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mooseup t1_ixoxdl6 wrote

WRT BMW’s heated seats, honest question. What happens when you buy the subscription and the seats are broken? Does BMW pay to have the feature fixed since you bought the subscription, or are you on the hook for that too?

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TheStegg t1_ixpgfs7 wrote

There’s a disclaimer that basically says the subscription is only valid as long as the hardware can support the service, and at some point in the future they can unilaterally decide that the hardware is no longer supported.

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[deleted] t1_ixpgwbe wrote

My question is about what happens when they buy the car and don't pay the sub? They just put extras in that bmw for no reason? No way, they definitely included the hardware in the cost of the vehicle. You're paying extra because they can charge extra.

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OneAndOnlyJackSchitt t1_ixpifnt wrote

Fun times to be had when car people bypass the subscription hardware with a couple of jumper cables and a switch.

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vanbikejerk t1_ixqmdbi wrote

Yeah, you'll be able to root it, depending on skill level. There will be a reliable percentage of rich fucks who never both to, though. It's like they figured out the math already on this.

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shmip t1_ixwtopj wrote

Then they'll introduce a safety feature to detect that and completely lock the engine because bypassing existing safety features "has unexpected and unreliable results"

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bergmoose t1_ixpwodk wrote

The claim is that it is cheaper to make them the same than to have different manufacturing to the different specs, so they would be (and were) putting the hardware in there anyway but turned off to differentiate between trim levels. Dunno if it's true but seems lots of car companies have done it over the years so I assume so. To me the issue is the wastefulness of trying to create fake differences between trim lines in that case, if you are putting it in anyway then just include it in the lower trim.

I know why they don't, as people will pay to get some features and if seat heaters are on the "important" list then they definitely don't want to give it for free when it can be a hook to buying a whole bunch of crud you don't really want.

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ledasll t1_ixph5cc wrote

When it's broken then it's hardware issue. Subsctiption is just for software.

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[deleted] t1_ixoyi3k wrote

[deleted]

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LazyturtleX1 t1_ixozd86 wrote

Not a great comparison, because Netflix didn't build the tv and then charge you a subscription to unlock the feature ( yet ) haha.

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