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BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

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Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#81

Post by altairprime »

OptionOfT wrote: post #80
altairprime wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It suggests that BMW must be in dire financial straits somehow, and I’ve been trying to decide why. Current theory is that it’s part ‘BMW needs to prop up their share price with a steroid injection of ads into their growth in growth of profit curve’, and part ‘BMW lost the evaporating upper middle class segment and is on the verge of collapse’ It’s such a look of desperation to add advertisements when they didn’t sta…

I don't know. I think the goalpost is constantly being moved as to what is acceptable, and they're just trying to squeeze out more revenue per car sold. And what better way to do so by using this large space in a car? Thank God they downloaded it over their own 4G connection, not the one I pay for (yes I got the message this morning in my iDrive 7 car...).

Choosing to move that particular goalpost suggests financial problems, though. If they were making excellent cars and a reliable profit growth at the same rate as a growing U.S. upper middle class population, then they’d be completely set for life and would never have had to stoop to this. What isn’t clear yet is whether their apparent failure is rooted in macroeconomic, manufacturing, and/or operations — but choosing the “race to the bottom” indicates they are no longer a luxury brand, and that’s their golden goose killed and eaten for a promo. Look to the absolute wreckage done to the Firefox brand solely by the Mr. Robot promo, as an HN-recognized example in a more familiar industry, and that destruction was to a free brand!

> More importantly, these advertising anti-features gravely - perhaps terminally - violate user trust. This event tells us that “Firefox studies” into a backdoor for advertisements, and I will never trust it again. But it doesn’t matter - you’re going to re-enable it on the next update. You know what that means? I will never trust Firefox again.

(6.5 years ago, 1385 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15941799

Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#82

Post by inigyou »

spwa4 wrote: post #79
inigyou wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's also because nobody on their deathbed regrets not having enough material objects

Pretty sure a lot of people do. The ones not dying in a deathbed, or just a really crappy one, for example. When your environment constantly irritates or even hurts due to its quality, it is pretty rare to even spend and hour or two not thinking about that. But most young people today have never experienced that. That's a good thing, but it leads to some very weird claims.

I agree, there's a minimum standard. But beyond that, it's vastly overrated, even more than you think. The person who backpacks around the world with nothing has a richer life than the person who sits in a gilded mansion. Donald Trump with his obsession with gold-plated everything is the epitome of wasting wealth on useless material displays.

Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#83

Post by seemaze »

lostlogin wrote: post #48
seemaze wrote: post #47

I've driven several BMW's starting in the mid 90's. I recently picked up a used 2017 sight unseen from a dealer pretty far away. It was the only one available I could find that met my criteria. The car was in superb shape and I'm happy with it, but I knew immediately after driving it that it would be the last BMW I ever purchased. This just seals the deal.

> I knew immediately after driving it that it would be the last BMW I ever purchased Why?

It doesn't have that physical connection to the road the prior models had. I know a lot of this is the move to drive-by-wire with electric power steering and selectable modes. It drives like a nice car, but just feels a bit removed in comparison to the earlier cars.

Also, many other automotive manufacturers have caught up and provide very nice driving experiences as well. There seems to be less differentiate BMW from any other 'nice' car these days. Well, except ads.

Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#84

Post by grvdrm »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #45
SoftTalker wrote: post #23

At least in the USA, a new BMW is a high-end car. Not a supercar, but beyond the reach of most of the car-buying public. I'm surprised that the generally quite wealthy owners of those cars would tolerate that.

> At least in the USA, a new BMW is a high-end car. No they most definitely are not. They're marketed as high end, but their engineering is a tour de force of cost cutting behind the scenes. I just got rid of my 2024 BMW i4 xdrive40, for an electric awd subaru-toyota-lexus joint effort platform (there are a few variations, all related in engineering) and it's like jumping several years into the future, including effi…

Interesting 0.02.

Recents for me: 2020 X5 xDrive40i, 2023 M340 xdrive, 2026 i4 xDrive40i.

When I bought the X5, I tried all sorts of other comparable models, both higher and lower price/quality.

I thought Lexus SUVs drove like 1990's era Mercury Grand Marquis -- "refined" is one way of putting it. Mazda claims their cars are solid handlers but my experience with three of them is, well, meh - very model dependent. Volvo SUV handling - refined, but the vehicles feel large.

Long way of saying - I feel when driving BMWs that they drive as the brand describes them: the ultimate driving machine. Refined is not the first word that comes to mind, but not far down the list.

2026 i4 is awesome. I won't argue the range. Pretty pathetic but that car isn't my range warrior anyways.

Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#85

Post by kasey_junk »

inigyou wrote: post #69
kasey_junk wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument (which has its own pros and cons) is that the Chinese vendors are not competing fair and square. The governmental/industrial coordination in China is quite literally un comparable to Western style industries so the western governments feel they have to protect their local industries. This definitely hurts consumers in the short term, so the whole argument is about long term impacts.

Nothing stops western governments from adopting the tactics that work well.

Western populations do.

Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#86

Post by i386 »

ocd wrote: post #38

This upsets me so deeply in my core that so many companies do this instead of creating anything new for a customer to buy. I can't even process that someone would be mentally disturbed enough to even think of this, and not feel any shame.

Most people working at the top of these large organizations don’t know how to make anything net new anymore. They pushed all the people that do out when padding their nests.

Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#87

Post by throwatdem12311 »

inigyou wrote: post #62
throwatdem12311 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making things is hard. Making actual objects for people to buy is even harder. That’s why they say not to “buy things and spend money on experiences instead ” and enshittify everything instead of creating new things. It’s not because an “experience” is actually better it’s because it’s easier to make one than make a useful or novel object. Why make a new thing when you can just extract more money from people with les…

it's also because nobody on their deathbed regrets not having enough material objects

Well that definitely depends.

I bought a speedboat a few years ago. And the memories I have been able to create with my friends and family because of it are irreplaceable. Fishing and camping trips, exploring areas only reachable by boat, etc…

Funko Pops? Meaningless plastic garbage. To me at least.

Boardgames and videogames? Hundreds of hours of entertainment I get to share with family and bond with my kids over. I have even purchased arcade cabinets of games I loved in my childhood that I now get to share with my own kids (on free play mode), and restoring the cabs has been a bonding activity with my kids.

There is nothing wrong with buying “things” if they can be used to create sentimental value.

I don’t need a deathbed to be able to look back and realize I missed out a lot because I didn’t want to buy a “things” at the time.

Humans have created sentimental value value out of objects for millennia. It’s human nature.

Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#88

Post by jjtheblunt »

grvdrm wrote: post #84
jjtheblunt wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At least in the USA, a new BMW is a high-end car. No they most definitely are not. They're marketed as high end, but their engineering is a tour de force of cost cutting behind the scenes. I just got rid of my 2024 BMW i4 xdrive40, for an electric awd subaru-toyota-lexus joint effort platform (there are a few variations, all related in engineering) and it's like jumping several years into the future, including effi…

Interesting 0.02. Recents for me: 2020 X5 xDrive40i, 2023 M340 xdrive, 2026 i4 xDrive40i. When I bought the X5, I tried all sorts of other comparable models, both higher and lower price/quality. I thought Lexus SUVs drove like 1990's era Mercury Grand Marquis -- "refined" is one way of putting it. Mazda claims their cars are solid handlers but my experience with three of them is, well, meh - very model dependent. Vol…

> 2026 i4 is awesome.

that's identical to my 2024 i4 xdrive40 (there's no i), _except_ the entire batch of i4 (i5,i7) built from late summer 2023 to early 2024 had faulty heat pump valve subsystems from Vitesco (subsidieary of Continental) and were basically all lemons. BMW never owed up or did a recall, but did multiple replacements of the subsystem until the cars stopped failing.

your 2026 is two years newer by model year than my 2024, so perhaps you've got a corrected design, as it happened after the model refresh in 2025.

Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#89

Post by SilasX »

hollow-moe wrote: post #55
altairprime wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It suggests that BMW must be in dire financial straits somehow, and I’ve been trying to decide why. Current theory is that it’s part ‘BMW needs to prop up their share price with a steroid injection of ads into their growth in growth of profit curve’, and part ‘BMW lost the evaporating upper middle class segment and is on the verge of collapse’ It’s such a look of desperation to add advertisements when they didn’t sta…

> 2023: https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/privacynotincluded/toyo... You can safely assume it's only getting worse until proven otherwise.

Mozilla is leveling this criticism? How about leading by example?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15940144

Thanks to altairprime for mentioning it first:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49137765

Re: BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

#90

Post by inigyou »

kasey_junk wrote: post #85
inigyou wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing stops western governments from adopting the tactics that work well.

Western populations do.

If western populations are so committed to failure, then failure is deserved.
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