Would you pay $90 a month for 80 more horsepower?

I hate the subscription model that everything is going to.  

In 2016 the Cayman S came into my price range. It has 45 more hp that a base. I paid it off in 2.5 years, I don't know the price differance between the 987.1 base vs S then but I paid that much more per month for the 45hp.

Absolutely not. To me, this ranks right up there with "market value adjustment" price hikes. 



Not that I'm the target demographic or me not buying their product makes any difference whatsoever but, as far as I'm concerned, any stealership trying that E36 M3 can get berkeleyed.

No way in hell. 

I will never own a vehicle that has subscriptions for anything that is related to the vehicle itself. It's an asinine business model and I will not support it in any way. 

Just check off the $2950 box in the options  list and forget about it. 

 What's that saying about th pain of buying quality goes away long before the pleasure of having it?

$2950 is less than the price of upgrading to the AWD turbo/ 4000 lb towing package on the new Ford Maverick ( you get 88 more hp than the standard hybrid).

jharry3 said:

Just check off the $2950 box in the options  list and forget about it. 

 What's that saying about th pain of buying quality goes away long before the pleasure of having it?

$2950 is less than the price of upgrading to the AWD turbo/ 4000 lb towing package on the new Ford Maverick ( you get 88 more hp than the standard hybrid).

 

When it comes to buying quality vs cheap, I've always heard "Buy once, cry once."

I berkeleying hate subscriptions. If it was up to me, the only subscriptions I would have is for a couple magazines, TrainerRoad, Spotfiy and maybe a streaming video service or two. So I would say no

Toyman! said:

No way in hell. 

I will never own a vehicle that has subscriptions for anything that is related to the vehicle itself. It's an asinine business model and I will not support it in any way. 

I don't even play games that have a subscription/microtransaction model.

Have not car makers always done this?  Except it was an extra cost option on the order form, you pay for once.  Back in the day they just did it with different carbs and camshafts instead of remote software downloads.  In 1967 Pontiac offered a 265 HP 2bbl 389 ci V8, or a 350 HP 4 bbl version.   If you financed the car and were making monthly payments, effectively it was a monthly subscription :)

In reply to t321sg :

Respectfully disagree; installing hard parts vs unlocking something that's already there are two very different things.

wspohn said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

Why not just pay a hacker?

Because they don't offer a driveline warranty if something breaks....?

Just change it back before you send it for service.

Factory fueling on my bike was miserable. During the warranty period, when it went to the dealer, I took 15 minutes and put the garbage oem tune back in the computer.

When it came home, the "more power and smoothness" tune went back in.

What's the contract say about the term?  It's only $90/month now, but how long does that last?  Surely any man who's willing to spend $90/month on a power subscription would easily pay $125/month once they're used to the way it drives!

This MRR-focused business model is an abomination.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Toyman! said:

No way in hell. 

I will never own a vehicle that has subscriptions for anything that is related to the vehicle itself. It's an asinine business model and I will not support it in any way. 

I don't even play games that have a subscription/microtransaction model.

This. The only subscriptions I will pay for are GRM and a couple of streaming services. If you are delivering a physical product, I'm not going to subscribe to it. I don't even like renting things. 

wae said:

What's the contract say about the term?  It's only $90/month now, but how long does that last?  Surely any man who's willing to spend $90/month on a power subscription would easily pay $125/month once they're used to the way it drives!

This MRR-focused business model is an abomination.

Ding Ding Ding.............we have a winner!

wae said:

What's the contract say about the term?  It's only $90/month now, but how long does that last?  Surely any man who's willing to spend $90/month on a power subscription would easily pay $125/month once they're used to the way it drives!

This MRR-focused business model is an abomination.

Or they could push a over the air "update" to make the air conditioner $50 a month. Or bring the base level horsepower you can access without a subscription down to 55.

At first glance it seems infuriating that they would use this pricing model but if you look at cars that have V6 and V8 models, the difference is more than $3k so this doesn't seem so bad. But monthly, no way! one time fee only.

I just willingly gave up 300 hp for a car more suited to our needs because it was useless in our area. Sitting in rush hour traffic thinking about $90 clicking away would just be salt in the wound.

Back to the original question, no, I would not do monthly payments for power. I agree that it's an insidious sales tactic that will likely push its way into all cars. "Do you want the premium 12-speaker stereo - click here for $30 a month, unless you're okay with the free two-speaker weenie setup."

In reply to wae :

Yeah people who move into HOA areas run into this. It's "only" $400 a month for maintenance, now, but $600 five years later. I think that your point is very valid for OTA software updates, especially about them deciding (correctly) "if they've got the money for a nonessential 'upgrade', we can certainly squeeze more out of them."

I recently bought a CAD design software and specifically picked a non-subscription product for these reasons. If you're a business, fine, but as an individual, no way.

Thinking about this more I think not only would I not do this I would actively promote purchasing a car from a manufacturer that does not play these games.  
 

It really rubs me the wrong way. Probably way more than it should but here we are. 

How about a pay-for-use model?  Floor it for five seconds at $.05/HP/Sec. That's twenty bucks for a  thrill. Still better than a cheap hooker. You get your bill, call to contest and an AI says "Remember when you couldn't resist blowing off that Camaro, Dave?" 

Can I get $60 bucks back a month if I don't use the rain sensing wiper feature? Or don't want to use the back up camera? It would probably go over a lot better if customers had cart blanche to add OR delete features more like they did years and years ago. 

Blunder said:

Can I get $60 bucks back a month if I don't use the rain sensing wiper feature? Or don't want to use the back up camera? It would probably go over a lot better if customers had cart blanche to add OR delete features more like they did years and years ago. 

I want my credit card company to allow something like that: Send them, say, $10,000 over your pay off amount and earn 20% return on it like they do.

Instead of $90/month, what about $5 for that boost every second Sunday? 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

I think I suggested that early on :)

While those of us who care about our cars and think in terms of ownership (and buying used) see the subscription idea as ridiculous, I suspect the biggest target of the "subscription" model is the entirely opposite and quite large demographic of people who lease brand new fancy cars every 18 months, which is in effect already a monthly subscription/rental, just locked in for a period. They already have a monthly payment on the car, and won't own it at the end. In that perspective, it makes for a lucrative cash grab - instead of picking features up front and having it locked in to a more expensive lease payment, they'll entice people who leased the car without the features to add stuff like this later on, especially if they wouldn't have bought it originally and Mercedes and their dealers will rake in more cash than they would have before even if the person leasing gets bored with it after a few months. 

It looks like an EQS lease is something like $1000-1300 a month. What's another $90 added on top, and you can start/stop monthly if you change your mind or your budget gets tight? Don't own the car and you won't own the tune anyway. $90 a month on an 18 month lease is  ~$1600 compared to a $3000 up-front fee?

Leasing is already a sneaky cash grab aimed at people with short attention spans who live paycheck to paycheck (which runs higher up the income scale than you'd think) and care more about the lower monthly payment compared to a car loan + lump sum