BMW Is Giving Up on Heated Seat Subscriptions Because People Hated Them::The blowback worked—but subscriptions for software-based new car features will continue, according to a BMW board member.
Just a reminder that if consumers hate it enough, they can have the power to change those decisions. If they or content or “don’t care” they are passively agreeing and allowing it continue. Let your voices be heard, share articles like the Mozilla investigating car companies that collect your sex life and biometrics. Let your representatives know.
The only thing that matters is voting with your wallet
The problem is all the other people voting the wrong way with their bigger wallets.
That’s business. Bmw isn’t a cost effective brand in the first place, so anyone on a budget shouldn’t complain in the first place
I drive a car from 2000, it runs great, no spyware, no features in my car that I can’t use, all I need to is add Bluetooth to the radio and its perfect. I don’t really need a screen in my car to tell me basic information the dash gauges already tell me.
Buy one of these and you’re good to go:
Is this thing even real?
I would suggest using an aux cable instead.
My first car doesn’t even have aux port, so I had to use something similar, but connect to 3.5mm jack instead.
the stereo often has an aux input on its backside that you can wire up
Did cars peak around 2016? That’s when you could get a plug in hybrid, with Bluetooth audio, a rear view camera, but no spyware or mandatory subscriptions. Sure they’d pester you to get SiriusXM but you could just say no.
Cars peaked in 2004 or 2005, most cars since then seem to be user data collection engines with wheels attached.
Peak car was 1990-1994, largely mechanical, little electronics and reliable as hell. My Merc from that time is built like a tank and everything is screwed together, not glued.
early '90s? nah, give me fuel injection, catalytic converter, ABS, and airbags, please
BMW really doesn’t understand this business model. They tried to pull this shit with CarPlay in 2018 as well. Which one could buy as an €300 option, which was rediculous by itself, but was later moved to a fucking subscription.
It also caused a huge uproar, largely forgotten by Covid now, but they also had to backtrack that. And now they’ve tried it again, also to backtrack again.
Fix your cars to be a better value prop than that fuckface’s or the Chinese cars. Then you’ll make tons of money. Not by nickel and diming your customers.
No, you’re not understanding.
They save money by only producing the luxury model. Then they disable the feature electronically.
But to prevent you from just jailbreaking the car, they need to have a system to monitor your status. So they need to be able to check and update software that you can’t control, etc etc.
It’s still greed, but it’s like greed with extra steps.
People were objecting to the subscription, but they should have been objective to the locked features.
They’ll never stop the shitification, it maximizes profit.
People were objecting to the subscription, but they should have been objective to the locked features.
Why though, if it’s cheaper? Do you rather pay for features you don’t use or pay to remove features?
everyone would use the features if available. It is more economic aka cheaper for bmw to just install the pricier heated seat in every car ibstead of adjusting to what the customer bought.
But instead of passing the economic gain to the customers, they arbitrarily lock it to maximize profit.
So no more seat heating, then?
We need to view this seperate issues:
One is putting all options into a car and only making them available to customers who pay. This somewhat makes sense, and while it is annoying, it might benefit customers and automakers alike.
The other is making a hardware option a subscription. I personally hate that, but it just might make sense. People also rent houses and lease cars, why not add some customisation?
There might be a third question: Why do people even buy Beamers?
