reacp911

how's this for scary:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/2...-seats-feature

And I was incredulous when my porsche SA told me heated seats used to be an extra cost option on some porsches.

SToronto

The concept has been out there for a few years. Many things are moving to consumption based pricing. As long as the cost isn't more than buying the option outright, which it can easily be if you keep the vehicle long enough. Though the perception of subscribing to something like heated seats is what will need to be overcome.

Gregster

Soon apple will lease you iPhones

theiceman

yeah i read the blow back on this has been huge. You know they will get their way .. take the blow back now and in 10 years people wont be concerned about all options being subscription based. its all about their revenue, not you.

SToronto

Telcos already doing it.

Christien

The point of subscriptions packages is for things that need maintenance or updating. I'm happy to subscribe to some software packages because then I know I'm always using the most recent version. Unless it comes with maintenance included (which heated seats don't really need), subscribing to a piece of hardware just to have it turned on is just a cash grab. There's been tons of discussion about this on reddit - hacks and jailbreaks will be found which may or may not void warranties, depending on how the john deere case pans out, or the car companies might just brick the software so you can't drive at all. Makes my 87 all the much more attractive!

JoeRock

Ah yes, the good old days..

Matt Lane

I'm fine paying for an option when it's really an option (like heated seats might have been 20 years ago). Just like when they invented windshields, definitely worth the splurge to no longer need my leather hat and goggles

Kicker here is that in addition to the dumb subscription premium, you have to drive a new model BMW.

Gregster

telcos are but apple will offer a better package directly at the source. Apple products keep value well. After 2 years you can resell an IPhone for a decent amount or just trade it in no questions asked. Especially if you have apple care and the battery is under 80%. Have it replaced and sell

Turbodan

can you subscribe just for Nov- March?

928gt

Even owning a new Audi, BMW or Mercedes nowadays has technically become a subscription-based service. The cars themselves are engineered to have a lifespan of ~7-8 years and then fall apart on purpose making long-term ownership unfeasible. The original owners almost always lease them because they want a new car every 36-39 months. At that point the dealer can resell it to a second owner and make a tidy profit, but after another 4 years everything on the car starts to go and the car needs so much in upkeep that it is not feasible for the second (or third) owner to keep it in the long-term.

If a luxury car lasts 7 years instead of 15 or 20, the company ends up selling twice or three times as many cars. The original owner that leases the car for 3 years doesn't care because they keep leasing (renting) new cars in perpetuity. The second owners that can't afford the cars new but can used now have a choice - either also keep it for 3-4 years and then buy a new-to-them used car or buy a lower-end, mid-level model which they can afford new - thereby entering the "pay in perpetuity" cycle.

There will be no third owners that can buy them and keep them for the next 10 years, and these now also end up getting either an even lower priced, entry-level model new, or a 3-year-old, second-hand mid-level model (from what previously used to be the second owners of the luxury model) that they can also only keep for 3-4 years before they need to get a new one and thus also become part of the "pay in perpetuity" cycle.

Every single luxury car manufacturer has recognized this and has quadrupled or quintupled their model offerings to fill every conceivable market segment from high-end luxury to entry-level. Companies and investors love the subscription-based / pay-in-perpetuity model because the provide a steady income stream. We have a market system where every company is expected to grow their revenue quarter after quarter forever, and this is simply the end result.

theiceman

recurring revenue i certainly not a new concept. But financial analysts and accountants love it as it is a more predictable forecast of future revenue than cash sales.

red996

I love this kind of thinking, because I can pick up high end stuff for cheap. I get it. This is a Porsche forum.... But my personal experience with used S class Mercedes cars has been surprisingly great. I bought a lease returned 2013 W221 S550 3 years ago and it's been pretty reliable. It was in really nice condition and I just had to do every service on it myself....gearbox, differentials, plugs, coils, coolant. A couple of other things. Not really a big deal. So far it's been great. Yea, there is a lot of junk out there that's been bagged. I think the previous "lease ees" are the real issue. I am currently looking for a W222 S class coupe..... Might take a while to find a good one thought.

928gt

It is a big deal for the average Joe that has neither the skills nor the time to service all of those things themselves. And, arguably a late model W221 among others (made near the end of the 2007-2014 lifecycle... the W204 comes to mind as well as some of the W166 SUVs) were actually some of the best cars Mercedes has ever made as they were operating on a 7% profit margin in order to win back some of their lost clients following the DaimlerChrysler disaster (when they lost 50% of their repeat clients due to the dismal quality. The following generation of Merc cars are considerably worse, and the current ones are a disaster, at least by Mercedes standards (they may be still be decent for Alfa / Fiat).

Porsche is no exception. How may 996s are still on the road? Ditto for the early Boxters. There are more 924s and 944s rolling around than either of those models. Porsche knew ahead of time the M96 flat-six would starve of oil during cornering, which is why they stuck with the Mezger engine for the GT3 and Turbo - yet they put the the M96 in both the "plebian" 911 and Boxster. It is planned obsolescence, pure and simple.

petee_c

in the article i saw, there is a buy option too,

i'm on the list for an i4m50 and my build had heated seats as an extra option, which i took....

it kinda makes sense, the heating elements are the only thing missing i believe as well as the switch on the dash/console. might be cheaper to just build all the models as heated seats and charge those that want it use it...

in the VAG world, there is a lot of coding you can do to turn on 'extras' like comfort windows with keyfob.... maybe something will come up on bmw's that you can do for free....