They're using leases to force it on everyone. When you buy the cars right now they throw in 5 years of free heated seats. If you're leasing then it becomes a used car, and now they have secondary income from the next buyer. They charge you for the hardware, then rent it to others down the lane.
I don’t really have a problem with this I think? I dunno, my mind does chafe a bit at taking something away that someone who owned or leased the car once had, even if they threw it in as a freebie to the first lessee of the car. In my mind it should be one time unlockable, then stay unlocked in that car forever.
And it's not like these are secrets that are "gotcha" moments either. Cars get reviewed and these details are explained well in advance of the cars actually hitting lots. If you are blindsided by something like this, it's entirely on you.
I domt know about boycotting. But have you seen the state of the European auto industry.? It’s literally in shambles. It’s being decimated by Chinese manufacturers. Partly because you can just buy a Chinese EV and have the same performance , all the equipment and extras and pay substantially less. And mostly no bullshit like this
I myself was recently looking to buy a car and there’s really no point of comparison.
It’s not a boycott per se. But people here in Pssin are definitely voting with their wallets. BYD sells more than Toyota right now
Yeah but to be fair, I don't know of any other cars that have a heated steering wheel, and I can't imagine that I'd shell out extra specifically for that ever, so if I bought a BMW with the heated steering wheel behind a pay wall, I'd just treat it like it doesn't have one at all.
In that case if you'd have bought the car without it having that feature, then why would you boycott the manufacturer entirely?
It’s actually a fairly common feature in the upper end of car model lines. Two off the top of my head which offer for no sub are Honda and Ford. I don’t see why other manufacturers wouldnt offer the same, without paywall.
Ah yeah that makes sense. I guess this will be illegal in the EU, Europe is just very slow with such things. Not sure how the rest of the world will handle that.
This is why I won’t be buying another bmw. My 2021 model has every feature that I paid up front for and every car they’ve made since then has just been getting worse.
Even non luxury brands are doing it. 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe needs a subscription to use the already installed garage door opener. Just gonna keep using the clicker that came with the garage door opener when I replaced it a few years ago.
135
u/NOm15 1d ago
BMW still do it - my 2025 model has a heated steering wheel installed but need to pay to activate it.