BMW, like the human race, has definitely peaked

C

Chris_D

Elite
 Mostly Holland. Sometimes UK.
BMW's new subscription service for heated seats? Get in the fking bin BMW! What a joke.
What next? Opening and closing windows subscription for just 200 quid a year? Bargain!

This one is just RIPE for the hackers and coders to take advantage of...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62142208
 
Could it be to reduce the new car cost for company car owners tax liability and move the cost onto their monthly expenses ?
 
Although it seems bloody odd, DLC for cars, it can make sense. Think that they can standardise all the features on the build line, reduce costs etc and have it as a software unlock. Yes there will be a huge market for hacking the software but would the savings offset that risk
 
Well I read the article. To some extent it makes sense. If you order the car originally and pay for the option (one of many that will be handled this way) it stays for the life of the car.

They point out that it would be advantageous to those who purchase a used car that may not have the options but can be added when the new owner decides they want it and they can start off with a monthly "try it" purchase or can pay a one time fee to have the option permanently.

Agree that many aftermarket hacks will likely be available, however I would imagine that BMW software designers will take this into account and write something in the software that would mess something else up should the code not be disabled correctly.
 
Perhaps use of indicators will become a sub based option? :P Unlikely to get much of a take up though.
 
Old-Duckman said:
They point out that it would be advantageous to those who purchase a used car that may not have the options but can be added when the new owner decides they want it and they can start off with a monthly "try it" purchase or can pay a one time fee to have the option permanently.
Click to expand...

If the un-optioned modules/tech is still functional that is. I also wonder what the additional weight of all that un-optioned crap is.

I stand by my previous claim that BMW's are just bloated plasticky sh!theaps these days and the plastics they use is all shity recycled brittle crap. I was at my local stealer (Ekris, Utrecht) to buy some odds and sods for the zed recently and had a nosey at the i4. It was hideous both inside and out. I deliberately prodded some of the interior plastics and as expected the flex and creaking was ridiculous. The smart arse sales guy helpfully pointed out to me that the panels I were touching did not contain any control mechanisms. 'Oh that's good to know' I retorted, '...really good to know, thanks!'.
:lol:
 
This is nothing new…IBM was doing this on mainframes in the 1970s…the E89s with N20 engines amongst many others are examples of ‘slugged’ ‘brain damaged’ products …you could argue BMW is actually being more helpful than forcing you to buy a completely new product to get extra features..hopefully it will save buying another car that somebody skimped on… :thumbsup:
 
I can see the sense in it when not specced at order time. I only activated car play on mine during a Black Friday deal as at order time I didn’t want a monthly subscription.

At least they seem to offer a one off cost at order time though which is fair enough.
 
Don't see the problem with it, allows original purchaser to spec what they want on a budget and future owners can choose what they want to add with no physical alterations to the car. Also allows those buying used to consider cars not up to the spec they wanted if they can add those options themselves.
 
I don’t see any issue with this at all. Quite the opposite in fact, think it’s a clever/helpful option

On this forum one of the most repeated things to newbies, including myself at the start, was heated seats a must in a roadster in the U.K., particularly Scotland. I listened to this, then immediately discounted multiple nice cars because they didn’t have this feature, with this I could have bought any of those cars and factored a £100-£200 one off payment to get the heated seats if not spec’d by original purchaser.
 
Argyll Andy said:
I don’t see any issue with this at all. Quite the opposite in fact, think it’s a clever/helpful option

On this forum one of the most repeated things to newbies, including myself at the start, was heated seats a must in a roadster in the U.K., particularly Scotland. I listened to this, then immediately discounted multiple nice cars because they didn’t have this feature, with this I could have bought any of those cars and factored a £100-£200 one off payment to get the heated seats if not spec’d by original purchaser.
Click to expand...

Totally agree :thumbsup:
 
Yep seems a very good idea to me too, you don't have to use it but as said it opens up a lot more cars to buyers in the 2nd hand market to add spec, excellent option.
 
The early E85 cars had a wiring loom for cruise control that wasn’t always used but for a few £‘s it could be fitted.
Is the electronic unlock the version of today?
 
ronk said:
The early E85 cars had a wiring loom for cruise control that wasn’t always used but for a few £‘s it could be fitted.
Is the electronic unlock the version of today?
Click to expand...

I think that a common wiring loom has been the standard for basically all auto manufacturers for quite some time now. I work in the window industry and our fabricators are all about limiting SKUs. Could you imagine having different wiring looms (and thus a different SKU for each loom) for builds with different options...it would be a manufacturing nightmare.
 
Having recently retrofitted cruise control on my E86, I'd have happily paid a fee and 'unlocked' it :lol:

Though I do now feel more of a man, so every cloud.

Owen
 
A good friend of mine who I used to work with at Audi was telling me about this type of subscription service for in car luxuries and infotainment a few years back so not surprised it’s starting to happen
 
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