DETROIT — Common Motors on Friday stated clients who purchase automobiles which might be constructed with out heated or ventilated seats due to elements shortages can have the options added later, doubtlessly as quickly as the center of subsequent yr.
GM supplied the replace every week after informing dealerships that it needed to remove the options briefly on a lot of its lineup.
“We’ve got confirmed with our U.S. sellers that each one automobiles lined by the earlier announcement to briefly take away heated and ventilated seats might be eligible for a retrofit course of that can activate the operation of the heated and ventilated seat modules,” GM stated in a press release. “Common Motors will cowl the prices to retrofit every automobile.”
GM advised sellers in a memo obtained by Automotive Information that it’ll low cost automobiles lacking heated or ventilated seats by $50, as an alternative of as much as $500 because it initially stated.
Heated steering wheels can’t be retrofitted, the memo stated, so automobiles lacking that function will nonetheless be discounted by $150.
The power to retrofit heated and ventilated seats is sweet information for sellers who’re about to spend the winter persuading clients paying upward of $40,000 to forego a coveted and more and more frequent function. Heated seats are customers’ most-wanted automobile function, in accordance with an AutoPacific examine revealed this month.
“Upon getting them, it is actually onerous to stay with out them,” stated Howard Drake, proprietor of Casa Automotive Group in Sherman Oaks, Calif.
GM stated its plan to retrofit automobiles stemmed from seller suggestions and the significance that many purchasers place on having heated and ventilated seats.