Where does car companies squeezing consumers by putting features behind paywalls rank

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Where does car companies squeezing consumers by putting features behind paywalls rank

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Somewhere between Ticketmaster and Windows Me.

I suspect people are only bitching because they can’t roll the add-on fee into some 15 year car loan.

I don't know because I haven't had that privilege yet but imagine it to be up there.

I'm old enough to remember when airlines treated you like a customer and flying was special.
Getting nickel & dimed at 30K feet is a way of life now.

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They have a product. Buy or don’t.

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I totally agree to this, but I need to be informed, well in advance, if a company is going to sabotage my product after I buy it.

Would be an absolute deal breaker for me. No matter how much I liked the car.

Depends.

BMW charging a fee for for CarPlay or heated seats is fricked. No one else does that. It’s a one and done feature that doesn’t require updates or maintenance from the manufacturer. They are not providing monthly updates for CarPlay (apple is) or heated seats. It’s entirely a revenue grab. And I would expect it from a car company that considers crankshaft bearings as a “wear item”, and basically designs their vehicles to be mechanically totaled by 100,000 miles.

Charging for map updates, Satellite radio, or roadside assistance/on star that has some kind of back end support is not as infuriating to me. I can opt out of it and the car works exactly as advertised. And they do have to either support it or provide some kind of ongoing value in the form of a team that answers a distress call or software updates to give you the latest mapping data.

GMC is mildly shady in that you pay for 3 years or On star upfront even if you don’t want it. Other GM brands don’t do that. But it’s also at a hugely discounted rate.

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Damn, Baw. ME was so bad/painful that my mind had blocked it out.

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Such a poor product and one you could hardly avoid. Drove people to attempt using Windows NT at home.

These car companies envision customers like “sit at home in pajamas, drink hot chocolate, and buy health insurance” types happily choosing subscription options with a swipe of their iPhone. This will generate blowback but the socialists are working very hard to create a society like this.

Charging to use a feature that doesn’t have an ongoing cost for the manufacturer or service provider is not okay. I think Tesla started that trend of locking you out of features that already existed. But the Germans started going overboard with it.

Charging for services like roadside assistance, in-car internet, or mapping updates isn’t objectionable IMO.

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These car companies envision customers like “sit at home in pajamas, drink hot chocolate, and buy health insurance” types happily choosing subscription options with a swipe of their iPhone. This will generate blowback but the socialists are working very hard to create a society like this.

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Yep.

Whenever I think of companies placing previously included things behind a paywall it’s definitely socialism.

Nothing capitalist at all about that

Just wait until you’re late on your monthly payment and they disable the vehicle from their office until you catch up on the payments and late fees!