[FrozenGT]

Originally Posted by clean_machina

Of course like everyone else I'm appalled and do not like this direction. I think it raises some significant issues/questions about the nature of vehicle ownership. As others have pointed out, with a service like SXM or Nav updates, the value is delivered remotely. In this case a subscription makes sense because value is being delivered. But in the case of heated seats or existing vehicle equipment this brings into question who actually owns the vehicle? Do I own the heated seat mechanism, even if I don't pay for the service? Can I have someone modify them to work? It is my car after all. BMW is unfortunately following a trend to turn everything into a "platform" for service delivery and this implies that we don't own our cars but rather we license them from BMW and they can then sell us features as a service or control our access and privileges. IMO this is very anti-consumer and buyers should push back forcefully. I want to own my car and all it's systems solely for my use. If you can deliver some value, new features, or content via remote update, I'm happy for that option, but don't turn my car into a services platform (certainly not at the ever increasing MSRPs, as someone else said, if it's so cheap to just add heated seats to every car they should just be a standard option!!!) /Rant

I agree- it's greedy

[bayarea328xit]

So, someone orders a BMW without electing the option for front heated seats.

BMW decides to give this person a BMW with hardware for front heated seats with the software disabling the functionality.

BMW provides this person (and any subsequent owner) the option to activate the front heated seats on a trial basis, on a monthly basis, or a fully-paid up basis.

And ... everyone loses their minds? WTF!?

Are we getting upset because we are out of things to get upset about?

Also, "For the people in the back" is hilarious ... let that BMW personality shine.

[xmanpro]

I'd pay for exhaust note tho

[zzumarzz]

I think what is helping BMW implement this is the lack of physical buttons in the new Idrive too.
You won't have buttons that do nothing or blocks where buttons used to be. Actually you have zero buttons. Almost everything optional will be via the screen- except maybe the steering wheel- which will be the high end one with all the buttons.

You may not even know what you are missing.

[P1]

Originally Posted by bayarea328xit

So, someone orders a BMW without electing the option for front heated seats.

BMW decides to give this person a BMW with hardware for front heated seats with the software disabling the functionality.

BMW provides this person (and any subsequent owner) the option to activate the front heated seats on a trial basis, on a monthly basis, or a fully-paid up basis.

And ... everyone loses their minds? WTF!?

Are we getting upset because we are out of things to get upset about?

Also, "For the people in the back" is hilarious ... let that BMW personality shine.

Let me make it simpler to understand: imagine you're having a spec home built. You are paying for a 3/2 but the builder put in an additional third bathroom. But you can't use this bathroom. Only if someone decided to pay an additional monthly fee at some point in the future.

Somewhat silly, no?

Like I mentioned in another thread, a subscription makes sense if a service is actively being provided. But paying for a static option? Greedy.

[H_T]

Originally Posted by P1

Let me make it simpler to understand: imagine you're having a spec home built. You are paying for a 3/2 but the builder put in an additional third bathroom. But you can't use this bathroom. Only if someone decided to pay an additional monthly fee at some point in the future.

Somewhat silly, no?

Like I mentioned in another thread, a subscription makes sense if a service is actively being provided. But paying for a static option? Greedy.

3rd bathroom is not free, project costs more in materials hoping for a continuous payback…price increases in the meantime to cover costs.

[Dr.Deep]

To what this will lead for sure is more expensive cars if they extend it to most of the options. If they build every car with all the hardware inside, days off a cheap base car ar gone.

They can't take the risk to build out fully speced cars which is more expensive for them and take the risk that in the end maybe 80% of those cars are not getting any options trough subscriptions. So reducing risk by asking enough for the base to still make enough margin that cover the cost of all the options…everything on top is a nice bonus to them.

[Westside Guy]

Originally Posted by P1

Only a service with effort behind it should be on a subscription model.

A feature should not be. I don't pay my plumber a monthly fee to have a toilet seat.

How about paying for each flush?

[j23]

So basically you can get a lot of options for free once the ECU is cracked?

[Artemis]

My former Summer 2011 1M (Belgian market):

• heated seats: €335 option (VAT included) = ± $335;
• High Beam Assist: €155 option (VAT included) = ± $155.

Hypothetical (merely for the sake of getting the message across; I know, different era): imagine that BMW would have charged the announced South-Korean market prices (± $18.50 per month for heated seats and ± $8.50 per month for High Beam Assist: see here and here):

• heated seats: $335/$18.50 per month represents 18 months and 4 days
  = expiry early 2013;
• High Beam Assist: $155/$8.50 per month represents 18 months and 8 days
  = expiry early 2013.

It's July 2022 and guess what: although I don't own the car anymore (moved on to an M2 in 2016 and to an M2 Competition in 2020), I am convinced that no physical/mechanical/OTA updates and no efforts/costs/investments were required by BMW or the current 1M owner to keep those features fully operational on that 2011 car as we speak. And it will stay that way for many years to come.

Marketing folks who came up with this monetization business model should understand a couple of basic principles:

• the customer is BMW's boss;
• an initiative perceived by many customers as being required to line "no money = no honey" pockets of greed, triggers bad publicity and damages the BMW brand;
• any such initiative is a golden opportunity for competing brands to promote themselves at the expense of BMW (offering better client care).

IMHO this $ub$cription nonsense for features that need no upgrades since the day of taking delivery, is an inconsiderate money grab ploy. It's gonna backfire: BMW risks to experience the non-renewal of many 'brand loyalty subscriptions'.

Going into 'limp mode' after having shot yourself in the foot ? Come on BMW, you're better than that. Show us that you care.

Marketing mistake and rolling back: video of former Coca-Cola boss Donald R. Keough announcing in Spring 1985 the re-introduction of "Classic Coke" after a very bad reception of "New Coke":

"These people [criticizing the "New Coke" introduction] and thousands like them have gone public with their love affair for Coca-Cola [...] So what does all of this really means ? It only means what we say: that our boss is the consumer. Some critics will say «Coca-Cola has made a marketing mistake» and some cynics say that we planned the whole thing. The truth is: we're not that dumb and we're not that smart."

[racerx2005]

Originally Posted by Glen e

BMWNA is not stupid. They know that they would absolutely have a riot on their hands from both their dealers and their customers in the United States if they started putting subscriptions on basic stuff like seat heaters…

… so, BMW wants to charge for such a basic feature as heated seats, in addition to have customers driving around cars with hideous grilles?! that's an insult to the injury! as a matter if fact, it could be free for all I care as BMW is dead to me after what they did with the latest grille "design" … little by little they are ruining it all models. It's sad really as I owned several Bimmers in the past.

[bholler]

Isn't a lease a subscription enough?

I don't get it.

[Germanauto]

Lol everybody in this thread complaining, go put your money where your mouth is. You've kept buying BMWs despite them selling out incessantly for the past 10-15 years. Is this really gonna stop you?

[Bumpinjeep]

Can't wait to buy a manual G87 Comp and rent gears 5 and 6.

[antzcrashing]

It is a money grab. In addition to the obvious I hear you can buy it out for lifetime of the car for $400. So essentially it's the latest mechanism of inflation. You get nothing for the base price of the car despite base prices skying year over year

[M3EATERS]

I heard that the on demand program will add 100kg to the new CSL🤪

[madpistol]

As I pointed out in another thread, part of the reason I think they're doing this is to streamline their build process; if most electronic options are installed as standard, that cuts down on the cost of developing multiple options in some cases. You just include the hardware and then order the functionality a la carte. I personally am ok with this as it allows people to pick and choose certain options without having to order a brand new vehicle in order to get it.

For example, the car will come with all hardware for Driving Assistance Pro from the factory, but you pay $1000 (or however much) to BMW in order to turn on the functionality. Or, lets say you're going on a long trip and would like to relax on the drive there, you can just purchase the functionality for a month (or perhaps a free trial) and then it gets turned off. Instead of having to buy a brand new vehicle to get that functionality, you just order the function via the BMW app, and you're done.

Tesla started this trend. BMW is running with it.

[spaceage]

In marketing, positioning is everything, and this positioning out of the gate is horrendous.

When you take time to think about what this could mean for owners, it isn't all bad. But when it comes out like this ("you are going to have to pay for your heated seats monthly"), nobody is taking time to think, they are just pissed off.

BMW needs to hire real marketing pros to help with rollouts like this. This feels like some engineers rolled out the messaging.

[G30M]

Originally Posted by mjr24

Lot of big talkers on this thread....but bottom line, car manufacturers know most buyers are all talk now. Buyers have been paying way more for less since 2020 now.....you will still buy their cars no matter what and pay more for that right. The cat is out of the bag.....

you reckon!

the evening after reading this my fingers suddenly looked at VW Tiguan R and the Audi SQ5

without my brain telling it to

so the whole day today i've been looking at VW vs Audi

never had this itch before, it came out of nowhere

must admit i was looking at the iX prior

not sure about your theory ...

[SCCThree]

I would like to purchase a 10 pack of sunroof openings for $5 please.

[MachinesWithSouls]

Originally Posted by bayarea328xit

So, someone orders a BMW without electing the option for front heated seats.

BMW decides to give this person a BMW with hardware for front heated seats with the software disabling the functionality.

BMW provides this person (and any subsequent owner) the option to activate the front heated seats on a trial basis, on a monthly basis, or a fully-paid up basis.

And ... everyone loses their minds? WTF!?

Are we getting upset because we are out of things to get upset about?

Also, "For the people in the back" is hilarious ... let that BMW personality shine.

On an M3, as an example, ventilated seats are $300. But let's say it costs BMW, idk, $180 for the actual hardware. I'm ok with them making money in that fashion. I buy the entire car, option it how I want, and away we go. Our deal is complete.

What they propose here is, you can buy the car. You can own the hardware for those cooled seats. But no matter how much you pay us, you'll never own the software to make them work. If you ever stop paying for it, we won't let you use them.

Let's say I own a car for 5 years, and vented seats are $5 a month. So I've still paid the $300 to equip the car, now I pay another $300 to make it work. Not ok with that. They can make a little money off me, but not a lot.

Now before you're like "they said that's not how it'll work" - that's how it already works. Every BMW has a satellite radio receiver. You, and Sirius, pay for that in the MSRP of the car, whether you want it or not.

Now you own that receiver for the life of the car, but you can't use it unless you pay for it monthly. For entertainment, this seems to be ok. We do this with the TVs in our home. But I don't need to pay Samsung to turn the damn tv on once I bought it.

[ggunn9]

How about a monthly fee for your turbo to spool?

Lol