It's not quite that simple. Some people lend their car to others. Some people have their kids drive their cars. Some have spouses who drive them ocassionally. While in an in deal world the owner would be able to tell everyone "don't use the seat heater or it will burn your ass" before they drive the car, that is not always practical. And someone could be badly burned before the realize how hot it truly is. The "cigarette lighter" analogy is inapposite; a cigarette lighter is SUPPOSED to burn things and is therefore not defective when it functions to sepc, whereas a heated seat is not supposed to do that. I don't know why you feel the need to make excuses for an obviously dangerous and unsafe condition. I agree, for godsakes, if this starts happening to your car don't use the seat heater until its fixed. But that doesn't rationalize or excuse the situation in the first place.