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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

#311

Post by rand49an »

chrisseaton wrote: post #226
naasking wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No - you can either pay for the option one-time up front (the article says), or you can pay a subscription. You don't pay for the option up-front and also pay the subscription. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that BMW has already sold the car at a profit with the heating elements built-in , and then are trying to make more profit off of a software patch to enable a feature you technically already own. If A…

> He's saying that BMW has already sold the car at a profit How do you know how BMW structures profit and costs? I would guess their profit is based on some people choosing to enable the future. > If Apple offered you a $1000 iPhone with a camera app installed, and then offered you the same iPhone for $800 but which will not let any camera apps be installed unless you pay them $18/month, does that seem fine to you? Y…

Because the manufacturer has already paid to include that hardware into the product.

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

#312

Post by marssaxman »

sofixa wrote: post #304
marssaxman wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I tried to go car-free, I was surprised to learn just how many different kinds of once-or-twice-a-year occurrences there can be in a single year.

Most people in big cities live without cars and rent for the once every few years moving or whatever that requires a car.

Yes, that was the theory as I understood it at the time. As a single man in my late 20s with a remote job, I moved to the most densely populated neighborhood of the largest city in the region, bought a bicycle and a transit pass, and signed up for a car-sharing service, expecting car-free life to be easy. Instead, I found that it was... possible.

I got through a full year before giving up and buying another car. I have never been motivated to repeat the experience, though I still love city life and try to keep car usage to a minimum, getting around primarily by motorcycle.

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

#313

Post by colinmhayes »

Joker_vD wrote: post #305
colinmhayes wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they’ll realize there’s a market of people who don’t want subscription services and they’ll price their car at a profit making level without subscriptions…

...which will still lead to lower profits than if they instead tried to push into the higher-margin section of the market. The Innovator's Dilemma, you know?

Sure, but there’s competition in the subscription car space, just because you make one doesn’t mean it will sell. Businesses will make products that people want when they are in competitive markets.

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

#314

Post by thrtythreeforty »

xuhu wrote: post #136
gfunk911 wrote: post #100

This 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…

Are you paying Intel $18 per month for your extra cores ?

No, although IBM did the same thing with mainframes, and yes customers did make a phone call to unlock some extra hardware. Or pay per instruction executed. IBM had lots of creative ways to charge for mainframes.

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

#315

Post by yegle »

devrand wrote: post #296
jms703 wrote: post #215

I can see why a car manufacturer would not want to make two versions of each car, one with heated seats and one without. Instead, build it into all of them, and only activate and charge those that actually need it. Also, the subscription is an option. You can also pay the full price for the feature. Where I live, I could see using this once or two months a year. Whereas some would need it more and they might just buy…

> I can see why a car manufacturer would not want to make two versions of each car, one with heated seats and one without. In the past this is just how "luxury" options trickled down into standard options. If it's more economical to just produce all cars with the option then it should just be an optimization passed on to the consumer. I find this pretty surprising in the luxury car market. A lot of features that are…

This reminds me of the blue sweater scene in the Devil Wears Prada: https://youtu.be/us52N76XA28

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

#316

Post by jasomill »

devrand wrote: post #296
jms703 wrote: post #215

I can see why a car manufacturer would not want to make two versions of each car, one with heated seats and one without. Instead, build it into all of them, and only activate and charge those that actually need it. Also, the subscription is an option. You can also pay the full price for the feature. Where I live, I could see using this once or two months a year. Whereas some would need it more and they might just buy…

> I can see why a car manufacturer would not want to make two versions of each car, one with heated seats and one without. In the past this is just how "luxury" options trickled down into standard options. If it's more economical to just produce all cars with the option then it should just be an optimization passed on to the consumer. I find this pretty surprising in the luxury car market. A lot of features that are…

Customers buying expensive cars are typically less price-sensitive than customers buying less expensive cars; high-end hotels charge for Wi-Fi service that's free at lower-end hotels in the same chain for the same reason.

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

#317

Post by juve1996 »

dangus wrote: post #276

Unpopular opinion: this could be a consumer benefit, although BMW doesn’t seem to quite have the value proposition exactly where I’d like it to be. It’s cheaper to build fewer SKUs and variations of a product. The fact that the assembly line never has to change what they’re installing in the car could make heated seats cheaper in the first place. BMW currently charges $500 for heated seats a la carte in the US, so th…

Yea, you can't use it in the summer and save those months. But what if BMW says "the costs went up, subscription price must raise."

Now in 3 years it's $25 a month.

This is the path. Companies exist for profit. They will only make customers as happy as they need to.

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

#318

Post by chrisseaton »

rand49an wrote: post #311
chrisseaton wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's saying that BMW has already sold the car at a profit How do you know how BMW structures profit and costs? I would guess their profit is based on some people choosing to enable the future. > If Apple offered you a $1000 iPhone with a camera app installed, and then offered you the same iPhone for $800 but which will not let any camera apps be installed unless you pay them $18/month, does that seem fine to you? Y…

Because the manufacturer has already paid to include that hardware into the product.

But, as I say, that could work out cheaper for them due to simplified manufacturing. That's why other manufacturers usually do it.

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

#319

Post by [deleted] »

llllllllllllk wrote: post #237
bsedlm wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many people manage to pay of their student loans and don't have to live in debt if they don't want to. yikes... this strikes me as quite similar to this line of reasoning: "poor people are poor because they just don't want to work"

This is a weird take to read when you're someone who dropped out of college when the debt load got too scary and had learned enough to gain a marketable skill and enter industry. Paid my debt off in a couple years. This was less than a decade ago, too, I'm not that old. Tuition has been frozen at my university since I left so the kids there now have the same exact choices I had The big difference between me and my pe…

[deleted]

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

#320

Post by bushbaba »

jms703 wrote: post #215

I can see why a car manufacturer would not want to make two versions of each car, one with heated seats and one without. Instead, build it into all of them, and only activate and charge those that actually need it. Also, the subscription is an option. You can also pay the full price for the feature. Where I live, I could see using this once or two months a year. Whereas some would need it more and they might just buy…

Build it in the car and offer a purchase option in the center console. Heck do A/B Testing where you offer a lifetime purchase (Upfront or monthly) and a monthly subscription. Then see which sells better.
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