[GTO]

You get Android Auto & Apple CarPlay for free in 6-7 lakh rupee Ignis' & Balenos. Not in a BMW. First, BMW USA started charging a whopping $300 to those wanting Apple CarPlay in their cars (ironically, Android Auto still isn't available in BMWs...go figure ).

Some fool @ BMW who has no clue about customer-orientation now wants to charge owners an annual fee of $80 for Apple CarPlay! He was clearly inspired by the rise of online subscriptions (related thread), but doesn't know how to spell 'luxury experience' correctly.

Irony is, it's not even BMW's software! They are merely trying to make a quick buck riding on the backs of Android & iOS. I hope Google & Apple come down heavily on BMW.

Penny wise, pound foolish I say! These are the kind of steps that leave a bitter taste in the mouth. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

The automaker next year will turn CarPlay into a subscription-based service rather than treating it as a one-time option, Don Smith, technology product manager for BMW North America, told The Verge at the 2018 Detroit Auto Show on Tuesday.

And the reasoning is especially laughable

Smith said the new plan would be free for the first year of ownership on a new BMW. After that, owners would be asked to pay $80 per year to keep the service. Over the course of a three or four-year lease, it would still work out to less money than the option is now, he said.

Source: Theverge.com

What about the years after that! And where does this stop? An annual fee for a spare tyre (which you didn't provide for years)? Or for the wipers?

[bhavik.1991]

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/car-en...it-mib-ii.html

VW did this a year back that too no much cheaper cars.

At one end of the spectrum, we have car manufacturers like Tesla who is giving everything away despite going bankrupt and at the other end, we've got cheap money making tactics by VW & BMW.

[AMG Power]

I think this is intended for the lease options (he mentions lease in his statement) where you pay a very small lease fee, ($499 per month for a 530i or so) a down payment of $8000 and they take care of all service costs and take the car back after 4/5 years. You have a limitation on the number of miles you can run in a year (15000 Miles?). You pay per mile when you run in excess of that.

Calculating the above lease payments it totals to about Rs.18 lakhs in 5 years. You don't make large upfront payments as is done in India.

Given the low cost they must be looking at charging for add ons.

[veedub89]

Originally Posted by GTO

You get Android Auto & Apple CarPlay for free in 6-7 lakh rupee Ignis' & Balenos. Not in a BMW. First, BMW USA started charging a whopping $300 to those wanting Apple CarPlay in their cars (ironically, Android Auto still isn't available in BMWs...go figure ).

Some fool @ BMW who has no clue about customer-orientation now wants to charge owners an annual fee of $80 for Apple CarPlay! He was clearly inspired by the rise of online subscriptions (related thread), but doesn't know how to spell 'luxury experience' correctly.

Irony is, it's not even BMW's software! They are merely trying to make a quick buck riding on the backs of Android & iOS. I hope Google & Apple come down heavily on BMW.

Penny wise, pound foolish I say! These are the kind of steps that leave a bitter taste in the mouth. Cheap, cheap, cheap.



What about the years after that! And where does this stop? An annual fee for a spare tyre (which you didn't provide for years)? Or for the wipers?

I had gone with my uncle to check out the X1 last week and I had asked the sales rep whether the X1 came with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. I knew it didn't but I wanted to still see how they justify not giving the feature. His response, "we only have that in our premium cars like the 5-series."

My question is when did a 30-odd lakh car become non-premium?

Also this is at a time when Skoda is giving this feature in the Kodiaq which is what we were comparing the X1 against.

This is just plain ignorant. You know the customer is going to ask for smartphone integration. Does BMW expect their target customer base to run around with cheap feature phones and not the high end smartphones? Are they out there to make life simple or more complicated for their customers?

[dileepcm]

I am not surprised as same goes with map updates. Almost every brand has a limited time of free map updates post which customers will need to pay for latest maps and prices are in hundreds while there are free alternatives available. What is even interesting is, such paid updates aren't the best quality ones either.
Most likely $150 tomtom gets you years of free map updates across whole of US or Europe with better accuracy from a navigation point of view. Free apps like Waze which I use by the way, provides excellent services and navigation capabilities.

[srishiva]

With Apple, they will have to pay some upfront license fee. Its not completely free. Now that could be taken care at the initial buy itself. Its free after that.
Hopefully, they will discontinue this practice with all the negative press they are getting about this.

[Akshay.Hemmady]

This is the most ridiculous thing I've heard. A manufacturer like BMW resorting to such cheap tactics to earn some extra money is highly disappointing, especially when almost all new cars of today in the Indian segment costing less than one third of the price providing this facility free of cost for a lifetime!

[GTO]

Originally Posted by bhavik.1991

we've got cheap money making tactics by VW & BMW.

The thread you linked to is about adding it to existing cars. AFAIK, VW nowhere charges a monthly / annual fee for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

Originally Posted by AMG Power

I think this is intended for the lease options

But you can lease $20,000 cars in the USA with both software free - so what gives BMW the right to rip off its customers on a $60,000 car?

Also, what about when the cars come off-lease (typically at the 3 year mark)?

Originally Posted by veedub89

His response, "we only have that in our premium cars like the 5-series."

Some of these premium car salesmen really have some attitude and I hate it - whenever I can, I always put them in their place. Humility is a virtue.

Originally Posted by dileepcm

I am not surprised as same goes with map updates.

While I don't agree with charging for map updates:

1. This situation is different. Is any manufacturer charging you an annual subscription fee for the maps?

2. We anyway have Google Maps . I think onboard navigation is one of the most useless features in cars.

Originally Posted by srishiva

With Apple, they will have to pay some upfront license fee. Its not completely free.

Correct. But when you get Apple CarPlay for free in budget hatchbacks & sedans, why is BMW ripping off its customers like this? It's like checking into the Taj Mahal Hotel and paying an extra fee for the bathroom towel .

What this does is damage the brand. Luxury car owners are smart people - they didn't get rich by being naive or careless with their money. BMW owners will surely feel they're getting the shorter end of the stick if they are made to pay for something that's free in cars costing 1/3rd the amount.

[navin]

Originally Posted by veedub89

Also this is at a time when Skoda is giving this feature in the Kodiaq which is what we were comparing the X1 against.

Originally Posted by GTO

Luxury car owners are smart people - they didn't get rich by being naive or careless with their money. BMW owners will surely feel they're getting the shorter end of the stick if they are made to pay for something that's free in cars costing 1/3rd the amount.

Exactly. What about the other luxury marques? Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, Volvo? Do they also charge a fee for Car Play or Android Auto?

Very often I see brands working in concert.

[dileepcm]

Originally Posted by GTO

While I don't agree with charging for map updates:

1. This situation is different. Is any manufacturer charging you an annual subscription fee for the maps?

2. We anyway have Google Maps . I think onboard navigation is one of the most useless features in cars.

In my view, having to pay money sometimes in hundreds of dollars for map updates which lasts just a few years is nothing vastly different.

Fully agree on Google maps. I use Waze all the time, but I have to admit that I really had to rely on on-board maps at times when for example data does not work or there is no network coverage for cell phones.

[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by dileepcm

In my view, having to pay money sometimes in hundreds of dollars for map updates which lasts just a few years is nothing vastly different.

Fully agree on Google maps. I use Waze all the time, but I have to admit that I really had to rely on on-board maps at times when for example data does not work or there is no network coverage for cell phones.

As far as I know, and from experience too, Google maps (sans the real-time traffic update) work very well when there is no data coverage (in fact, with no network coverage) as long as you are connected with GPS on your cellphone.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator

As far as I know, and from experience too, Google maps (sans the real-time traffic update) work very well when there is no data coverage (in fact, with no network coverage) as long as you are connected with GPS on your cellphone.

OT. It will work only in two conditions:

1) You have downloaded offline maps for the area you're in
2) In the process of searching/checking the route, some part of the maps has been downloaded as cache (not exactly reliable/consistent)

Apart from these, there's no way the maps on Google Maps will work without data coverage. You'll just see the blue dot moving around on a blank page.

[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

OT. It will work only in two conditions:

1) You have downloaded offline maps for the area you're in
2) In the process of searching/checking the route, some part of the maps has been downloaded as cache (not exactly reliable/consistent)

Apart from these, there's no way the maps on Google Maps will work without data coverage. You'll just see the blue dot moving around on a blank page.

If you are already into navigation mode (already filled in the destination and started the navigation), even if network connection is lost,it will continue to work as long as GPS connection is not disrupted or you do not exit the navigation.

[HKap]

Originally Posted by GTO

What about the years after that! And where does this stop? An annual fee for a spare tyre (which you didn't provide for years)? Or for the wipers?

This is so dumb on BMW's part. Yes the world is moving towards everything as a service to have predictable future revenue. However, they are missing the whole point. This makes no sense. Only manufacturers like Tesla are in a position to sell the car and then sell software services as subscription around it.

You can buy a Tesla which is hardware ready for stuff like autonomous driving and then sell that software as a subscription. Its perfect. But to achieve this model, BMW would have to move most of their features from hardware dependent to software dependent.

If not then they have to be happy with the leasing model which is sort of a subscription. except that once you "subscribe" you cannot modify or drop a service till the lease period runs out. sort of a non refundable 3 year subscription.

[hema4saran]

This is really cheap tactics from BMW management especially in the country's most popular auto show at the beginning of the year. Most of the budget car manufacturers gives these features for free in all their cars. To an extent, I can accept the $300 for Apple car play installation for the first time. That is how these Luxury marques makes money especially in US. If you need a particular feature in the car, you need buy that as a package which will cost you a bomb and it comes with of lot of unnecessary things which you might not need at all. But $80 yearly subscription fee is atrocious I must say .

To be honest, most of the people here will not think about this and pay for it on the spot. I have been working with lot of guys here who just don't think or care about anything. As far as they are concerned, if they need something right now, they will pay whatever they could afford to get it on the spot.

I know a guy here who spent $47k for a Civic Type R. The sticker price is around $35k for the car and since there are lot of demand for it, the dealer marked up the price and waited for someone to come and bite the bait. This guy went in with check got the price reduced from 50k to 47k and got it then and there. This is just an example. Most of them are the same when it comes to spending money.