The year is 2042. Your BMW has slid off the road and buried itself in a deep snowdrift on a rural secondary road west of Palatka, Florida.
Global climate change sends freakish fingers of frigid arctic weather south that slice into the roasting year-round tropical fronts that hover over the New Republic of Free Florida, producing intense localized frozen precipitation. …
Completely out of subject, but why is it that when I open all these stories on my iPhone they are formatted with no spacing on the left side? Not sure why, but it makes them hard to read for me:
In reply to Slippery :
I got the same issue. I think it is apple thing as everything reads proper on all my non apple devices. The weird part is in the forum the left margin is proper but articles don't have one.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
A story about subscriptions that requires a subscription to read.
The irony.
I read it as "cyber cows" not "cyber crows" and now I want an entire sci-fi thriller in this universe where the herd leader cyber cow somehow overthrows BMW.
earlybroncoguy1 said:In reply to JG Pasterjak :
A story about subscriptions that requires a subscription to read.
The irony.
I do not have a subscription and was able to read it ...
In reply to earlybroncoguy1 :
Right, but your subscription supports us constantly writing new articles. BMW's supports.... using the hardware already in the car you paid for?
In reply to earlybroncoguy1 :
I so hate this buisness model. $200 plus a year to use heated seats in your car. That is 2k over 10 years. I guess that if they don't raise the price for 10 years the value of the dollar will be then worth less than now. They would better off getting there $$$ up front. And what is the cheepest BMW going for these days? Would 2k added now really matter to the demographic that purchases them. What about a lease. I can see this being written in or out of leases so your $400 a month lease will creep up to close to $500 if you add in 4-5 options. I get it from a business side but it just seems so slimy. I would have that I need a shower feeling every time I got out of my car as I would feel like I was being fleeced by the manufacturer every time I use it. Why don't they just charge you for every minute you use your heated seats similar to the data or minute you use on your cell phone. BMW has reached a new low in my book with this. Puts a whole new meaning to the ultimate driving machine.
Soon there will be a cost associated with every button in the car every time you use it. I can see a one cent charge every time your blinker flashes or if you want to roll down your window it is five cents.
This BS needs to be stopped now!!!
Oh how about you get charged a per minute rate for ac but the rate per minute is dictated by fan speed an temperature. Lower temp or higher fan speed increase your per minute rate to use the ac.
dean1484 said:Soon there will be a cost associated with every button in the car every time you use it. I can see a one cent charge every time your blinker flashes or if you want to roll down your window it is five cents.
BMW drivers are way ahead of the game in saving on blinker flashes 
In reply to Slippery :
Same thing happens to me on my Android phone, using Brave browser. So much so that an uppercase T has the left part of the upper line slightly off screen if its the first letter on a line.
On topic:
This is all terrible and I refuse to support it. Unless trends reverse, I'll be sticking to cars from ~2012 or earlier. No subscriptions, no spying and selling my location history. Not giving a single penny to an OEM that's selling this. I'll reconsider if it becomes trivial to somehow "flash" the car so that I can run open source code that benefits me instead of OEMs, advertisers, and governments.
Every year I go to a seminar for legal and purchasing contracting people that deals with Software as a Service as a Service (SaaS). Most of us view these companies as predatory. For software; nearly 100% of the industry is using this model.......I can't wait until some clever person figures out a business model centered around the customer.
No words can sufficiently express my disdain for companies that go down this route.
Not a shock that a car company would be lured by this cuz......revenue stream.
I'd urge customers to vote with their feet.
I have a feeling that this has stirred up quite an automotive hornet's nest that it bites BMW in the ass.
repost as I posted this in the meme thread....
This makes me so happy I just bought a 91 C1500. The future sucks.
NEWS AT TEN:
YOU CAN BUY A PERMANENT LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION FOR A ONE-TIME FEE OF APPROXIMATELY THE SAME COST AS THE HEATED SEAT OPTION USED TO BE.
Here's Tom with the weather...
So if you Florida types don't want heated seats, you don't pay for them. Then when one of us rust belt types imports your used car up north, we can just get them activated instead of scouring junkyards for a set of seats the right color that have heating elements, plus the rest of the related accessories.
I really don't see the issue here if you look even inches deeper than the screaming headline.
Did a little digging online, and couldn't find what I was looking for. Is the lifetime subscription for the lifetime of the car, or is it just for the time the subscriber owns the car? I know Tesla has disabled options on cars for the second owner, in an attempt to get more revenue.
In reply to Duke :
I think the issue is they have already paid for the hardware when they bought the car. There is no way BMW is just installing it and not turning it on. That cost is already in the purchase price of the car.
Now, BMW has decided they want more money to turn them on.
BMW gets the best of both worlds. They have an option that is now standard and they get to invoice for the option again if the customer actually uses it.
That would be like you designing a building, including the bathroom plans but locking them so the customer has to pay again to unlock that "option." It's a E36 M3ty way of doing business.
Duke said:NEWS AT TEN:
YOU CAN BUY A PERMANENT LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION FOR A ONE-TIME FEE OF APPROXIMATELY THE SAME COST AS THE HEATED SEAT OPTION USED TO BE.
Here's Tom with the weather...
Is this transferred if the car is sold or would any subsequent owners need to re-purchase it?
How long before someone figures out a work around and get sued by BMW?
GameboyRMH said:Duke said:NEWS AT TEN:
YOU CAN BUY A PERMANENT LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION FOR A ONE-TIME FEE OF APPROXIMATELY THE SAME COST AS THE HEATED SEAT OPTION USED TO BE.
Here's Tom with the weather...
Is this transferred if the car is sold or would any subsequent owners need to re-purchase it?
How does BMW know the car has been sold?
Toyman! said:In reply to Duke :
I think the issue is they have already paid for the hardware when they bought the car. There is no way BMW is just installing it and not turning it on. That cost is already in the purchase price of the car.
Now, BMW has decided they want more money to turn them on.
BMW gets the best of both worlds. They have an option that is now standard and they get to invoice for the option again if the customer actually uses it.
That would be like you designing a building, including the bathroom plans but locking them so the customer has to pay again to unlock that "option." It's a E36 M3ty way of doing business.
EXCEPT: the whole reason BMW is doing this is because it's cheaper to just have a single standard seat and wiring harness that is common across all option packages.
So rather than costing more to put the elements and harness in the car, it actually costs less.
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