Last year, BMW stirred up a lot of frustration when it introduced a subscription-only model for heated car seats. The idea of having to pay $18 a month to keep warm in winter seemed ridiculous to many. Fortunately, BMW has now decided to eliminate this fee. Customers were particularly annoyed because they felt they were being asked to pay extra for features that used to come standard. This situation even led to some hackers offering their services to unlock the heated seats for those unwilling to pay the additional fee.
While U.S. drivers never had to deal with this issue, BMW owners in places like Germany and the U.K. did. Recently, in an interview with Autocar, Pieter Nota, BMW’s board member for sales and marketing, announced that heated seats can now be purchased or declined at the time of buying the car, although some other features like driving and parking assistance remain subscription-based.
“We thought we were offering extra value by allowing customers to activate heated seats later, but the acceptance wasn’t great,” Nota explained. “People felt like they were paying twice, which wasn’t actually true, but perception is reality, as I always say. That’s why we stopped.”
The heated seats subscription proposal also provoked U.S. lawmakers Paul Moriarty and Joe Danielsen to speak out against it. They even considered banning the practice to prevent other car manufacturers from doing the same. “Car companies are increasingly looking to charge consumers subscription fees for features like heated seats, even though the necessary parts are already installed at the time of sale,” the lawmakers commented. “With rising consumer prices, it’s important to guard against business practices that mainly aim to boost corporate profits.”