Anyone prefer manual seats in a car?

[silvershade255]

Power seats annoy me. I'm in a place where leaning the seat back and taking a nap is not out of the question. Now I have a car with power seats and it's push the button and......wait....

Time to go? Push the button...and...wait...

Silly topic and more just a random complaint than anything but still. Debating looking into a swap.

[Evil D]

I prefer manual everything most of the time. The one thing I prefer to be power are the mirrors, or at least the passenger mirror. The rest I am just fine with being manual. I've had too many window motors fail on me and they're either crazy expensive or a PITA to fix myself.

I have an '85 Mustang that needed the doors replaced and all I could find were power window equipped doors so I actually converted a set over to manual. That's what the car came with anyway. Less weight, less things to fail.

[Larry_Mott]

Not really important to me. If i buy a car that has it, Yay, if it doesn't i won't pay a cent extra for it :)
Power mirrors and windows are more desireable to me. Still remember Mercedes W123 series, they (or at least the one i drove as a taxi) had manual driver side and power everything else, a good solution really.

[Evil D]

On the other hand I am absolutely addicted to cruise control and I think every vehicle on Earth should have it.

[bearfacedkiller]

I like power windows and power mirrors. I like heated mirrors too. I prefer manual seats and manual transmissions. I wish the back window of my truck was powered because it is a quad cab and I cannot reach it.

[Doc Dan]

The upside to powered seats is that you can micro adjust the position. I prefer power everything, but the seats could be faster to adjust.

[The Deacon]

As long as the driver's seat goes back far enough that I can have the steering wheel far enough back for ease of entry and exit, I really don't care if it's manual or power. That said, I really do like that I can push one button and return the seat to "my" settings for height, seatback tilt, lumbar support, and fore-aft position after my car has been services. I swear my Mercedes dealer must have a midget working in the shop.

What I totally hate are the stop-start systems the car makers are using to boost their gas economy figures.

[soc_monki]

I want everything manual. Unfortunately you usually have to deal with power windows and doors (and my focus has no buttons on the doors for locks even... Just one in the center of the dash!)

Thankfully pretty much everything else is manual. Manual transmission, manual seats. No sunroof!! I detest them. Mirrors being power are fine though, so much easier to adjust.

[awa54]

I prefer manual everything most of the time. The one thing I prefer to be power are the mirrors, or at least the passenger mirror. The rest I am just fine with being manual. I've had too many window motors fail on me and they're either crazy expensive or a PITA to fix myself.

My sentiments exactly! The "power" add-ons I want are power adjustable side view mirrors, heated seats and side mirror defrosters... All the other added luxury items on modern cars just increase initial cost and decrease reliable service life (or make service much more frequent and expensive).

This of course has no meaning for folks who lease or who buy a new car every few years, but I tend to drive a car until it's actually worn out.

...and don't get me started on network wiring or MFDs!!

EDIT: I LOVE older Volvo's central locking arrangement, on the wagons, the driver's door *or* hatch key will lock or unlock all of the doors, this is so much more sensible than my Honda, which forces me to push the unlock switch, or use a key in each door to lock/unlock the other doors. OTOH, I have no interest in a remote for the central locking feature, they're just one more thing to make your keyring too bulky!

[Pelagic]

Manual is absolutely fine, but most power seats have more adjustment options which I do prefer for that reason only.

[bearrowland]

Manual everything for me too, including the transmission

[spyderg]

My dad always said, the less fancy crap in a car, the less things can break. For the most part I agree. I don’t like most power accessories, I wish there were manual locks on passenger doors and trunks still and wish there were manual window cranks in addition to power windows, those power windows are convenient especially on a truck where you can’t reach across to roll down a window. But here in Winnipeg where you can get freezing rain then -40 Celsius right before your drive home, sometimes you need to get that window down but it’ll burn out the windows motor or it won’t budge at all. With a manual window you can add a little extra and feel how much you can give it before you break something. I guess power seats would be handy if you say share the car with your wife and they’re the real fancy kind with memory settings but unless they can add a manual backup, I’m not interested.
Where I live, the only luxuries I care about on my vehicle are block heater and A/C. (It’s +40 Celsius in the summer and -40 in the winter) I could live without the a/c if the wife would let me roll down all the windows but heaven forbid if the wind were to mess up her hair, lol!

[bearrowland]

Exactly, especially what you said about wive's hair! Seriously though, I grew up around the old air cooled VW's, where heat and cooling were definitely an exception. They were bone simple, and could always be made to work with a basic tool kit. I've appreciated simplicity ever since. I only wish I could find a car with manual windows!

[Doc Dan]

You can order a truck with manual everything. You can probably stil get a bench seat in this trim level, too.

[SG89]

Prefer manual everything except locks. I like power windows but I hate fixing them. I like the noise a manual seat makes when you move it all the way back or forward really fast... Kind of a scary noise lol

[flasharry]

I only wish I could find a car with manual windows!

heh - our Hyundai Accent has manual windows, only powered accessory is door locks (and their not remotely operated, either..) and no air conditioning, either.. just a basic little car.. (and we have a full size spare, too! :) )

[Ankerson]

My Truck has manual seats/windows/locks while my Jeep has power seats, windows, locks.

Don't matter one way or the other to me.

[bearrowland]

We had an 00 Accent that was the same way. I loved that car!
I have a friend that special ordered a 3/4 ton GMC pickup with manual everything. It sure brought back memories of how pickups used to be!

[spyderg]

My 07 Honda Ridgeline, my wife’s 12 Hyundai Elantra and my mom’s Kia Soul are all base models and are better equipped than what used to be considered fully loaded! Newer models even more so! My moms speakers light up, wife glovebox is a cooler and I’ve got heated mirrors. Just to name a few. I will say the heated mirrors are great in the winter when there’s literally 1/4” of frost on them! My mom and wife love their heated seats.

[ugaarguy]

I only wish I could find a car with manual windows!

heh - our Hyundai Accent has manual windows, only powered accessory is door locks (and their not remotely operated, either..) and no air conditioning, either.. just a basic little car.. (and we have a full size spare, too! :) )

My Elantra GT (i30 outside of North America), which is a hatchback that's halfway between a Veloster Turbo and a base KIA Soul, has manual seats. But those manual seats are heated, and that was standard on this generation of these cars. I love it in the Indiana winters. That oddball feature of heating being standard on the manual adjusting cloth seats was a big selling feature for me on this car. I just wish I could turn on the back heat only, without the butt heat. A friend noted that he uses his Ford Super Duty's heated seats even in the summer, when his back is hurting after work. I've started doing the same. I do miss the additional and more precise adjustability of the power seats in my previous car, a Mazda Tribute (itself a rebadged Ford Escape with more angular sheet metal). I miss the manual, pop-up sunroof from the Toyota Tacoma 4x4 I owned before the TribScape. That was great for low noise ventilation on the highway on nice days.