It's amazing how far detached from reality the customers of shiny new car companies are.

These companies are giving them what they want. A cheaper lease but it looks the exact same as the more expensive one.

Is it really 'legacy' car companies? Last I checked Tesla was offering insane subscription packages as well.

O boy, I can hear the muskrats scurrying out of the woodwork to come tell you you're wrong.

I was a bit reluctant to even post that knowing that it's going to be ideologically conflated with all the rest of the Elon Empire but it's seemed the best counter-example of a new company doing the same dirty tricks.

What are they offering? I thought they just had the self-driving subscription package?

That's what I referring to, yeah. Looking it up it's double this performance package ($199 / month), and it might be even more weasely (a claim of "Full Self-Driving" being to real full self-driving as the modern "hoverboard" is to a real hoverboard).

At least with FSD you have the option of paying once for the entire feature (currently 15k) or paying a subscription ($200/mo or $100/mo if you paid once for enhanced autopilot feature (currently $6k). And it's an actual software feature, not unlocking your hardware. Though I think an acceleration boost unlock is/was offered for certain Tesla model 3/Y, which I guess is similar to what Mercedes is doing here, but it's a one time thing instead of subscription. /MuskRatOut

I'll guess that the up front cost does kind of make it better, but really, in both cases the car has the hardware already, you're just paying for the software to unlock its functionality. In neither case are they going to replace the engineer or remove the sensors.

The vast majority of people want an affordable/reliable shitbox that goes from A to B in relative comfort. Nobody gives a shit about 400+hp EVs that cost 20x the average annual savings of a min wage worker

Subscriptions are coming for the affordable / reliable as well. Toyota coupled the remote start keyfob into the subscription system because it's the same module for the key fab as it is for the smartphone remote start. Kia and Hyundai don't offer factory key fob remote starts either, it's through their respective remote services.

GM and Stellantis plan on adding subscription services to their offerings in the next 5 years and Ford hasn't ruled out the possibility (or at least they're playing coy at the moment). I haven't heard anything about VAG, and the rest of the Japanese makers, but I assume they're keeping an eye on how the market will respond to this idea.

The vast majority of people are not the vast majority of new car buyers.

75% of all new luxury cars roll out the door as leases. They know the customers will pay and not question it.

Legacy? The Hip New Kid on the block, "Tesla", started this bullshit.