The German car-maker says its “optional power upgrade” is designed to give customers more choice.
Someone should compile a list of currently produced car makes and models that are free to modify and repair without software locks on them
I imagine it’s a pretty short list.
Be the change you want to see in the world. I look forward to your list!
Depending on your jurisdiction, your local commerce regulator might have a different opinion of the legality of this than VW, especially when they’re taking away features you already paid for.
This is grotesque. “More choice” is utter bollocks, they’re insulting our intelligence with this, or maybe they’re mocking us.
How about just let us get as much power as we can out of the car by pushing our foot down harder on the pedal.
This is a perfect example of “remove something, then sell it back to the customer”.
Exactly. I actually own the vw id3. And I’m furious about it. I paid like 14000 euros. And now I need to buy soon an additional subscription, for… to keep remote access available for enabling the airco via the app.
So it’s much more then just subscription for ‘increase power’.
The remote control is at least tolerable because VW does need to provide every car with cellular network connection and servers to make this happen.
Car power is completely different because it’s a one time change. If I’m their PR, I’ll do something like: VW has successfully tested new performance settings for VW ID.3 that helps to improve acceleration and driving. Upgrade is available at authorized workshops (of course with cost).
I hate this kind of artificial limitations but in this case I’m totally fine.
Why would you pay for something like that? The stock id 3 has enough power to drive in the city. If someone instead needs to race at the nurburgring, then can unlock the extra power. With more power available and a sporty drive, the car components (motor, battery, gears) get more stress than if you just commute in the traffic.
In a city or in the highway, when you drive safely according to the speed limits you don’t need 300 HP or more under your ass
And if you’re someone that just needs a higher number to feel validated by others (look at that! I paid for the extra Speed mode!), then I’m fine with that, takes money from dumb people and has the potential to make the vehicle cheaper for everyone else.
Why should you pay for that is your question ?
The question is , why should you allow them to gimp what you bought artificially
If you drive like a maniac you put more stress on the components, and on the id 3 the warranty on electric parts is up to 8 years. This offsets for them the risk of someone breaking components under warranty before the mean time to failure.
Almost all car brands are selling a faster trim that’s the same hardware with just different code in the ECU. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that it could be done after the first purchase and there’s also the option of permanent unlock.
Now, for safety I wouldn’t have it made a completely software solution but required a visit to dealer to install bigger breaks and check all the car stuff (oil level in brakes, if the steering is correct, and so on)
So basicly it’s excusing either their bad warranty , their bad planning , or their bad quality.
None of the customers business and shouldn’t be a subscription.
I means what’s next ? 3 tires the 4th will be a subscription cause it’s one more tire that needs maintenance ?
There’s a $650 lifetime unlock option. What’s the difference between this and the “m series” for BMW that costs $20k over stock, that must be purchased at the time of order??
At least gives an option to the user, if it’s not fast enough for winning races at the nurburgring, then they can unlock full performance for $650.
In city it makes no difference except using more energy and consuming tires faster than expected
Why shouldn’t I break into your house, change the locks, and then charge you a ransom to get access to it back?
'Cause that’s what VW is doing here.
It’s completely different. It’s a car that was sold with an option at moment of purchase. 145 HP or 200 HP for more money? Normal people chose the 145 HP because cheaper and pay less taxes and insurance and because when you drive in the city the 50 HP do not make any difference.
Suppose one day the owner needs to win races at the nurburgring instead of commuting or taking kids at school, so they give the option of unlock the full power instead of buying a new car.
If it was something like “from today you need to pay a subscription if you want to open the back windows” I would agree with you, but in this case it’s a power unlock that was known from the moment of purchase and not a surprise shock.
Stop saying nurburgring
No, that’s absolute bullshit.
In your example, they absolutely and unequivocally bought all 200 HP, from the beginning, and merely got a good deal on it if VW charged a lower price than the identical car with different number on the label. But it was always their property from the beginning because that’s how property works.
They owe VW nothing after the fact, and always had the capital-r Right to use every bit of horsepower the engine was physically capable of!
The only reason someone could possibly disagree is if they’re a corporate whore who hates property rights and loves being subjugated. It is not a tenable position for any reasonable person to have.
The difference is , the BMW actually changes something physically.
The 650 unlock just unlocks something artificially you already had purchased and owned.
I hate this kind of artificial limitations but in this case I’m totally fine.
This is an environmental disaster. We’re building cars with equipment that will never be used. It costs more materials, time, and energy to manufacture a 300 HP engine than a 200 HP engine. VW might make all models with a 300 HP engine and then require a subscription to increase the power from 200 to 300 HP. Yet, what if you don’t want to use that extra power? You’re still stuck with the weight of the heavier engine! You’re hauling around a uselessly heavy engine, and you’ll be doing so from the moment you buy the car until the end of its life. Even if you don’t want to pay for the subscription-only equipment, you’re still paying for the higher gas costs to haul all this redundant crap around with you. And the environment takes an unnecessary hit for us to manufacture equipment that will never be used. This is an environmental disaster.
The car was introduced 5 years ago, they launched this unlock right now where only the 0.1% of users will actually care and the kind that needs external validation from higher numbers is already with a newer vehicle.
IMHO with all the telemetry gathered they noticed that the motor can sustain higher than spec bursts of power for a short time and tried to cash in that
It also means they can build fewer types of engine for the models they make, requiring less tooling, less spare parts, etc. I’m not sure if that is enough to balance the environmental cost of making slightly bigger motors, but a number of companies have come to the conclusion that it’s cheaper than having more engine options.
Okay, but hear me out: the notion that a business model is “cheaper” doesn’t matter if it’s also criminal because it violates their customers’ property rights.
Oh, this sounds like a ridiculously easy case to win. So where is that case where someone had a car that was being sold in an illegal manner and they won? Just one, anywhere in the world. And not the one about the VW emissions scandal. Most diesel vehicle drivers don’t really care about emissions, and no one was paying less for a non-EPA qualifying option.
This is an environmental disaster.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_ID.3
The lowest MPGe I see for it across the model range is 129, the highest 141.
The Ford F-150 is the most-popular vehicle in the US.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/2025_Ford_F150.shtml
The 2025 F-150 has a combined MPG rating of between 16 and 21.
At this point, companies will do literally fucking anything, just to pad the numbers for the shareholder reports. The Volkswagen group can screw itself. When we start decent seeing vehicles to a decent price again, maybe we can resume this conversation. Everyone’s tired of plastic garbage for top dollar
I will never buy a vw again, that is a fact.
Skip all of those brands. Škoda too.
Škoda are a massive offender, in my eyes. No one here drives their cars, except for taxis, because they were cheap, comfortable enough, and no one cares if you beat one up. Now, they position themselves as some kind of a mid-range luxury brand, but the quality does not speak for itself whatsoever
Yet people in my extended family keep buying them. They are people who are well off, too, so they could buy something nicer. They bought a trailer home for $30,000 to use for vacationing ffs, might as well invest in a nice car so they don’t have to buy a new one every 3–5 years because it rusts to shit.
This is partially my envy talking, but still, I don’t get it. I have a nicer car and my household makes less. Makes no sense.
When we start decent seeing vehicles to a decent price again,
I don’t know about the Volkswagen ID.3, but in general, I think that car prices have tended to come down slightly over the years. I was in a conversation earlier about car prices earlier (talking about how truck prices had greatly increased).
If you go back 20 years, take a pretty plain-Jane standby, the Toyota Camry:
https://www.kbb.com/toyota/camry/2005/
2005 Toyota Camry pricing starts at $4,091 for the Camry LE Sedan 4D, which had a starting MSRP of $20,515 when new.
That’d be $33,934.10 in 2025 dollars.
A 2025 Camry has an MSRP of $28,700.
Pickup trucks — which are considerably more expensive now in the US than they were a few decades back — are an exception to this, but there are other factors going on there.
EDIT: Though tariffs may wind up driving prices up.
When we start decent seeing vehicles at a decent price again
These exist, they’re just not in the USA. Look at what companies like BYD and Xiaomi are doing in practically every developed country except the USA. The entry-level BYD Dolphin is just under AU$30k (US$19k) in Australia, including taxes. Xiaomi have a sports car for around US$40k.
I’ve always admired the iconic vehicles VW has produced, but this assures I’ll never buy a VW.
This is so distopian it sounds like a joke
According to a survey from S&P Global, some customers may be put off by the cost of in-car subscriptions for features such as connectivity, or by basic functions being split into paid tiers.
I don’t have any particular objection to that. They can choose whatever pricing model they want, and it’s just another number for the spreadsheet in valuing whatever they put on offer. However, I rather suspect that whatever DRM they have on this ties one more-closely to maintaining an Internet connection between the car and auto manufacturer, which I do care about from a privacy standpoint.
And I wonder what happens to one’s subscription if one’s car is no longer able to talk to current cell towers and thus the car can no longer validate that the user has paid the bill this month. Cars that relied 2G cell network connectivity in the past lost their network connectivity when the cell networks took that down in the US. Maybe the feature is just gone forever. Maybe the manufacturer decides to be nice and just perma-unlock the functionality. shrugs Seems like kind of a substantial unknown and difference from the past, where one could just expect a car to keep working. People have not been very happy about live service games no longer working after a shutdown date. I kind of think that having one’s automobile functionality go away might also be unpopular.
Another issue is that I rather suspect that there’s nothing outside of maybe their reputation keeping a vendor from increasing their subscription fees. If you’ve already put the substantial purchase price into a car, it’s not like you can readily switch away from it. That’s not a good situation for the consumer. You’re buying something where if you want the functionality, you’re paying the purchase price…plus some unknown future amount in fees. You’re locked in to buying the functionality from your auto vendor; there’s no form of competitive market at play once you’ve bought in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_market
A captive market is a market where the potential consumers face a severely limited number of competitive suppliers; their only choices are to purchase what is available or to make no purchase at all. The term therefore applies to any market where there is a monopoly or oligopoly.
The moment I bought my id3 they never informed me about this subscription model. Soon I also need to pay if I want to keep my app working for my car, like enabling the airco via the app.
I already paid around 14000-15000 euros for this car. And now I suddenly also need to pay subscriptions? It’s not only a subscription for ‘increase power’.
15k? Price crashed like that? When I asked the price in 2020 they told me 45k and I laughed for weeks after that
The fact that they pay the sim card data plan for only the first three years from purchase was known from the beginning. I’m ok with paying but not the price they’re asking. They’re using a $10/year iot sim card for remote access, but want $150/year from the customer? LOL get fucked I would never pay that.
PS: how the remote air control works? I tried the Peugeot one and
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Allowed activation only if battery was over 50% which is a stupid artificial limitations
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Literally took 10 minutes to boot and 8 minutes to send the activation signal to the car. In that time I could go to activate it manually
A service like that isn’t even worth $5/decade
Sorry my bad. It was indeed 45000 euros. It’s insane.
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Car companies are parasites. America was built on trains and the investments into car infrastructure have paralleled US declines. Its just not an effecient use of public resources to build highways between cities.
1999: “Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this, the peak of your civilization.”
lol. 1999 was the best time for humanity; ridiculous!
2025: Oh shit…
‘Humans marveled at the creation of AI”
That’s why I live my life as if it were still the 90s…oh shit, am I in the matrix already?
You wish!
Seriously. Why didn’t I take the blue pill?
You guys were offered a blue pill???
Yeah, but it was a weekly subscription fee, so I declined
You didn’t get the emails?
No. Just some weird guy in a trench coat behind a Giant Tiger offered me some white-ish looking pills. I woke up the next day with half my head shaved and my wallet was missing.
Would you buy a new graphic card only to pay s monthly service to use it? Of course not.
German car industry has one foot in the grave. The German car industry lobbyist have successfully weakened or delayed many EU climate and sustainability initiatives. I fucking hope the German car industry collapses sooner than later and weaken Germany’s political power in the EU.
German car industry has one foot in the grave.
I think that all or close to it auto manufacturers have some form of subscription service now with monthly fees. It’s not something specific to German manufacturers.
randomly picks from this list of auto manufacturers
Buick.
https://www.buick.com/ownercenter/onstar/learn
OnStar One Super Cruise
for vehicles with Super Cruise
$64.99/mo.
Save up to 16% by choosing this plan
OnStar Connect Plus
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In-Vehicle Wi-Fi® Hotspot
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Music
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Podcasts
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Audiobooks
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News
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Video Streaming (if properly equipped)
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Games (if properly equipped)
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Internet Browser (if properly equipped)
Safety & Security
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Stolen Vehicle Assistance
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Safety Services
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OnStar Guardian App
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Roadside Assistance
Super Cruise
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Hands-Free Driver Assistance Technology
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Turn Signal Activated Lane Change
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Automatic Lane Change (if properly equipped)
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Hands-Free Trailering (if properly equipped)
Is that subscription for OnStar or Super Cruise? One is a service with legitimate ongoing operating costs; the other is not.
I mean you picked an American car company. They’ve been garbage for decades, I’ve owned exactly one, a 90’s Taurus, probably the most reliable American car we’ve seen in decades, and it just barely approaches Japanese cars for reliability and maintenance.
I say this as someone who’s worked on every brand of car, from the 1940’s to today. You can’t give me an American car (or German, or just European). I refuse to own anything other than Honda or Toyota any more. I’ll sacrifice style and features for a vehicle that just works for 100-200k miles, or more.
Buick has been a style-over-substance brand in the GM lineup since the 80’s, at least. Not that any GM is particularly good, Buick just makes it worse with cheap gimmicks. Same with all Chrysler products.
But yea, all brands include some nonsense today.
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I have German heritage, as does my wife. I have lived in Germany. Looking at the Germany of today, I can’t wait to see its power collapse. They might (still) be the most unworthily arrogant people on the planet.
no, that would be Russians.
The intent is to provide
playersowners with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking differentheroeshorsepower.They came for the Gamers, but I did not speak out because I was not a Gamer.
Hey, we did speak out and most of us didn’t shut up since. Fuck EA, VW, BMW, whoever tries to push microtransactions.
I haven’t bought a AAA game for well over a decade because of this shit. I’ll bike and take a bus before I give in to it with a mode of transportation.
You’re not giving more choice if it relies on you purposefully taking away things. That’s called being predatory.
I thought taking away things someone else paid for was called stealing?
Sandwiches for sale! Can’t afford it? No problem! 30% discount. I’ll just cut it and toss one of the halves in the trash for you.
