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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

#171

We are rapidly moving towards Feudalism. If someone can charge you for using things you already bought and 'own', then average man has no property rights. The fee could be increased at any time, or new fees could be introduced. As the housing crysis deepens, average person will never own a home either. So average person will be in the same position as a medieval serf, conpletely dependand on the whims of the lord, pr…

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…

more people then ever

More people than ever maybe, but that is a tiny fraction of the number of cars, at least in the U.S. It is like saying more people than ever are turning vegetarian/vegan. Yes, it is true, but it is still a miniscule number in the grand scheme of things, and the the change is way too slow/small to have any real impact, at least in my life time.

I love Jetbrains products, it was irritating when they went subscription model. Tableau did the same. I guess it is just a matter of time before everyone started doing it, both in digital and real world. Next would be what? 10 bucks for my washing machine that I own, $10 for my fridge, $10 for my air conditioning, stove, vacuum cleaner...

I don't know how we can fight back. They will keep pushing and pushing trying to eek out every possible cent. There are products we can simply stop using, but cars (at least in the U.S) are much difficult to avoid, outside of cities like NYC. Much of the country is built for cars

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

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

You’re in a bubble.

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

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was ranting about this 2 years ago and a lot of people laughed it off... I cited an auto start feature o VOLVO cars that required a siriusXM membership. It's unfathomable that we reached this point of monthly subscriptions being implemented on things that we've already paid for. It's the first sign that we're in for a wave of not feudalism, but outright economic slavery. There is no rational consumer protection aga…

There is a way, but you're not going to like it, and we can't discuss it on HN.

Sweet, can you send me an invite to that Discord server??

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

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

My basis for this assertion is that I know very few people who are duped into buying maintenance contracts. Those things aren't "included in the purchase price" for anything but the highest end of mass market cars, they're overpriced tack-ons that dealerships push hard when you're purchasing a car. Granted, I know very few new BMW owners (and the few that I do know, know very little about cars and just wanna go fast)…

All those German cars are leased

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

#175

We are rapidly moving towards Feudalism. If someone can charge you for using things you already bought and 'own', then average man has no property rights. The fee could be increased at any time, or new fees could be introduced. As the housing crysis deepens, average person will never own a home either. So average person will be in the same position as a medieval serf, conpletely dependand on the whims of the lord, pr…

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…

The built environment in most of the US is based entirely around the idea that you get in your car whenever you want to go anywhere. It's going to take a massive re-engineering of society to fix that, but it's totally worth it.

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

#176

Article didn't really cover this but do you still have to pay more for a car that has the heated seats and steering wheel options and then a monthly fee to use them or do all the target cars in SK come with these features standard? If you have to pay more just to have the option of paying to turn on the subscription then that is insane.

This is almost an irrelevant point. If the hardware is installed and you own the damn car, you should be able to turn on the damn heaters.

Would be interesting to know I suppose though.

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

#177

We are rapidly moving towards Feudalism. If someone can charge you for using things you already bought and 'own', then average man has no property rights. The fee could be increased at any time, or new fees could be introduced. As the housing crysis deepens, average person will never own a home either. So average person will be in the same position as a medieval serf, conpletely dependand on the whims of the lord, pr…

I was reviewing my Steam library recently and thought to myself. How would I access these games without Steam? What happens when I die? Can I sell my Steam library? I realized I don't own anything other than a temporary license to use the software.

> What happens when I die? Can I sell my Steam library?

HN frowns upon trolling.

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

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was ranting about this 2 years ago and a lot of people laughed it off... I cited an auto start feature o VOLVO cars that required a siriusXM membership. It's unfathomable that we reached this point of monthly subscriptions being implemented on things that we've already paid for. It's the first sign that we're in for a wave of not feudalism, but outright economic slavery. There is no rational consumer protection aga…

There is a way, but you're not going to like it, and we can't discuss it on HN.

where to?

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

#179
post #103

If 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.

There's already a pretty mature world of apps that interface with BMWs to turn features on and off, even my 14 year old BMW has hundreds of features you can toggle with an iOS app+OBD dongle. Everything from changing how the sunroof switch behaves to modifying the front-rear split of the all wheel drive.

I imagine it will become a bit of a cat and mouse game as they try to block access to paid features, though it's ultimately a moot point for me, as it's obvious where the company is going and I'm never buying a new BMW again.

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

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

you keep a car for something that will happen once per ~ 4 years?

There are many people who would happily pay 4 years of car ownership if it means difference between safe birth and unsafe one. If you think its rare mindset, see what happens if (very frequent when I look around) miscarriage happens, how it fucks up people in most fundamental ways and insecure they become.

And obviously there are tremendous use cases to enjoy weekends, do groceries/other shopping, helping friends and family and so on and on...

I come from Europe, currently living in Switzerland which has best rail system in the world and general decent public transport... but still owning a car is a must for 4 of us, travelling anywhere with kids is a chore and amount of stuff for weekend is impossible to carry in public transport (stroller(s), child bed, all clothing, food equipment etc. and thats just kids).

Sure you can spend all weekends in the same place if thats your thing, but it certainly ain't ours, not when we have alps just in the backyard.

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