Ford Quadruples BlueCruise Price to $800/yr for All Renewals

[woody]

I’m not sure I understand what you are upset about. We Job 1 21s clearly got the best deal. We’ve now received BC for free, from whenever you got it OTA or installed by dealer, through the end of this year. That’s roughly 18mos free. And then we can renew for 3 years for $600 total. Nobody else is even getting close to this deal.

DEAL?
Just send me $200 and I will give you nothing. That is certainly a better "deal" than that which does not work, hoping someday it might.

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[Mirak]

DEAL?
Just send me $200 and I will give you nothing. That is certainly a better "deal" than that which does not work, hoping someday it might.

“Deal” is relative. $600 total for BC for 56 months (in my case) works out to about $11/mo.

I don’t think BCHF is terribly valuable in its current state, not even with 1.2, but it does provide some additional comfort and value. And my price is indisputably better than having to pay $800/yr!

Granted, as I’ve personally tested, I can get the same result as 1.0 by simply using an off-center ankle weight to trick the hand nanny. But, again, I’d be willing to pay the low monthly price Ford is offering me to avoid the inconvenience of strapping on the ankle weight, provided I get 1.2.

And by 2027 there’s a 50/50 chance I’ll upgrade to a car with superior charging and ADAS anyway. So, basically, by grandfathering in the J1 21s at the $600 3/yr renewal offer, Ford has given me a lot of additional runway.

I have my frustrations with @Ford Motor Company, but they do sometimes try to do right by their early adopters.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

My window sticker shows these three lines.

CNCTD BLT-IN (3-YR INC)
360-DEGREE CAMERA
BLUECRUISE

Based one these lines, I would assume that 360-CAMERA and BLUECRUISE are for life of the car. I could not remember how I came across BC for 3 years. Don't I have to sign a paperwork showing that BC will be only for 3 years since the window sticker does not show the time limit on BC?

What is CNCTD? No explanation on the window sticker. Very confusing indeed.

"CNCTD" means "Connected". On my window sticker is shows "CNCTD BLT-IN NAV(3-YR INC)" in the Functional features area, while it shows
"FORD CO-PILOT360 ACTIVE 2.0 1,900.00
.BLUECRUISE
.ACTIVE PARK ASSIST 2.0
.360-DEGREE CAMERA"
in the Optional Equipment area.

Note that there is no mention whatsoever to a timeframe for "FORD Co-PILOT360 ACTIVE 2.0" which incudes the Park Assist, 360 camera, and BlueCruise.

 

[fpasta]

Wow, I love using BC especially on my way back/home trips.

But $800/year? Meh, why Ford? The initial price subscription was/is fair. For a newish still improving type of tech? @Ford Motor Company

Ill pass...

..time to get used to Adaptive Cruise more now. You can still go hands free until prompted, loose grip, I think I can get used to that, SMH.

 

[Mirak]

Wow, I love using BC especially on my way back/home trips.

But $800/year? Meh, why Ford? The initial price subscription was/is fair. For a newish still improving type of tech? @Ford Motor Company

Ill pass...

..time to get used to Adaptive Cruise more now. You can still go hands free until prompted, loose grip, I think I can get used to that, SMH.

I’m going to see if I can find some brandable ankle weights on Alibaba, brand them BlueCruise Buddy, and sell them on here for $500. And that will be a lifetime price - not a subscription.

 

[byoungblood]

Not just no, but HELL no.

It isn't worth $10/mo in its current state on my 2022. They would have to extend past the feature set of 1.2 and fixing all of the deactivations (Ie., driving past an on ramp) to even start to justify that kind of a price tag.

I think Ford is testing the waters with people like myself who thought $200 a year was too expensive. They're throwing out $800 a year and then in a month or two will put out a release "After customer feedback, we're rolling back the price of BC to $200/yr" so people will jump at the lower price. Look what just happened with the 360 camera on the 2023s...

 

[Guss-E 2021]

Comments here are spot on so I'll just add to the chorus. I would have likely paid the $600/3 years, especially for 1.2.

Jim Farley: "Pony up $800 a year, now!"

Me in my HAL voice: "I'm sorry James, I can't do that right now."

 

[A-A-Ron]

Level 2 ADAS isn’t worth anywhere near that. Let me take a nap or work on the laptop while driving and I’d consider paying up, but Bluecruise in its current form isn’t worth much…I’ll take standard adaptive cruise, thank you very much.

That’s my feeling as well. BC just doesn’t offer much when you have to keep your eyes on the road, have ready to resume control (frequently, in my area), not to mention that I occasionally have to override it anyway because it can’t handle curves, cars in other lanes on curves, merges, being cut off (actually, I think it does well when someone cuts right in front of you but at a higher speed but I hate when it slams on the brake because someone going a bit slower cuts in well ahead but inside your set keep back distance). I just don’t see the value here right now.

 

[Guss-E 2021]

I expect John Wick or Frank Bullitt to show up whenever I didn't feel like driving across the state.

I would expect a red light on the front grille that bounces back and forth, a bullet proof exterior and for Sheeb to start calling me Michael.

 

[Billyk24]

Comments here are spot on so I'll just add to the chorus. I would have likely paid the $600/3 years, especially for 1.2.

Jim Farley: "Pony up $800 a year, now!"

Me in my HAL voice: "I'm sorry James, I can't do that right now."

Another alternative is to jack up the retail price and include bc

 

[GreaseMonkey]

The incoherence in Ford’s pricing decisions these days is mind boggling.

Most of us expect them to be the adults in the room. Instead, Musk does / says something stupid, Farley is like: hold my beer.

 

[Keeperofthe7keys]

Yeah no way in hell would I pay that, spent enough on the car upfront there shouldn't even be a subscription for the software honestly. If they think they can get away with this pricing because Tesla does for the CHANCE TO BETA TEST FSD they're wrong, it's a scam.

To anyone that might say a subscription is warranted for continued development and support, do we pay that for any other update? do you pay that for updates for your phone or pc? No, because they make those for new hardware anyways and it does not cost them that much to push it to existing ones. Even if you got no update to it, would you expect to lose a feature you already paid for? Fuck no. Ford was already pushing it too far for many people at $200/year, at 4x that anyone that pays has lost their mind.

 

[KevinS]

The thing that's funny is that Farley was ragging on GM with Joanna Stern of WSJ about GM's decision to remove CarPlay support to pimp their own subscription services.

I realize it's not a direct parallel, but why is it so hard for these companies to understand that car owners do not want to pay for subscriptions associated with vehicle features.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Why do you say that? They’ve already said 1.2 is coming to all earlier models by the end of the year, and people who are knowledgeable on here have claimed that none of the processors in the vehicle have been upgraded - module changes have been mostly engineering revisions.

“They” also promised me a Frunk button via OTA two years ago….?‍
I trust these people about as much as I trust my city council.

 

[Keeperofthe7keys]

Another alternative is to jack up the retail price and include bc

At it's current retail price vs competitors it should just be included as is.

This. So much this. Build a car that doesn’t suffer recalls (glass, HVJB). Build a car that does what it’s advertised to do, a majority of the time (full power, not a 5 second limit), Ford.

Guess what happens then? The car doesn’t cost Ford as much. People like the car, and don’t sell it on the Used market after 3 years, leading people interested in the car to have to buy it new due to low used inventory. This is how you make your money, not through overpriced BC subs. Or, do this, make all the owners angry with an insane subscription cost, and have die-Hards leave the brand en masse, selling their MMEs (meaning that new inventory drops in value), never to return to the brand again. Your choice. Seems this is a really unpopular move that you should think about backtracking.

Exactly this, next time I'll know I was better off paying the loss of tax credit and dealer markups on the EV6. (I would have never actually paid that markup and just waited longer to find one without, but the point is I'd pay more upfront for a complete, quality car and no subscription nonsense).

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