New subscriptions and streaming services seem to be a recurring reality in entertainment, with video games, music, tv, and movies all joining the fun, but features locked behind subscriptions with new car purchases seem to be growing trends drivers are paying for.
The crazy part is the features aren’t added in after you pay; they’re merely unlocked.
A prime example is demonstrated by the latest money-grubbing culprit, Mercedes.
What the German luxury car manufacturer is doing could be summed up by saying it has the greed for speed.
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Essentially, Mercedes is charging you, on top of the exorbitant cost you paid for your luxury electric vehicle, to unlock more speed already built-in to the car. For $1,200 per year, you can “increase the torque and maximum output of your Mercedes-EQ.”
The feature isn’t a hardware upgrade, either.
The performance boost is decent. The performance of your Mercedes-EQ is boosted from 215 kW to 260 kW, which means you can go from 0 to 60 in approximately 5.1 seconds instead of 6.0 seconds, which varies depending on the vehicle. But it seems like a strange offering for a manufacturer that doesn’t necessarily seem geared to folks looking for a high-performance car.
Mercedes isn’t the only luxury manufacturer finding ways to nickel and dime customers.
BMW recently made headlines after it was revealed that the company was charging customers a premium to enable heated seats in specific markets. They’re also charging a fee to allow a heated steering wheel.
Many manufacturers offer front-seat heating out of the box, but BMW charges customers a monthly fee to enable the popular feature in newer models. The feature has yet to make its way to North American markets, but this trend is likely one we’ll see continue and be adopted by more manufacturers.
Thankfully, these tactics haven’t made their way to Canada yet.
It might make sense if these were budget car manufacturers looking to make a little more by upselling customers. However, for Mercedes and BMW, in some instances, you’re already spending well over $100,000 to acquire the vehicle without paying for subscriptions on top of the sticker price.
It remains to be seen what major players in the car industry will follow this trend next. Will Tesla start charging for car karaoke?
Maybe we shouldn’t give them ideas.
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