Volvo thinking of charging for “Digital Services” in future

[Rifleman]

I’ve just completed the latest “Drivers Connect” survey from Volvo.

It seems they are thinking of moving Volvo On Call and “live updated” navigation to a full blown subscription service. The prices they ask you to comment on are £20-£25 per month! Seems a bit steep to me compared with my mobile phone tariff…
I got the impression that they are looking at going to a Google subscription based system across the board

[PC40]

I’ve completed the same survey and totally agree with Rifleman’s comments.

[RonFleet]

One way to lose loyal customers.

[Bob]

I completed the survey earlier stating I would not purchase a car from a manufacturer that charged for these services/features on a subscription basis.

[blastpipe]

I completed the survey earlier stating I would not purchase a car from a manufacturer that charged for these services/features on a subscription basis.

I agree!

I stopped completing those surveys it all seemed take take take....never got anything back. Then they stopped the user lounge where you could at least ask a question....final straw..deleted my account.

[mss911]

I completed the survey earlier stating I would not purchase a car from a manufacturer that charged for these services/features on a subscription basis.

Do they not charge an additional fee already after you initial 3 years (here in the UK) ?? I'd assumed its built into the initial cost of the car. Granted I'm not sure its at the level proposed here but I do think we are already doing this.

[Bernard Bernardsson]

I completed the survey earlier stating I would not purchase a car from a manufacturer that charged for these services/features on a subscription basis.

Do they not charge an additional fee already after you initial 3 years (here in the UK) ?? I'd assumed its built into the initial cost of the car. Granted I'm not sure its at the level proposed here but I do think we are already doing this.

They do, but it's nothing like the abovementioned monthly fees.

The cost to renew / extend your subscription is:
1 Year Subscription £34.90 incl VAT
2 Year Subscription £59.90 incl VAT

[bba]

BMW charge subscription fees for a number of features, that come up for renewal one or a few years depending on the service after delivery. As the fees were modest I did not have much issue with it. Like it or not this seems to be were the industry is heading.

[jamie307]

I'm not sure £300 a year is reasonable for a remote start app that stops working if you don't use the car for three days.

[bba]

I'm not sure £300 a year is reasonable for a remote start app that stops working if you don't use the car for three days.

That I certainly agree with.

One of the upsides of subscription services is that if they are buggy, unusable, or useless the manufacturer will notice this where it hurts as opposed to just ignore it. As well as if the price is silly.

If memory serves BMW was charging about £20-30 in Q4'20 for services that were useful and worked in my 330e [G20], again if memory serves they dropped charging for CarPlay altogether.