Winter driving need not be as uncomfortable if you have the right kind of heated car seats. By keeping your back warm and helping regulate your car's interior temperature, heated car seats can help you go for miles and miles of truly leisurely driving.

If you live in places where winter is painfully cold, then you need heated car seats. Heated car seats can do a lot for your health and safety - it warms your body directly, for one thing, which means you can stay alert for the long haul.

With a heated car seat, you don't have to turn up your car's heating system just to be warm, so your interior temperature is always regulated and at its optimum. Because heated car-seat technology is now perfected, you never have to worry about overheating. Gone are the first-generation heated car seats that were always too warm - now you can enjoy just the right toasty feeling even when you drive for long hours.

If you intend to buy a new car, go for the ones that have built-in heated car seats. If you intend to keep your car and just replace the seats, you can easily buy heated car seats as separate accessories and have them professionally installed (some heated car-seat vendors provide expert installation free of charge). The catch? They can be expensive.

Most high-end cars come with heated car seats, but for people not ready to spend a good amount of money, there are other alternatives. A heated blanket is one such substitute. Heated blankets designed for cars can be plugged very easily into the cigarette-lighter socket - it gives the same effect as a heated seat, but is a lot cheaper (they typically go for less than $100). If you're not ready to splurge on heated car seats, then this is definitely a sensible option.