Nubo said:
...The steering wheel heat is welcome, but frustrating. I understand the idea of a thermostat but the way it's implemented seems silly. Imagine if your home thermostat worked this way!

:roll:
My home thermostat
does work this way: if the furnace ran continuously my house would rapidly overheat. I even have my thermostat programmed to have a wide temperature variation so that the furnace doesn't cycle on and off very often but runs longer each time it kicks on.
Consider that the steering wheel heater needs to heat up enough to be useful when the car is below 0ºF but not overheat if someone uses it at 55ºF. Given that large range, just having a resistance heater that runs continuously would be impractical. Having a resistance heater for such a tiny application that can vary temperature by adjusting current flow, or use multiple heating elements depending on temperature, would add complexity and cost. By comparison, a thermostat that turns the current on or off is pretty simple.
At least one person has already complained that it is "too hot"; barring an actual defect, I presume that if the steering wheel heater is "too hot" it is being used in conditions too mild for it to be needed.