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07-12-2022, 06:12 AM | #45 |
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Oh, im sure there will be 50 dashboard lights to “remind” you that this and that arent working; meaning, if you are like me and hate having cel’s, you will have to pay not to have a dash rife with warning lights.
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07-12-2022, 06:44 AM | #47 | |
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In terms of other car companies having already offered something like this if it was actually lower cost - the novelty here isn't adding every option to every car - the novelty here is subscription based services which justify offering every option on every car. Otherwise there's no point if you're going to be offering customers pricing tiers based on various packages (like what most companies do today). You have to consider the output side as well. In regards to Porsche - I have to disagree with them only being "slightly" more expensive I cross shopped a Cayenne with my X5 - and similarly equipped, the Porsche was over $20k more. That doesn't fit my definition of "slight" lol. And I'd argue my loaded X5 has a much nicer interior with nicer quality materials than the comparable Cayenne (but that's a discussion for another time). Perhaps in their base, bare-bones models they don't cost significantly more than the other Germans, but a base X5 will have more standard equipment than a base Cayenne. If there was only a "slight" difference in price, you wouldn't see BMW selling 3 times as many X5s as Porsche sells Cayennes. Also keep in mind - BMW is the top automaker in the world when it comes to supply chain based on Gartners top 25 best supply chain companies. BMW is the only automaker on that top 25 list. So if anyone figures something like this out first, it would probably be BMW - so perhaps this is them figuring it out first? You see this often in supply chain... the business comes with the novelty and the supply chain is asked to cash the check which the business wrote. The problem is if supply chain determines there's a significant cost increase to offering something, it then puts the ball back in the business's court to offer up a counter break-even analysis. So when I say insider data - I'm talking about those discussions BMW's having. I can envision it - supply chain at BMW coming back with various scenarios - fully optimized supply chain with optimal sourcing, transportation, distribution - taking advantage of a steady stream of product - and a sub-optimal supply chain where the cost rises because they continue operating based on their current model, but add more product to it. The other thing I think is important to consider is not just the added demand, but that the forecast of individual skus is now tied to the forecast of their main product at a 1:1 basis. Rather than have a separate forecast for each category of part - which comes with its own set of forecast biases and errors - you're now tied to the main product which is the car itself. So it's not just that adding more product means you can better utilize your transportation and distribution network - you can better utilize it because your flow of product is now much more predictable with less error. This also has positive impacts on inventory planning. You're eliminating layers of forecasting which simplifies your entire planning process. As for the volume they do - I don't think you can make a broad generalization to say because they sell 400k cars they're already operating at an efficient scale for all parts. There's a few issues here: First - truck utilization is measured in two ways - volume (cubic inches or centimeters), or weight (lbs or kg) - based on whether they believe the truck will "cube out" or "weigh out". This determination is based on the attributes of what's being shipped - if it's just one part then we can say, is it a large part or a heavy part? If it's a large part then we can say it'll cube out before it weighs out for example. But without knowing the attributes of all parts being shipped, and in what volumes they're being shipped, we can't make the blanket statement that they're probably already maximizing usage of their distribution/transportation network. Second - with multiple vendors shipping to multiple production plants around the world, likely with multiple touchpoints across the upstream network, it's a complicated web, so your volumes may not be as concentrated and as simple as saying, "we already sell so many cars, we're already maximizing use of all our transportation methods". I'm sure BMW has a state of the art TMS system which helps them enhance their network, but TMS systems can only go so far. I do agree this is a cash-grab from BMW - but I don't believe they would have approved this decision if it blew up their supply chain costs, especially for a company with a world-class supply chain like BMW. And I say that because I've seen these internal struggles play out. Contrary to what us consumers believe - high volume companies don't like to increase their pricing - because that puts them at a competitive disadvantage (typically - you'd have to get into price elasticity of demand for various industries). They typically increase their pricing out of necessity, not because of a self-inflicted decision. Companies also don't love decreasing their pricing (promotional pricing is separate). Ideally they prefer to keep their pricing as static as possible, adjusted for inflation. And you see this in the automotive industry - car pricing adjusted for inflation has stayed relatively stable over the decades, barring some exceptions. So the vast majority of the margin improvements happen due to internal efficiency gains. In this case - I think BMW is directly targeting, and trying to convert, customers who are on the fence about certain products. This enables them to "try it out" for a month rather than pay full price for it. They're banking on that conversion rate generating additional revenue. From my own perspective? I typically order my cars nearly fully loaded anyway, but I do see application where I only access heated seats/steering wheel in the winter months. I'd have to do my own break-even analysis to determine how many seasons of doing that could I do before it costs the same as just paying full price for the option outright, but I see some potential there if I don't keep my car longer than say, 5 years for example. Another - radar based cruise control - I don't have a daily commute since I work remote, but it's a godsend for long road trips. So perhaps I only purchase a monthly subscription for a month where I know I'm going on a trip. That's just me trying to see how I can benefit from the system. I'm always looking for ways it benefits me.
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07-12-2022, 06:53 AM | #48 |
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Absolutely - for whatever reason many of these discussions devolve into name calling Most people aren't looking to learn from a healthy discussion, they're just trying to win an argument. So always refreshing when views are respected.
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07-12-2022, 07:20 AM | #49 |
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They tried this before, stopped, and are of course trying again. They aren't / won't be the only company. It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of but I'm going to predict that it's the future whether we like it or not.
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07-12-2022, 09:03 AM | #50 |
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https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion...m_source=share
Just read this. I will not pay for heated seats |
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07-12-2022, 09:22 AM | #51 |
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You bought a car with seat heaters and it feels criminal that the auto manufacturer could enable/disable them via remote software based on paying a monthly or annual fee. This isn't a service like satellite radio where you are paying for continuous new content or software revisions. This is hardware that's already installed in your car that does not require any sort of software upkeep. I feel this is going way too far.
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07-12-2022, 09:48 AM | #52 |
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I've to agree with your statement
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07-12-2022, 10:56 AM | #53 | |
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That being said, BOO BMW. BOOO, hiss. Shaame on you. Shawn |
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07-12-2022, 11:05 AM | #54 | |
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07-12-2022, 11:08 AM | #55 | |
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I hope it doesn't goes to this but for me anyways, all the cars I want are already out and will only be affordable for me in 10 years. |
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07-12-2022, 11:14 AM | #56 | |
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Betcha. But let's hope they don't try to pull it here, and Korea gives them the middle finger on it. Shawn |
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07-12-2022, 11:18 AM | #57 |
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I guess the cars that don't have "subscription locked" options will hold better resale values...............
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07-12-2022, 11:24 AM | #58 |
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this is a terrible idea
BUT this way you could just pay for them from Oct-March and not all the other months still a terrible idea...
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07-12-2022, 12:03 PM | #59 |
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Autopilot is that rare, unexplained phenomena where people are willing to fork over thousands of dollars for vaporware. There's no logical explanation as to why masses of people would do that but they do because enough people can't see through Elon's smoke and mirrors act. I don't think that is repeatable for any other automaker.
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07-12-2022, 12:41 PM | #60 |
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Yeah, auto-pilot is sort of crowdfunding a thing that might come out and work someday, maybe. OK, it's obviously farther and better than that, but for autopilot I see the additional fee making sense. It's a big-deal feature, something very difficult and cost-worthy to work out, not everyone wants this thing that's big and expensive, and so on.
Heated seats are - damned things are already there, everything is there. You are paying to use something that's currently on the car which you (thought that) you already purchased. Or leased, as the case may be. |
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07-12-2022, 02:19 PM | #61 |
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Anyone making any assumption on the price to 'have cruise control radar standard' vs the price of a factory doing 'one car configuration' is purely guessing.
How much does each radar cost? How much does each plant's supply line, techs, and robots cost? How many robots or assembly lines would be simplified or completely omitted because there's only one 3 series configuration, with radar? Pure guessing on where the price balance lies. In my head, if the cheapest Honda can come with factory adaptive cruise control, it's probably cheaper to make all 3 series with ACC and get rid of a few million (billion?) dollar robots at every BMW plant in the world. But that's pure conjecture.
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07-12-2022, 04:08 PM | #62 |
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It beggars belied that anyone can think this is a good thing.
Recurring revenue is a huge huge plus for companies and for car manufacturers this is a great (for them) untapped revenue source. For consumers it's s h i t on a stick, but we can already see here the 'yeah more small payments - they never add up to anything really do they' crowd actually warming to it This is only bad for car owners.
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07-12-2022, 04:20 PM | #63 | |
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07-13-2022, 03:10 AM | #64 | |
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07-13-2022, 03:15 AM | #65 |
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It's absolutely crazy! Can maybe we also share our own seat heats with others?
BMW is now selling subscriptions for heated seats in a number of countries — the latest example of the company’s adoption of microtransactions for high-end car features. A monthly subscription to heat your BMW’s front seats costs roughly $18, with options to subscribe for a year ($180), three years ($300), or pay for “unlimited” access for $415.
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07-13-2022, 05:37 AM | #66 |
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the real reason for iDrive 8 - subscriptions
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