These Are Car Features You'd Actually Subscribe To

Tesla makes us pay extra for “premium” connectivity to the internet (via the AT&T network, I believe). Otherwise we would have to wait to be within reach of a wifi signal for some functions like large downloads. That’s okay with me. Not paying still allows my phone to work through the screen - it’s just that much of the Tesla software is quicker and more responsive. It’s a choice of degree. Unlike a heated steering wheel or heated seats which are either work or don’t work depending on if you paid the ransom.

Submitted by: Dieter Zerressen

Heated steering wheel in the Subaru Crosstrek!

Motherf#@$ers offer it in Canada (and have for years) but it is unobtanium in the US even for 2024. I don’t like wearing gloves when I drive! C’mon, Subaru! Do better!

Actually, no, I still wouldn’t pay for it. Vehicle subscription services (other than audio stuff) suck and should be legally forbidden.

Submitted by: NotLewisHamilton

Zero, unless it brings down the price of the car. Because chances are, the item is going to be paid for when the car is purchased and then paid for again in the subscription. Going to have to pay for a car with heated seats and if you want to use them, you have to pay for them.... that is crazy.

I don’t even pay for Onstar on the 2 GM products I own, I don’t see their value and I find it annoying that now so many people are unwilling to pay for it, GM(last I checked, been a while since I read about it on Jalopnik) was trying to make a mandatory time period of Onstar built into the cost of the MSRP. I don’t want it and never will.

Submitted by: coagula13

I’m only willing to pay on a subscription basis for features where the OEM is also incurring cost on an ongoing basis.

EX: Heated seats, they’re already in the car and costs the OEM $0 for me to continue using them so I’m not subscribing. But if it’s something like self-driving tech or navigation or OnStar where they’re continuously updating and improving the software/maps/data etc, sure I’ll consider a subscription.

Submitted by: Kaiserserser

Satellite Radio, WiFi hotspots, weather apps, reservation apps - pretty much anything that isn’t tied to the actual operation of the car.

I can’t think of anything more asinine than loading a car with all of the hardware for stuff like heated seats and then lock the physical controls behind a paywall.

Submitted by: Aldairion

I’d like to say NONE like everybody else, but the fact is I do pay for a feature sub. Toyota’s Safety Connect. It cheeses me off that I have to pay for what should be a standard feature, but I’ll pay whatever they want to have the car call emergency services and send a notification to my phone if my kid is upside down in a ditch and bleeding in the middle of nowhere at midnight.

The subscription for Toyota Safety Connect actually comes with a trial period that’ll probably outlast the original buyers ownership of the vehicle. Toyota sent us a statement regarding this, telling us just how long the trial period is.

With vehicles equipped with Toyota Audio Multimedia or Lexus Interface infotainment systems, Safety Connect and Service Connect telematics services are offered with 10-year trial subscriptions. We realize the value that comes with having connected services there for you when you need them the most, and we’re excited to see the 10-year trial subscription proliferate throughout Toyota and Lexus’s lineups as their vehicles adopt our latest hardware.

Submitted by: Harmon20

Unlimited supercharging if it were priced low enough.

Submitted by: anotheran

We need to establish a clear line between features and services. Subscriptions for features? Absolutely not. Subscriptions for services? Okay.

Of course, there are no features that I want that would require services, so the answer for me is no on both counts. I’m not opposed to subscriptions for services, but any services I want in a car would be redundant, because I already pay a monthly fee to have a phone. I don’t need or want my car to be “connected” in any way.

This is a good argument, but it needs to be established by automakers. And right now they seem to be content with the lines between services and features blurred as they often group them together.

Submitted by: smalleyxb122

The long and skinny is that if they expect recurring payments, then they need to provide recurring value. To turn on a feature isn’t recurring value. They need to be offering something that justifies a recurring fee. A service. Sat radio/nav/weather or some kind of concierge service or something like a cloud service. Unless there is a recurring cost, it doesn’t require a recurring fee.

Submitted by: HammerHeadFistpunch

NONE

I bought the car with whatever features it has, and I do not want to have to continue paying for something because it’s subscription. It’s a freaking cash grab and I will go back to the most barebones car possible to avoid it. Absolutely none of it is worth it... unless they actually have the gaul to mess with the drivability/function of the car by making it subscription, at which point we will all be screwed.

Submitted by: SlickS30r and nearly everyone else