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BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

motor1.com

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Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

#31

Post by 2143 »

I seriously hope this doesn't catch on.

For cars with internal combustion engines, the company tends to get constant income via service thanks oil filters, other filters, and a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be replaced (assuming people take it to authorised service centers, which I assume most people do when the car is relatively new).

With the transition to EV, those avenues dry up because EVs need lesser maintenance (as per my understanding).

So, are they trying to create new recurring income sources due to the possibility of existing such incomes drying up?

Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

#32

Post by CogitoCogito »

foepys wrote: post #15
xupybd wrote: post #2

I hope people promptly come up with ways to enable these features for free. This is nothing short of criminal. To charge for a feature that is physically in the car. Yes you can do that with a SASS product but no you cannot for a physical product.

> Yes you can do that with a SASS product but no you cannot for a physical product. Why? Not that I am in favor of this but are there really objective arguments to support that? One can argue that the ecological impact is higher due to the need for additional materials but maybe people buy new a car only because they didn't have feature X and installing it afterwards is too expensive.

The seats are there whether they use it or not. The ecological impact is the same regardless. (Actually installing it without ever allowing its use might be worst of all so maybe you could say the ecological impact is worse by this approach than all others.)

The SASS product is more akin to paying for ongoing use of energy. The more it's used the more an impact there is.

Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

#34

Post by EveYoung »

2143 wrote: post #31

I seriously hope this doesn't catch on. For cars with internal combustion engines, the company tends to get constant income via service thanks oil filters, other filters, and a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be replaced (assuming people take it to authorised service centers, which I assume most people do when the car is relatively new). With the transition to EV, those avenues dry up because EVs need lesser maint…

Isn't this just a new way to pay for already existing options? Instead of paying the full cost in advance, you can spread it over the product's lifetime, and once the car gets resold, the new buyer can "configure" it as they prefer.

Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

#35

Post by privacyking »

_zzaw wrote: post #14
sp527 wrote: post #7

They have an option to buy it outright that appears to be priced at the same level as a typical upgrade. They also have 1 and 3 year subscriptions. This is actually a net win for both BMW and for consumers. You can do things like "try extensively before you buy" or even choose to only subscribe during the winter (which they probably expect a lot of people to do). BMW benefits because they're almost certainly expandin…

Haha nope. If I buy the car, I own everything that is in it. Installing extra parts or features? Sure, I'll pay for that. Hardware that's already in the car, and disabled just so the manufacturer can try to squeeze more money out of me? Never. I'll either enable it myself, or refuse to support companies that do such a thing if I can't. Subscription models like this one need to be punished, hard, and/or simply rendere…

Your CPU and GPU do the exact same thing

Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

#36

Post by benj111 »

EveYoung wrote: post #34
2143 wrote: post #31

I seriously hope this doesn't catch on. For cars with internal combustion engines, the company tends to get constant income via service thanks oil filters, other filters, and a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be replaced (assuming people take it to authorised service centers, which I assume most people do when the car is relatively new). With the transition to EV, those avenues dry up because EVs need lesser maint…

Isn't this just a new way to pay for already existing options? Instead of paying the full cost in advance, you can spread it over the product's lifetime, and once the car gets resold, the new buyer can "configure" it as they prefer.

How much are you suggesting heated seats cost? What would an average owner pay over the lifetime of the vehicle?

Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

#37

Post by benj111 »

LeeroyWasHere wrote: post #13

They're working on much worst things... Prepare for car microtransactions.

I wonder what the going rate would be to deploy airbags at the point of impact.

I suppose the challenge would be getting consent in-between the crash becoming inevitable and actually happening

Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

#38

Post by vetinari »

privacyking wrote: post #35
_zzaw wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha nope. If I buy the car, I own everything that is in it. Installing extra parts or features? Sure, I'll pay for that. Hardware that's already in the car, and disabled just so the manufacturer can try to squeeze more money out of me? Never. I'll either enable it myself, or refuse to support companies that do such a thing if I can't. Subscription models like this one need to be punished, hard, and/or simply rendere…

Your CPU and GPU do the exact same thing

Your CPU and GPU are binned. You don't purchase keys to rent features that are already there.

Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

#39

Post by kabes »

benj111 wrote: post #36
EveYoung wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this just a new way to pay for already existing options? Instead of paying the full cost in advance, you can spread it over the product's lifetime, and once the car gets resold, the new buyer can "configure" it as they prefer.

How much are you suggesting heated seats cost? What would an average owner pay over the lifetime of the vehicle?

$406 for pemanent activation. It's right there in the article...

Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea

#40

Post by kabes »

As long as it stays an additional option next to permanent buying it I don't see the problem. Maybe I didn't care for heated seats zt time of purchase, but suddenly it's a very cold winter and I want it for a couple of months. Or someone wants to buy my car, but really wants heated seats can now do so.
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