BMW No Longer Charging Monthly Fee for CarPlay in Cars With Newest Software

[T-R-S]

I owned BMW's for many years - they are junk pieces of crap - they break down and are expensive to fix.
I would never own another BMW ever agin - even if was free I would get rid of it.

 

[iGeneo]

I owned BMW's for many years - they are junk pieces of crap - they break down and are expensive to fix.
I would never own another BMW ever agin - even if was free I would get rid of it.

Buy new next time....

6 cars in and zero issues, Keep 3-4 years max.

 

[norbinhouston]

Great news, I purposely didn't renew the CarPlay subscription after the first free year on principle. Looks like my little rebellion worked!

And for all you BMW haters, whatever, I'll enjoy my BMW and you go enjoy your car of choice. Exactly what I way to angry hater Android fans.

 

[MadDawg2020]

It's unbelievable that BMW is trying to make money. What a bunch of greedy corporate running dogs!

Cars should be free! Everything should be free! Just like in the worker's paradise of the USSR! Those were the days, comrades, when we could ride our Volgas and marvel at the glory of our society.

Who said anything about it being free?!
If anything this is a perfect example of capitalism!
One still PAYS to have the system installed - as it is an option. (And even if it was standard the system would simply be included in the sticker price of the vehicle) BMW is simply are not charging a subscription fee any longer - because the paying consumers demanded it - and other options WITHOUT this fee exist!
In other words - a FREE MARKET, competition and Consumer choice made this happen!

 

[Tech198]

"BMW in early 2018 decided to begin offering BMW customers CarPlay access for a subscription fee rather than a one-time fee, requiring BMW owners to pay $80 per year to use ‌CarPlay‌ after the first year of owning a BMW vehicle. "

Outrageous.. Just wanted more money, and they sore it wasan't going that way.

 

[highground]

I guess they found the limit of BMW owners' stupidity.

 

[Edsel]

The only thing dumber than BMW's arrogance are the folks that actually paid for the activation. After 7 new ones, I stopped buying BMW's when I asked myself why I knew my service advisor's name, his wife's name, his kids names, his dog's name, his boat's name and near all of his life story. That's a lot of visits to replace continually updated versions of the same failed components.

They made decent and fun cars until electronics were introduced. That is a science totally beyond their comprehension.

OMG! I had the identical experience with our 5 new BMW's. I was ready to donate the 740iL to the White Sands Missle facility. The only non-problem BMW was a 1998 5 Series. The rest were regular visitors to the $ervice department. BMW would need to pay me lot's of money to drive one of their cars again. In retrospect, I felt like a fool for buying BMW.

BMW's statement, ""BMW is always looking to satisfy our customers' needs...." is absolute lie.

 

[ikramerica]

Driving a base VW Golf S as a loaner car and it has FREE carplay standard. BMW are just greedy greedy greedy.

 

[Muzzakus]

i drive a BMW but I consider them cheap bastard for nickel and diming customers on subscriptions that have a $0 cost on their end. Apple most certainly doesn’t charge BMW an ongoing fee.

Trust has been shaken, if they can extort money for nothing, it makes you think about all the other ways they rip you off.

 

[Black Magic]

Whoever was the marketing genius at BMW should be dumbfounded. No should have paid for it from the start, especially since it was something that was free from every other car manufacturer from the get go. Got to wonder if that person(s) is looking for a new job now.

The real question is how many people didn't buy a BMW because of this subscription? Had to be hurting their bottom line for them to change.

 

[iGeneo]

The real question is how many people didn't buy a BMW because of this subscription? Had to be hurting their bottom line for them to change.

Nobody.. When I'm making a $90-100K vehicle purchase, $80 a year wouldn't sway me. After negotiating your very best price, before you sign, just tell the dealer "I don't agree with paying for CarPlay, I figure to have this car 4 years, you need to adjust the bottom line by another $320. Wouldn't;'t even be a point of negotiation for me.

Though countless here will chime in that they have cancelled their M8 or Alpina B7 X-Drive orders because of this.

I'm out.. this thread is simply a story where BMW made a business decision, it didn't work out to their benefit, and they changed course. Was the initial decision prudent? No, and they made an adjustment.

FFS people.. BMW sided with the consumer and changed course.

Now the others bashing BMW, fair enough, I'm thinking a high percentage of you never owned one. (or many)

 

[Soccertess]

Bmw is actually poorly managed. Horrible quality and they make really bad decisions like this all the time.

great engineers though who love to over engineer things.

Personally will never touch bmw again.

 

[BWhaler]

I bet they were waiting to see if their competitors would follow. Which they did not, wiseLy.

 

[iGeneo]

Bmw is actually poorly managed. Horrible quality and they make really bad decisions like this all the time.

great engineers though who love to over engineer things.

Personally will never touch bmw again.

Thanks for your valuable feedback... Enjoy your jetta

 

[drew0020]

Do people still buy BMW’s? I was a lifer till I finally switched to a Tesla. I only wish I made the move sooner.

 

[Wanted797]

It's unbelievable that BMW is trying to make money. What a bunch of greedy corporate running dogs!

Cars should be free! Everything should be free! Just like in the worker's paradise of the USSR! Those were the days, comrades, when we could ride our Volgas and marvel at the glory of our society.

When you buy a car that is advertised to have a stereo and navigation Or CarPlay you expect it to work on purchase and not require yearly fees.

 

[luvbug]

Stay at an expensive hotel, and they'll charge for WiFi and $15 for a simple breakfast. Stay at a budget hotel, and you'll get both included in the room rate. At least in the US. Hmmmm ... what does that say? Anyone, anyone ...?

 

[Dammit Cubs]

They should of made it 80 per year until 300 dollars is reach because that was the old model. But sure, free is better.

 

[iSayuSay]

For $80 a year BMW should also provide the necessary new hardware too, bot just software updates.

 

[Halfsnap]

Are you talking about Apple or BMW?

This is post of the month material. Kudos.

 

[vipergts2207]

Thanks for your valuable feedback... Enjoy your jetta

I thought you were out?

 

[jace88]

Oh well, too late now. I walked down the road and bought the MY20 GLE instead of the X5 and I'm not going to change cars again just because BMW finally came to their senses. Maybe next time.

 

[cclarke99]

Super happy to have read this today. I bought my first Bimmer (X5) this year and wasn’t looking forward to having to pay to keep CarPlay next year.

 

[macdragonfl]

I left BMW 4 months ago over this and the current shift from handling to more tech and luxury. I had them for many years. The 3 series used to be on the top ten list of every enthusiast's magazine. No longer the ultimate driving machine.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Agree that was stupid for BMW to charge but cannot disagree more with your comment about "decreasingly" loyal buyers. Really? Based on what? With BMW now having every single series from 1 to 8 and many versions of the same cars I see more BMW on the road than Ford or Chevrolet. So not sure where the decrease in loyalty comes from.

Yes, really, based on the assumption that pissing off your customers would be unlikely to result in an increase in brand loyalty.

But don’t mistake model count or popularity for brand loyalty. Luxury autos as a class have lower rates of brand loyalty than mainstream cars.

According to an Edmunds 2018 auto brand loyalty study, even within the category BMW (about 36% repeat buyers) comes in behind Lexus—at 51%, the only luxury brand to break 50%—Audi and Land Rover. At the bottom of the luxury segment were Infiniti, Jaguar and Volvo, which were all around 25%. For mainstream cars, Chevrolet (54%) and Ford (48%) had decent brand loyalty, while Toyota, Subaru and Honda were all above 60%.