Subscribe to heated seats in your BMW - just £15 a month

[dxg]

BMW were making noise about their subscription services a couple of years ago, but backed off when faced with the outcry.

Seems like they've arrived, though:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204950/bmw-su...
https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/shop/ls/cp/connected-driv...

I think I'd go for the £100 upgrade to my fake engine sounds, myself.

[matrignano]

You can also buy it outright for £350 which is pretty cheap.

Does it mean all new BMWs come fully specced and you just pay to "activate" features?
How long till someone cracks it and offers it at half price?

[CarCrazyDad]

To be fair they offer lifetime access for $415 - so that's no different than checking the option box.

If cars were cheaper to begin with , I could see the point.

my question regarding the "lifetime access" though, is that lifetime for the car, or the owner.......

Full list here - https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/shop/ls/cp/connected-driv...

[whp1983]

matrignano said:

You can also buy it outright for £350 which is pretty cheap.

Does it mean all new BMWs come fully specced and you just pay to "activate" features?
How long till someone cracks it and offers it at half price?

Not too different to now….. although blanked off panels etc on dash most cars have wiring for the options they are apparently missing, likewise software…. Already loads of companies that add in CarPlay, folding mirrors, reverse cameras etc all off original wiring and or software.

[mwstewart]

I suppose an attempt to monetise subsequent owners whilst minimising production costs.

[SydneyBridge]

Guess it makes economic sense to make every car pretty much the same, with some features locked

[MitchT]

matrignano said:

Does it mean all new BMWs come fully specced and you just pay to "activate" features?

Yes it does appear to be the case, I read about this a while back. It's logistically easier (and therefore cheaper) for them just to put all the options on all cars produced, then activate them on a subscription model. No doubt there'll be a whole cottage industry "jailbreaking" features on out-of-warranty cars.

[ATG]

I've missed this one until now. Are BMW seriously not allowing you to use features of your car like heated seats unless you pay a monthly fee to enable it? I suppose a customer might just about swallow that if they think they are renting the car from BMW, but if you think that you own your own car (!) then that pricing model is utter bks and will feel like extortion. And surely its just going to spawn a cottage industry of enabling these features independently of BMW? Imagine if you went to screwfix and bought a set of allen keys, and they said "looky, looky, shiny, shiny! You can take all these lovely allen keys home ... but ... if you want to use any of them, you'll need to stick a fiver in the post each month."

[h0b0]

I assume leased cars have minimal options on them because you pay the full price of the option in the lease period. By shifting to a subscription model for the options, they are just aligning with the way most “purchase” their car.

It also allows BMW to effectively sell the heated seats to multiple owners through the car life. HSaaS (Heated Seats as a Service)

[SidewaysSi]

"IconicSounds Sport". What a load of BS.

I would be ashamed if I worked at BMW and had anything to do with this.

[PurpleTurtle]

I like the idea, especially as a used car buyer.

I sometimes find an otherwise well-spec'd car but think "ah, it's got that option missing" and there's not much you can do about it.

Heated seats is a brilliant example; until I had them I never knew I wanted them but seeing as I use them for at least 6 months of the year then they are must-have on any car I now buy. The ability to turn them on as a second or third owner is a great concept.

One hopes that the 'lifetime unlocking' is transferrable to subsequent owners though? I suspect not!

[2ZZ Top]

As a used car buyer, this is great news. The used market is flooded with low-spec lease cars these days. If y'all wouldn't mind ticking metallic paint and a pan roof, I can do the rest later. Thanks.

[r1ch]

The first time I've heard about subscriptions for features was yesterday when my wife and I test drove an Audi.

The salesman pointed out that Audi will be doing this and some features that will become subscription based. I guess perhaps if you only do a few long journeys a year, something like lane assist or cruise control you could just buy for those occasions and so on.

I bet there will be people that end up being able to unlock all these features for a one off cost at your local dodgy remap place.

[ATG]

Come to think of it, Intel used to do something even "dafter" than this. They'd build a load of microprocessors and then blow a fuse in half of them to cripple a set of features, then sell those processors at a lower price point. So they're deliberately spending time and effort to make a product worse that they will then sell more cheaply than the higher end product they started with. I'm sure this was an entirely rational bit of behaviour and dovetailed neatly with customers' expectations of bang-for-the-buck ... but ... when you step back and look at the system as a whole it's clearly a globally suboptimal equilibrium and an example of a market failure.

[toasty]

OK ignoring the fact they're going to get hacked within weeks of coming out, it doesn't seem to bad if you only pay for heated seats when it's cold and you don't intend keeping the car for more than a couple of years.

[HayesDC2]

Makes sense, suppose you were leasing a car for 3 years you could pay for it only during the winter and maybe save a few quid

[mmm-five]

£15/month for the 2-3 months I'd actually use them is probably better than paying £350 up-front...especially if it's going to affect BIK/tax.

[croyde]

That's how I added cruise control to my low spec Duster.

Apparently they all have it. I just had to replace the speed limiter switch with a limiter/cruise one. Secondhand on eBay and hey presto! I had cruise for £18.

[jackofall84]

This would mean you're paying for it twice. When you purchase the car you'll be paying for all the hardware that would now come fitted into the car as standard whether you intend to use it or not. You'll also be paying for the software development that has been created to 'switch those features on' when the subscription is paid, even if you don't up end up wanting it and not paying for the subscription.

[ATG]

croyde said:

That's how I added cruise control to my low spec Duster.

Apparently they all have it. I just had to replace the speed limiter switch with a limiter/cruise one. Secondhand on eBay and hey presto! I had cruise for £18.

Good man