Originally published at: BMW sets out to refute "subscription for heated seats" report | Boing Boing
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I’m not sure that they understand how ‘refutation’ works; but it sure doesn’t look like they did it.
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Yes or no, do I need to pay for a subscription just to have heated seats in my $50,000 BMW?
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It’s complicated.
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Best reply:
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What I’m getting from this is:
- The BMW you bought comes with the hardware for heated seats whether you ordered heated seats or not. This presumably increases the base cost of the vehicle for all customers, not just those who order heated seats.
- If you ordered the car with heated seats, you pay additional money once, for the privilege of actually using the hardware that already exists in the car that you own.
- If you decide you want to use heated seats later, you’ve got to pay an additional recurring subscription fee to upgrade, to get the privilege of using the hardware that already exists in the car that you already own. As long as you’re subscribed.
- If you don’t pay an extra cost either now or later, the car that you already own contains heated seat hardware that you already paid for, that you just can’t use. For reasons.
So this sounds more like a confirmation than a refutation to me.
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So why aren’t heated, and cooled seats for that matter, standard on what’s supposed to be a luxury brand?
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BMW = Bill Me Weekly
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A lower base price that nobody ever pays in real life is still a lower base price.
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In the voice a a BMW Customer Service Rep:
If you ticked to box for “Heated Seats +$5000” when your purchased your car* then you won’t have any monthly fees for using Heated Seats, if instead you ticked to box for “Heated Seats (Optional) +$500”, or left both boxes blank then we put the heated seats in the car, but left them disabled unless you pay a monthly fee. Please note that these subscriptions fees may be larger if you live in a colder climate. I don’t understand what is so complication about this that every one doesn’t just understand it.
Note: The dealer up sell on the “Pointless upgrade and undercoat” does not include heated seats or any actual upgrades.
/End BMW Customer Service Rep Voice
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The BMW you bought comes with the hardware for heated seats whether you ordered heated seats or not. This presumably increases the base cost of the vehicle for all customers, not just those who order heated seats.
Sure, it costs more for everyone than if they didn’t offer heated seats to anyone.
But if we take it as a given that they were going to offer heated seats as an option, it likely lowers overall manufacturing costs to build all cars with heated seats and just disable them on the cheaper models. Having two different types of seats requires estimating how many of each kind to order or build and warehousing stock for both. If the estimates of how many of each kind will be purchased, there’s likely to be more waste than if they’d just had one seat.
I agree with everything else you wrote.
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What is a “DLC program”? The web has many, many different ideas. I can’t seem to find one that fits this context.
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The only, only possible subscription I could understand trying to sell is something like having a profile that goes with you: got a preferred seat size and temperature and whatnot? Want it to go with you from BMW to BMW? That I could begrudgingly understand: charging to keep the service running. Or to have your BMW use the insecure internet to note when your phone is approaching to preheat (or pre-cool) the car.
But paying to unlock a feature? And then making the schmuck you sell the car to pay again? That ensures I am not buying a BMW.
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I’m guessing its the video game model - that started with a DVD of a game where you could add functionality after you installed it with DownLoadable Content (for an extra fee). Now that most games start as downloads, DLC just means added features you can optionally pay for.
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And then there are all the various navigation and assistance programs features that car makers have been offering as subscriptions for years. I guess that feels different because of the continued involvement of the provider, but this idea that a modern car comes with a subscription isn’t new and it will only become more pervasive in the future no matter what BMW does with it seats.
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If I walk into a BMW dealer and the base price for a freakin’ BMW doesn’t include heated seats I’m crossing BMW off my list. If I attempt to buy a pre owned BMW and the heated seats don’t work I’m looking for another brand.
Heck, my 20 year old Ford Windstar has heated seats and lumbar support.
My guess is sooner or later this experiment to see what they can get away with fails.
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OnStar like services are very different, there are people involved but…
I have a freind with a pretty expensive truck, they locked their keys in it a couple weeks ago, no OnStar subscription but they called and said they would pay for an entire year right then and there if they would just unlock their truck. The basically said, “should of thought of that when you turned down the subscription”.
Great customer service.
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Jesus, isn’t this exactly why trimlines exist? Every vehicle manufacturer seems to have been able to figure out how to offer heated seats as an option, with just some coils in the seat butt and a 12v line coming out the bottom of the seat, in a cost-effective and profitable way, for the last half-century. Nor is there any functional reason to require software control for heated seats.
The whole thing is transparently a cash grab on BMW’s part, with the hope of squeezing excess profits out of people with more money than sense and a poor post-purchase remorse barometer. It also paves the way for Tesla-flavored BS like disabling the heated seats feature whenever the title changes hands. (“Yes, the first owner of the car ordered the car with heated seats, but that feature was only good for the duration of their ownership. You’re welcome to pay at the subscription rate.”)
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If it’s cheaper to make them a standard feature then they should just make them a standard feature and charge everyone accordingly instead of putting in a feature just to disable it.
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“If you don’t want me using the hardware, don’t sell me the hardware.”
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