BMW Now Charges £15 Per Month For Heated Seats Already Installed In Your Car
These days, no area of life seems immune to the concept of the subscription model. The music we listen to, the films we watch, the food we buy, and even our cars can all be sorted via a monthly or annual fee.
Now, though, BMW is charging its customers monthly fees to use heated seats and other features that may already be physically installed in the car. Heated seats are the equivalent of £15 per month. It’s worth noting that customers can also pay for a £150 ($178) yearly subscription, £250 ($296) three-year subscription or buy the heated seat functionality permanently for £350 ($414).
BMW also offers a subscription service for use of software which helps detect speed cameras which costs £25 per year. You can also add a feature called High Beam Assistant, which automatically turns off your high beam headlights when there’s oncoming traffic (costing £10 a month or £100 a year). Other safety features like Driving Assistant Plus, which bundles together adaptive cruise control and automatic braking can be paid for on a monthly basis for £35, annually for £350, every three years for £550 or unlocked permanently for £750… That’s a lot for something already installed on your car.
It’s worth pointing out this isn’t something only BMW is doing - it’s also possible to pay to add un-specced features to the latest VW Golf retroactively.
The BMW ConnectedDrive store features can be purchased from within the car itself and over-the-air updates make them available to the driver without having to visit a BMW retailer.
Back in 2020, Tech Crunch quoted a BMW spokesperson as saying of the push towards subscription access to optional features:
“We offer maximum flexibility and peace of mind to our customers when it comes to choosing and using their optional equipment in their BMWs, whether this BMW is new or used.
“So flexible offers, immediate availability, simpler booking and easy usability for choice, at any time, when it comes to your optional equipment”
CarThrottler
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Imagine having to pay a yearly subscription to use your adaptive headlights and heated seats that are already installed in the vehicle. How exactly are these cars going to be functional in the used market? People will be jailbreaking cars to use features that they had in the first place.
“Ultimate Driving Machine”
Exactly. I remember when I jailbreaked my iPod and iPhone. Next it will be my car !
There it is, car ownership slowly disappearing. What is next? Blocking access to features like adaptive cruise control, because your ABS sensors register that you put on aftermarket wheels? I dont like this development that gives car manufacturers that much power over the product after selling it…
First login into MYBMW Hang on got to connect to BMW Options Launcher to prove i didnt hack the features next got to turn online mode on then voila i have activated wireless charging after waiting 10 minutes in the Load Screen Trying to join a session
So basically cost of adaptive dampers raises the price of a car even though someone doesn’t want it. Cause I will never belive they will put more expensive parts on a car for free hoping you’ll subscribe so they can get the money back. And then to use what you already payed for you have to subscribe. Wow, that’s one way to milk the customer.
There’s barely anything new here. Mercedes-Benz has been fiddling with supscriptions for a few years now, most notably within their new MBUX infotainment system. No navigation in your basic A-Class? No probs, a few clicks on the touchscreen and you’re sorted. No Apple CarPlay/Android Auto? Here you go, purchased and installed, all in 5 minutes time without exiting the car. And so on!
Although thats terrible, there’s a pretty huge difference between a software feature and a actual physical feature in the car that you have but is locked behind a paywall. They aren’t installing new seats or anything.
This is the problem with digitalization. I’m personally gonna avoid stuff like this the best I can.
This isnt a problem of digitization, this is a problem of corporate greed. If they could have done this in the 80s, they would.
Then whats the point of speccing your car then. Seriously people dont like stuff like this on games and media, what makes them think that people will like them on cars. If theyre gonna keep doing this, might as well dig theyre own grave.
*their
so basically microtransactions in your car….
Old news… I hope that by now people have already cracked the system.
This is ptopably less bad, than you think. First, you can just buy the damn thing, and thats it, you own it. It`s propably cheaper for them, to only produce seats sith heating in them, than to have two kinds of seats. But it would be cheaper, to not offer them at all. But nobody wants BMW to not offer heated seats. So you get them anyways, but cant use them. But whats this does is, that when you lease a car, and dont really want to pay for a BMW, to drive a BMW, the resale value doent drop into oblivion. This makes leaing a BMW cheaper overall, because you can lease a poverty spec BMW without it being worthless the moment BMW tries to resell it. If you buy a BMW without heated seats, but would be able to upgrade them at resale, it would propably bump up the value at sale as well, if the new owner could just go to the dealer and activate the feature. All in all, i think this is ok, as long, as features do not exist as rent only features.