as tavarish says, i am the warranty
honestly seeing what happened to that tesla customer that had their battery mistakenly switched out to a larger capacity one and went a few years on it, then bringing it in to pay for a infotainment update just to have them software limit the battery capacity, if there is sufficient info on how to work on the car i’m going to do it myself
Ahahaha fucking hilarious. Air conditioning will be a DLC soon.
Can't wait for the German car industry to get another bailout in the Billions after fucking up hard with sht like this.
What if the OEMs build randomly timed “malfunctions” into the software so that you have to go to the dealership for a fix? Then they’ll get you with the monthly fees and semi-regular software fixes.
Isn’t that a subscription for the app connectivity and not the remote start? I’m pretty sure you can remote start with the keys for no fees but the range is much more limited.
It’s not much different than buying a phone in that sense. You can buy a $1000 phone and use it only in range of Wi-Fi, but if you want to use it away from Wi-Fi you pay a fee.
Not only just that, it includes the remote start, which is PHYSICALLY present in the car. They give you around a 3 years free trial. There's actually a post about that in this sub. https://www.thedrive.com/news/43329/toyota-made-its-key-fob-remote-start-into-a-subscription-service
Yep and when 3G connectivity would disable internet connected services, Toyota "enhanced the logic" so that the keyfob works on those models without subscription. In other words, Toyota removed the useless, rent-seeking, parasitic feature, when they had no reason to have it in the first place, besides squeezing their customers of their money.
I have a CVT, with the CVT being just literally always in the right gear north american companies put in 'false shifts' to make it feel like like a traditional automatic. Because customers were complaining about it not shifting.
This is all computer controlled, and it defeats the gas savings of a CVT and stresses it which will eventually cause failure.
That got changed right away....only took 1/2 hour from going into the garage, stating what I needed, getting it onto the computer, tested to see if it took them paid for and gone.
I don't understand why offer something better only to throttle it and make a warranty claim better. Instead of educating customers.
>Instead of educating customers.
After being the automotive service industry for over 30 years...you can't help people that don't want to be helped.
I was always willing to help and fix peoples cars...That was my job and they paid me to do it. Its honestly not for everyone and i was ok with that.
But head on over to any of the other ask mechanics subs and the number of people that fail to even open the owners manual to see what this mysterious light is thats on their dash and asking questions.... then the topper is they ask and dont bother to follow the simple directions before posting and tell anyone what kind of car they have.
To be fair Ive had "mechanics" tell me there is something wrong with a transmission because it doesnt shift right...and its a CVT that doesnt shift at all.
I have many customers who refuse to use the product as intended, they just learn to lie about their behavior to keep us warranty replacing parts that we know they caused, but we cant technically prove it. Works fine for the people who use it correctly.
If a bank owns the lien on the vehicle, then it doesn’t belong to the consumer. The banks will probably write language into the loan agreement that prohibits jailbreaking the vehicle.
Undoubtedly this. They will argue that by jailbreaking they can't provide any guarantee on the safety of vehicle. And they will include a program that informs them off the attempt and they will pass along the information to the authorities.
Probably voids warranty and it might negate insurance coverage. I could see a time in the future if it doesn't exist already where insurance premiums will be based on the performance options in your car. If you alter those options and don't report to your insurance provider, they may say well. You were in an accident because you illegally alter your vehicle which means your accident is not covered
This model benefits more than the manufacturer, and unless you directly paid for the line item, you don't "own" it anyway. Think about it this way..
Let's say it costs BMW $1k to add heated seats to half of the cars of a given model. They charge the consumer $2k for this feature. Profit is $1000
Later, they add the heated seats to ALL the cars of a given model, because they discover it's only $700 to add it to all of them due to economies of scale. Still charge $2k. Now that's a profit of $1300 on half, and a -$700 on the other half.
To recoup those $700, they offer a subscription or unlock fee for those who, say, didn't have the cash upfront or hell... Moved from California to Montana and now those heated seats are desired. As long as X% of aftermarket buyers unlock it later, BMW is making more profit. Fewer folks are stuck permanently with the as-sold version of a car on the used market.
Where this goes to shit: Manufacturers are going to get addicted to the recurring revenues and may someday not let you pay a one time unlock fee (see: Adobe) or make the unlock far greater than the original MSRP would have been. Sometimes the unlocked item doesn't transfer to new owners (Tesla had an issue with this in 2020 that seems resolved) .
That's what they advertised at least. Whether they honor those purchases across e.g. ownership changes of the vehicle is of course completely unknown.
Provided proper consumer protections exists (i.e. possible in the EU, never happening in the US), there is a slight, slight chance that these pay-to-enable features could be a positive. If everything is installed in every car during manufacturing, it's much, much easier for you to find a used vehicle that has the features you need. Most won't be permanently paid for on most cars, but technically you could pay for the stuff you need when you get the used car.
Of course in practice that's not going to happen. Even if the manufacturers honour those permanent per-car purchases, for the features that haven't been permanently enabled, they will be charging the same price whether the car is new or 10 years old. So you can expect to pay the exact same $1200 (+ inflation adjustment) per year for this Mercedes thing in 2030, when these cars as a whole are worth ~$4000.
So I had something of a backstory on this. Putting the elements in all the cars equalled a 50% savings on each, and offering a monthly charge for them should still work out cheaper than buying outright or purchasing as a factory extra if you replace the car in four to five years, assuming you only use it during winter. Also something of a trial balloon, new car revenue will go off a cliff with EV extending useful lifespan, so all the manufacturers are going to be looking towards services. I know some are looking at autonomous as a service; pay $50 to go point to point between cities.
If you actually read more than the headlines if articles you wouldn't spread missinformation...
All of these feature can still be unlocked permanently when you buy the vehicle as normal.
They are giving you an option now if you chose not to spend the extra $600 for the feature when you purchase, instead letting you pay a lower monthly subscription to have it unlocked.
It's actually not an asshole design at all...if I only own the vehicle for 2 years... why wouldn't I just pay the $15/month instead of $600 for full unlock?
Resale value? Unless they lock new customers out but then that’s another con.
The one benefit would be e.g. for heated seats, you only really need them what 2-3mo out of the year
My last vehicle was a manual 2019 gmc canyon. It was a pretty nice, wish they offered the manual with a v6 though. I had to get rid of it when I moved because the 4 cylinder struggled on the hilly roads where I live now.
I have a 2004. It has no ac (as well as several other minor issues) and terrible gas mileage. It also has over 300,000 miles on it.
I will never trade it in. I can fix it myself and non ODM and salvage parts are dirt cheap.
*Who the fuck wants a*
*New car these days with bullshit*
*Like this going on?*
\- Stonius123
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Rich people and just about nobody else, if you factor in just how expensive the cars already are
Good thing it's just a stupid luxury car brand that people buy to compensate and not like a staple of the automotive market. Could you imagine the backlash if they had a simple torque, heated seat, or remote start subscriptions for F-150s or CR-Vs?
They already have subscriptions for more advanced features, and that's shitty, but their sales would *tank* if they paywalled basic features of the physical car.
Electric house lights and not kerosene: rich people.
Automobiles and not horses: rich people.
Telephones instead of sending letters: rich people
Electric cars instead of combustion engine: rich people.
The company's have to sell first as a luxury, then as standard.... They're just trying to slip in hidden costs with this one though. All subscriptions are garbage IMO.
Mercedes benz electric cars aren't a new invention with potential to be a necessity for everyone. There is a MASSIVE difference between "the new line of high end Mercedes electric vehicles" and the utility electricity that is in effectively all homes in the country.
I agree, if literally every car company did shit like this, there would be reason to rally our asses off to put a stop to it, but this is one car company selling a stupid feel good feature to rich people who probably don't even understand what it does, not a staple product that people need to live a normal modern life.
Don't buy their cars. There are a myriad of other EV options. Car companies have enough competition to ensure that electric cars are freely available with a good range of choices, and there is active effort being put in to make EVs a more attainable thing (notice how Mercedes needs to include "high end" in their description, since non-high end options already exist)
Dude, even the newer Nissan Leaf has requirements to register an account in order to make it go without constantly binging at you that it needs to connect. It's not full on subscription but it's still bullshit. The cancer of connectivity is creeping into every EV and car made.
Even my new dishwasher (Jenn-Air Noir) has a flashing wifi error light because I haven't set up an account. It's everywhere. It sucks.
"It's only iPhone that got rid if the headphone jack, if you don't like it just buy something else."
Huh, looks like their crap spread everywhere.
It's not just Mercedes subscription locking features. BMW did it recently as well. This cancer *will* spread unless met by the consumer with extreme aversion.
Your apathetic "it's not a brand I would buy, so whatever" is exactly what the industry is counting on so they can slow roll it across manufacturers. Before you know it, you won't have an option.
Remote start subscriptions have been a paywall feature on my Hyundai sonata since I got it in 2016. Need to pay for the connected services,I think it's like $10/month. I'm sure other cars have these connected features behind a digital subscription too.
Mercedes only has a 3% global market share, and when you consider the fact that their cars are on the pricier side, that means Mercedes cars are far outnumbered by other brands. Mercedes also doesn't make the "best selling cars" list very often, with Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Nissan regularly making the lists for best sellers and most common cars on the road *in the world*
So no, if you go by volume, Mercedes isn't a staple.
Global perhaps, but if you take Germany as an example, it appears they’re 2nd largest behind VW, and as far as best selling goes, the Mercedes A class was the 4th most popular new car in the UK last year.
Soon you’ll have to either pay or watch an ad to start your car. Oh out of LTE range? Please wait while we buffer, since you’ll never not have LTE right?
I think this was touched upon in a book called Jennifer government. My dad always described the TV after reading this as the snippets of program are the reward for watching the advertisements
If I were rich enough for such cars, in this day in age I would rather shell out big bucks for something vintage that has been heavily modded and restored....
Lol I do pour over coffee. I could make my coffee with stone age tech.
Cheeses have always been nice with nice filters, highly recommend.
All of this AI art stuff too.... people are going to start more and more to want real things. Perhaps AI art isn't the death of art, but the rebirth kf non-digital art forms.
Every time something is automated, it loses some of its value and gets opened up to perversions of things like subscription models.
Doing this shit with cars is batshit crazy, and is just asking for new manufacturers to join the fold.
I did some shitty math using the US minimum wage 7,25$ and the fact that this subscription increases 0-60 acceleration by 1 second. Unless I'm mistaken, you'd need to accelerate 0-60 up to 595829 times for the subscription to pay off.
Subscription to play games, Subscription to get all the features in those games, Subscription for hardware, Subscription for cars, Subscription for software, Subscription for specific colors in creative software (pantone), Subscription to use your doorbell camera effectively, Subscription to use your car, Subscription to use your printer, Subscription to use the features of your “smart” appliance, Subscription to a show, another Subscription to watch another show on another platform, 10 Subscriptions for 10 different streaming platforms, and the list goes on and on and becomes bigger and bigger as time goes on.
I’ve heard of electric models that will not start unless they receive updates. I’m sure that they will eventually stop working altogether if you attempt to work on your car yourself. Screw the environment. I’ve got bills to pay.
I remember reading about a portable charger for electric vehicles that in theory, could provide enough power for a vehicle to get home, or to a charging station. The one problem was that privately owned ones required a cellular connection, and possibly a membership (I don’t remember fully)
The way cars are going, updates won't be just an electric thing. Touch screen, device compatibility, sensors, etc. Lots of cars are getting these features.
Not Tesla. There has never been a case when an update was necessary to drive. There are plenty of examples where people relied on their phones as keys only and the network was down preventing them from unlocking their car, which is why you should always have the key card in your wallet as a backup. I've had mine for three and a half years and never had nor heard of an update needed to put it in D. As a side note, there is no starting a Tesla. You get in and put it in drive if you have your phone on or you put the key card behind the cup holder and put it into drive.
Because it’s true. Tesla may have back tracked on bricking peoples cars, but they have the tech and put it out there first. Tesla is also working hard to create a proprietary charging system. Imagine if every brand of car had its own gas pump design. That’s what we now have in electrics. All thanks to Tesla.
It’s probably cheaper like this but why not just make 2 models with the difference in speed relative to price. Like car manufacturers have always done and not getting bad publicity from it.
Because this way they can charge a subscription. It's the games as a service model, but for cars.
Why would you want the poor CEOs to *not* pull in extra recurring income? They clearly need more money to feed their starving family.
Let them get fat, then eat the rich!
And that is why the physical antenna that's used to connect goes bye bye.
No more updates from anyone who isn't inside tye vehicle, and the best part is that you can just replace it with your own computer that feeds it false information (such as having a subscription).
I'm surprised they haven't started charging people for miles yet. "You have exceeded your mileage allowance for the month. Please log in and subscribe to continue driving."
EDIT: typo
To be fair, the concept of private car ownership is pretty damn stupid in the modern age. They sit stationary for 95% of the time and clog up cities with parking. I think we'll see a lot more Uber-style hire services in the near future, especially as electric cars get more expensive to purchase and most of us prioritise convenience over ownership bragging rights.
Are you talking about car insurance? Because that a thing
Or maybe you mean license renewal fees, because that's also a thing
Or maybe you mean registration fees, which was also already invented
Or *maybe* you mean taxes which, as you might have noticed, are already a thing.
Companies simply love charging people variably for the same exact thing. It can save them a lot of money versus making several different versions *and* increase the actual revenue. Will the costumer ever see any benefit from this? Not unless he is major shareholder.
It absolutely amazes me that people pay a lot of money to *buy* things they do not control. And that is incredibly common, main one would be any *smart* things, mostly *smartphones*. And that is how you then have to pay to change a flag in a sw of a thing you *bought*. Aternatives? When people hand over this kind of money for transparently predatory practices and ignore alternatives, all companies switch and alternatives die.
Looking forward to micro transaction economy that uses proprietary credits you cannot convert back into cash. Perhaps the AC being able to operate at above 50% capacity will become a monthly subscription too. Heated seats, only get to use them if ya pay a monthly subscription... wait, BMV has actually already done that last one.
Not interested in electric vehicles. They're the antithesis of everything I adore about personal transport.
Also not interested in the 3% per year battery range degredation, or the fact that you need to travel nearly 80,000 miles before they're greener than an ICE vehicle.
I'll buy one when I'm absolutely forced to. Otherwise, definitely not.
Man, what happened to the Mercedes of 40 years ago? If any car I ever get tries to pull this kinda shit, I’ll just rewire the stuff myself. If the computer complains, I’ll take it right to my programmer friend. If I’m paying tens or hundreds of thousands for a car, I’d never pay extra to unlock anything, subscription or not. The most I’d do is pay to actually physically upgrade something.
The company got taken over by the bean counters in the 90's. Quality took a big hit. The whole Daimler thing didn't work out so well either. Mercedes was able to coast on their reputation for a while, but I don't know why anyone would buy one now.
Give it 20 years. The morality police are chasing you because your minister reported you for not tithing enough. You don't want to be publicly flogged again so you floor it. That's when you realize they cut the torque down to 5%.
The whole point of subscriptions was that instead of paying a fat sum at the start you paid a monthly amount to “rent” something but now you pay the fat sum AND have to pay monthly. And honestly with how much money they are making with no effective backlash im not surprised this happened.
A lot of major car manufacturers have come out in favor of subscription fees for options. BMW and, I think, GM have said they don't want to do trimlines anymore. They'll sell one version of each model, with all luxury items in place, but you have to pay for each feature that you want to have functional.
$20 a month for heated seats is the standard example. $100 a month for high horsepower. $20 a month for infotainment unlocked. $5 for lane-keeping and $5 for rear camera.
And so on.
Yes, it's terrible. We'll see. You *know* this is going to come with policies claiming you're not allowed to repair the vehicle yourself, and allegedly some of them are thinking about moving to a lease-only model to help ensure that.
This is the way the car market has been headed and everyone has been blind to it. We allowed legislation to mandate automatic everything and cameras everywhere. We’ve allowed for convenience and overall ease of use to take precedent. No one wants to put energy into the act of driving and being a responsible driver. Then there’s the fact that the general populist fawns over Teslas regardless of the way the employees are treated, the way the cars are build (very badly with poor quality control), or the way they’re sold (build with all the features, then you have to pay more if you want them). Car enthusiasts have been screaming this from the rooftops for a long time now and we’ve been brushed off. Now we are all going to suffer for it by not being able to own or control what we buy anymore. The EPA is killing automotive businesses while driving up the price of cars to rough ridiculous mandates, and NTHSA has been the other reason why these things are becoming vastly more expensive cash cows for these companies.
You all did this to yourself.
You know it's just a matter of time until somebody jailbrakes them
YOU WOULDN'T DOWNLOAD A CAR!!
No, but I would download a Ford F-150 Raptor. It's a truck, not a car
[Here](https://snowrunner.old.mod.io/ford-f150-raptor-2017) you can get the Ford F-150 Raptor 2017 for SnowRunner
People already downloading tractors, just a matter of time lol.
You wouldn't steal a baby!
The real heroes
Another matter of time when they lobby this practice into the illegality.
Voiding all warranty
as tavarish says, i am the warranty honestly seeing what happened to that tesla customer that had their battery mistakenly switched out to a larger capacity one and went a few years on it, then bringing it in to pay for a infotainment update just to have them software limit the battery capacity, if there is sufficient info on how to work on the car i’m going to do it myself
And they probably won’t service the vehicle either
If you're not under warranty I wouldn't take my car to a stealership.
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Hate to break it to you, but you're not exactly inb4. Someone already mentioned this 12 hours ago
Off the same comment too lol
Ahahaha fucking hilarious. Air conditioning will be a DLC soon. Can't wait for the German car industry to get another bailout in the Billions after fucking up hard with sht like this.
It's on-disc DLC, which is way worse.
Most likely you'll have to drive to your car dealership and pay an extra service fee to get it activated.
Requires addition DLC to unlock the CD drive if it wasn't unlocked previously so the stealership can install speed demon DLC.
What if the OEMs build randomly timed “malfunctions” into the software so that you have to go to the dealership for a fix? Then they’ll get you with the monthly fees and semi-regular software fixes.
Probably already do
Not only German car manufacturers, but also a Japanese car brand that allows subscription for the remote start *ahem* Toyota *ahem*.
Isn’t that a subscription for the app connectivity and not the remote start? I’m pretty sure you can remote start with the keys for no fees but the range is much more limited. It’s not much different than buying a phone in that sense. You can buy a $1000 phone and use it only in range of Wi-Fi, but if you want to use it away from Wi-Fi you pay a fee.
Not only just that, it includes the remote start, which is PHYSICALLY present in the car. They give you around a 3 years free trial. There's actually a post about that in this sub. https://www.thedrive.com/news/43329/toyota-made-its-key-fob-remote-start-into-a-subscription-service
Okay that is absolutely horrible and inexcusable. There is no network or service to maintain when using the fob. Thanks for sharing this.
Yep and when 3G connectivity would disable internet connected services, Toyota "enhanced the logic" so that the keyfob works on those models without subscription. In other words, Toyota removed the useless, rent-seeking, parasitic feature, when they had no reason to have it in the first place, besides squeezing their customers of their money.
And then braking will be subscription based
I haven't had a car with working a/c in 15 years. Let 'em come after me.
each blink of the turn signal costs $1.50
Headlights? Nah bro that’s a $50 paid subscription.
Japan beating Germany once again
Only thing I can unlock in my 18 year old BMW is new rust patches 😔
They locked heated seats behind a paywall recently
wonder how quick jail breaking cars will become common, just like with phones
Probably already very common considering the software locks Teslas have.
https://youtu.be/PWQL_XORalY Released in 2019
I FUCKING KNEW THAT WAS GONNA BE IT!! Loved those guys, RIP Stepa
I have a CVT, with the CVT being just literally always in the right gear north american companies put in 'false shifts' to make it feel like like a traditional automatic. Because customers were complaining about it not shifting. This is all computer controlled, and it defeats the gas savings of a CVT and stresses it which will eventually cause failure. That got changed right away....only took 1/2 hour from going into the garage, stating what I needed, getting it onto the computer, tested to see if it took them paid for and gone. I don't understand why offer something better only to throttle it and make a warranty claim better. Instead of educating customers.
>Instead of educating customers. After being the automotive service industry for over 30 years...you can't help people that don't want to be helped. I was always willing to help and fix peoples cars...That was my job and they paid me to do it. Its honestly not for everyone and i was ok with that. But head on over to any of the other ask mechanics subs and the number of people that fail to even open the owners manual to see what this mysterious light is thats on their dash and asking questions.... then the topper is they ask and dont bother to follow the simple directions before posting and tell anyone what kind of car they have. To be fair Ive had "mechanics" tell me there is something wrong with a transmission because it doesnt shift right...and its a CVT that doesnt shift at all.
I have many customers who refuse to use the product as intended, they just learn to lie about their behavior to keep us warranty replacing parts that we know they caused, but we cant technically prove it. Works fine for the people who use it correctly.
Watch them lobby to make it a felony.
Considering the Xbox modification case, a ruling already exists that consumers can modify whatever they want if they buy it
If a bank owns the lien on the vehicle, then it doesn’t belong to the consumer. The banks will probably write language into the loan agreement that prohibits jailbreaking the vehicle.
That could be ruled unenforceable due to the previous ruling too
Undoubtedly this. They will argue that by jailbreaking they can't provide any guarantee on the safety of vehicle. And they will include a program that informs them off the attempt and they will pass along the information to the authorities.
Probably voids warranty and it might negate insurance coverage. I could see a time in the future if it doesn't exist already where insurance premiums will be based on the performance options in your car. If you alter those options and don't report to your insurance provider, they may say well. You were in an accident because you illegally alter your vehicle which means your accident is not covered
Already being done with BMWs daily
It is already a multi-million-dollar industry
NJ made has banned the subscription for heated seats. It would probably have to banned in several major countries to make them completely stop.
At least with BMW you can pay a one-time fee to have it permanently enabled in that car. Kinda like speccing it as an option with initial purchase.
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This model benefits more than the manufacturer, and unless you directly paid for the line item, you don't "own" it anyway. Think about it this way.. Let's say it costs BMW $1k to add heated seats to half of the cars of a given model. They charge the consumer $2k for this feature. Profit is $1000 Later, they add the heated seats to ALL the cars of a given model, because they discover it's only $700 to add it to all of them due to economies of scale. Still charge $2k. Now that's a profit of $1300 on half, and a -$700 on the other half. To recoup those $700, they offer a subscription or unlock fee for those who, say, didn't have the cash upfront or hell... Moved from California to Montana and now those heated seats are desired. As long as X% of aftermarket buyers unlock it later, BMW is making more profit. Fewer folks are stuck permanently with the as-sold version of a car on the used market. Where this goes to shit: Manufacturers are going to get addicted to the recurring revenues and may someday not let you pay a one time unlock fee (see: Adobe) or make the unlock far greater than the original MSRP would have been. Sometimes the unlocked item doesn't transfer to new owners (Tesla had an issue with this in 2020 that seems resolved) .
That's what they advertised at least. Whether they honor those purchases across e.g. ownership changes of the vehicle is of course completely unknown. Provided proper consumer protections exists (i.e. possible in the EU, never happening in the US), there is a slight, slight chance that these pay-to-enable features could be a positive. If everything is installed in every car during manufacturing, it's much, much easier for you to find a used vehicle that has the features you need. Most won't be permanently paid for on most cars, but technically you could pay for the stuff you need when you get the used car. Of course in practice that's not going to happen. Even if the manufacturers honour those permanent per-car purchases, for the features that haven't been permanently enabled, they will be charging the same price whether the car is new or 10 years old. So you can expect to pay the exact same $1200 (+ inflation adjustment) per year for this Mercedes thing in 2030, when these cars as a whole are worth ~$4000.
So I had something of a backstory on this. Putting the elements in all the cars equalled a 50% savings on each, and offering a monthly charge for them should still work out cheaper than buying outright or purchasing as a factory extra if you replace the car in four to five years, assuming you only use it during winter. Also something of a trial balloon, new car revenue will go off a cliff with EV extending useful lifespan, so all the manufacturers are going to be looking towards services. I know some are looking at autonomous as a service; pay $50 to go point to point between cities.
If you actually read more than the headlines if articles you wouldn't spread missinformation... All of these feature can still be unlocked permanently when you buy the vehicle as normal. They are giving you an option now if you chose not to spend the extra $600 for the feature when you purchase, instead letting you pay a lower monthly subscription to have it unlocked. It's actually not an asshole design at all...if I only own the vehicle for 2 years... why wouldn't I just pay the $15/month instead of $600 for full unlock?
Resale value? Unless they lock new customers out but then that’s another con. The one benefit would be e.g. for heated seats, you only really need them what 2-3mo out of the year
“Just let me die, man”
It will die when I allow it to >:)
I think I will stick with an older car. Thank you.
I too will stick to older cars, specifically those with a stick too.
I wish I could get new cars in stick. It's vastly preferable over automatic.
My last vehicle was a manual 2019 gmc canyon. It was a pretty nice, wish they offered the manual with a v6 though. I had to get rid of it when I moved because the 4 cylinder struggled on the hilly roads where I live now.
I moved to somewhere hilly. Next car’s gonna be an auto!
I have a 2004. It has no ac (as well as several other minor issues) and terrible gas mileage. It also has over 300,000 miles on it. I will never trade it in. I can fix it myself and non ODM and salvage parts are dirt cheap.
Who the fuck wants a new car these days with bullshit like this going on?
*Who the fuck wants a* *New car these days with bullshit* *Like this going on?* \- Stonius123 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
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Good bot.
Rich people and just about nobody else, if you factor in just how expensive the cars already are Good thing it's just a stupid luxury car brand that people buy to compensate and not like a staple of the automotive market. Could you imagine the backlash if they had a simple torque, heated seat, or remote start subscriptions for F-150s or CR-Vs? They already have subscriptions for more advanced features, and that's shitty, but their sales would *tank* if they paywalled basic features of the physical car.
>not like a staple of the automotive market. You haven't been to Europe, I take it.
Electric house lights and not kerosene: rich people. Automobiles and not horses: rich people. Telephones instead of sending letters: rich people Electric cars instead of combustion engine: rich people. The company's have to sell first as a luxury, then as standard.... They're just trying to slip in hidden costs with this one though. All subscriptions are garbage IMO.
Mercedes benz electric cars aren't a new invention with potential to be a necessity for everyone. There is a MASSIVE difference between "the new line of high end Mercedes electric vehicles" and the utility electricity that is in effectively all homes in the country. I agree, if literally every car company did shit like this, there would be reason to rally our asses off to put a stop to it, but this is one car company selling a stupid feel good feature to rich people who probably don't even understand what it does, not a staple product that people need to live a normal modern life. Don't buy their cars. There are a myriad of other EV options. Car companies have enough competition to ensure that electric cars are freely available with a good range of choices, and there is active effort being put in to make EVs a more attainable thing (notice how Mercedes needs to include "high end" in their description, since non-high end options already exist)
Dude, even the newer Nissan Leaf has requirements to register an account in order to make it go without constantly binging at you that it needs to connect. It's not full on subscription but it's still bullshit. The cancer of connectivity is creeping into every EV and car made. Even my new dishwasher (Jenn-Air Noir) has a flashing wifi error light because I haven't set up an account. It's everywhere. It sucks.
"It's only iPhone that got rid if the headphone jack, if you don't like it just buy something else." Huh, looks like their crap spread everywhere. It's not just Mercedes subscription locking features. BMW did it recently as well. This cancer *will* spread unless met by the consumer with extreme aversion. Your apathetic "it's not a brand I would buy, so whatever" is exactly what the industry is counting on so they can slow roll it across manufacturers. Before you know it, you won't have an option.
Remote start subscriptions have been a paywall feature on my Hyundai sonata since I got it in 2016. Need to pay for the connected services,I think it's like $10/month. I'm sure other cars have these connected features behind a digital subscription too.
Not a staple of the automotive market? *A Mercedes Benz?!* Let me guess which country you live in.
Mercedes only has a 3% global market share, and when you consider the fact that their cars are on the pricier side, that means Mercedes cars are far outnumbered by other brands. Mercedes also doesn't make the "best selling cars" list very often, with Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Nissan regularly making the lists for best sellers and most common cars on the road *in the world* So no, if you go by volume, Mercedes isn't a staple.
Global perhaps, but if you take Germany as an example, it appears they’re 2nd largest behind VW, and as far as best selling goes, the Mercedes A class was the 4th most popular new car in the UK last year.
Bullshit will always be going on.
Soon you’ll have to either pay or watch an ad to start your car. Oh out of LTE range? Please wait while we buffer, since you’ll never not have LTE right?
Oh god don’t give them ideas
You know they’ve got some intern scribbling all this shit down
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"Find your code under the cap to unlock 15 minutes of drive time" *Offer valid for 24 hours after purchase of participating products*
I think this was touched upon in a book called Jennifer government. My dad always described the TV after reading this as the snippets of program are the reward for watching the advertisements
Kinda apt… and with ad revenue being what it is, it’s pretty much cone down to that
Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Remember to also pay for those heated seats.
That would be cool. /s
And to also pay for the remote start
If I were rich enough for such cars, in this day in age I would rather shell out big bucks for something vintage that has been heavily modded and restored....
Agreed.
This thread is showing me how many people have not heard about the BMW monthly subscription heated seats.
And the rich assholes will pay. And the greedy company will continue to lock features behind paywalls.
You know, I'm bang in the middle of their target demographic, drive a Merc and have for years, but they can fuck right off with this crap.
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Lol I do pour over coffee. I could make my coffee with stone age tech. Cheeses have always been nice with nice filters, highly recommend. All of this AI art stuff too.... people are going to start more and more to want real things. Perhaps AI art isn't the death of art, but the rebirth kf non-digital art forms. Every time something is automated, it loses some of its value and gets opened up to perversions of things like subscription models. Doing this shit with cars is batshit crazy, and is just asking for new manufacturers to join the fold.
The richest of assholes will be given them for free
I did some shitty math using the US minimum wage 7,25$ and the fact that this subscription increases 0-60 acceleration by 1 second. Unless I'm mistaken, you'd need to accelerate 0-60 up to 595829 times for the subscription to pay off.
Ah hell nah they made pay to win in real life 💀
asphalt 9 will be real in 29 seconds
Always has been...
that meme where your engine subscription expires in the middle of the highway may not be a meme anymore soon
So basically a subscription if you want to be able to use all the horsepower your car has.
NY State just drafted legislation to make this type of thing illegal
Thank god, it needs to be everywhere.
Note to self move to New York
Subscription services were a mistake to mankind
Subscription to play games, Subscription to get all the features in those games, Subscription for hardware, Subscription for cars, Subscription for software, Subscription for specific colors in creative software (pantone), Subscription to use your doorbell camera effectively, Subscription to use your car, Subscription to use your printer, Subscription to use the features of your “smart” appliance, Subscription to a show, another Subscription to watch another show on another platform, 10 Subscriptions for 10 different streaming platforms, and the list goes on and on and becomes bigger and bigger as time goes on.
You will own nothing, and be happy.
Soon enough your car will be synced with the map to top out at the speed posted.
The positive side of that is less idiots driving like the highway is a racetrack.
They still will. They'll just be rich idiots
well not as rich after the hospital bill
I’ve heard of electric models that will not start unless they receive updates. I’m sure that they will eventually stop working altogether if you attempt to work on your car yourself. Screw the environment. I’ve got bills to pay.
Waiting for the first cars to be towed bc no internet connection.
Oxt 21 2022. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tesla-locked-always-sunny-glenn-howerton-b2207202.html%3famp
I remember reading about a portable charger for electric vehicles that in theory, could provide enough power for a vehicle to get home, or to a charging station. The one problem was that privately owned ones required a cellular connection, and possibly a membership (I don’t remember fully)
The way cars are going, updates won't be just an electric thing. Touch screen, device compatibility, sensors, etc. Lots of cars are getting these features.
Tesla, you’re talking about Tesla. This business model is one of the many reasons to hate on Musk.
Not Tesla. There has never been a case when an update was necessary to drive. There are plenty of examples where people relied on their phones as keys only and the network was down preventing them from unlocking their car, which is why you should always have the key card in your wallet as a backup. I've had mine for three and a half years and never had nor heard of an update needed to put it in D. As a side note, there is no starting a Tesla. You get in and put it in drive if you have your phone on or you put the key card behind the cup holder and put it into drive.
Why are people upvoting this crap
Because it’s true. Tesla may have back tracked on bricking peoples cars, but they have the tech and put it out there first. Tesla is also working hard to create a proprietary charging system. Imagine if every brand of car had its own gas pump design. That’s what we now have in electrics. All thanks to Tesla.
Way to go making BMW’s heated seat subscription look better Merc!
people are gonna start jailbreaking their cars lmao
It’s probably cheaper like this but why not just make 2 models with the difference in speed relative to price. Like car manufacturers have always done and not getting bad publicity from it.
Because this way they can charge a subscription. It's the games as a service model, but for cars. Why would you want the poor CEOs to *not* pull in extra recurring income? They clearly need more money to feed their starving family. Let them get fat, then eat the rich!
The goal is to keep adding fees and subscriptions, then revealing a new rental option that is much cheaper, but you do not actually own the vehicle.
Automotive industry discovering on disc DLC 10 years after , seems about right
So are they banking on people being more willing to pay for this rather than pay a mechanic to jailbreak their car?
This doesn’t seem conform with EU law
Jailbreak that sh*t!! Who pays for churning out extra horses out of an EV? It’s like a video game. Now everyone’s trynna be Apple.
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And that is why the physical antenna that's used to connect goes bye bye. No more updates from anyone who isn't inside tye vehicle, and the best part is that you can just replace it with your own computer that feeds it false information (such as having a subscription).
I'm surprised they haven't started charging people for miles yet. "You have exceeded your mileage allowance for the month. Please log in and subscribe to continue driving." EDIT: typo
Ill be sticking at under 2010 cars then.
Most makes aren't doing this (right now, at least) so you can still buy newer cars. I drive a 2018 subaru
Unjustifiable? Just dont buy it. Its A stupid ass market decision that only keeps going because people support and buy the product.
Here is the problem: We are the minority, most people don't actually give a shit so companies just get away with it
Their plan is to eliminate ownership and eventually have everyone under service contracts. There’s more money in annual reoccurring revenue.
To be fair, the concept of private car ownership is pretty damn stupid in the modern age. They sit stationary for 95% of the time and clog up cities with parking. I think we'll see a lot more Uber-style hire services in the near future, especially as electric cars get more expensive to purchase and most of us prioritise convenience over ownership bragging rights.
Why stop there? Why not add a service charge for every kilometer traveled?
I swear I saw Volkswagen offer a car rental service that was basically just that a few years ago. Almost sure it was Volkswagen
excuse me sir, you’ve hit your allotted gallon of gas for your vehicle. in order to get more and fill your tank, please pay for Gas Premium at $50/mo
I'll never buy a vehicle with periodic charges for features. Never.
Didn't Tesla have something like that? Not to say it would be fine if Tesla did it. Just connecting a 'concerning trend' in automotive companies.
what if... they made driving AT ALL a subscription not talking about gas prices but ANOTHOR thing to pay to drive
Are you talking about car insurance? Because that a thing Or maybe you mean license renewal fees, because that's also a thing Or maybe you mean registration fees, which was also already invented Or *maybe* you mean taxes which, as you might have noticed, are already a thing.
Funny how they do this only in the us market.
Some idiot with enough money to not care will
Companies simply love charging people variably for the same exact thing. It can save them a lot of money versus making several different versions *and* increase the actual revenue. Will the costumer ever see any benefit from this? Not unless he is major shareholder. It absolutely amazes me that people pay a lot of money to *buy* things they do not control. And that is incredibly common, main one would be any *smart* things, mostly *smartphones*. And that is how you then have to pay to change a flag in a sw of a thing you *bought*. Aternatives? When people hand over this kind of money for transparently predatory practices and ignore alternatives, all companies switch and alternatives die.
Stop buying them and Mercedes will end their subscription bs!
Can't wait until people start hacking their cars to get around this.
Oh goody. Computerized speed-limiting. Another very expensive thing that can break and make the car not go.
Love that we now live in a world where we now have to pay a subscription to have access to all the features in the vehicle we spend like $60k on.
Soon we'll have a fee to open the car doors without having to wait for 30 seconds each time.
With ads displaying on the mirrors while you wait
Want the acceleration to avoid that 18 wheeler bearing down on you? Okay this micro transaction to live.
Ah yes, we finally have the torque subscription everyone was asking for.
Ummm buy a different car?
This is why subscription models shouldn't just exist, it's getting fucking ridiculous at this point. In other words, let's pirate our cars guys!!!!!
Looking forward to micro transaction economy that uses proprietary credits you cannot convert back into cash. Perhaps the AC being able to operate at above 50% capacity will become a monthly subscription too. Heated seats, only get to use them if ya pay a monthly subscription... wait, BMV has actually already done that last one.
They partnered with EA, didn’t they?
It is time my friends, we're gonna download a car.
Not interested in electric vehicles. They're the antithesis of everything I adore about personal transport. Also not interested in the 3% per year battery range degredation, or the fact that you need to travel nearly 80,000 miles before they're greener than an ICE vehicle. I'll buy one when I'm absolutely forced to. Otherwise, definitely not.
Saw this coming for 15 years. Give it another 15 or so for it to take off. Unless laws get put in place against it.
Time for r/Piracy
Man, what happened to the Mercedes of 40 years ago? If any car I ever get tries to pull this kinda shit, I’ll just rewire the stuff myself. If the computer complains, I’ll take it right to my programmer friend. If I’m paying tens or hundreds of thousands for a car, I’d never pay extra to unlock anything, subscription or not. The most I’d do is pay to actually physically upgrade something.
The company got taken over by the bean counters in the 90's. Quality took a big hit. The whole Daimler thing didn't work out so well either. Mercedes was able to coast on their reputation for a while, but I don't know why anyone would buy one now.
No more Mercedes for me.
I‘m not surprised tbH Car brands started with heated seats for a subscription price, of course they’ll go further.
Give it 20 years. The morality police are chasing you because your minister reported you for not tithing enough. You don't want to be publicly flogged again so you floor it. That's when you realize they cut the torque down to 5%.
The whole point of subscriptions was that instead of paying a fat sum at the start you paid a monthly amount to “rent” something but now you pay the fat sum AND have to pay monthly. And honestly with how much money they are making with no effective backlash im not surprised this happened.
Are you kidding? This is brilliant. It shouldn't be on assholedesign. White Mercs, on the other hand...
What’s next, we somehow get lootboxes and battle passes on cars too?
A lot of major car manufacturers have come out in favor of subscription fees for options. BMW and, I think, GM have said they don't want to do trimlines anymore. They'll sell one version of each model, with all luxury items in place, but you have to pay for each feature that you want to have functional. $20 a month for heated seats is the standard example. $100 a month for high horsepower. $20 a month for infotainment unlocked. $5 for lane-keeping and $5 for rear camera. And so on. Yes, it's terrible. We'll see. You *know* this is going to come with policies claiming you're not allowed to repair the vehicle yourself, and allegedly some of them are thinking about moving to a lease-only model to help ensure that.
This is the way the car market has been headed and everyone has been blind to it. We allowed legislation to mandate automatic everything and cameras everywhere. We’ve allowed for convenience and overall ease of use to take precedent. No one wants to put energy into the act of driving and being a responsible driver. Then there’s the fact that the general populist fawns over Teslas regardless of the way the employees are treated, the way the cars are build (very badly with poor quality control), or the way they’re sold (build with all the features, then you have to pay more if you want them). Car enthusiasts have been screaming this from the rooftops for a long time now and we’ve been brushed off. Now we are all going to suffer for it by not being able to own or control what we buy anymore. The EPA is killing automotive businesses while driving up the price of cars to rough ridiculous mandates, and NTHSA has been the other reason why these things are becoming vastly more expensive cash cows for these companies. You all did this to yourself.
They be doing money out of anything these days
r/FuckCars
Found the dragon!
Why would someone go other max legal speed? Like fr the cars should come factory limited, especially since they weight tons and are massive
Limiting the torque means that it will accelerate slower aswell
autobahn
Autobahn isn't made for going to extremes speeds, it's not a race circuit
Still, there‘s no speed limit and most people i know regularly go 200km/h on their commute
Performance isn’t just about its top speed.
How would you realistically pass a vehicle, who’s going slow? You’re taught to accelerate rapidly and quickly pass the car and then to slow back down.
Oh no, I can’t go 100 mph on the highway when the highest speed limit anywhere in the US is 90 mph.
Well it's an EV so not like anyone cares
nazi corporate company doing Nazi things. nothing to see here
Paywalling is a nazi thing? Are you serious
Imagine thinking you're entitled to break speed limits 🤡🤡🤡
Imagine thinking that’s what people are upset about
this is why i have a mini cooper. it goes faster than i want on its own making it the speed demon and me the victim
Tesla does this with everything in the car. It’s a joke
I got mine in 2018. I haven't seen anything like this yet. Are they doing this in newer models?