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Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

cnn.com

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Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#321

Post by lotsofpulp »

alexb_ wrote: post #229
entrox wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’re completely ignoring the customer (people like you) in favor of the (already mega rich) corporations. What a mindset. No, I want the company I work for to have similar profit margins as FAANG and thus increase my compensation. Do you also attack those employees because their companies are charging extra for pure software unlocks or subscriptions?

>to have similar profit margins as FAANG and thus increase my compensation Why would they do this? They have enough labor working for the money they give already. If their profits doubled, why on earth would their labor costs go up too instead of them just keeping the money?

High prices require both a buyer to be able to pay and the buyer to have to pay (due to lack of sufficient sellers). High profit margins provide the first condition.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#322

Post by wcarron »

ajross wrote: post #199
wcarron wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IT. IS. A. CAR! It takes you from Point A to Point B! Nobody needs to watch TV in their car! Nobody needs subscription services for heated seats or 0.2s off your 0-60mph time! Nobody needs cameras replacing their sideview mirrors! Get rid off all this bullshit in vehicles. 6-speed manual, adjustable seats, a GPS/nav screen and radio/aux, and a damn cupholder is all anyone needs from a car. Everything else is just a b…

If that were true then we'd all still be driving 2-cylinder air cooled put-puts. I'm not telling you what to desire in a vehicle. I'm just saying that reactionary ludditism makes for poor market analysis. People want connected cars, period. I don't make the rules.

Really poor equivocation re: 2-cyls. Engine performance and efficiency is one of the primary and critical aspects that define the ability effectively travel between places, which, again is the entire purpose of a car.

Engine (drivetrain really) power, torque, efficiency, durability and reliabilty are core aspects of a vehicle. Being able to accelerate (and brake) when needed is important. Watching a YouTube vehicle in traffic is not. Carmakers should be focused on improving drivetrains, handling (chassis, suspension, brakes, etc.), safety in collisions (including pedestrians/cyclists). Not on introducing a bunch of superfluous luxuries that only serve to drive up the cost of a car (and make people worse, more distracted, more selfish drivers).

Edit: It's not ludditism to oppose needless 'improvements' that increase the complexity, cost, supply chain requirements, weight, and fragility of a vehicle. It's utilitarian.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#323

Post by willsmith72 »

belter wrote: post #57

- You money will be digital. No currency that you can hold on your hand. We can take it all with a flip of a switch - Your car will be a package of subscriptions. Want to hear radio? You can add a subscription. They probably will even provide up-sells like a dating service. Subscribe here and we will tell hot singles available in the area where you just parked. - Your bicycle probably will become a subscription.. "Yo…

Actually bike subscriptions are really convenient

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#324

Post by zardo »

> The upgrades do not change how far the vehicles can drive on a charge, according to Mercedes, assuming normal driving.

What a funny statement. "Assuming normal driving" means not using the extra power you would be paying for.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#325

Post by m463 »

ActorNightly wrote: post #313
horsawlarway wrote: post #38

I want to see this legislated out of existence. To be clear, because every time this comes up some dickfucks come in here and start making excuses about how it's better to rent in some cases and that this is just amortizing the whole payment, and there are some people who want this: No. This is a fucking terrible deal even just using mercedes numbers. It takes a whopping 30 months (2.5 years) for the monthly payment…

I feel like people miss the point of cars like Mercedes/BMW/Audis All of those cars are essentially badge cars - i.e you pay more for the badge that shows that you have money and are able to pay more for the cars. Nobody buys those cars because they are better at commuting than other cars. So subscription services is natural for this type of market.

I think that's how it looks from the outside, but people I know who have bought these cars look at it different.

They like the attention to detail of mercedes and the quietness.

They like the attention to detail of bmw and the performance.

(not sure about audi, don't know anyone well who has one)

But this move sort of pulls back the curtain between the marketers in charge at these companies and their view of the customers. "they are price insensitive and will pay more without worrying".

But really - you don't want to piss off a first-class customer. it's easy to get under their skin if you treat them with disrespect and they remember.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#326

Post by bryanrasmussen »

horsawlarway wrote: post #38

I want to see this legislated out of existence. To be clear, because every time this comes up some dickfucks come in here and start making excuses about how it's better to rent in some cases and that this is just amortizing the whole payment, and there are some people who want this: No. This is a fucking terrible deal even just using mercedes numbers. It takes a whopping 30 months (2.5 years) for the monthly payment…

ok well there probably is somewhere here but I just scrolled through 20 comments and everybody was talking about how Mercedes sucks and this was a dick move, and also that the people who thought that it was a cool move were losers and I'm starting to wonder if these people with opinions that to me seem super unlikely actually exist in any sizable numbers.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#327

Post by RobotToaster »

nicenewtemp84 wrote: post #282
checkyoursudo wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems fine. Always go for Sir Mix-A-Lot nostalgia drips whenever I can get them. Why do you think it is strange?

I thought simp stood for "someone idolizing mediocre pu__y", a slur for guys commiting and caring too much about lower tier women. Doesn't really seem to fit a discussion about people agreeing with a corporation.

It's short for simpleton.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#329

Post by RockyMcNuts »

konschubert wrote: post #245
horsawlarway wrote: post #38

I want to see this legislated out of existence. To be clear, because every time this comes up some dickfucks come in here and start making excuses about how it's better to rent in some cases and that this is just amortizing the whole payment, and there are some people who want this: No. This is a fucking terrible deal even just using mercedes numbers. It takes a whopping 30 months (2.5 years) for the monthly payment…

I will get downvoted to oblivion for this and apparently this makes me a simp. But if I buy the car and don’t care for the acceleration, then I can NOT book this feature. And in a competitive market, which the auto market is, this will mean that the MRSP for the car is lower for me than it would otherwise have been. Unbundling is part of what made air travel affordable. In a competitive market, unbundling lowers base…

not sure if the current airline industry is a great model for all other industries.

at some point unbundling becomes extreme lack of transparency and customer-hostility if not a downright scam.

there are such things as externalities and transaction costs. they are manufacturing externalities and transaction costs to their benefit.

some companies put out the initial product with high-quality parts and as soon as it gets good reviews and traction they sub out cheaper parts. you could say if they didn't do that they'd have to charge more, they are giving early adopters an incentive or something, people should research which parts they are getting and let the market sort it out. if you value your time and expect reliable information from reviewers it's your problem.

today everything is a SaaS and you are permanently in a hostage situation where your car could get remotely downgraded, they could stop supporting it or discontinue a feature.

a market is a set of legal and social conventions and this is a pretty bad one. if you like markets you should want them to not be hellish, which means reasonable rules and conventions.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#330

Post by kayodelycaon »

mywittyname wrote: post #297
oblib wrote: post #165

I grew up around cars, and car builders. I've worked on quite a few very famous cars. My father built custom cars and ran "Barris Kustom" for years. I learned how to build custom cars, including race cars. I also spent years designing and building cars (vans) that quadriplegics could drive and lots of those were for guys who crashed, or got ran into by cars/motorcycle, at high speeds. Personally, I think if anyone cr…

This attitude ignores the elephant in the room: a Civic is plenty fast enough to paralyze a person. And it doesn't even need to be speeding to do so, t-boning a car going 45mph is going to really mess someone up, especially if the car they are driving is not very safe. It's easy to demonize "irresponsible" drivers, but the fact is that everyday Joes hurt and kill people with their cars all the time. My good friend's…

A stock Civic can easily get up to 120 mph. Cheap cars haven't been slow for a long time.

Note, I don't have personal experience with a Civic or driving at such speed. My Prius starts losing traction at 95mph. :(

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