The New Audi A3 Is Amess With In-Car Subscriptions

This shit should be illegal. When you buy a device, you own all the hardware and have every right to use it to the full extent of its physical capabilities. Audi has no right to hold your property hostage!

Absolutely insane to me that you'd pay $35k for a car, and then pay a subscription for basics like cruise control and phone connectivity. The free market free marketing again. Legislate against this now.

dumbest fucking timeline. A subscription for a feature that requires no infrastructure and is part of the physical thing you just paid $40k for.

Can't wait to start pirating cars.

Those ads in the early 2000s were prophetic. The answer is yes, by the way. Yes I would.

I WILL pirate car. My property, my rules, so fuck you.

This title is Amess

retards buying subscription based cars need to grow the fuck up and recognize a principle for once

and so the enshittification continues...

Permanently Deleted

Can the EU please do something here? This is BS.

Why would anyone sign up for that? Now you have your car payment AND the fucking subscription? Makes no damn sense. What happens when they inevitably shut down their cloud servers that keep your access to the features in the car turned on? You never own the thing.

Headline is enough for me to never consider purchasing an Audi.

Toyota is out. Mercedes is out. Audi is out. Who else?

"Or you can just purchase any of those features permanently"

This fact, hidden somewhere in the middle, makes the entire article pointless.

Weird that across many industries they keep adding things consumers hate but get away with it because everyone else is doing it. How do people still believe in the premise of capitalism when consumer choices range from ineffective to flat out impossible.

Dealerships love to sell cars by monthly payment. Subscriptions fit right into that model. Heated seats are just another $5 a month! So with <huge list of features> that monthly payment is only $330 a month….on a 9 year car loan. People will absolutely do this.

Just buy the audi and come to your local electrician, he will turn on all the functions, id rather die than let this shit happen. Tesla heated seates need subscription? Heres a 20$ dongle to turn it on forever. Hyundai remote start subscription? Here take this 80$ remote to start it forever. Bmw fake exhaust sound onley comes with M sports pack and costs over a thousand? Give me 10$ and ill turn that on and turn on everything else that is hidden.

This is what happens when cars are basically a necessity to live.

You will own nothing and be "happy".

Is there a way to ‘jailbreak’ these cars?

I was considering an A3 for my next new car. Nope. Not anymore.

Update: Audi issued a statement noting that the upcoming 2025 A3 in the US will have “the same offer structure for Function on Demand as the previous 2024 model year.” That means only enhanced navigation with Audi’s Virtual Cockpit and adaptive cruise control will be offered as subscriptions. Dual-zone climate control and high-beam assist won’t be offered as subscriptions in the US. Specifics will be available closer to the A3’s launch in the US.

If people don't just say no to this garbage, it will continue. Honestly I think I'm gonna go to an Audi dealership this weekend and crank the salesguys up before walking out on principle.

Does this apply to Europe too?

Has this been cracked, meaning people using these features bypassing the paywall?

Hard pass. I'm not going to own a car that spies on me or requires a subscription for something that's already in the fucking car. Eat shit.

Wonder how much that ends up costing per month and how much that ends up costing over the lifetime of the vehicle.

Assuming the lifetime even matters when they decide to just cut off subscriptions at some point in the future to turn features off to drive you towards buying a new vehicle and dumping this one like a good consumer.

Can I still buy a dongle and Bluetooth into it and subscribe myself for free?

Or you can just purchase any of those features permanently

The subscription model for features on a car is shitty for a host of reasons, but at least they're still offering the option to buy them outright like normal. If you really value ownership then at least you can purchase the car and buy these addons up front.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say I do see why they think doing this could be attractive to customers. I'd wager to say that ownership of their vehicle isn't a priority, just look at how many people lease their cars now vs buying outright. This is a market that will have the car and replace it within 3 years. So these type of people may purchase upfront an extra they absolutely do care about and must have, but if there's something else they're a bit unsure of, they could leave it off, get the subscription for a month to try it, and then decide if they want to continue on a longer plan to keep the feature.

I mean I know all car companies are going to do this so this is a tangential point but why the hell would you buy an audi anyways?

Their reliability scores are fucking atrocious on audis.

The only thing german engineering is actually superior at is generating ultra rightwing nationalism.