I imagine that the folks who would pay $100k for a car probably won't quibble about a measly $1k subscription.

I am in right smack in the middle of their target audience and they will never see me pay a f#cking cent this way.

It's a matter of principle. This bullshit must be nipped in the bud. Greedy morons.

That's exactly how you drive people away from your brand.

But I mean why does this make you so angry? You're paying for the product one way or another, for whatever business reasons they chose to charge you for it on a monthly basis instead of a lump sum.

For one; it's not transferable.

I paid ~2k for Boost for my Tesla; functionally the same thing. But at least if travels with the car if I sell it (if you find someone who values it properly). Subscriptions like this is just burning the $$. Serious feelsbadman.

Isn’t it the same as the car depreciating faster. AFAIK Mercedes is one of the worst depreciating cars.

There's a huge difference between renting and buying.

Does it matter?

If I were to make rational decisions when buying a car I would've been a proud owner of previously owned Toyota Corolla in a stylish beige color.

In this particular case I feel like being manipulated into paying more and generally taken advantage off. Just like with any unsubstantiated subscription.

Well my fiancée's dad just bought a car over $100k (Taycan), and he hates subscriptions with a passion. Especially this new trend of automobile subscriptions.

A subscription model fire hazard:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/18/electric-porsche-taycan-catc...

In this case no one was hurt but there was another owner in China who wasn't so lucky.

Haha, thanks for this! This is going to freak him out enough...

Most people able to drive a car like this are of the "only lease a depreciating asset" mindset, so it's all monthly payments regardless.

Even after the upgrade it's less than 500hp. Sub-500hp in a 100k car in 2022 is just insulting.

Cayman/Boxster and 911 look around nervously.

I almost added a carve out for "unless it's some Miata-esque" lightweight roadster. But on the other hand I guess the Caymen and Boxster are pretty fat these days.

And they should.

> And they should.

Nah, even the Porsche Cayman is more prestigious than the Tesla Plaid.

At drag strips, yes. But there have always been faster straight-line cars.

The EQE weighs 5300lbs. The EQS weighs 6200lbs. It is amazing and impressive how quickly they can accelerate, but inertia is still a thing and those things are not going to be even remotely nimble.

By comparison, the 911 at its heaviest (AWD, convertible) is 3800lbs. A porker for sure, but most configs are closer to 3400lbs.

And a Porsche Cayman weighs between 3000 - 3200lbs depending on trim.

Unless/until batteries get a lot lighter, even heavy GTs don’t have a lot to be nervous about in the fun-to-drive category.

With EVs that 500+ hp fun ends 15 minutes later with a break to recharge. That's pretty much useless in any case.

A fun EV would first of all be non-SUV but low air drag, non-luxury, non anything that's not needed to move. But even that would only provide higher possible cruising speeds compared to other EVs, but still inferior to ICEs.

Yeah, two dimensions there: useful time at high power, and cornering ability / agility.

Time isn’t a huge concern to me at least. Typical sports cars get maybe 50-100 miles on a tank of gas at a track day, and breaks are nice anyway. Even spirited driving on mountain roads isn’t nearly that tough; you can’t use 500hp all that often.

But that weight…. Ugh. I’m interested to see the new Tesla roadster, but it’s probably still >4000lbs. And weight just takes the fun out of anything.

I find it more insulting that people spend 100k+ in a computer on wheels than the fact it doesn't have 1990 supercar performances

People buy cars with that much power as a "flex," not because they are regularly hooning around in them. A $100k+ vehicle with a Mercedes badge is enough of a flex already, and flexing towards a different crowd regardless, so the additional power is not necessary.

> A $100k+ vehicle with a Mercedes badge is enough of a flex already

AMG would like a word: there's always a bigger flex.

Laughs in Brabus

Regardless, it's kind of assumed that $100k worth of "flex" comes with a pretty high minimum amount of any given quality. My complaint would still stand if it had 1000hp and manual windows and seats.

This just made me think of the last DoorDash driver I had sporting a large Mercedes badge on the front when he pulled up and seeing all the Hyundai branding on the rest of the car as he pulled away.