Das subscription
this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
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From the same company that brought you test based emissions upgrades?
Capped speed isn't enough. I want it to slam the brakes on the highway and go "Tired of the ads? Get the Volkswagen Battlepass and enjoy an uninterupted drive!"
Ooh, how about it accelerates really slowly at stop lights unless I pay for "turbo mode" to not get honked at?
Need a panoramic view instead of just a slit? Get the Extend-A-View™ subscription to instantly make the full surface of all your windows transparent!
I'm actually fine with that. People don't need to go 0-60 in an intersection.
But what about 0-10? 0-5? Surely you'd be better off limited to 2 mph/kph for the first 10s after a stop.
🤔 💭 Our cars aren't selling... Hmm.. Should we make them last longer? No. Should we make the interior out of anything except hard plastic? No. Should we make our cars easier to repair and not have even the most basic shit require specialized tools? No. I got it! Subscriptions for basic shit that gauges the few customers still buying our shit!
Consumer planning anything but Volkswagen subscription upgrade
Fuck you volkswagen!
If you pay a little extra a little corkscrew that raises up from the middle of the driver seat every half hour will only do so every two hours too.
Our family was looking for a newer car. We found a listing for a VW, went to the dealership with intent to buy and was told that the car (which was standing RIGHT there) was available for sale in 3 months. Now we enjoy our new Toyota.
The car has to ripen.
You dodged a bullet.
VW has gone down the drain.
option to pay $22.50 per month or $879 one time to gain 20 horsepower.
At least you can buy it outright, so not the worst scheme of this sort, but still a scheme.
Auto Express UK reported on the pricing but could not verify whether the subscription follows the vehicle or the user profile.
This is bad journalism, per EU regulation, if the option is bought it follows the car, if it's a subscription, I doubt they can legally demand either the original and definitely not another owner to keep it. A subscription can be cancelled, otherwise it's an indefinite contract, which a new owner never agreed to.
....
Oh sorry I forgot for a second that UK is no longer in EU, so UK customers can be fucked in new creative ways, which probably also explains why this experiment is in UK. Ah well they chose to fuck themselves over I guess.
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Ill take “reasons why I still drive a b5.5 passat” for $500, Alex
It's due for a head gasket change, not much else. Not worth upgrading to a newer car for my price range and use case. I don't need a computer I don't own.
ICE vehicles have been the same for a long time, only they lock the horsepower upgrades behind upgrade packages/trims.
Woo! 2002 passat owner checking in here!
03 Jetta 1.8T 5mt reporting in 😋
Most car for the last decade or two already come with a lot of options built-in that are simply disabled by software in the factory. It's cheaper to just build in a standard set of electronics and disable what's not bought by the customer because many brands still like to milk the customer with options. Subscriptions just take the buying of options to renting.
VW here also also has the "lifetime subscription" for this. That makes it basically the same as you buying the option and they switch in it on in the factory. It's just plain in your face that it's behind a paywall while the old checking options didn't feel as much as a paywall.
Anyway, I went with Hyundai. They didn't do options and subscriptions. You only get to choose the model and looks, that's it.
Well hyundai has a predefined trim system, they cut cost of manufacturing by only having predefined trim levels that you can't customize.
They might still do this cutting of horsepower but they do it because of batteries.
e.g. the 39kwh and the 64 kwh Kona has the same motor but on the 39kwh it's limited as the battery pack can't deliver enough juice.
Fuck “lifetime subscriptions”. They’re taking a page from Tesla and I’m sure they’ll require any new owner to pay them separately should you sell the vehicle.
Simply avoid VW and any future brand that pulls this shit.
Tesla does not and has never had "lifetime subscriptions". They have a single connectivity subscription (they still have basic connectivity for free for all cars that allows you to monitor and control the vehicle,as well as navigation). Any other upgrades are behind 1-time payments (or your choice of either).
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And they wonder why nobody’s buying their cars…
Strange comment, since VW group sell by far the most EV cars in EU.
Yet you get a dozen upvotes.
You guys are weird. 🤣🤣🤣
Lemmy moment
In EU they sell well. not in the US, however.
Yeah but the US isn’t all that matters. For reference VW group is the largest automaker in the world, so the comment “no one is buying their cars” is very short sighted.
i don't think its really all that big a deal. nobody said the US is all that matters. guy just said nobody is buying their cars.
which to him is true. but its been corrected.
this is just a conversation.
Meant to reply to him, not you. You basically said something similar to me.
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Fuck off
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