What features / items would you pay monthly fee for?

[Mathington]

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

If not paying a subscription means I don't get any of those functions then I won't buy the car in the first place lol.

I buy a car for the features that it comes with as part of that price, not something that I have to pay monthly for.

The only thing I would consider paying a subscription for, you don't have listed. I would pay for something like Tesla's premium connectivity option so you can get use the mobile data connection in the car for video/music streaming without the use of a phone.

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[Parasmoney]

We're starting to see manufacturers charge monthly for items that we've always thought of as free. For example, BMW will now charge $18 per month for heated seats, but not yet in the U.S.

So, we all know this is coming, but what items are you willing to pay for on a regular basis?



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

Some owners of bmw might benefit with a monthly subscription. If you live in a warm climate and will be taking a road trip in winter to a cooler area.... You can pay $18 and get heated seats vs not 0 options.... This is just one example which obviously can't apply to all. With my MME, it's disappointing to see that the navigation is only a three year subscription. Glad it offers car play.... I would be pissed if car play was turned into monthly subscription.

 

[Blue highway]

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.

On average these schemes have to bring in more margin than not doing them or they will not be done. As a result, on average, the amount spent on cars will increase because of this. I wouldn't assume you have a clever edge case that will make the amount you spend on a car go down because of this. There are plenty of smart people at the car companies that will try to convince you this is in your best interests... but for most people this is simply going to result in the car company extracting more money from you.

On a related note, reducing the number of parts that have to be designed, sourced, procured, transported, brought to the line in order, assembled, and supported is a bigger deal than most people realize.

One of the key ingredients that makes Tesla profitable is the small number of models and relatively small number of options.

 

[Rt1AWD]

I think the question is not complete. I would put it this way:

What of the features you would preferer to give up for a purchase discount but use by monthly subscription

 

[sotek2345]

I am with many others on here. I refuse to pay any subscription fee for something that is built into the car and don't require any off car resources or upkeep by Ford. (heated / powered seats and the like). I am OK paying a subscription for things that require network resources or upkeep (Navigation, blue cruise, connectivity, etc.). However, those features have to add enough value to be worth it. Android Auto (or Apple Carplay) cover most of the use cases for that, which makes Blue Cruise the only thing worth paying for (need to keep mapping those roads) and the current price is reasonable.

I would also be OK having to pay for updates to the in car software to keep it compatible with Android Auto / Carplay once the vehicle is out of warranty.

 

[Dave-O]

With the prices we are paying for these cars, they can lick my butthole if someone thinks I’m paying a subscription for stuff I already paid for.

 

[bp99]

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

Yes I do. I buy a car from a different manufacturer.

 

[UsernameChecksOut]

Throwing in my 2 cents... I think these companies (BMW, Ford, etc.) considering subscription models for features need to come up with a revenue model and customer value model that makes sense to both parties.

As a customer, if I'm paying a regular subscription fee I'd like to know that it's going toward continuing investment by the service provider to maintain or augment the benefit I'm paying for.

Paying monthly subscription fees for heated seats is plain DUMB... BMW is not continuing to augment my heated seats functionality or improving it "over-the-air". If I've already bought the car, the heated seats are the same/unchanging between the day I bought it and a year down the line.

Paying for something like continued upgrades to the road coverage or intelligence of a feature like Blue Cruise may make more sense. Of course, I caveat this with a need from the customer to perceive commensurate and hopefully increasing value over time.

Think about your Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription,... you're paying continuously for the consumption of content (and increasing volume of content) as well as continued package delivery.

 

[Parasmoney]

Thanks spirit airlines for starting a trend.

 

[bp99]

Companies like VW with their MEB platform may have an advantage in that type of market. Those skateboards can be reused over and over again and just get new bodies and drivetrains every 10 years or so. This completely solves the "the tech in my car is outdated" issue that we all see coming. I call it a skateboard but it's not really. Just 3 separate pieces. A front cradle, a rear cradle and the battery pack. Genius really.

That assumes they don't make any innovations with the platform. Such a model would mean keeping that platform stagnant as the life cycle becomes decades rather than years.

 

[moparguy]

Hi Ford! I know you are looking at this closely, I am not paying for anything!

To Car manufacturers:-
I paid for the car and that's it, if I lose all the features mentioned above if I didn't pay then FU and Your car, I'll get something else.

 

[ctenidae]

On average these schemes have to bring in more margin than not doing them or they will not be done. As a result, on average, the amount spent on cars will increase because of this. I wouldn't assume you have a clever edge case that will make the amount you spend on a car go down because of this. There are plenty of smart people at the car companies that will try to convince you this is in your best interests... but for most people this is simply going to result in the car company extracting more money from you.

On a related note, reducing the number of parts that have to be designed, sourced, procured, transported, brought to the line in order, assembled, and supported is a bigger deal than most people realize.

One of the key ingredients that makes Tesla profitable is the small number of models and relatively small number of options.

Much truth here. In the end, subscription models are probably just preparing us for on-demand car usage. Tesla doesn't let people buy out their leases because, as a sales manager told me, they want the cars for their autonomous fleet. I, for one, welcome our robot car overlords, so long as I can pay $1.99 a month for heated seats.

 

[bp99]

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.

Even Blue Cruise will not get continuous improvements. It's limiting factor is the hardware, not the software. It wasn't even the latest version of the MobileEye hardware when the Mach E became available. By the time the initial three year subscription is over, it's unlikely they will have much more tuning they can do (and most likely those resources will be working on software for newer hardware). Unless the monthly fee includes updating the hardware modules for improved features, there is no value to the customer to pay for.

 

[Mathington]

Some owners of bmw might benefit with a monthly subscription. If you live in a warm climate and will be taking a road trip in winter to a cooler area.... You can pay $18 and get heated seats vs not 0 options.... This is just one example which obviously can't apply to all. With my MME, it's disappointing to see that the navigation is only a three year subscription. Glad it offers car play.... I would be pissed if car play was turned into monthly subscription.

The BMW model is a massive mistake and shows that they really are out of touch. There is a ton of competition out there right now eating up BMW's market share and they think it's a great idea to pull crap like this to de-incentivize people further? Look at cars like Genesis GV60, Volvo XC40 or even the Mach-E GT, they have all the same or more features and don't charge a subscription fee.

 

[PilotMark]

With a list that long as "monthly" fees I'd go to another manufacturer.

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