General > General Technical Chat

Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.

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Homer J Simpson:


Automakers beginning to charge monthly for car features.   :(

SiliconWizard:
Ahah,  we weren't seeing this coming! :-DD

Zeyneb:
And I thought I was a happy camper in my little 90s hatchback.  ;)

Even though this guy implicitly call me an animal. I feel superior to those people who are dependent to the car dealer.

MK14:
If you prefer to read about it. This article (from around July 2021)  seems to go into a lot of details about it.

https://carbuzz.com/features/the-complete-guide-to-automotive-subscription-features

The problem(s) I have with it, are that, it sounds cheap/affordable, at say $8 a month, per feature. But if you have (perhaps) 5 such subscriptions, making it 5 x 8 = $40 per month, then consider a 10 year period, with a +50% price increase because of inflation/reasons, it could average perhaps $50 per month.

So, over 10 years (vehicle life, hopefully a fair bit longer in practice), it comes to 12-months x $50-average x 10-years = $6,000 extra, more if the subscriptions continue and the car lasts longer than 10 years.
Also, the $6,000+, is for things the car already had when you/they bought it, so this is NOT good for consumers, by the sound of it.

PaulAm:
Actually, some of those features are  things you USED to have.

GM used to have a nifty remote start button on a key fob.  Sometime around 2018 they went to a smart phone app.  Everyone has a phone, right?  But if you want to use it you need a data connection with the car through their Onstar service, which is a monthly fee.

Like many items, cars are becoming software platforms designed to extract a continuing revenue stream from the user.  You only thought you owned it.

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