Late Stage Capitalism? (2 Viewers)

[KitaYama]

Some people are calling it late stage capitalism.

Volkswagen is now offering extra horsepower for a fee on its ID.3 electric hatchback in the UK.

The mid-level trims officially deliver 201 hp, but the hardware is capable of 228 hp—an additional 27 hp that drivers can unlock via subscription.

Options include $21 per month, $210 per year, or a one-time $825 payment to unlock the performance for the vehicle’s lifetime. The boost also increases torque without reducing range, and because the car is registered at the higher output, insurance isn’t affected. Critics see this as a troubling trend toward monetizing built-in features rather than including them outright.

Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription | Auto Express

Owners can now subscribe to boost the power of their car… for a fee

www.autoexpress.co.uk

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a65780529/volkswagen-uk-locking-id-3-horsepower-behind-subscription/

 

[KitaYama]

Next step is the cars that we have to watch an ad between gear changes?

 

[KitaYama]

because the car is registered at the higher output, insurance isn’t affected.

It means if I don't want the additional HP, I have to pay a higher rate for insurance anyway. Because the car is registered at its maximum capacity, not what I paid for.
I simply can't wrap my head around how much more money these companies need.

 

[Minty]

VAG, BMW and Mercedes have had this model for quite a lot of years. (3 or 4 at least)

My wife's' Audi A3 has all the hardware on board for Intelligent (Radar controlled) Cruise control, but we didn't spec it when we ordered it.
You can "rent" it by the day, month, year or forever if you want to pay. Other wise it's just normal cruise control.

I know BMW have done it for heated seats in the past.

 

[KitaYama]

VAG, BMW and Mercedes have had this model for quite a lot of years. (3 or 4 at least)

Didn't know. Then it's not a new fever.....

I appreciate our car manufacturers are not following these trends. Or is it a matter of time?

 

[Cotswold]

It is only a matter of time.
The plan is to increase prices to ensure that all cars look cheaper if paid for by the mile or on subscription.
One plan/dream, that I cannot see happening but it might. Is for car ownership to cease and if you want to go anywhere you will call a driverless car on an app. Therefore paying for every journey. If you have plenty of money you may be allowed to rent a permanent car. It is all coupled to electric cars and driverless cars that have consumed $billions just to get to where where we are today. Which is not very far up to now, still a long way to go.

If that can be achieved, a whole new level of control will exist and the likes of Google will be able to store even more pointless data on everyone.
Even now electric cars have cameras and microphones inside and out. The Chinese intend to capture the car market, initially by low prices. All of your conversations will be in Beijing in real time. The UK government has been looking into by-the-mile charges to replace road tax. The only problem is that the technology does not exist.....yet. For that to work everyone will need to have been forced into an electric car. Once that has happened it will be forced upon us all. Maybe you will go out in your car, get charged by the mile, more in cities. Then when you get home there will be carpark and speeding charges added to your credit card, or deducted from your bank. If the system prevents you from speeding then the charges per mile will increase to cover the revenue loss from fines. AI will assist in this new 1984 life in store for our children and grandchildren.
Car ownership is not seen as a model for the future. After all this model has worked with smartphones, why with not cars?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The mid-level trims officially deliver 201 hp, but the hardware is capable of 228 hp—an additional 27 hp that drivers can unlock via subscription.

Some decades ago when I was still in college, IBM got sued over something similar to this. Actually, they got sued to a fare-thee-well on everything from monopolistic business pricing practices to unfair advertising to improperly slow development activities (i.e. having developed and tested something but holding it back to further their monopolistic position). If they had sold kitchen sinks, they would have been sued over that, too. They were the poster child for getting sued in the 1960s and 1970s. Judge John Sirica stayed on the case for 10 years and in fact went past his nominal retirement age to keep the case active. I forget how many trees they killed, but it was in the days before wide-spread digital publishing so there were mountains of paper records to be considered.

In those days, the IBM 360 series of machines was their biggest offering. The models were indicated as 360/20, 360/40, 360/70, etc. and the power went up with the /number of the model. A lawsuit was filed that claimed that a purchaser had bought a particular model, the 360/40, and then wanted to upgrade to the 360/50. A service technician came out and flipped a switch inside the /40 and .... lo and behold, it became indistinguishable from a /50. The lawsuit was something to the effect that since the buyer had purchased the box, they should have owned every feature of the box. To have that hidden power available at the throw of a switch was an improper business practice. (Note that the suit didn't claim to apply to leased machines!)

Regarding the car, I could see charging extra if there was a maintenance package involved, but if the only thing done was to unlock the car's computer to allow the higher performance, that is a suspicious business practice for a company doing business in the USA.

 

[Isaac]

In great generality, I will say that the 'subscription plan' is hot hot hot and considered the gold standard of product sales in general.
Anything they can do to get people on guaranteed revenue monthly is gold.
Me personally, I'm a very conservative car buyer. I buy cars for minimum function. Nissan Sentra, Kia Forte my go-to.
So count me out of the fancy stuff - I'd rather spend my fancymoney, if any exists, on home and location.
Course if I had 'nuff for both and everything, that'd be slick too.
I just never want to be one of those people nearly homeless in a tiny trailer, but Dad's sure got a $70,000 pickup truck! There are a lot of those around here, the Hispanic mentality. Live large in the vehicle - and maybe, in the vehicle only!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I'm with you, @Isaac - because I drive a 15-year-old Dodge Grand Caravan with minimal "features." But I've kept up with regular maintenance and inspections. With the tariff situation, I'll wait until I can get a car with mostly USA origin and parts before I replace the grandpa-mobile.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I also am not interested in paying for top of the line vehicles but even still, my new cars are now costing more than my first house and come with many features I could do without.

 

[Isaac]

Yeah, I usually disable all of the lane change/lane assist/tracking/grip type of stuff. Only 3 things I like that new cars now always seem to come with - cruise, bluetooth, and a backup camera. A lot of the rest of it is fluff junk

 

[Minty]

I quite like the steering wheel, and a decent radio/sound system.

 

[Pat Hartman]

and a decent radio/sound system.

The Original Equipment models cost at least four times as much as one you can purchase on line or from Best Buy and have installed yourself.

 

[Isaac]

Another area I'm lucky in, I guess - lucky in that I happen to think that the modern stereo systems are more than adequate, not really wanting anything more - and I'm OK with my TV's inbuilt sound, too. If I'm somewhere where somebody's home has a fancy surround sound system installed, I do think 'Oh, that's kind of cool', but that's about it.

 

[KitaYama]

The Original Equipment models cost at least four times as much as one you can purchase on line or from Best Buy and have installed yourself.

Every time I buy a car, I opt out manufacturer's audio system (radio/tv/navigator).
Then I buy it from a car shop,. They install it free of charge.
I have 8 Bose speakers and a subwoofer, over a high range amplifier in the car I'm riding now. It costs a fortune, but oh my....You should ride beside me to feel that sound.

 

[Isaac]

Every time I buy a car, I opt out manufacturer's audio system (radio/tv/navigator).
Then I buy it from a car shop,. They install it free of charge.
I have 8 Bose speakers and a subwoofer, over a high range amplifier in the car I'm riding now. It costs a fortune, but oh my....You should ride beside me to feel that sound.

so you're that person I can hear from 2 blocks away disturbing the peace!
Just kidding

 

[Mike Krailo]

As we get older, speed and horse power are not the factors driving purchase. I need a larger vehicle that I don't have to crouch down into and out of. So the SUV's are the one's that appeal to me. I inherited a Toyota Avalon that is a very nice car, but I'm finding it harder and harder to get into and out of it. So SUV here I come. Probably a Grand Highlander Hybrid since that Toyota Tundra is too pricy for me. I don't care about the audio system as long as it has a good air conditioning system, I'm good.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I also am not interested in paying for top of the line vehicles but even still, my new cars are now costing more than my first house and come with many features I could do without.

As it happens, I remember a relevant cost here. When my parents passed away and I finally got around to cleaning out some of their old papers, I found the mortgage for the house in which I grew up 74 years ago. The loan was for a total of $5000 for 1100 square feet in a relatively new and as-yet unpaved subdivision. Street paving came later. There is no way I would be able to buy a new car with the prices we are seeing these days. I'll be buying used program cars when the time comes, but I have also been taking good care of my Dodge 2010 Grand Caravan. Just had the brakes done and got two new tires. A year ago I had the suspension examined and redone (and it actually DID need some work there). As long as the engine doesn't go kablooie on me, I'll drive that dog into the ground.

 

[Minty]

The Original Equipment models cost at least four times as much as one you can purchase on line or from Best Buy and have installed yourself.

I used to sell car audio equipment - so would happily go down this route, but in my car there is nowhere to fit anything aftermarket. It doesn't have a slot for a radio.

It has an 11 speaker active system as standard, digital time correction for the offset left/right stereo balance and you can upgrade to better speakers if you want to, all of which are specially tuned to the car.

It would cost £1,000's to improve on it, and be very difficult to fit.

 

[BlueSpruce]

Some decades ago when I was still in college, IBM got sued over something similar to this. Actually, they got sued to a fare-thee-well on everything from monopolistic business pricing practices to unfair advertising to improperly slow development activities (i.e. having developed and tested something but holding it back to further their monopolistic position). If they had sold kitchen sinks, they would have been sued over that, too. They were the poster child for getting sued in the 1960s and 1970s. Judge John Sirica stayed on the case for 10 years and in fact went past his nominal retirement age to keep the case active. I forget how many trees they killed, but it was in the days before wide-spread digital publishing so there were mountains of paper records to be considered.

In those days, the IBM 360 series of machines was their biggest offering. The models were indicated as 360/20, 360/40, 360/70, etc. and the power went up with the /number of the model. A lawsuit was filed that claimed that a purchaser had bought a particular model, the 360/40, and then wanted to upgrade to the 360/50. A service technician came out and flipped a switch inside the /40 and .... lo and behold, it became indistinguishable from a /50. The lawsuit was something to the effect that since the buyer had purchased the box, they should have owned every feature of the box. To have that hidden power available at the throw of a switch was an improper business practice. (Note that the suit didn't claim to apply to leased machines!)

Regarding the car, I could see charging extra if there was a maintenance package involved, but if the only thing done was to unlock the car's computer to allow the higher performance, that is a suspicious business practice for a company doing business in the USA.

Ha, I remember John Sirica, the Watergate and Admiral Poindexter/Oliver North Judge. My driver license says driving a vehicle is a privilege, not a right. So for that "nobody owns vehicles and pay by the mile" model to work, the government would have to revoke everyone's driving privilege and do a "cash for clunkers" program to buyout everyone's vehicles. I don't see that happening in our life time. Instead, you now see many municipal governments charging tolls, parking, camera fines. I was doing a gig in New York City from November 2024 to June 2025. In January they starting charging a $9.00 "congestion tax" if you drive below 60th Street in Manhattan. King DT unsuccessfully tried to stop it. There's speed radars everywhere. If you drive faster than 10 mph over the posted limit a cam snaps a pic of your plate and you get a $50.00 fine in the mail. This is government's current M.O. for milking money from vehicle owners, discourage you from driving your own vehicle, and coerce you to use mass transportation. It's a model that will continue spreading throughout the world. Many governments observe how that works for others and copycat the model.