Subscription "features"

Richie

Richie

Richie

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7th Level of Hell...
Just read this story about Mercedes-Benz who are now charging a subscription to allow some of the EVs to accelerate a little quicker than normal.

BBC News - Mercedes-Benz to introduce acceleration subscription fee

Appreciate this is not the first company to sell a subscription add-on for their car. BMW have a subscription where you can activate heated seats and steering wheel for example.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about it and where it may end up.

Over to you. Let's hear your thoughts.
 
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Don’t like it, don’t want it, but I won’t be buying a car that has a subscription model any time soon so good luck to you guys.

Ultimately they are testing the waters, if it becomes profitable it be here to stay and they all will be doing it. Good times.
 
Paying to activate hardware I can sort of see. If you haven't specced it, but the hardware is there.

But the car slowing down, and your bum getting cold because you haven't paid your dues just seems wrong.
 
I have no problem paying for a feature to be activated later that the original owner may not have wanted but this is to be a one off payment e.g. £500 for heated seats/wheel and not an ongoing subscription.

It's the ongoing subscription I don't like.
 
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Shouldn't be a thing. If cars were significantly cheaper because they had less enabled features with this idea then id say its less of a bitter pill to swallow, but we know they wont be. Its just another way of cash grabbing similar to DLC for games for content that should really have been in the base game to begin with.

With that said, Is it really an issue for the majority of people? because I'm sure not everyone can afford to go and buy the latest cars outright anyway :D
 
Makes no sense to manufacture the car with the hardware if it's never going to be used, utter waste of materials and resources. If it's just software that needs updating to enable stuff there'll be people charging £200 one off payment on car forums in no time
 
It's akin the model 3 performance boost , no - Musk probably regrets not going down the subscription route, but aren't they going to have subscription for full self drive (down the line)

Manufactueres hanging on to their prehistoric infotainment environment for subscriptions like navigation options is another bugbear, let's have an open system android automotive , or the system Apple are working on -
once they are confident safety critical functions are well insulated in the OS.
 
WorTortle said:
Makes no sense to manufacture the car with the hardware if it's never going to be used, utter waste of materials and resources. If it's just software that needs updating to enable stuff there'll be people charging £200 one off payment on car forums in no time
Click to expand...

I read a story of someone who retrofitted a larger 100KW Tesla Model S battery to their 85KW Tesla Model S and at it's first visit to a Tesla dealer afterwards the dealer locked the 100KW battery down to a max charge of 85KW within the cars software because "thats what you paid for, not a 100KW battery" and refused to undo the software block, so I can well see the days of a "dodgy guy down the pub who can enable your car to a higher spec" becoming a genuine thing in the future if companies force that kind of software lock-downs on people.
 
WorTortle said:
Makes no sense to manufacture the car with the hardware if it's never going to be used, utter waste of materials and resources. If it's just software that needs updating to enable stuff there'll be people charging £200 one off payment on car forums in no time
Click to expand...
Depends if all cars having the same hardware is cheaper than having multiple different parts depending on model, wouldn't surprise me if just having one set of hardware worked out cheaper, plus they have the option of additional revenue via subscription.
 
This is one of those things people don't kick back against, complacency and "it doesn't affect me" - until a few years down the line and people wonder why evolution of the concept is affecting them as companies use initial implementations as a vehicle to force it on the wider market.
 
Maybe I only want to pay for heated seats in the winter? Perhaps I only want to pay for the convertible roof to open in the summer?

I don’t like it at all, but where there’s profit to be made, the companies are going to be all over it.
 
Doesn't seem that strange an idea to me.
WorTortle said:
Makes no sense to manufacture the car with the hardware if it's never going to be used, utter waste of materials and resources.
Click to expand...
This sort of thing has been happening for years though, just not typically behind a subscription model. You sometimes see the same engine with a different tune to provide different performance / price tiers, and not always with other components that could be subject to more wear upgraded in sync.

It's basically the equivalent of a remap being charged annually as opposed to a one-off, I think that's what people are more opposed to rather than the concept of underutilised hardware. But more and more things seem to be going down the subscription route, it was only a matter of time.
 
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If theres an ongoing cost to maintain the 'service' I can just about justify it, but unlocking pre-built features should be a one off fee, either as part of the initial purchase cost or a later upgrade. WTF are you actually paying for beyond spreading the payment?
 
WorTortle said:
Makes no sense to manufacture the car with the hardware if it's never going to be used, utter waste of materials and resources. If it's just software that needs updating to enable stuff there'll be people charging £200 one off payment on car forums in no time
Click to expand...

It can be cheaper. If most cars are sold with something, economics can make it cheaper than the exception but then they can lock it till upsell later.

It’s been issued for years on ICE cars.

I’m not against one payments to unlock things if it’s made clear upfront and price is set. Subscription in this case I’m strongly against.

Subscriptions should only be for things that have ongoing cost, eg data plans, content services etc….
 
Get stuffed. Anyone agreeing to paying monthly for things that are already present is just helping cultivate this greedy mentality.

In fact if this takes off I can see a whole market popping up to hack all this crap out, and I'll gladly support that before I support this.
 
One off payment to unlock a feature, fine.

But subscription for features? What's next? Subscription to use the heater? what about a subscription to unlock the boot of the car? What about a subscription to adjust the seats or use the glove box?

I would not get a car that comes with a subscription, it's not Netflix where the content constantly changes. So your subscription is getting you new things all the time.
 
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