BMW - Just when you think it couldn't get any worse!

BMW - Just when you think it couldn't get any worse!

Author
Discussion

CzechItOut

2,154 posts

190 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
thecremeegg said:
Because for something like the high beam assist where the physical hardware is there but not activated it's a bloody con.
How is it more of a con than paying to have them fitted at the factory? Presumably the hardware costs pennies either way and it makes BMW's production line more efficient having a single headlight unit.

Tim bo

1,956 posts

139 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
thecremeegg said:
Because for something like the high beam assist where the physical hardware is there but not activated it's a bloody con.
Yes indeed.

I don't understand it. This surely has to be a cost-saving/money-making undertaking for BMW, but by including the extra hardware (the sensor behind the mirror on the screen to detect oncoming cars) incurs an extra cost for BMW for those who do not subsequently purchase the upgrade from the iDrive.

In that situation, BMW loses money by adding unused hardware to those cars.

Edited by Tim bo on Friday 9th August 12:45

kambites

67,461 posts

220 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
CzechItOut said:
How is it more of a con than paying to have them fitted at the factory?
Because some people still live in the 50s, when only physical entities could have monetary value.

kambites

67,461 posts

220 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
Tim bo said:
By including the extra hardware (the sensor behind the mirror on the screen to detect oncoming cars), this is an extra cost for BMW for those who do not subsequently purchase the upgrade from the iDrive.

In that situation, BMW loses money by adding unused hardware to those cars.
As above, it's probably cheaper for BMW to only produce one hardware unit with all the functionality than to produce a second unit with less functionality. Realistically the light sensor probably costs, what, 50p?

Tim bo

1,956 posts

139 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
kambites said:
As above, it's probably cheaper for BMW to only produce one hardware unit with all the functionality than to produce a second unit with less functionality. Realistically the light sensor probably costs, what, 50p?
I suspect you're right.

The overall manufacture cost, plus I suppose logistical costs, of manufacturing and supplying two different Windscreen mirror units outweighs the cost of the sensor itself.

bristolracer

5,527 posts

148 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
kambites said:
bristolracer said:
How long will it be before you get the old ipad syndrome with a car. It works but there is no longer any software support for it.
The first generation of iPads still work exactly the same as they did when Apple stopped supporting them (assuming the hardware hasn't failed). Dropping software support doesn't mean disabling the devices,
A lot of 3rd party apps no longer work very well with them.

kambites said:
No-one forces you to take the updates provided, no-one forces you to buy the additional software features. If you want you can simply ignore the whole concept, buy the car you want with the features you want, never update it, and never think about it again. There is no downside.

Edited by kambites on Friday 9th August 12:36
Until you have a problem and the dealers refuse to work on the vehicle without it being fully updated.
I install kit for customers that is software (app) driven. I get many a call out to see the little red dot displayed on the updates icon. I will not even try to make anything work again until it is updated.

kambites

67,461 posts

220 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
bristolracer said:
Until you have a problem and the dealers refuse to work on the vehicle without it being fully updated.
But it would be fully updated because it'll have all the updates which are available for the product in question. Ultimately yes manufacturers will stop supporting old cars, but they already do that today with hardware supply as well. I can't see a reason to believe this will be any different.

The worst that happens is you're losing something which you wouldn't otherwise have anyway.

Edited by kambites on Friday 9th August 12:53

PurpleTurtle

6,940 posts

143 months

Friday 9th August 2019
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I've got absolutely no problem with this whatsoever.

Having driven for 30yrs without any kind of high beam assistant I'm fairly sure that I can live without one for the rest of my motoring days.

However, if I get to 80 and my arthiritic old fingers can't flick the lever then I'll splash some of my pension on it. laugh

Just a shame it won't work the other way when buying used.

"I don't want all this extraneous crap, can you uninstall it and reduce the price of the car please, Mr Salesman?"tumbleweed

kambites

67,461 posts

220 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
PurpleTurtle said:
"I don't want all this extraneous crap, can you uninstall it and reduce the price of the car please, Mr Salesman?"tumbleweed
I think in practice it'll lead to an awful lot more cars with an awful lot less optional extras on the second-hand market because salespeople will no longer have as such success saying "oh you must have this £2000 optional extra because otherwise you'll never be able to sell it".

And if you buy second-hand, you should at least be able to not pay subscriptions for features you don't want. I think this has the potential to be fantastic for second-hand buyers.

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 9th August 2019
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I'd be in favour in theory, if it all works properly and allows you to buy the base unit at significantly lower cost.

Might complicate P11 values etc.



p1stonhead

25,489 posts

166 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
PurpleTurtle said:
I've got absolutely no problem with this whatsoever.

Having driven for 30yrs without any kind of high beam assistant I'm fairly sure that I can live without one for the rest of my motoring days.
My old 4 series had it. Technology was absolutely spectacular. I couldn’t believe my eyes when it drew a dark box around an oncoming car whilst keeping high beam on everywhere else.

But.....you had to be on a very specific type of road and situation for it to actually work properly, none of which occurred on my commute. Would work fine on a relatively straight A or B road with not many hills etc, but it couldn’t cope with windy back lanes or elevation changes. I never got over the fear of blinding people so rarely had it on.

Court_S

12,764 posts

176 months

Friday 9th August 2019
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This isn't new - my vRS has various features that can be enable with VCDS if you don't cough up for them as an optional extra.

I don't really see an issue with it. Probably pretty good for second hand buyers who are struggling to find particular options.

p1stonhead

25,489 posts

166 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
Court_S said:
I don't really see an issue with it. Probably pretty good for second hand buyers who are struggling to find particular options.
Hadn’t thought of that. That’s great news. Someone who didn’t buy it new can unlock stuff the original buyer didn’t even bother with.

drdino

1,142 posts

141 months

Friday 9th August 2019
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Tim bo said:
I suspect you're right.

The overall manufacture cost, plus I suppose logistical costs, of manufacturing and supplying two different Windscreen mirror units outweighs the cost of the sensor itself.
I suspect what's probably happening is they are doing Auto High Beam via the Lane Departure Warning Camera. If they've standardised LDW, they can get some money on top of that by activating AHB. Or they are just greedy biggrin

What's odd is that they are showing a vehicle that has a stalk with the AHB button on it. That's odd to give away, algthough the on-cost for that little switch being a giveaway might be less than what they save by reducing complexity of the steering column control modules/stalks.

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 9th August 2019
quotequote all
The new MO for BMW seems to be, just copy what Tesla does. **ducks**

How long before you pay 50 quid to knock a second off 0-60 for a Sunday afternoon?

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 10th August 00:42

Vaud

50,289 posts

154 months

Friday 9th August 2019
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Some features will be monetised.

Others, as Tesla have been doing will be safety/performance/range updates made freely available to the driver.

Mr Tidy

22,065 posts

126 months

Saturday 10th August 2019
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[quote=Vaud]Some features will be monetised.

[quote]

Please feel free to join the real world! ;laugh:

They will all be monetised, otherwise there is no point is there? banghead



Chestrockwell

2,624 posts

156 months

Saturday 10th August 2019
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176 euros to basically blind people all the time and flash them? No thanks

I had high beam assist on a BMW loan car and it was the worst thing, very slow to respond and if you’re driving on a dark road with hills and there’s a car in front, every time you’re going down the hill, the high beams come on, blind the driver in front until it realised there’s a car there and turns off.

I know the thread isn’t about high beam itself but I think it’s ridiculous that it exists, probably takes half a second and 0 energy to move your finger to put the full beams on. A step too far

ambuletz

10,690 posts

180 months

Saturday 10th August 2019
quotequote all
its a little sad many people don't see the problem with having to pay to download a function for something that already has hardware in a car.

it's like buying a car that has electric power steering, but in order to enable it you have to pay an extra £300. or paying extra to 'enable' sport mode on a car that already has it on the car.

its like buying a phone, then paying extra to be able to send a text message. you could make all sorts of examples on why this is bad.

going McDonald for a big mac? if you want beef in your big mac it costs extra.

p1stonhead

25,489 posts

166 months

Saturday 10th August 2019
quotequote all
ambuletz said:
its a little sad many people don't see the problem with having to pay to download a function for something that already has hardware in a car.

it's like buying a car that has electric power steering, but in order to enable it you have to pay an extra £300. or paying extra to 'enable' sport mode on a car that already has it on the car.

its like buying a phone, then paying extra to be able to send a text message. you could make all sorts of examples on why this is bad.

going McDonald for a big mac? if you want beef in your big mac it costs extra.
Except you willingly bought the car knowing it was an extra to have the feature. They didn’t tell you it was included then make you pay. So your argument doesn’t work at all.