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The New Audi A3 Is Amess With In-Car Subscriptions
(www.motor1.com)
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this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
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Headline is enough for me to never consider purchasing an Audi.
Toyota is out. Mercedes is out. Audi is out. Who else?
I use Linux and Lemmy, if they think they are going to get me to buy a subscription for cruise control they are out of their mind.
BMW was the first I think to announce subscriptions but they backtracked after negative feedback. Hopefully they stay that way, as I do love my bimmers. All it takes is one holdout.
I'd rather drive around an open source rustbox than buy a sub.
I've kinda been looking at the price of used cars and have started thinking -- I'm an engineer, I can probably learn how to replace my Subaru's engine myself. I'll just ride it til the wheels fall off.
As an engineer with a Subaru that needs a new engine (among other cars in various states of disrepair) I can tell you that, at least for me, the problem isn't necessarily knowing what to do on a conceptual level. The problem is the physical difficulty of removing and installing parts (contorting yourself to reach a thing deep in the engine bay and then having the strength to break free rusted bolts, etc.). If you go for it, I highly recommend having an actual garage with a roof and a door you can close instead of trying to do it in your driveway, so that you can walk away from it and come back later without having to worry that your tools will get stolen or rained on.
Hey that sounds like building a PC only with rust as a bonus challenge!
Yeah for sure. I get frustrated and walk away a lot. But then I get frustrated with giving up and go back. Actual garage is a must lol. I'd probably get a car friend to come help where Im struggling.
Rust, grime, heavy shit, bending over/crawling under, and weather, yeah. It's much more physically challenging than building a PC (and a little more technically complicated too, since you have to worry about torque specs and such).
I'm not trying to discourage anybody from doing it, just saying not to underestimate it.
As someone who is seemingly constantly working on computers and has done a ton of engine building and other deep car stuff, in addition to the garage mentioned previously, I'd recommend buying a buildable engine core for your subaru, getting that built (either do it yourself - recommended, or by a machine shop - will probably work well, but will cost a lot of $$) and having it ready to install rather than trying to pull the existing engine out and rebuilding it - especially if the current engine still runs.
Unless your plan is to make a hobby of having exploded cars in the yard, this'll go a long way towards putting an end in sight for an engine rebuilding venture.
Also fuck all car subscriptions - that's some gross profiteering right there...
How do you feel about those 60k miles used engines from Japan?
(My engine appears to have that "spun bearing caused by cornering-induced oil starvation" problem that's apparently common to EJ205s.)
Meant to mention those and forgot! As long as it's got some kind of decent guarantee that's a great way to go. Should be plenty of them out there, as I'd imagine most of those vehicles end up getting totaled in accidents of varying severities rather than dying from engine problems. I do believe the Japanese engines are available as a result of their having stricter emissions requirements, BTW..
I was under the impression that it was because of expensive inspection requirements based on mileage (or maybe age, sources I found are unclear) that cause a lot of cars to get parted out at 100,000 km regardless of their actual condition.
Could be - tbh it's been a minute since I looked into those. Either way, a low mileage pull is an excellent option and will last the life of the car if well maintained..
You will never get sprayed in the face with hot poison fixing your PC. You will never have to apply a torch to your siezed up cpu. Your PC falling on you won't kill you. You will never have to replace your PC component in -15° weather.
It's like 2k for an engine swap in an easy vehicle.
By the time you purchase tools, a half ton lift, etc you'll be halfway there.
Unless you hate life I'd save up for the professional swap. You're already find to attend 3-4 on a used engine.
Building a PC is something like .1% the effort IMO.
Edit: in fact, what about it do you find pretty hard? I can't think of anything I've ever done that made me frustrated enough that I felt like I needed to walk away. Or even took particularly long. Maybe I'm just building crappy machines or something.
Bicycles and feet, if you can.
Mazda is still good I think.
But they're kinda expensive and they gatekeep features to their higher tiers, that other manufacturers keep to their lower ones.
Hyundai perhaps, but they've also had other issues.
Mazda no, they are harassing the app developers who use their API https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2023/10/13/removal-of-mazda-connected-services-integration/
Yeah but the only thing Mazda charges a subscription for is the extra unnecessary bullshit that is coordinated through their servers. Thats a fair value proposition, even though I’d never pay for it. Heated seats, radar cruise control, shit like that still just comes with the car.
I can't find an article about it right now, but I could've sworn they tried to pull some subscription bullshit (other than "Bluelink" or "Evolve+," which are relatively legit) a while back, too.
At the very least I believe the only thing they're currently doing is Bluelink (remote find your car, start car over the Internet, etc). But maybe there's something they started in the last 6 months I haven't heard about.
Toyota is doing the subscription thing too? I didn't hear about that one. I only heard about BMW, Mercedes, and now Audi.
If Toyota/Lexus is out, then I guess my plans of buying an AWD coupe as my next car are truly dead.
Toyota was gonna do it for remote starters, I believe.
Subaru is an AWD option.
Remote start through an app I guess? At least that conceivably requires an ongoing cost on their side to justify it (although I'd be willing to bet there's a 10,000% markup on it). Will be annoying if they are using a 3G chip for the data connection and 3G gets shut down like 2G did.
As for the AWD thing, it's the coupe part that's hard. The Germans all make a coupe with AWD available, Lexus has the RC, and that's about it (since the challenger is end of production), other than supercars that are out of my price range.
I get a subscription for remote starts that use cell. I don't want that, why would I want that, when conventional remote start works great.
Best part, remote start for Toyota is about a $100 third party add-on that takes 10 minutes to install. Put one im a friend's Taco last year.
Looks like all they do is: Music streaming directly from your infotainment ($15), live navigation + new voice commands + 24/7 agent in case you need support ($15), both above ($25, wow, such sale), and some AT&T specific bullshit where you can apparently make your car a hotspot ($25).
https://www.toyota.com/connected-services/
All in all, all of them useless, and absolutely not required. All of them are covered by having a phone with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
None of that is at all required, they include all the usual Apple/Google phone link systems so all of that is very easily ignored. The only real problem with Toyota is the DCM sim modem, which you can get removed, and their data collection which you can opt out of.
iirc BMW pulled back on it and only does a subscription for stuff that legit requires an internet connection
Man... What's Toyota doing?
IIRC, Hyundai is out.
Are they?
They charge for the stuff that actually requires server infrastructure after 3 years, I believe. Which is the one case that seems reasonable to me as long as it's not gouging. But I hadn't heard about anything else.
Tesla, certainly. BMW also.
Subaru still seems to be okay.
Tesla was one of the original pioneers with FSD subscriptions. BMW had heated seat subscriptions but walked it back. They do have a subscription for the “drive recorder” camera but you can pay a one time fee to permanently unlock it so that’s at least acceptable.
Edit: incidentally the permanent price is the same as if you bought it on your car new.
I disagree: if the physical hardware came on the car, the owner is entitled to use it (that's how property rights work). Therefore, BMW should be forced to either charge everybody for it as a standard feature or physically not include the hardware for the people who aren't getting it.
Hardware that's artificially locked behind DRM -- which is what being "activatable" by even a one-time fee after the fact really is -- is a direct attack on property rights and therefore entirely unacceptable!
I have a 2022. It's not terrible, but there's definitely a subscription for remote start and a few other connected type features. Nothing related to actual driving once you're in the car though.
If you read more than the headline, you'd know that you can simply purchase those options instead of subscribing, if you want.
Which makes the entire article pointless. But you'd need to read more than the headline to see that, which is too much to ask.
Depends on how easy it is to jailbreak.
Sweats in Apples "Courage" to remove the headphone jack
Anyone...? Hello?
I have an Audi, it is a great car. I dont lioe subscriptions so I wouldnt get into that type of deal but there are workarounds also.