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BMW To Make Features And Options Subscription Based, WTF?!?

13K views 183 replies 76 participants last post by  Avus 
#1 · (Edited)
After the well received subscription-based CarPlay, BMW hits it out of the park by offering subscription options like heated seats.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/34547...ed-seats-and-more-as-a-subscription-no-really

BMW gave a glimpse of its newest in-car operating system on Wednesday, expanding on last week's announcement of its partnership with Apple for a digital key service that's supposed to revolutionize Apple CarPlay. In addition, the automaker went a bit more in-depth about what the future holds for its tech-heavy vehicles.

The important takeaway here is that over-the-air updates and features will play a big role in BMW ownership, but more importantly, that users will have to pay for features already installed in their cars, such as heated seats, infotainment features, etc. Yes, you read that right.

We hate to break it to you, but you're not having a bad case of deja vu—this isn't the same announcement about BMW's controversial decision to charge drivers an $80 annual fee to use Apple CarPlay (which it has since walked back).

According to BMW, this means you could theoretically pay to activate those heated seats and steering wheel originally installed in your car, or perhaps even flick on the car's automatic high-beams. If you fancy a new engine sound, you can also buy a new note through BMW's IconicSounds catalog—no wrenching required. Even advanced safety features like Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) aren't safe from the hands of the subscription service.

But hey, some good news: you can get a trial period for many of those items! It appears that while some features may be subscription-based, others may be permitted to buy as a one-time fee. So as long as you're willing to pony up the extra cash, BMW will activate the feature via an over-the-air software update initiated from within the car or the new My BMW mobile app.
 
#35 ·
So if I don't use indicators, can I opt out of paying for them?
 
#37 ·
So, if I had four subscription options, and wanted to sell the car. I of course, would want the ICE reset to remove my phone's data, addresses, trip history, etc... Would these be erased with it, or would the new owner be able to enjoy seven months of adaptive cruise control, bird's eye camera view, and remote start?

Or if you reset it, will the trial reset and they'll get the X free months?

If it does reset, when I suppose you could reset it yourself every November and get free heated seats. :)
 
#41 ·
Sounds like a few BMW folks have really enjoyed flying Spirit Airlines. Want to bring anything on the plane? Cool that'll be $26. Opps didn't select that at booking , now its $36 at check -in. Opps didn't check in at home, now it's another several $ at the airport. Want to recline your seats and piss off the people behind you? Pay up sucka.
 
#42 ·
So much software that you originally bought outright is like this, too. Adobe products, Quickbooks, and other software we use are now exclusively subscription based. I hate it. Yes, you always have the newest versions, but with that comes a learning curve whenever they decide to update it. I hate it with a passion.

If I were to spend money on a car such as this (I could, but it would be stupid for me to do so) this would stop me cold. Whether the options were something I wanted or not, the idea behind it makes my skin crawl. I suppose now we can say that BMW actually does stand for "Break My Wallet".
 
#44 ·
The subscription model sort of makes sense for business software. A business will always have support costs for software, even if there's no ongoing subscription, and they will have an ongoing IT budget. By contrast, your heated seat software should have zero support cost.

In any event, I somewhat doubt this would get to the level of heated seats subscriptions. Automakers already sell subscriptions to things like remote access and satellite radio. Consumers are used to that, but would balk at more core features. Perhaps it works in the context of a lease, where consumers are already "subscribing" to the car.
 
#45 ·
I dig this. It's perfect for TCLers too, because when you buy these cars used you can pick what features you want and even get things that weren't available in the OS when the car was originally sold.

Maybe you can stop using "lease special BMW" as a pejorative, since you can pay to make that used car have any feature that the model can offer.
 
#51 ·
This could go a lot further...

BMW 2021 Model Unveiling Stream [Drops Enabled] Watch 2 hours of content to unlock 1 week of AC. Watch 4 hours to unlock 1 week of heated seats.

BMW Loot boxes. 5 for $250. Earn stickers, shirts, and car features. Epic drops include turn signals.
 
#56 ·
The subscription model makes sense for software that is easily pirated as a way to prevent copying and sharing files/licenses. It makes some sense for software that needs to be updated regularly to be useful such as navigation. It makes zero sense for a car that is owned by one person for features that should work the same for the life of the car (heated seats, etc).

I could see this as being useful as we move towards autonomous car sharing in the future. One of the car share customers can opt into the full feature suite of a car at a premium car share subscription price. When they access the car via their phone app they can get everything. Another car share customer can get the same car at a budget rate by opting out of anything beyond the basics. This would allow some for some cars to be used in multiple tiers of subscriptions within one shared fleet.
 
#57 · (Edited)
Heated seats are a $500 option on a new X3. If under the new model heated seats are $500 one time purchase or $13.88/mo during a 36 month lease, I'm okay with this. Assuming it's cheaper to build every seat with heaters than build some seats with and some without heaters, this could just be an effort to reduce manufacturing costs...something Tesla figured out years ago. That said knowing BMW they'll increase the price of the heated seats and make the option non-transferable to used car buyers meaning those customers have to buy it again.

We love our BMW but it's BS like this (along with massive grilles, poor EV strategy, and bloated prices for basic features) that will likely keep us from buying another.
 
#58 ·
Heated seats are a $500 option on a new X3. If under the new model heated seats are $500 one time purchase or $13.88/mo during a 36 month lease, I'm okay with this.
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but presently when you lease, you're paying just the $500 less the residual (let's assuming 55% residual, so that would be $225, which /36 month = $6.25). If they make the feature's monthly fee or lease term fee similar to the residualized value, then that's fine. If however, they expect the leasee to pay for the entire amount, then I think that's going to be a challenge.

as others have said, they'll likely make it packaged, much like cable TV did for years, to where you can't determine exactly what you're paying for heated seats, and that you're accepting paying $50 more a month to get heated seats, heated steering wheel, 3-zone climate, and a list smart-connected features you likely never use, but accept it, because it's not available a la carte.
 
#59 ·
The best part of this is that hardly anyone here is actually going to buy a new BMW.
 
#65 ·
This doesn't really bother me as much as it does some people in here. :confused:

The article says "theoretically" regarding the heated seats. And I doubt that BMW would do this with heated seats.

And anyway, I would only lease a new BMW. I guess maybe this would be a pain on used BMWs, but I still think that most of you are hand-wringing over nothing.

That said, as cars become more software-based, the car companies are going to have to figure out how to generate a constant stream of revenue for software development.
 
#74 · (Edited)
That said, as cars become more software-based, the car companies are going to have to figure out how to generate a constant stream of revenue for software development.
In that regard I can sort of see or understand this. They're already doing just that with most connectivity services etc.

If paying for a subscription service means I get frequently updated cutting edge S/W in my car, that's something I can halfway agree with. If it just means upkeep, and there is zero gain for me as a customer to the subscription, and only gain for the manufacturer/dealers, then I'll probably pass over BMW next time I go vehicle shopping.

Subscriptions to unlock functionality of deactivated physical hardware reminds me a lot of that issue with the Tesla that got sold with autopilot on the sticker, but then Tesla deactivated it (which I believe they ended up coming back on). In any case, it gives manufacturers too much control about their vehicles post hand-off, when ownership has already transferred. I would imagine there are some legal implications to this as well - implications they will probably get around by having you agree to some kind EULA when buying or taking receipt of your car :rolleyes: In that sense though, all of this from a manufacturers perspective also only makes sense if the manufacturing cost is driven down by installing these features (that would potentially go unused) to a model baseline. I can't imagine pre-installing the cameras and radar system needed for adaptive cruise control would be cheaper to install to all cars, than just to install to selective vehicles. Unless of course you do by also compensating your entry pricing point, which would be double billing for a feature.

So yeah, I can agree with half of it, the other half I think is pure corporate greed that if they push through with it I hope they get severely punished for (to avoid other manufacturers from copying the strategy).
 
#75 ·
Neat... hopefully this isn't retroactive.


I don't even think I could hide here with my US-spec car... Some how BMW Connected stuff actually works here in Europe. Glad to see my AirPlay subscription is good until 2040. :facepalm:



Zembla, another poster in NL/BE? Wow... Haven't seen anyone since Dutch Maniac (at least I think that was his name) and the dude with the Polo from near Aachen.
 
#76 ·
Zembla, another poster in NL/BE? Wow... Haven't seen anyone since Dutch Maniac (at least I think that was his name) and the dude with the Polo from near Aachen.
Haven't seen too many people from this particular neck of the woods no. Originally caught on to VWVortex when doing a summer internship in 2004, and looking for websites to break the monotony of the desk job I was assigned to. That was when I was still living in Belgium. Years later, after having moved to The Netherlands for work, I was looking for a site for 5 min surfing breaks again, and naturally thought of TCL @ VWV. Such is my history in a nutshell ;-)
 
#80 ·
I logged in to my BMW connected drive to check my Map subscription and noticed the image below. These subscription are usually tied to the owner but just a sign that BMW is moving full steam ahead to push this through.

$210 for pumped in speaker engine noise? NO THANKS!:thumbdown:

My car has Adaptive M suspension but is not compatible with this subscription based model.

 
#81 ·
is this not a very slick way to upsell on higher end models? Instead of having for instance a base model, middle model, and high model. I bet BMW would rather just sell you the high model with all the options there and you pay the subscription to turn it on. Its a constant revenue generator later. Customer purchased a car a year ago and finally wants to turn on those heated seated seats, call and pay. I also promise none of this stuff will be transferable. Customer sells the car and second owner will pay to get those features turned back on. This sucks but think this is the mind set that other car companies will start moving with
 
#83 ·
"Connected Package Excellence" Is Trump on their marketing team? :laugh:
 
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