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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

#51

Post by ZeroGravitas »

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…

Renting stuff is economically efficient as long as you don't let the actual owners abuse the relationship to their benefit.

We've not had a good track record of that in the past, but still worth keeping in mind as a general principle.

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

#52

Post by woofyman »

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…

In 15 years, I’ve only been to the dealer for recalls.

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

#53

Post by willcipriano »

anakaine wrote: post #46
2143 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's assuming manufacturers wouldn't already include the price of rentable hardware in the cost of the car. Would any manufacturers do that? Why would a manufacturer fit in hardware for heated seats into a car, and not charge you for it? Because they hope you will subscribe to the heated seats? This argument breaks down in markets like India, middle East, Malaysia etc where it's hot and humid, and nobody would want…

And as soon as that car hits the second hand market, the next owner can find the appropriate relay, tap in a switch, and solve the rent to use problem.

"Irregular power draw detected, shutting down for your safety."

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

#54

Post by KoftaBob »

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…

> 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).

I'm not sure how it works in other countries, but in the US, the vast majority of official car dealerships are owned by the franchiser of that dealership, not the car company itself.

This is what caused the conflicts between Tesla and certain US states who had car dealership groups lobbying to ban Tesla from owning their own dealerships/service centers.

Outside of replacement parts specific to the car, like a bumper, most service income goes straight to the dealership franchiser owner, not the car company.

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

#55

Post by gaze »

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.

This isn't how things are priced. They ask what they can get. If they could ask for more money for the car, why wouldn't they?

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

#56

Post by inkeddeveloper »

willcipriano wrote: post #53
anakaine wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as soon as that car hits the second hand market, the next owner can find the appropriate relay, tap in a switch, and solve the rent to use problem.

"Irregular power draw detected, shutting down for your safety."

So true

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

#57

Post by throwaway0a5e »

t0mas88 wrote: post #45
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…

I think people over-estimate that because most EVs are very new. Of course this is n=1 type data, but the service cost on engine related things for my several years old BMW are quite low compared to other items. They replace the oil once the computer wants it, which is every 30,000 to 40,000km, so less than once a year for most users. And that's all engine costs I've had over the years. But I do have maintenance cost…

>I think people over-estimate that because most EVs are very new

And they're expensive. So the people who can afford them were already the kind of people driving well kept newish stuff so all they got to experience were recalls and the early part of the bathtub curve.

Parts on a car more or less wind up needing to be serviced more or less in direct correlation to hose close to the road they are. But if you're trading in every ~5yr your experience you won't see that because your experience will all be the early failures part of the bathtub curve.

Basically everyone doing all the talking right now doesn't know what they don't know.

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

#58

Post by nradov »

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…

Some EVs actually require more maintenance. For example, due to incompetent engineering and sloppy assembly, Tesla ranks below most ICE vehicles.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/18/tesla-ranks-30th-in-unoffici...

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

#59

Post by bengale »

I wasn't particularly impressed when I got my new 4 series and had to pay £20 or something like that for auto-highbeams, even if it is a one off.

I can sort of understand a subscription for the speed camera data, although its a bit cheap, but for the lights it seemed mad.

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

#60

Post by deng »

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.

> 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.

This is very common. It is often cheaper to have a single SKU and enable/disable features via software than to create a separate one. I don't see what could be criminal about that.

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