Am I the only one that actually likes this idea? I live in Austin, where we only need heated seats like three months out of the year at most. On top of that, if I pay $999 for heated seats as an addon, that’s equivalent to 4.5 years of subscription at $18/m. If I could turn off lots of features while I’m on vacation, etc. I think that’s a huge win. But clearly I’m in the extreme minority.
BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
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Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
We've all ready reached that for lots of other parts of the consumer spectrum. e.g. you used to own your music and movie collection but now you rent access to it via Spotify, Amazon Music, Netflix etc Even games: it used to be it was YOUR game but now you pay a subscription.
I think the value proposition with stuff like Spotify is different. a.) there are still services where you can own your copy of the music, there is still - at least some semblance of - consumer choice. b.) the amount and variety of music I listen to on Spotify and pay per month is WAY more than paying for individual songs (at least personally)
And I think there's some value in not actually having the music in physical form, at least as we knew it. I have fond memories of the music I discovered and enjoyed on tape and CD (only owned 2-3 records), but I don't miss the CD towers and shelves of video tapes.
Even if you cart around audio files on 5TB portable drives, or have a drive per key location (home, office, etc) there are advantages to streaming. One less drive I need to maintain.
Losing everything when you unsubscribe is shitty though. I guess that's the choice made.
Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Conversely, I been seeing more people then ever riding, building and modifying electric and motorized bicycles. You can modify a regular $200 mountain bike with a $200 motor kit from amazon and have a $400 motorcycle that you don’t need a motorcycle license for. If you really don’t want to burn fossil fuels, a $1000 bafang mid drive ebike kit can turn a regular bicycle into a hill crushing monster and can be installe…
> If you really don’t want to burn fossil fuels, a $1000 bafang mid drive ebike kit can turn a regular bicycle into a hill crushing monster and can be installed with almost no specialized tools. I love electric bikes and want to install the bafang kit myself, but lets keep things in perspective - it's not gonna get my pregnant wife to the hospital.
That's not going to shrink your target demographic too much in the Western world. Birth rates are low and declining.
Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
#114I 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.
20 quid plus minus on the sticker price doesn’t matter at all. 20 quid after the purchase is quite an annoyance. Why didn’t they just add it to the sticker price and everyone would have been happier.
There's a department for vehicle add on services at BMW, they have to have their own turnover.
Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does that affect second-hand value for you (if you intend to ever sell)? Where I live, a lack of documentation from official or authorized dealership servicing is a big red flag when buying a used car.
In the US, almost no one goes to their dealership for routine maintenance (i.e. tires, brakes, oil). Many/most will go in for bigger stuff like transmission service, steering, etc. but even then many still opt for their local mechanic's shop. To be honest, I would rather see a car going to reputable local shop than to a dealership, but it's really hard to know what "reputable local shop" means when you're buying a us…
What's your basis for this assertion?
Everyone I know who drives a foreign car (a set that tilts overwhelmingly to German makers) takes their car to the dealer for routine maintenance because the maintenance is often included in the purchase price. This is true absolutely for BMW, and CAN be true (ie, you can choose to do it) with Volkswagen.
If you're not the first owner, then yeah, you may go to a 3rd party, but the new-car drivers are going back to the mothership.
Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
#116If companies continues adding more subscription options in more models it will make some aftermarket electronic modules, or simply jailbreak hacks, to bypass those locks. It happened already in the Tesla, and I don't think it will stop here.
This is pure speculation, but I suspect that they have some kind of DRM to prevent you on using those features, that means if you break a DRM, then you are at fault here, while I don’t agree, this seems similar to the case of one wheel that they block the motherboard if you unplug the battery, if you plug again the same battery it doesn’t matter, the motherboard is already blocked, and because of intellectual property (I don’t remember the details on what they did) you cannot "hack" the motherboard without breaking the law.
This is becoming so sad in all aspects, soon this kind of practices will get to PCs? where the motherboard will also have subscriptions, even maybe cpu and gpu.
Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
#117Does somewhat seem to play into the dystopian economic models that we all love to read and watch, but not experience.
Though marketing models for things you already have, is just handing over money so you can enable a feature you own and they add nothing. No AI to measure your heating needs or add on's ahead, just money to turn on the heat with no added value.
Shame as when your business model is a death of an innocent away (say child died of hypothermia as unable to enable the heating) from a PR disaster - then it's in need of some adjustments. But certainly, will encourage people with little skill and lots of willingness to try modifying their cars they own.
Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Conversely, I been seeing more people then ever riding, building and modifying electric and motorized bicycles. You can modify a regular $200 mountain bike with a $200 motor kit from amazon and have a $400 motorcycle that you don’t need a motorcycle license for. If you really don’t want to burn fossil fuels, a $1000 bafang mid drive ebike kit can turn a regular bicycle into a hill crushing monster and can be installe…
> If you really don’t want to burn fossil fuels, a $1000 bafang mid drive ebike kit can turn a regular bicycle into a hill crushing monster and can be installed with almost no specialized tools. I love electric bikes and want to install the bafang kit myself, but lets keep things in perspective - it's not gonna get my pregnant wife to the hospital.
This is not new tech, we've had this tech for over 100 years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_rickshaw
Some modern takes:
https://www.vanraam.com/en-gb/advice-inspiration/news/van-ra...
Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
#119This seems no different than Intel manufacturing fewer distinct things and using CPU locking to sell at more price points. https://www.techopedia.com/definition/2239/cpu-lock It’s cheaper to physically put the functionality in all the cars than to differentiate at assembly time. We don’t have the same visceral reaction to paying for options at the dealer. (I am assuming they aren’t adding this charge RETROACTIVELY. T…
I’d be fine if every vehicle had the hardware in it and it was activated via an upsell at the dealership. I think the truly insidious thing here is the subscription aspect, for all the various reasons other people in the responses have stated.
I’m ok with Intel doing the same thing. But if Intel started selling AVX512 with a monthly subscription I’d ever buy an Intel chip again.
Re: BMW heated seats subscription costs $18 per month in South Korea
#120At first was a little uncomfortable with the change, but then I thought how much would it be today to add those optionals to a new car.
Checking from my phone, the heated steering wheel is more than 300$, which is more than what would cost the permanent upgrade in the car.
Now we should wonder, having a construction line and distribution system capable of handling optionals like the heated steering wheel, does it cost more or less than 300$? I don't think that the answer is obvious.
Would it be possible that the car get actually cheaper for the consumers?
Also having those optionals allow to turn them on and off at will. Maybe if I swap car with my SO it would like the heated seat that I never care for.
I see the dangerous of this, but I also see the benefits.