Mazda in the U.S. came under fire last week when, in the words of The Drive, they “quietly ditched key fob remote start for subscription app.” We’ve been seeing a trend towards subscription services for many features of vehicles for years now — think GM’s OnStar, or SiriusXM radio. But there is a big difference between features consumers consider add-ons and those they consider part of the physical vehicle they’ve just paid a boatload of money to own. As subscription services grow, they might be asking if they actually own anything.
Chuck Reimer, the manager of product communications for Mazda Canada corrected a line in the American news release. “This story is a little bit misleading and/or misinformed, as the article incorrectly mentions Mazda ‘quietly removing remote start functionality from key fobs in 2021.’ Prior to the introduction of Mazda Connected Services, our dealers offered accessory aftermarket remote start solutions for customers who wanted it, but our vehicles have never been available with factory remote start on the key fob.” This is an important thing to note: if your vehicle of any make has an existing piece of hardware that will cease to function without an app, enter confusion. And anger. And all those apps.
In Canada, Mazda offers its Connected Services with the MyMazda app (with some mid-model 2021s and more models starting with 2022) with features like remote start, door lock/unlock, vehicle finder and more for a two-year free trial subscription. Says Reimer, “Since then, we have recently added additional features to the app that are included in the two-year trial, such as Private eCall and Stolen Vehicle Assistance… Since the app launched in 2021, we have consistently communicated a two-year trial period, which we continue to do with our 2025 model year vehicles and there are no changes planned for our trial period.”
The end of the trial period means owners will then have to pay 10 bucks a month to continue the services. Many are crying foul, but it’s likely just Mazda getting caught in a glaring news cycle; don’t expect a walkback any time, because everybody is doing it.
Would you subscribe to heated seats?
BMW is often cited as the most egregious roll-out of a subscription plan when it announced it would be using a payment app if you wanted your heated seats to work. The blowback was swift and effective, though buried in the lines of laughter was the nut of the entire subscription idea: they said 90% of buyers specced heated seats, and it was cheaper to kit out the entire fleet with them at factory. If that 10% changed their minds later, they could pay a fee to activate them. The problem was the optics, with buyers believing the company was double-dipping. BMW will come out on the upside of history in this one, though won’t win any awards for flubbing the landing.
Toyota has a whole roster of subscription plans that cover everything from remote start to entertainment services. It extended some of its initial introduction plans to 10 years for some vehicles with Safety Connect, which includes emergency assistance, enhanced roadside assistance, automatic collision notification and stolen vehicle locator.
In 2022, Motor1 announced Mercedes-Benz was hoping to lure owners to the sub-side with more horsepower. “How much would you pay for a bit more power in your car? Mercedes hopes US$1200 a year as it launches the new Acceleration Increase service for select EQ models. The subscription increases a car’s output by 20 to 24 per cent…”
Subscription services controlled over-the-air
As cars become increasingly more controlled by over-the-air updates, manufacturers can likewise control how the functions of your car work — or don’t. “Tesla has started offering an “energy boost” software unlock to recent buyers of the Model Y RWD, allowing them to unlock more battery capacity – for a price,” reports Electrek.
Two years, 10 years, 10 bucks, 1,200 bucks — it all amounts to the same thing: you are buying a vehicle but you will never own all of its features. A couple of years back, Jim Farley, CEO at Ford in the U.S. noted of the BMW heated seat fiasco, that “he’d “be surprised if we charged for heated seats,” adding “I don’t think that’s our approach.” That doesn’t mean subscriptions won’t come to Ford products, though, with Farley making past comments suggesting that connected services could be a $20 billion market by 2030.”
A $20 billion market. There’s your answer if you think subscription services are going away. You’ve probably heard a lot about Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free tech. “Buyers can activate BlueCruise at the time of purchase for three years by rolling the $2,100 cost into the financing. Or, they can use BlueCruise for free for 90 days, then activate it later for $800 a year or $75 a month,” reports Axios.
Social media is lit up with angry drivers. John Raymond is an automotive consultant with the APA. He immediately singles out two things: are OEM navigational systems actually better than apps you have on your phone like Waze (Lorraine: no), and you can’t ignore the ease with which many can work around paying for online services (just ask paywalled news sources).
Are manufacturers advertising features as subscription services?
But more importantly, Raymond points out that, “you should not pay for features that are baked in, or deemed essential – door locking/unlocking, heated seats, and any features the consumer was told were included in a sales presentation, brochure or through the website.” He believes consumers may be interested in services that “enhance” their experience to provide something over and above the standard offering as sold, like news and entertainment programming or vehicle tracking.
APA consumer advocate George Iny sees a decades-long erosion of consumer expectations that began in the 1990s when people embraced leasing vehicles rather than buying them. “Consumers eventually accepted the idea of ‘renting’ a car than owning one outright,” he says. Leasing going mainstream produced a steady supply of newer used vehicles back to dealer lots and helped to reenergize an industry brought to the brink by a recession. Consumers paid more and thought they were getting a deal. Consumers can be stupid, sometimes.
A huge communications problem is that manufacturers will be advertising the latest and greatest in their tech but when you get to the showroom, you’ll discover (if a sales rep is informed and honest) that you’ll have to pay over and above to actually use them, though usually after a trial period. It’s been easy enough for years to ditch OnStar because your phone is more advanced, or Sirius radio because, again, your phone is more advanced. (Note: if you love this stuff and are happy to pay for it, cool.) But buckle up for having to pay for things you thought were features of your car, not entertainment. If Ford sees it being worth $20 billion by 2030, it can’t be the only one.
I pay for Netflix. I pay for many newspaper subscriptions. Many of you probably have multiple sites you flip a few bucks to every month. If you look at your credit card bill, you’ll probably find one or two you’ve forgotten about. We are getting nickel-and-dimed to death already, but the thought that my vehicle — which I purchased outright — will start to do the same is going to hit differently. Drivers can already work around many of the things on offer, and much of it from the phone they hold in their hand. I strongly believe vehicle locator and tracking systems should be standard in every new vehicle sold — and that we shouldn’t pay extra for them to be activated. Better yet: make the cars harder to steal and we won’t have to waste resources tracking them when they’re gone.
I’m trying to imagine my late father, who wouldn’t pay for A/C, power windows or anything besides an 8-cylinder engine in a barebones station wagon, being told he would have to pay for his radio to work. I’m imagining Bruce Springsteen flipping through 57 channels and discovering there really is nothin’ on because he doesn’t have a subscription.
Last word to The Drive report: “More than anything, this is a brutal reminder that anytime a feature migrates onto a phone app, it’s much more easily and likely to be turned into a subscription.”
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