BMW offering heated seats for £10 a month

madlad7773 said:
Here's a thought...do you actually really NEED heated seats? They're mostly used on leather interiors, so if you have the money to spec your car with leathers, you should, in theory, not be too worried about the cost of the subscription for the seats. I've been driving for 32 years, only had them in one car, my old Saab 9-3 aero convertible, and honestly, it felt like id wet myself each time they went on. I'd much rather crank the heaters up than remotely worry about heated seats ffs.
Click to expand...
No of course not, but the issue is they're not installing them for free, they will be built into the base price for the vehicle and turned on for those that pay but they won't be building them into every vehicle for a laugh. It's a way to simplify manufacturing between options and at same time costs for parts will go up and need paying for, so they get streamlined production in return for some costs, which will be passed on as part of the base cost and profit will come from those that subscribe
 
ThatFragranceGuy said:
No of course not, but the issue is they're not installing them for free, they will be built into the base price for the vehicle and turned on for those that pay but they won't be building them into every vehicle for a laugh. It's a way to simplify manufacturing between options and at same time costs for parts will go up and need paying for, so they get streamlined production in return for some costs, which will be passed on as part of the base cost and profit will come from those that subscribe
Click to expand...
So its easy then...just dont subscribe!
 
It would depend on how they pass the cost on to the consumer when, as others have said, they install heated seats regardless of whether you want to use them or not.

Maybe the impact of being able to order every BMW seat as a heated seat will mean they can get them cheaper and the cost isn't passed on. Most likely we will never know and they can sneak this into the current "everything is getting pricier" shenanigans
 
DF184854-5B0F-467B-8F94-8F0AB379659B.jpeg

Not arsed about heated seats but air conditioned seats were the one when driving from Vegas to GCNP.
 
My b0llocks 65 Astra has heated seats front and back and do I actually need them? no. Do I use them? No.
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
Is that wrong though, if you dont pay for them up front ?

Many businesses are moving towards subscription based models, I think it makes sense.
Click to expand...

i suppose if you think hardware wise the seat would be exactly the same in all cars.

the button would be the equivalent of the multitude of blank buttons in a non software setup. so you wouldn't really know the heating element is there

should save BMW a bit of money if they only have to build 1 type of seat to suit all cars.

for me the worry is how far you take it and whether it would be applied to things that come "as standard" such as cruise control, rear camera, parking sensors.
 
Low_Key said:
i suppose if you think hardware wise the seat would be exactly the same in all cars.

the button would be the equivalent of the multitude of blank buttons in a non software setup. so you wouldn't really know the heating element is there

should save BMW a bit of money if they only have to build 1 type of seat to suit all cars.

for me the worry is how far you take it and whether it would be applied to things that come "as standard" such as cruise control, rear camera, parking sensors.
Click to expand...
Whatever they can get away with.
 
I have heated seats in my fiesta and I've used them about twice in 18 months. The car before was a golf that also had them and probably used them as many times.

I would never 'spec' them. They just happened to have them and frankly never used. Surprisingly enough I find the same with cruise control. Most of my cars have had or yet hardly ever use.

I imagine BMWs will be just the start. Once it catches on then other dealers will no doubt follow suit.

You'd be lucky to get a new car. My mate ordered one in October and it was due in May. It's just been put back again for the 2nd time. Apparently 99% 'made' yet waiting on a couple of electronic chips or boards. Probably the same place as the PS5 ones 😂.
 
I dont use heated seats myself. However I noticed that if I turned on the passengers seat, my wife got out of the car in a much better mood. It may be worth a small investment :)
 
S7DiscoDown said:
I have heated seats in my fiesta and I've used them about twice in 18 months. The car before was a golf that also had them and probably used them as many times.

I would never 'spec' them. They just happened to have them and frankly never used. Surprisingly enough I find the same with cruise control. Most of my cars have had or yet hardly ever use.

I imagine BMWs will be just the start. Once it catches on then other dealers will no doubt follow suit.

You'd be lucky to get a new car. My mate ordered one in October and it was due in May. It's just been put back again for the 2nd time. Apparently 99% 'made' yet waiting on a couple of electronic chips or boards. Probably the same place as the PS5 ones 😂.
Click to expand...
I like my heated seats but I wouldn't say they were essential. Cruise control though definitely is as long as it is Adaptive. Regular cruise control is annoying because you are constantly disengaging it when the car in front slows down but adaptive does the slowing down and speeding back up for you. Add in lane assist and you barely need to be involved when doing long motorway journeys.

Heated seats are better if you have an electric car than using the climate control. They use less battery (although I'd guess a fairly insignificant amount).

I'm not sure why this has made such big headlines though. This isn't subscription model isn't new and heated seats aren't an essential. My BMW has features I can unlock for a fee like the auto high beam assist. As others have mentioned though, there is no way that these companies won't increase their base model cost to cover the additional cost so instead of making money out of just the people that pay for upgrades the cost will be recouped across more people.

The big reason they are doing this though is to make money from the 2nd hand market. Currently once they have sold the car they get no more money from it. If you sell it on then BMW don't get a penny more. If you sell it on and someone wants all the upgrades then they can buy them. They can sell the same thing multiple times to different people.
 
the issue to me is that normally when you pay for something you are paying for it to be made, the parts cost, the construction cost, design etc. but in this case all their cars will have the work done and you pay to enable it or not. Seems wasteful and is a twisted kind of capitalism to me.
 
Subscribe to drive over 40mph.
Subscribe to work the rear wiper blade.
Subscribe to have access to additional storage in the boot.
Subscribe to have a Brut smelling cologne sprayed into the cabin.
Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top