jeme

Why do candian RL's get ventalated seats and the US version deos not?

1HOT NSX

Because Canadians cannot take the heat!

Kidding aside, I believe it's all part of the marketing plan. These decisions are made based on some perceived knowledge that tells them how to market the car and what enhancements and in which order will be introduced later in the model's life - for some unknown reason to me, the US and Canada are seen as similar but different markets by automakers.

JSakaBuck

I believe the original reason was that XM radio was not available in Canada. So the trade-off became the seats for the radio. However, now that XM is licensed to broadcast in Canada, perhaps Acura will see fit to offer ventilated seats here in USA next year.

db22

It's because the Japanese think that Canada is below the USA and therefore much warmer! But seriously, it's because marketing executives evaluate logic and then invert it for final implementation.

Rob L

Yeah I think it was because we didn't get XM or Acura Link so they decided to toss us a bone with the ventilated seats and 3 yr complimentary warranty.

Also one needs to note the car costs quite a bit here. It lists for 70K here which would be fine if we still had the ancient exchange rate but as it stands now, the US MSRP converted over is like 56K Canadian.

Obviously the U.S. should have got ventilated seats but just so people know, it does get quite hot here in Ontario (hotter than a lot of the U.S.) so don't think it is silly to put them on Canadian cars and keep in mind like 60-70% the population lives in Ontario/Quebec.

db22

The XM / Link issues are due to the satellite orientation and it not being licensed for use in Canada.
Most corporations pre-negotiate the exchange rates so I doubt that it is an issue for Acura. The dealer just uses that as an excuse to jack-up the car price.
I did not mean to imply that it does not get hot in Canada, I just wanted to point out that most of the southern USA certainly could use the ventilated seats as well. Also, Lexus has been touting the ventilated seats in its ads so here is another example of bad marketing in the USA by Acura and its brand recognition issue. (Lexus=1, Acura=0).
If the ventilated seats were a holdback for the following years introduction then the 06 would have them and, to my knowledge, they only have the heated seats.
The handbook shows and describes the Canadian version with the ventilation feature just to piss off the people in the USA!

Acura_Mike23

I was just thinking about that yesterday. Temperatures finally hit 90+ here in the Washington, D.C. area and the seats were really warm when I got in the car. It would be a great add on when they do come out with the seats in the States.