Is This For Real? BMW Charging to use heated seats?

[kratedisease]

I wonder how many here, like me, would walk out the showroom after being told I need to "rent" the heated seats that I bought. And once out of warranty, I would have repair this heated seat that then BMW would continue to rent to me.

I have walked out for less than that in the past. I have walked out for a $100 fee on a $90k car once, and the salespeople quickly backed down.

I am no sucker to this "subscription" crap.

This subscription for materials that I own is bizarre.

I have no problem subscribing to services or renting materials that I do NOT own.

 

[vision]

I wonder how many here, like me, would walk out the showroom after being told I need to "rent" the heated seats that I bought. And once out of warranty, I would have repair this heated seat that then BMW would continue to rent to me.

I have walked out for less than that in the past. I have walked out for a $100 fee on a $90k car once, and the salespeople quickly backed down.

I am no sucker to this "subscription" crap.

This subscription for materials that I own is bizarre.

I have no problem subscribing to services or renting materials that I do NOT own.

Its Friday again - exactly, I agree, it's a throw away system they expect you to buy into from day one cos it includes all part of the sales plan for a fixed £500 per month with servicing plan. If its a special car then why would they do this other than on 20 years time the car is not compliant with technology, nothing works and you back with a piece of marketing crap that was sold as a future classic!
Need a beer.

 

[Leonard]

I wonder how many here, like me, would walk out the showroom after being told I need to "rent" the heated seats that I bought. And once out of warranty, I would have repair this heated seat that then BMW would continue to rent to me.

I have walked out for less than that in the past. I have walked out for a $100 fee on a $90k car once, and the salespeople quickly backed down.

I am no sucker to this "subscription" crap.

This subscription for materials that I own is bizarre.

I have no problem subscribing to services or renting materials that I do NOT own.

But you can just buy it outright. Like now... That is the point...

 

[Leonard]

Its Friday again - exactly, I agree, it's a throw away system they expect you to buy into from day one cos it includes all part of the sales plan for a fixed £500 per month with servicing plan. If its a special car then why would they do this other than on 20 years time the car is not compliant with technology, nothing works and you back with a piece of marketing crap that was sold as a future classic!
Need a beer.

IT DOESNT COST ANY MORE MONEY AND YOU CAN STILL BUY IT OUTRIGHT AS YOU DO NOW. ITS SIMPLY MORE CHOICE FOR YOU AND MORE REVENUE FOR THE MANUFACTURER
LOVE Friday, I've done some exercise and now it's beer time

. Cheers everyone love you all

 

[Mctaff]

!

But you can just buy it outright. Like now... That is the point...

As a secondhand customer you’ll get shafted though!!

 

[Mctaff]

IT DOESNT COST ANY MORE MONEY AND YOU CAN STILL BUY IT OUTRIGHT AS YOU DO NOW. ITS SIMPLY MORE CHOICE FOR YOU AND MORE REVENUE FOR THE MANUFACTURER
LOVE Friday, I've done some exercise and now it's beer timeView attachment 7460. Cheers everyone love you all

Enjoy! Bbq and big glass of red here!

Edit: glass of red seems much smaller already… I need to subscribe

 

[Leonard]

!


As a secondhand customer you’ll get shafted though!!

Not really as you 'should' pay less for the car and have more cars to choose from as they aren't option specific!

 

[Mctaff]

Not really as you 'should' pay less for the car and have more cars to choose from as they aren't option specific!

More choice but more cost for the options…

If a 3 yr old car has taken a 50% depreciation hit then today my options are costing me half as much

Not so with the subscription model (I assume)… which in turn means it will be hard to sell the proposition as the car ages.

 

[Leonard]

More choice but more cost for the options…

If a 3 yr old car has taken a 50% depreciation hit then today my options are costing me half as much

Not so with the subscription model (I assume)… which in turn means it will be hard to sell the proposition as the car ages.

Time will tell! As previously said no doubt some options will become free over time. But who knows!

 

[Eagle7]

I can understand a subscription for a service that's being provided to me, such as my cell phone service, or TV programming services, but I will not pay a 'subscription' fee for hardware that I've bought and paid for. That's not ownership, that's rental. If I want to use heated seats in the winter, I want them to start working the moment I push the button, not after notifying some service somewhere, assuming I have a connection, and after I've had to confirm with some 2-factor irritation system, and after I've authorized payment, and then sit there waiting for the system to work and then actually turn on the heaters.

Oh wait, we're experiencing technical difficulties. There's been a system technical error. Please call XXX-XXX-XXXX and one of our technicians will assist you. For English, Press 1, for Espanol, da dada, da dada, da dada. All our technicians are busy at the moment. Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and we will assist you as soon as we can. Your current wait time is 48 minutes.

Yeah... right. No freaking way.

 

[Leonard]

I can understand a subscription for a service that's being provided to me, such as my cell phone service, or TV programming services, but I will not pay a 'subscription' fee for hardware that I've bought and paid for. That's not ownership, that's rental. If I want to use heated seats in the winter, I want them to start working the moment I push the button, not after notifying some service somewhere, assuming I have a connection, and after I've had to confirm with some 2-factor irritation system, and after I've authorized payment, and then sit there waiting for the system to work and then actually turn on the heaters.

Oh wait, we're experiencing technical difficulties. There's been a system technical error. Please call XXX-XXX-XXXX and one of our technicians will assist you. For English, Press 1, for Espanol, da dada, da dada, da dada. All our technicians are busy at the moment. Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and we will assist you as soon as we can. Your current wait time is 48 minutes.

Yeah... right. No freaking way.

I guess your not very good at forward planning. Seasons happen pretty much the same time every year
It's not going to appeal to everyone.
That's why you still have the option to buy your rocking chair outright, if you don't want it on subscribtion

 

[Eagle7]

I guess your not very good at forward planning. Seasons happen pretty much the same time every year
It's not going to appeal to everyone.
That's why you still have the option to buy your rocking chair outright, if you don't want it on subscribtion

HAHAHA you putz. I guess you're not experienced enough to recognize that my post WAS forward planning. If you think companies are going to subscription based for your convenience and to save you money, well.... there's an old saying: Never give a sucker an even break. Enjoy your (for now) optional subscriptions.

 

[Leonard]

HAHAHA you putz. I guess you're not experienced enough to recognize that my post WAS forward planning. If you think companies are going to subscription based for your convenience and to save you money, well.... there's an old saying: Never give a sucker an even break. Enjoy your (for now) optional subscriptions.

Only messing

 

[nosirrahx]

People are more likely to pay a little over time than they are to pay a lot up front, even if the over time bill is far larger.

EVs will be the ultimate tools to exploit this. 1 single assembly line will create a car with unlimited pay as you go options. This also allows the maker to take a car in on trade and re-sell it at any trim level, no matter what trim level it was originally sold at.

This has the potential to be good for consumers ...... but I don't think anyone is dumb enough to expect it to break in our favor.

I am picturing preposterous cottage industries popping up where discount bundles are sold for things like packaging your home heating and cooling, Netflix and car options. "Why pay 11 different monthly fees when you can pay just 1 for a discount?"

And to get political for a moment ..... "You will own nothing and you will be happy." is absolutely NOT "We will own nothing and we will be happy." There is no ambiguity. Things will absolutely be owned, it just isn't going to be by you.

 

[~el~jefe~]

The issue is: high quality aftermarket seat heaters cost about $150 dollars each, from when i looked into it a few years ago
Second issue is BMW is a POS company. F'k em

 

[Porter]

Looks like the terms of this initiative will be radically altered whether BMW likes it or not.

Hackers Already Prepared To Screw Up BMW’s Subscription Heated Seat Model

Earlier this month BMW took ample heat for its plans to turn heated seats into a costly $18 per month subscription in numerous countries. As we noted at the time, BMW is already including the hardw…

www.techdirt.com

 

[Porter]

The interwebs are abuzz with statements of intent

 

[nosirrahx]

The interwebs are abuzz with statements of intent

View attachment 7738

Related to this, it is only a matter of time before we see the first cases of ransomware bricking a car until you pay.

This will be extremely effective as losing access to your car for at least a day, paying for a tow and paying for a reflash will be a much bigger PITA than simply paying the ransom will be.

The likely attack vector will be finding an exploit in over the air update functionality.

I would be willing to bet that they already have the GUI element ready to go and tested out on a variety of different head units.

 

[Porter]

Related to this, it is only a matter of time before we see the first cases of ransomware bricking a car until you pay.

This will be extremely effective as losing access to your car for at least a day, paying for a tow and paying for a reflash will be a much bigger PITA than simply paying the ransom will be.

The likely attack vector will be finding an exploit in over the air update functionality.

I would be willing to bet that they already have the GUI element ready to go and tested out on a variety of different head units.

This will not be an indictment of the vehicles themselves or the OTA update service concept, but rather of the categorical inability of car companies to do anything IT-related without fucking it up.