Did you know that actually happens with jet engines for a long time now? Companies lease jet engines and they have licenses for a certain number of engines in different max outputs, they can even transfer between them like, one 100% engine got damaged so they they transfer the 100% license to an 80% engine while it is in maintenence (all numbers are made up but the idea is the same).

But yeah, shit is fucked.

You forgot this little point.

You own a non-exclusive, intransferable licence to use and operate said car.

Yes, you paid for it. But it's not really yours. You own its body. Someone else still owns its spirit. And they want a rent for you to be able to touch the spirit.

Why would they do that?

Obviously, becaude that shit flies. Why not do it? Money is money. And companies exist for it. Fuck morality. Fuck common sense. They only care about the little green lines.

Customer satisfaction?

Not even an afterthought.

In a sane world, everyone would think like you. I do, for one.

The problem is everyone else who doesn't. They'll put up with it, accept the thinly-veiled excuses, and the company will see "wow, we can do that now? Gee, these people are stoopid. Let's see how far we can take it.

Honestly, I see where they're coming from. Not that I support it. But it is a rational decision on their part.

In a sane world, the smart employee who came up with this would be fired promptly, because if the company were to carry this shit out, they'd get so much bad press it'd take over a decade to recover.

But alas, we don't live in a sane world and clearly enough consumers are either idiots or ignorant for this shit to fly.

Same man, same. Weight loss is hard.

It's always been like this

Cardio

This has been true for decades with VW and other cars… I had my 2000 Jetta chipped and got all kinds of HP and torque. Some dude just plugged in a laptop, beep boop, vroom vroom. $600 please.

This just seems like VW cutting out those middlemen.

I'm sure it's already being developed. Those guys don't fuck around

Already happening. That shit should be outlawed a.s.a.p.

I have a VW ID.4.

In NZ they have no internet connection, no subscriptions, basic driver assist features, made in Europe, not made by Tesla, and are (were?) as cheap as BYDs, MGs, and Model3s.

I love VW Golf.

My Mercedes has subscriptions for things like locking your car from the app or locating it 😂.

Plenty of people with new Porsches and Audis

I don’t know why they made a minivan with only two cup holders.

LDV e seris ?

That’s bullshit. That vintage of VW has like two sensors on the turbo. They’re easy to get to and cost like $100 tops.

And $5,000 to replace a turbo is nuts. A new turbo can be around $1,500 but it’s less than six or eight hours of labor for a good mechanic.

I’m an idiot code monkey and I replaced mine in my garage in a weekend.

I got news for you, I purchased a used Hyundai 2019 that has turbo, and the one thing wrong with it was the turbo. My father's a mechanic, so he said he would put it in, but I believe the cost for the part was around $500. Idk what a dealer would charge. He then told me that turbos, on average, only last about 100k anyway, so it's definitely a part that will most likely need replacing more than most sadly. Then, a month later, the entire car died, and the engine was bad... this was earlier this year, and my father again said he would do it, but a new engine takes time, which he doesn't have, so now I've been car less for 4 months, yay!

This new car had 93k on it. My last car (Nissan Sentra) lasted 19 years and 250k on it and only traded it in because we were nervous it could go at any time. Thanks for the great car, Hyundai!

You wouldn't own a car you purchased

I’ve got a ten year old GTI and the amount of power you can get out of these engines with really simple, cheap mods is crazy.

Do they have something for Mercedes?

I'm legitimately impressed that you managed to come up with a scenario where the cause of this silliness wasn't 100% corporate greed. I'll see if I can give it a go too:

We have P (provisional driver) plate restrictions here that limit power to weight... Possibly it could be a car you can drive on your P license without the subscription, then turn it on when you get your full license to enjoy 10% more power?

... I dunno I'm struggling.

Never trusted them over the emissions testing thing.