Harbringer of things to come - subscription heated seats

[Maverick2022XL]

So far only on BMW's and being offered in South Korea at the moment for a bargain price of $18 USD a month. Alternatively, you can get a one-year plan for $176 a three-year subscription for $283 or lifetime subscription for $406 USD.

https://www.motor1.com/news/597376/bmw-heated-seats-subscription/

Sponsored

 

[The Weatherman]

say what? That is absurd.

 

[NJBob]

So when it breaks does that mean that they are responsible?

 

[Scott Asheville]

Everybody in every industry on the planet has been trying to move to a subscription based model of business for the last decade. Microsoft was jeered when they did it for Office, and now it is a revenue-generating success. Volvo (and a few others) has car subscriptions, which include insurance and maintenance and swap cars at any time. Software as a service is the shiny gold trinket every automaker wants to own right now.

Really it's not such a bad idea. Wouldn't you prefer to buy a car for $10,000 less, knowing if you ever need heated seats, or 20 other fancy features, you can activate and deactivate them with a mouse click? Where you're really likely to see it used a lot is in self-driving systems.

 

[Maverickman74]

Instead of optimizing the car, they are optimizing the cashflow of the consumer. I wonder how long before you can finance the downpayment for the subscription service.

I love Ford but unless I see more vehicles like the Maverick I will probably never buy a new car after the Maverick. I cant live with a vehicle that has options built in that I cannot use or modify at my own discretion. I just want to start taking putting electric motors in my old junk cars. I dont want anything without a physical key. So when that key breaks I can put in toggle switches

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Instead of optimizing the car, they are optimizing the cashflow of the consumer. I wonder how long before you can finance the downpayment for the subscription service.

I love Ford but unless I see more vehicles like the Maverick I will probably never buy a new car after the Maverick. I cant live with a vehicle that has options built in that I cannot use or modify at my own discretion. I just want to start taking putting electric motors in my old junk cars. I dont want anything without a physical key. So when that key breaks I can put in toggle switches

Won't be long just go online keep car by the time period you want it and pay for options you want to pay for.

 

[Maverick2022XL]

Everybody in every industry on the planet has been trying to move to a subscription based model of business for the last decade. Microsoft was jeered when they did it for Office, and now it is a revenue-generating success. Volvo (and a few others) has car subscriptions, which include insurance and maintenance and swap cars at any time. Software as a service is the shiny gold trinket every automaker wants to own right now.

Really it's not such a bad idea. Wouldn't you prefer to buy a car for $10,000 less, knowing if you ever need heated seats, or 20 other fancy features, you can activate and deactivate them with a mouse click? Where you're really likely to see it used a lot is in self-driving systems.

But it won't cost 10K less. It costs 10K less when you use 10K less in parts in the build.

 

[Maverick2022XL]

Instead of optimizing the car, they are optimizing the cashflow of the consumer. I wonder how long before you can finance the downpayment for the subscription service.

I love Ford but unless I see more vehicles like the Maverick I will probably never buy a new car after the Maverick. I cant live with a vehicle that has options built in that I cannot use or modify at my own discretion. I just want to start taking putting electric motors in my old junk cars. I dont want anything without a physical key. So when that key breaks I can put in toggle switches

Or like my first car when the ignition lock wore out, remove it and start it with a screwdriver. I just put the cap back on so it didn't look obvious.

 

[gte105u]

I am OK with (note don't love but ok with) things that need continued service like apps, cellular connections, etc. Locking a hard feature behind a subscription model is BS. If that happens on a vehicle I own I will use things like Forescan to unlock. I own the things I own.

 

[DonaldD]

So far only on BMW's and being offered in South Korea at the moment for a bargain price of $18 USD a month. Alternatively, you can get a one-year plan for $176 a three-year subscription for $283 or lifetime subscription for $406 USD.

https://www.motor1.com/news/597376/bmw-heated-seats-subscription/

WTF!

 

[SkeeterB]

I don't even have a comment or a response.

 

[mspmms]

Sponsored