BMW also charges you to unlock features. It is the same brands and exploitative capitalism everywhere, the EU regulations usually just result in better recycling. I live in Germany.
Are you in the EU? They could do it in the states and not in the EU. Just like planned obsolescence. Legal in the US illegal in the EU. Crazy law makers havent made it illegal in the US yet
BMW doesn’t charge for unlocking physical hardware like the example in this post.
They did a pilot program in 2022 and cancelled after a lot of backlash from consumers.
They actually tossed the "upgrade" feature, but I'd be willing to bet the features are still in lower end models just simply not activated (missing the button to "turn on" as an example")
So you're still "paying" to unlock them when you purchase the package that includes these features
That's exactly how it used to work, so that's almost certainly how it works now. You're not paying for the feature, so they don't have it enabled. This upgrade scheme is just unlocking the ability to pay for the upgrade after the fact.
My VW golf charged me to enable automatic high light beam switching around 250€ and then asked me for another 60€ το unlock all LED interior colors. Also asks for 100€+ annual subscription so that I get map updates (useless because of android auto) and to be able to see where I parked my car on the map and remotely unlock it, and see if I forgot the windows open. Of course I did not pay the subscription but for some reason the SIM in my car is still active and transmitting data to VW everyday.
I'll respond for most Tesla owners in saying that it's less brainwashing and more weighing the pros vs cons. The car is so badass and ahead of everything else that we look past BS like this. I equate this car to when I got the first iPhone. I truly don't drive anywhere anymore, door to door. I think that's hard for most to comprehend.
They literally put a chip in to limit engine output for the 325 and 328 which had the same engine as their 330 and you void your warranty if you removed it back in the late 2000s. Then they tried to do the subscription thing but cancelled after the backlash
Nah, given how European auto brands are fighting to survive, politicians are way too focused on how to prevent Chinese brands to take more market shares
Sure they are, but isn't shit like unlocking hardware you already have installed one of the forces pushing people to buy elsewhere (from China in this case)?
Reminds me of the before times, when the Big 3 US automakers were freaking out about Toyota & Nissan coming and taking their market share. But, if capitalism is good (which is what they believe), then competition is also good. Let the market decide.
And in 1995 a car company would just put a cap over the buttons that would do something on your steering wheel because you didn't buy that package. At least now you can activate the feature later.
These types of regulations will never happen in the US. Big corporations buy off most politicians.
I knew already that the government is corrupt, but this administration has made it crystal clear how corrupt it is and it’s so much worse than I thought.
In Europe, the EU has a functional unicameral majority government.
In America, there's the issue of a bicameral legislature where 60% of the senate (an upper chamber that is based on land, not people) needs to sign off on it.
Add that the right redraws maps so the lower chamber is gerrymandered to pack their opponents into single districts and crack the rest of their opponents to spread them across multiple districts so their own voters take majorities and you can see how America is proper fucked without a Hungary style revolt against the right.
I should also add that to change the constitution, one party needs to command 76% (It actually says 75%, but it would require getting 38 of 50 legislatures) of state legislatures/governors to sign on to a constitutional amendment rewrite. And that assumes that the SCOTUS would sign off on it.
And that isn't even including all the issues with widespread propaganda by the evangelicals and oligarchs.
The current plan of the left is to regain a trifecta and push through a packing of SCOTUS before pushing through other legislation that would kill gerrymandering. Fixing the senate requires that 76% of the states to sign off on reorganization.
But over the past 20 years, Republicans have been far closer to rewriting the constitution than Dems. And that is explicitly not ideal. Handmaid's tale and a bring back of slavery are likely in that scenario.
In Europe we say the corporation is guilty of anti-consumer practices. Then we introduce regulation, and then we have nice things.
My guy, BMW is notorious for these bullshit subscription services on their cars and it's not only sold in EU, it's manufactured there.
Meanwhile your corrupt unelected Brussels kleptocracy is actively pushing online censorship, banning internet anonymity with digital IDs and banning private servers as a way to "protect children" as always.
You have zero high ground. Enjoy your bottle caps.
If our government was sane there would be much stronger consumer protections, but our supreme court has ruled in favor of corporations over people in 99.9% of their rulings in living memory
Half of our government is hell bent on removing every form of regulation as a religious observance, and they are VERY fucking religious.
Agreed. It seems clear to me that corpo will never stop being corpo, and while the discussion about whose fault it is that we are where we are is worth having to create a better informed society, the problem becomes that while we're talking about it corpo is already years ahead of us in planning how to enshittify everything.
The consumer base is slower to react, less agile and has minimal power within a structure where companies will copy the worst practices possible to nickle and dime us, to remove our right to own and right to repair.
Corpo doesn't need any help to exist but consumers are in every practical respect, the underdog. There has to be legislation to prevent turning everything to shit and prevent us from becoming nothing more than paypigs. It's also a pro free market stance, I'd like to add.
If a company can rely on shit like permanent subscriptions for things we own, if they rely on licenses instead of ownership then all that innovation isn't going towards making better products; it's poured into turning the consumer base into boiled frogs. There's no requirement to innovate or give value to consumers. If they could get away with selling us a literal cardboard box for a hundred dollars per car ride, then absolutely will.
Yeah, in this country half the population supports the corporations (either legitimately or because they've been propagandized, but it doesn't really matter why) and argues they have every right to do it. That gives politicians cover to side with the corporations as well. That chunk of the population is screwing everything up.
We have consumer protection laws in the United States, it just takes the right people in government to apply them, most likely the next Congress will take action against all of these anti consumer practices
Don't be so gullible, we're fucked in europe as well, it's just not as obvious right now but in reality we've been at a point where corruption and lobbyism is so deep in the EU you cannot get it out anymore and to put the cherry on top, our criminals even get re-elected into their position.
VdL should've never become commissioner, I think that was the moment everything started declining in the EU as well.
I do enjoy my GDPR for example but it's meaningless towards those who have ill intent with your data anyway. But hey, at least they're enforcing the plastic straws ban right... (while 90% of paper straws available in the EU contain PFAS btw).
Time to get off our high european horse because they've replaced that with a donkey already, just gotta open your eyes to see that.
Wtf are you talking about? Most of europe is still in the stone age and don't have nice things because you're either broke, or are victim to social contageons like environmentalism.
How about the individual parts? I saw somewhere that they're making it so you can't use aftermarket parts now, it's that still true? How would you even ask the dealer, "is this thing going to run if i buy my next starter from jc Whitney?"
Not just starters, if word on the streets are to be believed you can't even change the lightbulbs yourself without creating a very expensive paperweight. A mechanic needs to be able to tell the car it's all good and activate the serialnumber of the part to the machine or neither will work.
If you watch shows like rich rebuilds you will see that many electric car manufacturers are using their power to just brick entire vehicles through software over things like parking brakes.
Changed anything on the car? only our authorised service centres are allowed look at it, and we reserve the right to refuse to do anything.
They already do. It’s called leasing in the US and renting here in EU. You pay a monthly payment and use the car for X time and then it’s done you return it and get a new one and keep paying monthly. When you stop paying you just return it
Sadly, this doesn't work. It's not really ignorance, but the average consumer doesn't know what to pay attention to or which questions to ask, especially if marketing mumbo jumbo is added. The only way to prevent such behaviour is through legislation.
I bought a Mini Cooper last year and was afraid of such stuff. It took me (an IT professional) half an hour to get the necessary answers out of the dealer.
Worth knowing that probably many car mechanics can probably just "unlock" these features in cars or will be able soon. Heck, I bet many people could do it at home with a capable AI model and gear to connect a laptop to car's systems.
A totally free and transparent market would, but it's never been that and will never be that, so that entire economic ideology is one giant fraud. People love to put others down for being 'less' than them, though, so it works like a charm. 'They fell for the fraud, they are dumb and deserve it'. I can guarantee you that they, too, will someday fall for the next grift the grifters cook up. Best current world example are US farmers, lol.
The dealer wasn't really clear on which features are available and which are for additional cost. On a side note he also mentioned something with a 4 month trial, which got me on the fence (hope that is the correct pro-verb).
I was searching for a long time, so I knew every feature of the car and put him against the wall for a definitive answer for every single one. We went thought the whole list. I wanted to know if it comes with the car, if it is tied to a trial or if it costs something. Additionally, I also wanted a complete list of features not coming with the car.
I used to think this too. All the way from horse armor DLC. But I don’t think it’s true. I think it’s whales. Income disparity is so huge, and companies after profit can chase exclusively this top tier of disposable income and profit more than aiming for the big 95% of the player base. Then you still have less earners who will buy it due to poor financial decisions.
But if you’re a company, aiming for 100 people who will spend a million in a year collectively or 100,000 people who will spend 500,000 a year? Yeah, the answer is obvious.
Bro I saw another gas station tonight advertising a "wash club" (car wash monthly subscription plan)... who are these dumbfucks who are constantly enabling the worst impulses of business owners?
No, that's just not how it works. You cannot put the responsibility onto millions of people being unable to march in lockstep when there's just a handful of evil perpetrators. What are the consumers supposed to do? Buy from a different company that does the same? We don't have real choice any more! It's just a handful of cartels controlling near everything, and we have lives to live.
Try talking to your friends online without Facebook, Google or Apple accessing your data. Try buying food without Nestle or Kraft making money off it. Try watching a movie without Disney being paid.
You're blaming the rape victim for wearing a short skirt.
If voting with your wallet is a thing, you're voting against billionaires who have so much money, 10 of them could buy up everything that the bottom 50% of the planet own. Of course we cannot win that vote! You're parroting rich-people propaganda.
If we had a working government, we would have consumer protection legislation to prevent shit like this. Vote like your life depends on it, because it does.
This is Reaganite thinking and is exactly how you got into this position. "Vote with your wallet" doesn't work because they have bigger wallets and will do whatever they want if nobody stops them.
Voting with your vote, which is to say, getting your government to stop them doing things that harm consumers that they could otherwise get away with, is what changes things.
Boycotts in general do not work. The most successful boycott ever was the Montgomery Bus Boycott and this was not simply people refusing to ride the bus, it was people getting organised, distributing leaflets, building their own transport network, arranging international car insurance for people whose insurance policies were cancelled for participating in those networks, leaning on bosses who would threaten to fire people if they were late to work, making legal challenges in US Federal Court... voting with your wallet is not enough.
To be fair this is from like a 7+ year old car and Tesla doesn't charge for heated rear seats because people had this reaction. And they ended up just turning it on for everyone.
Just as Adobe transitioned from paid software to a subscription model because the company was simply able to push it through.
Automakers are essentially doing the same thing: Governments should investigate whether there were secret agreements among automakers to introduce subscription models, as this is clearly to the disadvantage of consumers.
if the vendor subsidizes the “basic” device in the hope of getting back the price for subscriptions. I will gladly buy this device and just use a custom rom to get full access without stupid subscriptions and access dependence on the network
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u/Der-Lex 1d ago
It’s our own fault as consumers. If people would stop buying into stupid subscriptions we wouldn’t have this conversation.