Tracking Down the Missing Rear Seat Vents - 2015 Hyundai Sonata Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

Tracking Down the Missing Rear Seat Vents - 2015 Hyundai Sonata Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com looks at the availability of rear seat vents in its long-term 2015 Hyundai Sonata and the midsize sedan segment.

Read the full story here

nate001

It would seem like making the duct work run under the center console and then exiting from vents in the indented section of the console would be easy. The extra cost would be kept down by not needing as many variations in the consoles and related parts.

yellowbal

The Camry comes with vents under the front seats.

longtimelurker

I'm pretty sure most of them come with vents under the front seats. Been years since I've seen a car that doesn't have them there.

kirkhilles1

This would be a dealbreaker for our family as the kids are always too hot or too cold. Its clearly not about cost - it costs very little for the auto makers to at least add the vents (I understand separate controls costing more, but the vents... come on!) so they need to rethink this strategy.

csubowtie

I don't think this is about cost savings for the manufacturer. It's marketing. It's a way to let them market a base model "Starting as low as Super Cheap!!!!", even if that model has a lower profit margin. If you make the base model enough of a pentalty box, then it's easy to talk them into the more profitable volume model once they are already at the dealership and can see and touch the cars. That's when excitement starts to take over logic and you're more likely to part ways with more money than you wanted to.

ducky10

My Mk 6 and Mk 7 GTIs have rear vents

actualsize

The vents under the front seats are generally heat vents that match up with the foot/floor setting not AC vents that work in face mode. Generally

5vzfe

Out of all the curiosities I've noticed about my 4Runner (2002) one of the biggest is it does indeed have a mild separate rear climate control, except that the vents are under the seats instead of in the console, and it's a choice of heated air or just air - no air conditioning for the rear vents. It is separate from the front though, controlled by a switch and a slider for temp, and there's two fan speeds - just a weird setup. For all their sensibility, Toyotas can be weird sometimes haha.

dgcamero

5vzfe said:

Out of all the curiosities I've noticed about my 4Runner (2002) one of the biggest is it does indeed have a mild separate rear climate control, except that the vents are under the seats instead of in the console, and it's a choice of heated air or just air - no air conditioning for the rear vents. It is separate from the front though, controlled by a switch and a slider for temp, and there's two fan speeds - just a weird setup. For all their sensibility, Toyotas can be weird sometimes haha.

Lol yeah they have some bizzare options. If you don't get the rear heater, you don't get any rear heat on your generation 4 Runner. Not even heat vents under the seats! I can't believe the Sonata doesn't have at least heat vents to the rear. Even my janky 97 Civic had heat vents. The rear ac vents in most cars don't make much of a difference in my experience...they don't blow enough air, and some get kinda warm by routing through the console.

darex

I am pretty sure the Kia Forte5 has them.

Yup!
http://www.edmunds.com/kia/forte/2014/long-term-road-test/2014-kia-forte-rear-vents-are-a-nice-feature.html

nate001

They have the premium package on this car, which includes dual zone air for the front. why is not included with this package?

Never mind this has been fixed... Just went looking at the specs for the 2016 Sonata and it does list "Floor console-mounted rear vents" with the premium package. They must have had some complainants about this.

veedubber86

I'm pretty sure all cars come with vents under the seats. Every car I've ever owned has had them from a 96 Subaru to my current 07 Mazda 3

formersuver1

Can't speak to premium pkg., but my 2015 base sport has vents under both front seats and they put out a fair amount of air--just tried in heater mode (it's 41 deg outside)

allthingshonda

My girlfriend's 2011 Sonata has heater vents under the seats so I'm sure this one does also. For A/C performance it's the evaporator that does the work. To cool the car faster it would be better to have a rear air intake to pull that hot air into the evaporator to cool it rather than vents blowing cool air. Just like how you have that one room in the house farthest from the A/C unit that's always warmer than the rest of the house even though there is a vent in there. If you added a return to the room the temperature would be way more comfortable.