In the end, the KIA car company made its cars into subscription models, I really hate this because in the end the car we buy with our own money doesn't feel like it belongs to us.
Should we finally buy an old school car ? so as not to be affected by this subscription models or is there a way to crack the software installed in it ?
Worth noting that these features appear to require your car to be connected to a cellular network. This isn’t the same as BMW charging a fee for heated seats.
They could have just put a SIM card in your car and required you to pay your cell phone provider for a connection.
The crazy thing is that at the price you are paying for a friggin telluride they could easily raise the price by a few hundred (ie several years worth of subscription) and it would be unlikely to shift sales by much at all but would not piss off the buyers like this. You can't put this crap on your car loan either.
I really get the sense there is a conspiracy level concerted effort to try to indoctrinate generation Z into allowing every corporation they deal with to stick an IV into their bank accounts.
This type of subscription is actually kiiiiinda understandable because the company has to maintain servers, staff and keep the software secure because they're handling sensitive data such as location etc.
I also remember that BMW I think? Had a heated seat subscription and that's really not justifiable imo
I own a Kia. I don't enjoy the subscription anymore than the next guy but I'm calling bullshit.
The only features behind a pay wall are the ones the app provides. The ones that require an always on internet connection and server infrastructure to maintain.
None of the in-car features are limited. The remote start on my key fob, seat heaters, onboard nav, all work fine without a subscription.
This isn't like the crap bmw was pulling with the seat heaters.
I might be the guy that shows up at the revolution for the most trivial reason but I hate that it says $59.00 per annually like companies think they're so smart for having business school graduates on staff charging for things only business school graduates would think to charge for but they can't even get basic grammar right.
These features require the cloud, which costs money and uses carbon. If you don't want them, as many don't, you shouldn't have to force the company to price them in at the purchase.
There is not one single new car on the market that I would take possession of if you gave it to me for free. I like having a manual transmission and a radio with buttons.
I miss when you didn't need a cell connection for remote start, like my fob can lock and unlock my car from the third floor of my building why can't I just have a button on my remote that does the same as unlocking my doors.
Although, the roadside kinda makes $60 a year worth it just for the peace of mind, gotta atleast give em that.
Kia's just suck in general AFAIK. My friend has a 2010 Kia Sorento and he has some "device" on top of the positive (?) terminal of his battery. The terminal ring is a bit loose so it doesn't make proper contact with the battery terminal and he has to hold it against it so that he can start his car.
I thought he was bullshitting me at first because he's not a car guy and told me before that when his car was fucking up that it was the transmission, but it was the coil packs. Nope, there's a big black box on the top of the battery and he said that only Kia can service it, and it'll cost like $800 to fix.
I just Googled and the 2024 Telluride has an MSRP of ~$55,000 in my area, used 2023 models are about ~$45,000.
Looking at an auto loan calculator, that's between $700 and $900 per month with a 96 month 9% auto loan.
Point is, if you can afford the car you're probably not worrying about the subscription except on principle. If you can afford the car and have principle concerns you'd probably buy a different car.
Time to begin the era of the DYI automobile. Buy a number of ~30v, high amperage batteries, an electric motor, jury rig the thing to a drivetrain and presto!
The care package with roadside assistance seems reasonable, though your insurance usually already cover road assistance. The plus package is insane though, they charge that much just to enable remote start via their app?
Just buy used and modify yourself with the tech you want. Send a message that this shit is unacceptable and we are willing to live in a less technologically enhanced world if it means no subscriptions. We keep buying it, they will continue to think this is how you “extract profit” from consumers.
What happens when the car becomes too old and they decide to drop that version of the API the car is talking with? Huh? That's another problem with these with "critical service but it can only go through us", when they change their mind you get fucked.
Who is we?
Why are you buying a car in the first place?
get as many of the negatives of car ownership away from you.
I lease my Taycan. I do not want to pay for tyres or checkups. I do not want to pay in case the engine blows (not that it can, it's electric but you get the gist).
If you can, get an eBike. Cars need a ton of expensive resources. No matter what car you get, you're basically renting it for $10k/yr anyway. Bikes can be fixed with a small set of tools in a living room without thousands of dollars of diagnostic equipment.
If you can't do a bike because of distance, consider a motorcycle. That's at least a little more free than a car. Cars are the worst.
That also means the car gets a lot cheaper because of the recurring subscription model right? Right?
I wonder how they're planning on competing to Tesla like this. They basically give all these things for free in their app/car.
( Not to Tesla fanboy or anything ). But if you can pick between a car that gives you all this stuff compared to one that charges you monthly for it.....
Even though putting money in Elon's pocket is something I'd rather avoid
It's not like older vehicles came with those features enabled by default. On my 15 year old pickup you can't have any of that even if you paid for it. I think this is not quite the same as other brands that are locking you out of features like heated seats.