Ill take “reasons why I still drive a b5.5 passat” for $500, Alex
this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
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Woo! 2002 passat owner checking in here!
03 Jetta 1.8T 5mt reporting in 😋
ICE vehicles have been the same for a long time, only they lock the horsepower upgrades behind upgrade packages/trims.
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Consumer planning anything but Volkswagen subscription upgrade
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.
Wouldn't it be even cheaper to design the next version modularly and interchangeable?
Ah, wait, that would make it too easy to repair for unlicensed users.
Wouldn't it be even cheaper to design the next version modularly and interchangeable?
The extra labor to manage more components and check/verify each single vehicle fits it's unique specs would eat up the saving really fast. It's so much easier to do a single HW config and manage it through SW, and electronic components are generally cheap.
That would require more logistics to get different modules, checks to make sure the right ones are installed and labor to install them. Somewhere there is a cutoff point where modularity is cheaper.
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).
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.
We imported all the consumer protection laws, so as long as this isn't a recent change it will be the same in the UK.
AFAIK a lot of the EU citizen and consumer protections have been dismantled in UK after UK left EU.
Even democratic rights to protest have been limited, and privacy rights against government surveillance that is illegal in EU.
So I seriously doubt they haven't cut user protections too, the conservative government was clearly a government that worked against the general population to benefit the rich and those in power. This was absolutely one of the main points for the extreme right politicians and media (mostly conservatives) to want out of EU.
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. 🤣🤣🤣
In EU they sell well. not in the US, however.
not in the US, however.
🤣🤣🤣
I wonder why that may be. but incidentally Porsche was the most profitable brand in USA before Trumps stupid tariffs, and Porsche is also VW.
USA can go fuck themselves, they are making themselves irrelevant. Hyundai is also losing profits in USA despite investments:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/hyundai-motor-warns-bigger-hit-us-tariffs-after-q2-profit-fall-2025-07-24/
Hyundai will be fucked over too, it's just a matter of time. VW decided to scale back in USA, instead of fighting the windmills.
I'm not dissing Hyundai, they make OK cars at OK prices, I might actually go for a Hyundai for my next car, but mostly because it's cheaper, if I can find a VW or Skoda Enyaq 80 or 85 at a good price, that's the one I want.
i don't know anything about it. i just looked up VW and looked to see what countries sales were good and bad.
"USA can go fuck themselves, they are making themselves irrelevant."
i did not want to get into a political shit fight, man. i did a DDG search about sales for a car manufacturer. thats all I did.
take it fucking easy, damn. =(
Are you really claiming to be unaware of the shitshow that is USA?
Why not look at a page like this for example?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automotive_manufacturers_by_production
Hyundai is doing fine, but they are still below VW.
Why choose only a single of the 3 world biggest markets, and incidentally the one where VW is doing worst?
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I wonder why that may be.
Parts are expensive since everything needs to be imported. This has been true long before Trump started messing with tariffs. Parts are way easier to get and cheaper in the EU.
Toyota is popular here for the opposite reason: parts are inexpensive and easy to find. They're also imported, but they've done a much better job figuring out their supply chain.
Porsche is also VW
Maybe by ownership, but they target a very different demographic and thus are designed very differently.
Hyundai is also losing profits
Hyundai is a lot more popular here than VW. Why? They're cheap and reasonably reliable. VW isn't as reliable.
Regarding reliability it's weird Hyundai already has such a good reputation for reliability, because it's not many years ago that Hyundai was pretty poor quality. Like for instance the Hyundai Sonata was really awful with rust. And the way the car was built was outdated.
So just a few years ago, there was no comparison that VW and Toyota were vastly superior quality to Hyundai.
I know they are better today,but still I must admit I'm surprised if they are really better than VW?
For instance the Hyundai Kona 64 had a total recall on the batteries. That's an enormous issue to have had.
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OK, but still USA is just 1 of the 3 biggest markets in the world, and the one where VW is doing worst.
All three brands are very reliable, so i bet the margin in that regard isn't big between them.
On a global scale VW remains ahead of Hyundai.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automotive_manufacturers_by_production
We get it; you drive a VW
No I was using Mitsubishi for many years, but unfortunately their quality declined.
Now I drive an old Opel, but currently I wouldn't buy anything from Stelantis.
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Is $879 for an extra 20 horsepower even worth it?
Not really IMO, but I would personally never buy it, since it's an artificial limitation only meant to extort buyers for more money, for something that cost them nothing, and I would never reward artificial limitations and such shenanigans.
I'd probably look for some third party hack to unlock it for free instead, or probably buy another brand of car.
For ice cars If you are outside warranty you can just have your ECU remapped and gain much more hp.
I am guessing these remaps will eventually be available for electric motors too
I'm not sure about other EVs, but on the BMW iX, a lot of the computer stuff is encrypted now, and has to be signed with BMW's private key (i.e. they've actually implemented encryption correctly). Apps like Bimmercode don't work on it.
Fair if you care about it. No other upgrades will get you that much.
No. Switching from 140 to 160 hp isn't something you'd really even notice on everyday commuting. More is more of course, but unless your driving style is very aggressive that doesn't really make any difference on the driving experience. What it might do is improve your range slightly, but that depends heavily on multiple different things and if your driving style and conditions on most common routes aren't suitable it might even reduce the range you'll get out of the thing.
Do you notice the power difference when your AC is on?
This 20 hp should be similar tbh.
Volkswagen is desperate and absolutely fucked. If this is their answer for every one of their shitty little cars being over taken by Koreans they are just fucked.
VW makes better EV's than Hyundai/KIA IMO.
Also VW group has bigger sales.
Hyundai and KIA have some good options too, but there is no way to call VW shitty by comparison, when they far outsell the competition in EU.
In Denmark where I live, Korean EV's have dropped out of top 10, while VW group has 7 models in top 10!
Vw doesnt make better EVs than hyundai lol, their range is worse, their charge curve is worse, their software is worse, what they have is better brand still, people are sleeping on Hyundai/Kia even though they offer better equipped cars for cheaper and with better reliability and warranty.
That's completely okay with me. i get to buy these as used cars at extremely cut price.
Go test drive a VW id.3 from 2022, I did, it's a 3 year old car and everything is creaking
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Fuck off