does the ac have to be on for the cool seats to work....i tryed mying today they really do not blow well and piss warm..........

The cooled seats suck - literally, they do not blow air. Turn the passenger seat "cooler" on and hold a piece of paper to the back - it will stick. Turn off the cooler and the paper will drop. I would imagine if the AC was off, you would suck warm ambient air into the seat. Too hot in Florida to ride around with the AC off, so I can't answer the rest of your question - seems like mine is always on and the cooled seats work quite well.

The CTS's ventilated seats are actually very good compared to Mercede's and equal to Lexus' vehicles. Its there to ventilate - keep you from being sweaty or sticky on the backside. All it does is suck air from beneath and behind the seat so if its cool air then it'll be cool.

But the air flow is pretty good. I remember the highest setting on my Mercedes wouldn't even blow as much air as the lowest setting on the CTS.

You'll be surprised how well it works - use it for awhile on the CTS and then just drive a car without ventilated seats in hot weather. I can't live without it now and probably won't buy another car unless this was an option.

I am surprised how well it works too. However, I also would like to know
if the AC has to be on for the ventilated seats to work.

I also think the ventilated seats work very well; my '05 STS had this feature, but I think the CTS is better--considerably quieter than the STS, and also cools better.

The cooled seats suck - literally, they do not blow air. Turn the passenger seat "cooler" on and hold a piece of paper to the back - it will stick. Turn off the cooler and the paper will drop. I would imagine if the AC was off, you would suck warm ambient air into the seat. Too hot in Florida to ride around with the AC off, so I can't answer the rest of your question - seems like mine is always on and the cooled seats work quite well.

You do know that's how a lot of "cooled" seats work, don't you? Yes, some will force throw cool air towards you, but a large majority suck inward to draw moisture/heat away from you...and effectively keep you cooler in regards to back heat & sweat on leather.

Maybe not the most effective seemingly to some, but that's how they work. A better name would be too call them heated and ventilated (vs. cooled) seats.

...A better name would be too call them heated and ventilated (vs. cooled) seats.

GM calls them "heated and ventilated seats," not "heated and cooled seats." I believe that set my expectations properly, and I really like them.

Let me ask a question, do any of you turn the air conditioning off ever? I had an Acura before this, and even if you turned the AC off, it still ran. Acura told me it was for dehumidification purposes. Why turn the AC off? Better fuel economy? I don't get it.

BTW - I absolutely love the ventilated seats. They keep my sweatiness to a minimum. It is quite awesome. I hate leather sweat.

I'm so jealous of you guys who need to turn the air on already. It's been freezing in Chicago since the day I got this car in Feb. .:xcry:

Yes, I turn the AC off completely all the time. Whenever I drive with the windows open (all the time around this time of year) I turn off the AC. I use the seat coolers when everything else is off. The little icon of a seat shows up with a fan below it, even when there's no temperature displayed when the system is off. I just don't like to let the cold air out when I have the windows open. It feels incredibly wasteful. Whenever I'm on the highway though, the system is always on. I just put it on auto and change the temp between 70 and 75 depending on how I feel.