Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 555 posts

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

#351

Post by throwawayadvsec »

gambiting wrote: post #258
beerpls wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for being a voice of righteousness in a sea of simps. It’s hard to tell on this site, are people really this devoted to corps or are they shills? Even with what you said there are still so many people defending this behavior. The world is full of weak and/or deceitful people.

A lot of people here think building a successful subscription based product is the absolute goal in life. To them Mercedes (and BMW and others) doing this isn't dumb - it's super smart and worth applauding. Otherwise you're just leaving money on the table /s.

honestly yes it's smart(doesn't mean it's kind), if I was selling 6 figures cars I'd do my best to milk customers in every possible way as long as it's still profitable in the long run

mercedes isn't selling baby formulas or epipens

plenty of other brands will take your 100 years of 3rd world salary to give you some shiny vehicle

should I cry for some pampered millionaires who just want to drive faster?

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

#352

Post by grumple »

konschubert wrote: post #337
grumple wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Markets which require billions of dollars to compete in are not truly competitive. They may be competitive in a regulatory sense, but not in a practical one. And these markets have huge amounts of regulation as well that limits competition on top of the financial limitations on competition.

The slim margins in the automotive sector would like to have a word with this argument.

Slim margins say nothing about competitiveness. You can lose money in uncompetitive or competitive markets. You can have huge margins in competitive ones.

Also I don't think the 10.5% profit margin of Mercedes is low - the average for the S&P 500 is 11%.

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

#353

Post by jwilber »

entrox wrote: post #167
jwilber wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re completely ignoring the customer (people like you) in favor of the (already mega rich) corporations. What a mindset.

> 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?

Your compensation has very little to do with the profit margins of your well-established employer.

(Tesla is profitable. Uber is not. Who pays their software engineers more?)

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

#354

Post by hommelix »

lykahb wrote: post #139

I think that the solution to that has to be in taxation. Legislation that bans something profitable is going to encounter a lot opposition. Taxation is easier to introduce than a ban. A high tax on connectivity for certain classes of goods could make this less appealing. Add in the requirements for privacy and keeping records that are as stringent as HIPAA, and that could change the calculations of risk and benefit f…

The tax was planned by some EU countries but it has been cancelled on pressure of US government, defending the interests of large companies like Google ([1] & [2]). The legislation for this tax may have not addressed exactly the Mercedes case, but in general the idea was to tax more digital services, which I believe the Mercedes subscription would be qualifying for.

[1]: https://www.dw.com/en/us-reaches-agreement-to-end-european-d... [2]: https://www.politico.eu/article/washington-big-tech-tax-talk...

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

#355

Post by Plasmoid »

crooked-v wrote: post #204
jrockway wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this all the same thing as what airlines did after 9/11? You pay the fare and get a seat. Want it to not be a middle seat? That's $50. Want to carry on a bag? That's $50. Want to check a bag? That's $50. Want to check out the lounge before you depart? That's $50. Want some WiFi? That's $50. Want a snack? That's $50. Now your flight is $200 more than the quoted fare. (OK OK you can probably get WiFi and a snack…

> Now your flight is $200 more than the quoted fare. > Everyone seems to love this, or at least, they didn't stop flying. Nobody "loves" it. They just have to put up with it because even for people who know what they're doing with flight searches, the only way to dig into all that dark pattern shit is to have fifty browser tabs open comparing the fine details of different flights. If it was possible to, say, compare…

Google flights will let you input the number of bags you are checking/carrying on to produce a "final" price.

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

#356

Post by 1970-01-01 »

Mercedes are doing it wrong. You cannot sell thunder without the flash. How will my friends know I've spent money on something that doesn't matter?? What you need to do, Mercedes, is simply follow the preestablished model. You are to tie this "go faster" fee with wheel and tire upgrades and "this model goes even faster" stickers or emblems. This subscription crap really won't sell as-is.

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

#357

Post by jrockway »

alexb_ wrote: post #233
jrockway wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this all the same thing as what airlines did after 9/11? You pay the fare and get a seat. Want it to not be a middle seat? That's $50. Want to carry on a bag? That's $50. Want to check a bag? That's $50. Want to check out the lounge before you depart? That's $50. Want some WiFi? That's $50. Want a snack? That's $50. Now your flight is $200 more than the quoted fare. (OK OK you can probably get WiFi and a snack…

...Are you of the impression that people like this? People hate it. It's like, the one thing everyone complains about all the time when flying. How did you get to the conclusion that people like this about flights

Actions speak louder than words. People say they hate it. But they aren't upgrading to all-inclusive first class or full-fare economy tickets. They happily buy the cheapest flight, whine, and then do it all against the next time they take a vacation.

To some extent, this is quite rational. You're in pain for like 2 hours because the seat pitch is now 4 inches. But then you get off the flight and never think about it again. The fact that flights include things that people don't need to have just made air travel more accessible, though less fun.

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

#358

Post by KineticLensman »

foxyv wrote: post #100

The best EV is an electric bus with trolley lines or a tram. I hate that I have to own a monstrous depreciating asset to have reliable transportation. If you think people are buying this to drive on a track you are naive. They are paying $60/month to make their already unsafe overweight vehicle even more unsafe. I hope they go bankrupt.

> The best EV is an electric bus with trolley lines or a tram

Or a train. Massive numbers of passengers.

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

#360

Post by matheusmoreira »

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…

If you don't care about the acceleration, then you can simply not accelerate. Don't press down on the pedal so much. Why the hell do you need to "unbundle" the car's acceleration? It's not even "unbundled", the engine is perfectly capable of doing it but it's refusing to obey your command. How is it even possible that people are justifying this insanity? What's next, paying extra to unlock geofenced destinations? Car shuts down in the middle of the road unless you pay for the premium destination package? Car is in perfect condition and can absolutely go there, it's just refusing to?
Post reply on HN