is that why they never use turn signals? you need a subscription?
No, it’s because the peasants don’t need to know where I am going.
The assumption is that every peasant on the road will stop, move out if their way and politely greet them because of the higher BMW status. Just as they in turn have to defer to a Bentley or Rolls Royce. The hierarchy of cars.
It's funny, because a boy I used to work with in a major UK city centre with lots of traffic congestion used to say "go for the gap in front of the ones with a nice car, they'll stop".
In the same vein, never let them out of a junction out of politeness. They have enough privilege in their life, they can wait.
Banged up Corsa? Out you come, you've places to go.
Boring Ford Mondeo? Sure, I'll be nice.
Land Rover Evoque Sport? Get fucked, I've got right of way.
You joke but I actually had a co-worker once tell me that “I’m an adult, I don’t need to tell others where I am going.”
oh yes, surely that idea helps them compete with Chinese cars, this is what they are going to add value to and justify their price
It lowers the upfront cost which is what millions of financially illiterate people think of first. $299 biweekly for 96 months! That’s $20 cheaper than XYZ
Never you mind how much extra it costs for radio or heated seats or the horsepower on the sticker.
It won't work for so many millions when Chinese cars are skyrocketing, competing on price with them is crazy. Combustion engines require advanced engineering, but electric ones are absolutely basic, we must look for another element that differentiates these brands, I would pay more for good open source and auditable privacy software that I know is not going to leave me stranded at the first opportunity.
The problem is that not enough people care about privacy, but it’s a valid approach. Just need to market it.
One of the challenges I think are the things you can’t notice until you live with a car. How much space does the seat heater actually heat? My old BMW heated quite far up the backrest while Japanese and Korean cars barely warm the lumbar area (and cycle on/off leaving you hot/cold respectively).
How good is the traction control? I have driven GM products shipped on this side of 2020 that only do torque limiting and the abs doesn’t seem to do pay any attention to the rear wheels. The system is very similar to 1980s functionality. Compared to a 2000s smart car, it’s downright dangerous.
Does the HVAC work? I’ve had a Subaru (2014) that couldn’t heat or couldn’t cool the car, without having the fans on above normal speaking level (in fact it couldn’t cool the car at 25°C without recirculate on); my BMW on the other hand moderated heat output, heated seats, and heated mirrors based on the outdoor temperature; it was exceedingly comfortable. I never needed to adjust the climate controls.
The cheaper cars have the “features” but the implementation is crappy. It costs money to finesse.
The problem is that most people (as with privacy) don’t notice this. They may note the absence of the small luxuries if they change cars, but it’s difficult to market it, difficult to convince people to spend more on it, and difficult to include in press reviews without being a huge nerd.
fuck the subscription model. I want to own my shit!
I will never buy a bmw because of this, and they were on my short list of new car next year.
I'm probably going Volvo now, we will see.
I went with a different brand too. One that just gave all those options as part of the basic package.
Of course they will. BMW drivers aren't buying them because they're actually good cars.
Every upgrade in John Deere equipment of the same model is installed on every unit sold, just unplugged, because it’s cheaper to have the same build process.
School bus transmissions have been like this for over 25 years. They're all built with 6 gears but if you only want 5 gears (which is ironically is all most school districts actually want) they just disable 6th gear. It used to be that there was a little bit of missing hardware (which could be added later for a considerable price) but now it's just disabled in software. In the skoolie community (people like me who buy used buses and convert them to motorhomes) you can get your software-disabled transmission upgraded to a six-speed for a few hundred bucks (dubious legality but who gives a fuck).
Time to hack some John Deere hardware, I suppose.
Ukrainian hackers have been doing custom John Deere firmware for ages I believe.
I'd like to sit here and say well now I'm never going to buy a bmw, but I don't think that was ever going to be a choice on my part anyway.
Most BMW drivers lease vehicles so they're already used to what amounts to subscription. My fear is that these news articles are actually designed to normalize this to buyers of brands where leasing isn't the default. They show how the affluent don't mind paying to convince the less fortunate it's a glamorous move.
And i will never commit to BMW.
It sounds like their market research told them they would make more money this way, and my own anecdotal evidence makes me think they are correct, unfortunately.
The area where I live has some diversity and some decent people, but it is majority white christian conservative. The amount of luxury SUVs I see rage-driving around town can be astounding at times. It's right up there with the amount of frighteningly expensive emotional support trucks with the drivers still wearing their ball caps and wrap-around shades on overcast days.
Are we sure they didn't just put the controls on the turn signal lever?
Time to focus on jailbreak cars. We need to kill off the DMCA now!
That is a hill to die on. I wish you the luck that is deserved.
BMW buyers are rubes, so it all make sense.
I guess my previous BMW will be my last one.
Now we all know that if we see someone in a BMW at a traffic light who looks particularly comfortable, that person is an idiot.
I guess because BMW doesn't believe their customers make wise decisions?
BMW has a big fanboy club. They will buy that shit simply because it's BMW.
Guess what car I won’t buy.
I wasn't gonna buy it before because the price for a bmw is fucking rediculous, but now I'll even more not buy one!
This is a terrible article. It didn't give a single example. It also said there is subscriptions for things that need a constant connection. The connected drive stuff currently are things anyone can do without. This is very rage baity.
Shifting toward a subscription model at this stage in the game just screams “we are having money trouble.”
Which is ironic considering the image BMW has.
For now, BMW is defaulting to a more traditional approach. If it requires a data package of some sort, it will probably have a recurring fee—and BMW says its customers are already comfortable subscribing to such add-ons.
Sounds like a fairly reasonable position imo, and that they listen to the outrage about heated seats (which tbh was ridiculous). I get the feeling that everyone who commented on this didn't actually read the article, lol.
Full disclosure: I own a fairly recent BMW and do like it a lot. Would I have bought it with subscription based heated seats? Maybe not, but I do appreciate other things like having a physical button to go into battery save mode and not having to dive 3 touch screen menus down.. or that it's one of the most powerful hybrids in electric only mode (though not anymore I think).. or being generally more dialed back when it comes to driver assist features.
That said I will admit that it has a physical button that tells me to pay up when pressed, to enable automatic high beam control.. though it's not like it was an advertised feature (got it used).
Charging someone to use something they already own is extortion.
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