 Forester Limited are not-cold, which is better than nothing in cold weather, yes, however they do not get warm, they do not get comfortably toasty as have all other non-Subaru heated seats in my experience. Similarly, the partially-heated steering wheel (the whole top section is fully left out) gets not-cold, not really warm.

She must wear asbestos undies. I start with the heat on high (3 bars) and turn it to low within a few minutes.

I own a previous generation, 2022 Subaru Forester Sport, after having owned a 2019 Sport. My heated seats are more than adequate , and I often flip from the Hi setting to the Lo setting, as the Hi gets excessively hot. I live in the Salt Lake Valley, located in the Rocky Mountains , which has a very cold winter climate. My seats are mostly fabric. Thanks to Dennis Flierl for his many insightful and informative articles and research data, particularly regarding Subarus.

I own a previous generation, 2022 Subaru Forester Sport, after having owned a 2019 Sport. My heated seats are more than adequate , and I often flip from the Hi setting to the Lo setting, as the Hi gets excessively hot. I live in the Salt Lake Valley, located in the Rocky Mountains , which has a very cold winter climate. My seats are mostly fabric. Thanks to Dennis Flierl for his many insightful and informative articles and research data, particularly regarding Subarus.

We have a 2025 Forester and comment constantly on how lousy the heated seats are. My husband has a 2022 Crosstrek and his seats are way warmer.

I have a current generation WRX and those seats get hot!!! Also I am wondering what her bmi might b be and how much fat is on her body if she can’t feel the heat because my seats are very hot but I’m also under 5% body fat

Perhaps she has too high of a body fat percentage to be able to feel it? Remember Subaru is a Japanese company and most Japanese people do not have a lot of body fat to protect them from heat so I think it is a legit safety concern and that the seats indeed get hot enough.

Perhaps if it’s winter, she is too bundled up to feel it too is that is not the case

I think her size needs to be investigated to better gauge the situation

I purchased my 2025 Forester in July so I didn't think to try the heated seats until a few months later. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed at the lack of "heat" in my seats. My daughter has a 2021 Forester and her seats heat beautifully, so I assumed my seats just needed to be adjusted. I made an appointment to have them checked out by a Subaru technician. I had to cancel that appointment and now, after reading the previous information, I'm glad I didn't waste my time. Big mistake, Subaru!! Love my Forester except for this feature. Why can't you replace the thermostat or something to allow a higher temperature? Such a small expense compared to the number of sales you will lose because of the inadequacy of this feature!

Wow, that’s gotta be the stupidest article on a “auto” website I’ve ever seen. What a childish woman, she could have tested in the show room before she left. This is literally the biggest waste of code and electricity I’ve ever seen. People are dying in wars in other countries and we have a dumb woman fixated on the heat of her ass. Unbelievable.

Forester Heated Seats;

First, the heated seats on our 22 Outback work properly, though the touch screen controls are not user friendly.

Second, did the dealer measure the temperature of the seat? Did they measure the voltage at the seat across the heating pad? Shame on the dealer if they didn't.

Third, the operating point of the stated thermistor is typically +/- some percentage. Having acceptable voltage (#2) they should replace the thermistor with a verified (before installation) one .

Subaru should be proactive here.

I just had my 2023 Subaru Legacy Touring XT at the dealership because the 360 degree heated steering wheel barely warms up. They agreed at compared it to a 2024 Legacy Touring and guess what? Both steering wheels heat to only 80 degrees!!! My husband's 2020 Forester Touring's I steering wheel is much hotter!
We live in Buffalo NY where we need both!!

I had the same complaint regarding my 2025 Subaru Forester Premium, and I took it to the Subaru dealer, where they told me the same thing: that 90° was up to spec.
I can say for sure that my 2020 Forester was definitely warmer, and my wife's 2018 Forester is warmer still! As a matter of fact, the 2018 is often too warm and she turns it down to the low setting. I can confirm this, having driven the car myself. Maybe it's the "hot coffee at McDonald's" problem, and Subaru's legal department has advised them to set the max temperature lower. Who knows? I find it less effective than before, but I still appreciate it, as I'm someone for whom the seat heater helps to alleviate back pain.

This was addressed in October in TSB 12-256-24 and many in the Facebook 2025 Forester group are saying that their seats are now very toasty. I don't know why SOA is misleading this customer. I'm getting my first oil change in March and will have them install the software update, because as of right now my heated seats in my Limited feel cold on high even after the car has been running for 10 minutes. The heated seats in my 2017 Outback on Low were hotter than these seats on High.

Is has been a known issues since before I bought mine in October. Primarily on the models with ventilated seats, but Subaru put out an update that allows seats to get hotter probably near to 2 months ago (Late Oct I believe). Other known issues is the wireless charger -but IMO they all have one issue or another with them.

I purchased A 2025 Forester Touring in July and have been disappointed in the heated seats. This is my 5 Subaru I have had. I Never had any issues with the heated seats. I usually had to turn the heat down they would get so hot. These current seats do not. I did write to SOA and they basically gave the same thing as Donna spoke of. I did not save the response. I did find online that there was an update they could do, so I did go in the service dept and have that done, it did help A bit. But definitely still not like the seats in my other cars.