The (car) world is going mad, Pt 78

[Redmires]

BMW now offer you option of having warm hands and bottom for only £25 per month.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62142208

Where on earth this is leading to I don't know, but I don't want to go there. A monthly subscription for a feature that will only be used for a couple of months every year. Does one get a refund for a mild winter ? Bah, humbug !

[Dod101]

BMW now offer you option of having warm hands and bottom for only £25 per month.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62142208

Where on earth this is leading to I don't know, but I don't want to go there. A monthly subscription for a feature that will only be used for a couple of months every year. Does one get a refund for a mild winter ? Bah, humbug !

My Q5 throws in heated seats as part of the deal but we must all be getting soft. I remember when my father had an old pre war Austin which I do not think had any sort of heater that worked at all. Mind you it did not matter much because in those days many private car owners (my father included) laid up their car during the winter months anyway.

Dod

[Itsallaguess]

A monthly subscription for a feature that will only be used for a couple of months every year.

It's much worse than that though.

It's a monthly subscription for a beneficial function that's built into the vehicle and available to work from day one, but normally disabled until you pay extra for it.

Micro-transactions are the name of the game though, in lots and lots of different fields, so expect to see more of this annoyance in future...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[PhaseThree]

This may well be a cost saving for the first owner and may even be a tax dodge. Previously you would have had to spec your new car with the BMW "Winter Package" costing ££££. If you are keeping the car for 36 months and pay 36x£25( £900) for the equivalent package it may not be a bad deal.

Your BIK tax as a company car driver would be based on the list price of the car plus options. So if you decline the package at purchase then change you mind later you avoid BIK tax on the difference but still get the feature.

BTW - Car manufactures have been doing this for years. The same part being used in multiple configurations. The difference is that BMW have now decided to allow functions to be switched on and off after purchase. As an example the BMW 316d, 318d, 320d all use exactly the same engine with the state of tune being decided by software.

[Redmires]

This may well be a cost saving for the first owner and may even be a tax dodge. Previously you would have had to spec your new car with the BMW "Winter Package" costing ££££. If you are keeping the car for 36 months and pay 36x£25( £900) for the equivalent package it may not be a bad deal.

At which point the car will be sold to a new owner and BMW can sell the option all over again

[staffordian]

I remember when my father had an old pre war Austin which I do not think had any sort of heater that worked at all. Mind you it did not matter much because in those days many private car owners (my father included) laid up their car during the winter months anyway.

Dod

Not just pre war cars! The first car my father had after getting married and having a family was a 1956 or thereabouts Austin A30. No heater in that, or windscreen washers. Dad bought a kit to fit washers, but it was always coats hats and gloves in the winter

[PhaseThree]

This may well be a cost saving for the first owner and may even be a tax dodge. Previously you would have had to spec your new car with the BMW "Winter Package" costing ££££. If you are keeping the car for 36 months and pay 36x£25( £900) for the equivalent package it may not be a bad deal.

At which point the car will be sold to a new owner and BMW can sell the option all over again

After it's out of warrantee it will be hacked
Relatively easy to do on a BMW using ISTA/P/D if you're computer savvy.

[9873210]

After it's out of warrantee it will be hacked
Relatively easy to do on a BMW using ISTA/P/D if you're computer savvy.

Perhaps, but manufactures put more effort into preventing hacking that will cost them revenue as opposed to hacking that will merely endanger lives.

[quelquod]

This may well be a cost saving for the first owner and may even be a tax dodge. Previously you would have had to spec your new car with the BMW "Winter Package" costing ££££. If you are keeping the car for 36 months and pay 36x£25( £900) for the equivalent package it may not be a bad deal.

At which point the car will be sold to a new owner and BMW can sell the option all over again

After it's out of warrantee it will be hacked
Relatively easy to do on a BMW using ISTA/P/D if you're computer savvy.

I’m sure it can be hacked but I’m equally sure it will be protected by an FSC code so not quite as ‘simple’ as just enabling the option in ISTA. Take the point though.

[PhaseThree]

This may well be a cost saving for the first owner and may even be a tax dodge. Previously you would have had to spec your new car with the BMW "Winter Package" costing ££££. If you are keeping the car for 36 months and pay 36x£25( £900) for the equivalent package it may not be a bad deal.

At which point the car will be sold to a new owner and BMW can sell the option all over again

After it's out of warrantee it will be hacked
Relatively easy to do on a BMW using ISTA/P/D if you're computer savvy.

I’m sure it can be hacked but I’m equally sure it will be protected by an FSC code so not quite as ‘simple’ as just enabling the option in ISTA. Take the point though.

I'm sure it will be - and we know how robustly protected the current BMW revenue generating SatNav map system is. The FSC system is easily hacked with a hex editor. I've had my BMW for 9 years and never paid for a map.

On the other hand heated seats and steering wheels have connectors somewhere in the wiring loom, a 10p toggle switch in the right place should suffice.

[doug2500]

connectors somewhere in the wiring loom, a 10p toggle switch in the right place should suffice.

Wouldn't can-bus prevent this? I assume modern cars are can-bus?

[PhaseThree]

connectors somewhere in the wiring loom, a 10p toggle switch in the right place should suffice.

Wouldn't can-bus prevent this? I assume modern cars are can-bus?

They are - or something similar - but somewhere there is a resistance wire (which gets hot) that is switched to 12v by a CAN switch. Find that point and you can replace the CAN switch with a toggle.

I used to own a Volvo with a faulty seat heater. Unfortunately being Swedish it failed to being always on, and always full on - sensible in Sweden not so useful in the UK. A bit of wire and a switch allowed me to disable the heating independently of what the car wanted.

[9873210]

They are - or something similar - but somewhere there is a resistance wire (which gets hot) that is switched to 12v by a CAN switch. Find that point and you can replace the CAN switch with a toggle.

Unless the CAN switch is providing some essential service, such as a thermostat or it's a 5V heater and a switching power supply

Not all that likely in a car, but I used to work on industrial equipment which ran on 12V-48V DC. Lots of accessories ran off of a regulated lower voltage. Some of them used a tiny inline power supply which looked like a shrink wrapped splice. If you replaced it with a simple splice the accessory would get full voltage and be destroyed. Techs learned to RTFM.

[tjh290633]

I remember when my father had an old pre war Austin which I do not think had any sort of heater that worked at all. Mind you it did not matter much because in those days many private car owners (my father included) laid up their car during the winter months anyway.

Dod

Not just pre war cars! The first car my father had after getting married and having a family was a 1956 or thereabouts Austin A30. No heater in that, or windscreen washers. Dad bought a kit to fit washers, but it was always coats hats and gloves in the winter

When I bought my first new car in 1958, I chose a Volkswagen Beetle because it was the only car with a heater as standard, and the optional extras were all fug stirrers. Having had two years of spartan life in a 1943 vintage ex-GPO Telephone Van, I was in no mood to continue without a fresh air heater.

It was about 1963 when the Ford Cortina came out with a sensible heating and ventilating system. The rest were quick to follow.

TJH

[DrFfybes]

When I bought my first new car in 1958, I chose a Volkswagen Beetle because it was the only car with a heater as standard, and the optional extras were all fug stirrers. Having had two years of spartan life in a 1943 vintage ex-GPO Telephone Van, I was in no mood to continue without a fresh air heater.

TJH

The new Hyundai Ioniq6 comes with.....
"a pair of 12-inch displays, 64 colour ambient lighting, spaceship sounds".

Now there's a solution to a problem I didn't know existed.