BMW had a meeting & decided people needed another monthly subscription

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StuartT
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Post by StuartT »

When VW join in, with their over-the-air record, what could possibly go wrong?! 😏

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62142208.amp Heated-seats subscription
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ItshardtobuyId3
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Post by ItshardtobuyId3 »

I kinda like the concept and if the software isn’t up to the task they would be forced to put it right ASAP. I guess the biggest problem for a manufacturer is stopping people turning features without paying for them.

If my car had every tech feature and I could enable them permanently or rent them, I’d rather that than how it is now where you have to spend loads of money on features you don’t want to get the ones you do. Also, I’d love to have travel assist but I bet it’s actually crap. I nearly paid for the option on my ID3 but couldn’t justify the expense. If I could add it for a long trip I’d probably give it a go.
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cornbutter
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Post by cornbutter »

This isn't a new topic for BMW, they've been talking about this for a long time

I feel like I'll have a controversial opinion on this topic but I'm not entirely opposed to this if its done right. If you're not being charged for the cost of the hardware being added to the car, it simplifies manufacturing and allows you to try the feature out to see if you'd actually want it. My ID3 was the first brand new car I've ever bought and certainly the first premium car I've ever owned. I never had heated seats, heated steering wheels, never had anything close to that level of tech in the car. I had no idea if I wanted half the stuff that existed on everything over the Life model. I was curious about them but I didn't know they were really worth it. If every car was the cost of a life model and I had the option to either pay a subscription or a one time fee to unlock them, I'd be ok with that.
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StuartT
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Post by StuartT »

Yes, I can see the advantages, definitely. But, it's the cynic within me commenting on yet another way to flog us something! That's for me to deal with 😁
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whittaker52
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Post by whittaker52 »

I think this could end up being something the whole of the car market watch closely and see how it works out for BMW. If it's done right, I could see it working out, but it will depend on a massive amount of factors. Given how a large majority of people these days aren't outright buying their cars, they're either leased or on some kind of hire purchase schemes, if it brings the initial vehicle costs down, it could make some cars more accessible, but I could also see that, if the monthly cost of features gets to a silly level, it's something that just won't work out. I guess it's all a matter of tolerance and scale - If the car is say £300 a month on lease and you're adding £100 a month for subscriptions, I suspect most people would tell them where to shove it honestly. It's certainly something manufacturers have tried before and i'm not sure it's gone down particularly well.
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OB1CCFC
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Post by OB1CCFC »

It’s a funny one isn’t it?
Many punters are happy to stump up a couple of thousand for a few car extras (probably one or two they want, lumped with a few they have no interest in). But if it was £50 a month they’d probabaly rapidly run away.
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alex1337
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Post by alex1337 »

I think the problem with it is more the fact that they're deciding to build the cars with the hardware already there, so the 'subscription' is merely a software barrier to using something your car already is capable of. Presumably this pushes up the cost of building the car for something some people may never want? Unless they plan in recouping the cost from people who plan to pay for this.

VW had me pay £200 to enable app connect which no doubt cost them absolutely nothing, so it's not a new concept.
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whittaker52
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Post by whittaker52 »

I think it all depends how they go about adding the physical features to the cars that are then enabled by software - ie will the price of the car still initially be high because of all the added features, will the car be initially cheaper with the subscription footing the bill of the costs, or will it be somewhere in between. You'd think if all cars pretty much came out of the factory with the only differences being battery, motor & colour, it would make for a simpler production process, which could lower average costs to VW because of the sheer numbers of components they'd be ordering. Maybe they'll offer the idea of outright purchasing the features at initial purchase alongside the option of subscription to try and balance things out a bit, but I can just imagine VW resetting the purchased features to re-sell them on approved used stock... I guess time will tell, but I still feel the whole concept of subscription based physical features is a bit sketchy at best.
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