You thought microtransactions were just about charging people to play games. Think again.
Technically, this is not a new thing and dates back to when GM thought it would make big bank from subscription fees for this new-fangled OnStar driver’s concierge thing, and I suppose that many car consumers are already paying a fee to use hardware already installed in their cars and paid for when they use satellite radio, but the news that BMW is now charging subscription fees to use components more associated with standard, non-digital, options grates on me, and I’m not alone.
The item that’s gotten the most attention from a broad spectrum of critics, ranging from right-to-repair advocate, independent Apple repair shop owner Louis Rossmann to the Wall Street Journal is the $18 a month fee for using your front heated seats, though a range of options are on the subscription menu. r/BMW on Reddit is buzzing with criticism, though some are pooh-poohing the news, saying it’s no big deal because BMW isn’t doing this in the United States.
According to the WSJ the program is already active in South Africa, Germany, in the U.K., and in New Zealand, where it will cost you, respectively, the equivalent of $15, $17, $18, and $30 to use your heated seats according to BMW websites in those countries. Consumers have the option of monthly, yearly, three year, and unlimited service plans. For those unsure about taking the plunge, it appears that the Quandt family is generously letting you use them for free for a trial period. It’s been reported that BMW has a similar subscription service going in Korea.
Being able to automatically dim your high beams will run you about $12 a month in the UK. Back in 1952, Cadillac may have charged you the substantial sum of $53.36 (~$600 in rapidly depreciating 2022 dollars) to have your Caddy equipped with GM’s Autronic Eye dimmer system, but it didn’t charge extra to use it.
The truth is that almost everything on a modern car is computer controlled. That switch on your door to lower or raise the window is not directly connecting 12 volts to a motor, it’s triggering a logic circuit that controls a micro solenoid. Since just about every system on your car is connected to the ECU, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to think that each of those systems can be turned into a subscription fee, no matter how basic you may think they are to the operation of an automobile.
Think of it as a modern, and greedy, spin on what Honda did with the first Accords sold in the United States. At a time when the domestic car manufacturers and dealers were charging for options a la carte, Honda started building every car with air conditioning and a stereo. Putting those options in every car amortized the cost so low that they could afford to do it. Now, if the subscription revenue is high enough, BMW can load every car with just about every option, cutting their costs per option, and reap full retail value and then some if people want to use those options. While you can dicker with the dealer over the purchase price of a car with non-subscription options that you are actually buying, BMW isn’t going to discount a widespread subscription service.
I’m allergic to conspiracy theories, but I’m beginning to suspect that there might be something to that “You will own nothing and you will be happy!” meme.
I’m sure that you have your own opinions on the matter, please share them below.
[Image: BMW U.K.]
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And you can bet that the second owner and all future owners will soon discover that these features need to be subscribed to, as Tesla owners did.
I see a cottage industry of “disconnecting” our connected cars from the hive mind and hacking these features
I’m sure that people will be able to find ways around that nonsense.
Everybody wants to be Micro$oft!
I see that too. Not that I’m BMW material, but except for poseurs I don’t see a core group of fan bios (or girls) drinking this kool-aid. Ridiculous.
“I see a cottage industry of “disconnecting” our connected cars from the hive mind and hacking these features”
And an even bier industry of ambulance chasing clowns doing their darndest to get kangaroo courts to waste taxpayer money harassing people for “violating” the terms of some “agreement…” We’re not a totalitarian dystopia for no reason, after all….
Technically, as long as there are the likes of heating elements and fans in the seat: Unless BMW goes out of their way to spend a fortune making such basic components more complicated and failure prone by stuffing every inch of wise full of chips and sensors, it’s not THAT hard to hook into the hardware with a jailbroken controller. But since Western countries are by now pretty much exclusively “The Lands of the Slaves of The Leeches who have preferential access to Kangaroo Courts,” I’m sure the rabble will do their darnedest to make bypassing the theft more difficult.
They tried this in the US with CarPlay in 2017 or so and got so much blowback that they relented and made it “free”, just like in your $20k Hyundai and literally every other car on the planet. Their initial defense was they need to charge for it to be able to “maintain” the software. Baloney. CarPlay is just a dumb interface to your phone. They’ll probably never touch the code, or if so, certainly not frequently.
Now this nonsense. I predict it won’t fly here. And it shouldn’t The only way I could see it work would be on leased cars, where it actually makes some sense. That $299/month 3-series stripper lease special that they used to always have could once again be $299 – with all the options enabled/added to that monthly payment when you lease it. They could do bundles to make the pricing attractive, just like option packages are done currently. THAT kind of approach I think makes a lot of sense and would even be ethical. But paying ongoing fees on something you already own? NO.
Agree. They tried this before and it failed.
For many reasons I have zero desire to get a BMW but this kind of nonsense guarantees I’ll never owned one. I don’t do leases and there is no way I’d rent features.
Nice to see you back, Ronnie.
Thank you, that’s kind.
Driving a modern BMW is full of many small irritations (changing the temperature setting should not automatically change the fan speed) but there was some tranquillity to be had from driving the car. This will now be shattered knowing that BMW sees me as an exploitable sucker, taunting me with paywall hardware. I’ll take a Mazda and keep the extra $30k, thank you.
Driving a modern BMW is full of many small irritations (changing the temperature setting should not automatically change the fan speed) but there was some tranquillity to be had from driving the car. This will now be shattered knowing that BMW sees me as an exploitable sucker, taunting me with paywall hardware. I’ll take a Mazda and keep the extra $30k, thank you.
The fan speed may change if the system is in fully-automatic mode when you reset the temperature. Even if you turn the A/C off, the fan speed might increase if you set the temperature to lower than the current cabin temperature.
Thanks. I understand what happens, I just don’t understand BMW’s logic. In automatic mode, there is a temp control and a fan speed control. If I want a cooler temperature, why does BMW decide that I want a different fan speed? Can they not maintain temperature without changing my fan speed, or at least try? Surely they can program a controller to maintain the fan speed at a temperature I select, not the one BMW determines is suitable for me. And I know I can manually set the temp and fan speed, but that doesn’t maintain the car temperature. Changing the fan speed pops the system out of automatic temp, also not what I want.
Throughout the car, BMW decides that it knows better than I do. The worst? Try reverse and open your door slightly to look how close you rear wheel is to the curb, and BMW slams the car into park. Every f*&^^ing time.
I don’t understand the logic of my Honda Fit locks. It won’t let me lock the car while it’s running, it beeps at me if I try, except sometimes and then I have to use the backup mechanical key to unluck the driver’s door. If you use the proximity switch on the driver’s door, it only unlocks that door, so you have to use the switch after you open the door, or press the fob switch twice to let your passengers in.
I suppose I should RTFM.
I haven’t had an ACC BMW, but in most cars, automatic mode means the air temp, fan speed, air direction, and A/C system are all controlled automatically. The car will change any of those that it thinks appropriate to reach the temperature you set (and in some cases to maintain a fog-free humidity level). Often a change in temperature setting will produce a change in two or more of those automatically controlled parameters. Most cars allow you to “stick” one or two of them by changing them manually after you choose auto mode. For instance, if you never want the fan speed to change but you otherwise want automatic control, choose “auto” and then manually select a fan speed.
I don’t mind the BMW auto climate control, but the wipers sometimes puzzle me. They are theoretically auto speed controlled, but always seem to be at the wrong speed. :/
That said, I feel like BMW usually gives you an option, buried somewhere. VW is more “our way or the autobahn”.
So who pays for the repair when your heated seat fails while under subscription?
These kinds of actions don’t bother me because it’s a private company; the free market will sort it out. It’s not as if BMW has a monopoly on the car market.
What does bother me are heavy-handed government regulations that have questionable benefit relative to the cost, from which there is no escape.
Where we have a small group of massive sellers, which is increasingly true in the car industry as in most others, the market is about as effective at curbing exploitative behavior as the political process is at curbing ineffective regulation.
The old business model was to sell the customer a product for an agreed upon price. After that, the seller’s only source of income was charging for maintenance. When the customer decided to replace the product, the seller might or might not get the sale. The resulting income stream was very irregular which was a problem for the seller especially if the customer kept the product for a long time or bought the replacement from a different seller.
The new model is to rent the product so that the seller enjoys a steady stream of income as long as the customer keeps the product. It might break even for the customer over the long run but I suspect the rental model is more expensive.
I invite BMW to enjoy deez nutz for $16.95 per month.
According to some (laughably ignorant) people, because it’s happening overseas we don’t have to worry about it and this there’s no need to comment on it.
But if you truly are bothered by it, you need to move to a market where this is happening, but a BMW and then complain about it.
Or buy a competing product, and then write a letter to BMW with a picture of your new car in your driveway and an explanation of why you refused to put up with their crap.
Or buy a competing product, and then never contact BMW again, leaving them to gaze at their navels wondering where their customers went. [Recovering BMW owner]
The E46 330ci that I had briefly back in the early Aughts is still my favorite car that I’ve ever owned. I would love for BMW to get their act together, but every year I feel like they somehow manage to get even worse.
Such people are what are generally termed “useful idiots.” According to Wikipedia, that phrase is thought to have originated with Vladimir Lenin, but it’s never been confirmed.
What conspiracy theory:
The latest from the U.N. Chronicle:
“The Benefits Of World Hunger:
We sometimes talk about hunger in the world as if it were a scourge that all of us want to see abolished, viewing it as comparable with the plague or aids. But that naïve view prevents us from coming to grips with what causes and sustains hunger. Hunger has great positive value to many people. Indeed, it is fundamental to the working of the world’s economy. Hungry people are the most productive people, especially where there is a need for manual labour.
From:
https://archive.ph/tPOSw#selection-1167.0-1167.457
This just seems like one more trick out of the many the OEMs have employed in recent years to increase the possible spend given buyers’ credit constraints. When you have virtually our entire educated class majoring in finance and then thinking all day once they’re in the workforce about how to extract more rents from people, this sort of thing is the result.
This won’t fly unless other manufacturers go along with it. Few care about the ultimate driving machine, it’s a status symbol and MB & Audi will serve that purpose just as well, along with another half dozen capable cars.
Ah, the combination of corporate greed and technology. Just like airline a few years ago, automakers are gonna keep pushing for subscription services until the public reluctantly gives in. Then the real fun begins.
Let’s imagine a future where buyers either choose to pay extra for popular options or endure a youtube-like experience of ad-supported driving where selecting the feature subjects them to a advertisement piped thru their speakers every couple of minutes.
Simply put, fuck off BMW.
Agreed.
As somebody else said this is offensive
There’s too many fools that put up with this crap. Why is the tail wagging the dog anyway? Stupid.
Yet the over all “numbers” are in decline. The auto industry needs to keep growing and it hasn’t since about 2015, now with new players all the time, not to mention the market shifting to electrics and or pickups. The future can’t look bright for BMW.
Why does the auto industry need to keep growing? There are more important things in the world than Western overconsumption.
What publicly traded company prefers to curb their sales footprint and profits? Or is BMW expecting douchbaggery to suddenly come back in fashion.
It’s an IQ test, and if you have reached this level you are failing, badly.
(Stupid question: Can I get the heated seats just for January-February?)
My new rule: When the warranty expires, two things happen:
a) You no longer support the product
b) I am permitted to hack at will
What makes you so sure they won’t discount subscriptions?
Well, if BMW wanted to make sure their vehicles will never grace my driveway, this will do it when it comes to the US. The constant intrusion of privacy and the relentless pursuit of sucking money out of me with this crap is more than annoying. It’s offensive.
Ronnie welcome back! Nice to see a return to some of the TTAC Classics!
I find it offensive (and a bad strategy) because it reveals that the car and the features are overpriced. If it costs BMW virtually nothing to install the extra hardware, then they have been gouging people on option costs until now. (Which we kind of knew, but they are giving proof now.)
And even if you are a “value shopper” and don’t subscribe to the optional feature, you have still paid for it, because the cost of that feature is baked in to the standard vehicle.
Wait for someone smart enough to write a generic code with the aid of some GNU software written in Linux or Python or such. It should be able to do as some there already are standalone engine control systems on the aftermarket for some common engines to be able to put injection on a carburetted engine or use a computerized injected engine in a kit car or something. No small task to write the code for an engine that there´s no aftermarket stuff avaible for, but for comparison; i once was told of a local young programmer who wrote the entire controller for the heating and ventilation of a small county´s public buildings that was to be digitized and centralized to be run from a single computer for the whole area. As i recall he did that in about a month, using only a single piece of builder software that was given away as freeware at the time, i remember seeing it somewhere on the early WWW and it was a small (a few megabytes only) and user friendly toolbox but the controller software still turned out very versatile and sufficient for its intended use. I also recall an old aquaintance that re-programmed the ECU of his father´s Saab 9000 Turbo to make some easy extra 30 or so HP with nothing more but his laptop and some other small piece of software (mmany modern car engines has “hidden power” with the difference between the high performance option and the grocery getters being what the ECU tells the engine to do). It also had a small drop in fuel consumption, but his dad thankfully declined the improvement and had his son reverse the changes to restore ease of driving :-D. Goes to show that most things digital that you can think of can be done if you got the skills and put your mind to it.
If something like that is released and starts to put a dent in subscription revenue, watch how fast the car manufacturers cry and moan and rend their garments before US EPA and the EU, talking about how such unauthorized modifications will increase emissions (you know, somehow) and endanger safety functions, and … stuff. So the perpetrators should be locked up for a decade and lose their assets.
Big Papa Klaus….
“You will own nothing and be happy”
If this works out for BMW you can expect it to trickle down to other brands. Soon nothing physical will seperate a DX from an EX, just which options you get standard. The badge will be a LED light that changes based on your subscription level.
Ads will play on your touchscreens, but you’ll be able to bypass them by subscribing to BMW+.
Thats how it started in videogames, one company tried it, then the others quickly jumped on board at once and normalized it, conditioning would be complainers into apologists.
Everything is a subscription.
“Ads will play on your touchscreens, but you’ll be able to bypass them by subscribing to BMW+.”
This is basically inevitable.
I still think BMW is flying a little too close to the sun here by charging a subscription for installed features. For example, video game companies don’t charge you a monthly fee for the “A” button to work on your controller.
Oh I agree, videogames don’t require fuel, insurance, tax, loans, financing, repairs, and all of that other fun stuff. So you’re expected to pay for extra features on top of all that.
I think of it this way. For most people, even most BMW buyers, your car is an appliance. My fridge doesn’t require $20/month for the ice maker to work and my oven doesn’t need $10/month to use the timer. I think using micro transactions to access installed features is going to rub people the wrong way.
Ignoring shady business practices and/or not buying products from companies that behave this way is not enough. These trends spread like, well, a virus.
BMW needs to be shamed into ending this. They got embarrassed by people shaming them years ago for the chicanery with CarPlay. That needs to happen again.
Toyota announced the end of last year they were going to require a subscription service to use the auto start feature. The backlash was swift and they seemed to have dropped the idea within days. I guess we’ll see if BMW buyers will push back as hard as Toyota buyers.
BMW buyers likely have enough disposable income that micro-transactions don’t matter.
Eff. That. Mess.
I’m just looking at some of these things. The idea is we need money to improve on these things.
Some of these things either work or not. Heated seats? Should be a 1 time purchase.
Now, lets look at high beam assist. I have that on my Mazda and it works just fine. The software does get fooled, but rarely. 1. If it doesn’t work adequately up front, then it’s useless to begin with. and 2) if it does work adequately, how often are they going to provide an update for this feature? Never, right?
I’d also argue that when you buy the car with these options, you get to keep the state of the option. Instead of a subscription plan, why not just offer, through the dealership, updates at a price?
I buy a car with driving assist ALREADY and it should never be turned off by the dealer/manufacturer. If I want to opt in for an upgrade, I pay X dollars for that upgrade. Allow customers to pay for the upgrades they want.