What features / items would you pay monthly fee for?

[Chuck]

Correction, it means I don't buy the car.

It means you buy no new car. They're all going to do this.

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[Chuck]

If you're paying $60-$70k for a car, the car better have all of those features. Trying to nickel and dime potential buyers will not work, IMO.

And yes I'm voting HELL NO because it means I'm not buying that car.

This direction is being led by cars costing much more than the Mach E. BMW and Audi will be on the forefront of this change.

 

[ARK]

I think it’s reasonable for Ford to charge for things that require continuous updates, but after some multiyear free period.

I don’t want to say hell no, no way, never, if it means a 10 year old car loses things like navigation or new software development.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

JUST A REMINDER. IF YOU SAY "HELL NO" THEN YOU GET NONE OF THOSE ITEMS.

No, not quite. Implementing some of those, such as electric seat adjustment, would also require a manual seat adjustment mechanism in the event the owner ejected to not subscribe to the ransomware scheme. Others, such as disabling L2 charging, would cripple your product and likely result in significant customer loss.

Some of those items are obviously targets for manufacturers revenue streams, but others are nothing more than crippling the car.’s functionality or enhancements. People will simply by a car that doesn’t highjack their wallets.

 

[DYohn]

"High school in the 1990's". I keep forgetting jhow old I am.

 

[ctenidae]

I'll gladly pay a monthly subscription for any of these things, but only if I can easily turn the subscriptions on and off, and if I don't have to pay up front for them in the first place.

$71K for a fully loaded car with everything turned on is fine. If I have to pay monthly for heated seats, they better take $1,000 off the price of the car, and let me pay for the heating from December to March only. I'd be more than happy to pay-per-use, even. Start the clock when I turn on the seats. Hell, charge me a nickel every time I adjust the seat, but don't charge me an extra $2,500 for power adjustable seats.

There's some stuff it just doesn't make business sense to charge a subscription for, since it costs too much to install the hardware if you can't charge for it. I don't understand how Tesla is able to put rear seat heaters in every Model 3, but only turn them on if you pay for it. Seems like every car sold south of the Mason Dixon line would be losing money for them.

 

[AKgrampy]

I said no - heck I am an old fart and never even use cruise control. (Still wish I could get the wing window) But I will say if I am not charged up front, let’s say heated seats are installed but at no cost at purchase, then I may decide if I want to subscribe or essentially lease the option versus purchase it. But if I pay for a fixed item like heated seats then no monthly fee as there is no cost to provide the service so why pay additional fees.

 

[ctenidae]

"High school in the 1990's". I keep forgetting jhow old I am.

Don't remind me.
/high school in the '80's

 

[jdsimard2012]

Hence why after owning two BMWs I'm not buying another one. If Ford goes in this direction, then I will not be buying a Ford. If all companies (assume 100% in the world) go this direction, I'll stay with used cars. I'm not paying for add on's. The exception is XM radio, which I use on my phone more than I use in my car.

 

[MG101]

What's the point of this poll? Just feels like pot stirring.

 

[ElectrifyME]

How about I buy a car that works as advertised, and I pay you for it? Next are they gonna charge to be able roll down the windows too?

 

[TGIF]

I could have said He’ll, no cuz if I couldn’t charge without a fee I wouldn’t buy the car. Probably wouldn’t buy if I had to subscribe for many of the features. If this is the future, I don’t know that you want to be the car company on the leading edge.

 

[ZuleMME]

The one usage case I'm aware of is BMW and the Carplay fiasco. Guess what happened. They relented and made it free for all. Now they want to try again with seat heaters... Let me tell you how it'll turn out.

If you sell hardware and don't allow it's use in software, someone like me will produce an override and your entire business model will fail.

 

[Toreus]

In my opinion, the only things in life that warrant a subscription fee are services that continually improve, or at the very least update with new content. I pay Netflix a monthly subscription fee, and in return I get new movies, new shows, and more seasons of the existing shows I love.

For something like a heated seat, this is a static item. It doesn’t make sense as a subscription, because the thing I purchased will never change from or be better than it was at the time of purchase. Charge me a flat fee for this, and then never again.

On the Mach E, I would be willing to pay a subscription fee for Blue Cruise, which presumably Ford will be continuing to put money and time into improving (thus warranting my financial support), and perhaps their Navigation, which I do actually like a lot in this car despite having CarPlay map access.

Nothing else is appropriate for a subscription fee, imo.

 

[Jim_I]

I was always under the idea that the subscription model was based on software products, where you would get continuous updates to the software product you are using. I will not pay for the Ford Navigation subscription, as Android Auto already works better with voice recognition. Same thing with BlueCruise. It is in the car, but I don't like the current implementation. Unless there are major upgrades to how it works, I won't pay for that as well. I don't use SiriusXM Radio either, so won't pay for it. But now they consider FM Radio as software to need a subscription to listen to it?? Not a good approach to getting happy customers.

How do they consider hardware items that have no potential for upgrades, like heated seats, power lift hatchback, power seat adjustments, AM/FM radio, etc. as being a product that they can charge a monthly fee to use? This hardware is already baked into the build price of the car, so what is the justification to even think about the subscription model for these features.

If they want to charge for PAAK, first of all it should work 100% of the time, which it doesn't now. And secondly, they would have to provide a second fob in place of that software, which they also do not provide now! I will let the manager of the dealership explain to the wife how for almost $60,000 that we only get one "key" for the new car....

Now if the plan is to stop actually selling cars and to have an a-la-cart leasing system, where I only pay for what I want to use in a car, OK, but it is going to have to be inexpensive, and have all maintenance as part of the use fee, which we all know is never going to happen!

Jim

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