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I'd pay $5/month for navigation but that's it. Yes my Android Auto does it but it's nice if I want to rest my phone or just don't take it.

by homero 4y ago

mrweasel 4y ago
That might be why they're trying this with heated seat. Navigation failed as a paid product. The quality of builtin navigation was never great. Why get a subscription, when you get a better product for next to nothing. Get a $3 phone mount and using the navigation in your phone. Heated seats are harder to compete with. Still, I don't see this working out in the long run. £15 for heated seats, £10 for the steering wheel? I get that a BMW is an expensive car, £25 per month, for something you might use for at most half the year? I haven't even paid to get the heating fix in my six year old Renault after it broke four years ago, I rarely used it anyway. The problem is that they'll have to take something away that I actually care about. That could be power steering, gears, headlight or breaks. If they do that, they get into issues with safety and will get regulated even hard. There's no point to this subscription nonsense, drop it.
- taylorius 4y ago
  Not that I'm defending this outrageous rent seeking - but just to play devils advocate. If you use it for half the year, you could presumably subscribe to it for half the year.
  - mrweasel 4y ago
    That idea crossed my mind as well. The issue with that is the fact that the heater is already installed. So either: * BMW charges everyone for the heater, but don't enable it. * BMW lose money on the installation of the heaters, and overcharge subscribers. The subscribers need to cover the cost of the heaters in the remaining cars. * A combination of the two, where everyone pay part of the heater, but the subscribers still have to pay some part the cost for non-subscribers. There is no way around it though. Either BMW is scamming everyone or the subset of customers who are paying them the most. If I opt for paying for the winter months only, the product is still overpriced. It has to be. It's indefensible. You cannot launch this type of "service" and be the good guy.
- rad_gruchalski 4y ago
  The navigation on bmws is top work.
hnbad 4y ago
Satnav subscriptions at least made sense conceptually as you were paying for the navigation data to be kept up to date. Heated seats are just blatant rent seeking though. All costs associated with maintaining and operating them are already offloaded to the customer.

I'd pay $5/month for navigation but that's it. Yes my Android Auto does it but it's nice if I want to rest my phone or just don't take it.

by homero 4y ago

I'd pay $5/month for navigation but that's it. Yes my Android Auto does it but it's nice if I want to rest my phone or just don't take it.

mrweasel 4y ago

That might be why they're trying this with heated seat. Navigation failed as a paid product. The quality of builtin navigation was never great. Why get a subscription, when you get a better product for next to nothing. Get a $3 phone mount and using the navigation in your phone. Heated seats are harder to compete with. Still, I don't see this working out in the long run. £15 for heated seats, £10 for the steering wheel? I get that a BMW is an expensive car, £25 per month, for something you might use for at most half the year? I haven't even paid to get the heating fix in my six year old Renault after it broke four years ago, I rarely used it anyway. The problem is that they'll have to take something away that I actually care about. That could be power steering, gears, headlight or breaks. If they do that, they get into issues with safety and will get regulated even hard. There's no point to this subscription nonsense, drop it.

taylorius 4y ago
Not that I'm defending this outrageous rent seeking - but just to play devils advocate. If you use it for half the year, you could presumably subscribe to it for half the year.
- mrweasel 4y ago
  That idea crossed my mind as well. The issue with that is the fact that the heater is already installed. So either: * BMW charges everyone for the heater, but don't enable it. * BMW lose money on the installation of the heaters, and overcharge subscribers. The subscribers need to cover the cost of the heaters in the remaining cars. * A combination of the two, where everyone pay part of the heater, but the subscribers still have to pay some part the cost for non-subscribers. There is no way around it though. Either BMW is scamming everyone or the subset of customers who are paying them the most. If I opt for paying for the winter months only, the product is still overpriced. It has to be. It's indefensible. You cannot launch this type of "service" and be the good guy.
rad_gruchalski 4y ago
The navigation on bmws is top work.

hnbad 4y ago

Satnav subscriptions at least made sense conceptually as you were paying for the navigation data to be kept up to date. Heated seats are just blatant rent seeking though. All costs associated with maintaining and operating them are already offloaded to the customer.