Revision as of 23:17, 20 August 2025

If you saw my video yesterday about Volkswagen, you’ll know that car companies love to sell you your own car in bits and pieces to fuck you over.

Here was every example I could find (with the help of some GPUs & modern clippy) of car companies trying to sell you the hardware you already bought and paid for in your own car. all of these have decent support in the media, which I’ve stuck in here to start with as citations.

As well as these articles about the individual incidents, remember you can also fill out the company articles with relevant details and links, & it would be great if someone could put together a theme article which ties the whole issue together; explaining the general trend of car companies locking physical features that your car is fully capable of using behind a paywall, & how it is a restriction of your ability to use the product you bought and paid for.

Pick one from the following, and write an article!

As articles are created, please edit this page to link to them, and once all relevant articles have been created to a decent standard, place a deletion notice on this article

BMW (some articles already present, but heated steering wheel seems to be missing)

Steering Wheel Heating: BMW charges £10/month, £100/year, or £200 permanent unlock for heated steering wheels that come with complete hardware pre-installed in vehicles.

Media:

Tesla

Heated Rear Seats (2020-2022): Tesla charged $300 for rear heated seats in Model 3 Standard Range variants where the heating hardware was already installed but software-disabled. Tesla discontinued this practice in 2022 following customer criticism.

Media:

Electrek: “Tesla starts selling rear-heated seats on Model 3 SR and SR Plus as $300 OTA upgrade” (February 17, 2020)
Teslarati: “Tesla unlocks rear heated seats for Model 3 SR and SR Plus as paid OTA upgrade” (February 19, 2020)
InsideEVs: “Tesla Model 3 Heated Rear Seats: Simple, Fast & Inexpensive Process” (February 18, 2020)
Acceleration Boost: Tesla charges $2,000 to unlock 50-100 additional horsepower from existing dual-motor hardware, reducing 0-60 times by 0.4-0.5 seconds through software changes alone. Media:
Teslarati: “Tesla releases paid performance upgrade for new Model Y” (2024)
EVANNEX: “Tesla offers acceleration boost upgrade for the new Model Y” (2024)
Full Self-Driving Computer: Tesla charges $8,000 one-time or $99/month for FSD features that require specific hardware. Vehicles with older Autopilot computer 2.0 or 2.5 can receive a complimentary FSD computer upgrade if they purchased Full Self-Driving, but subscription users must pay $1,000 for the hardware upgrade.

Media:

Tesla Support: “Full Self-Driving Computer Installations”
Tesla Support: “Full Self-Driving (Supervised) Subscriptions”
Electrek: “Tesla lowers price of ‘Full Self-Driving’ to $8,000, down from $12,000” (April 21, 2024)
Battery Range Unlock: Tesla software-limits battery capacity in Model Y RWD to 260 miles but charges $1,500-$2,000 to unlock additional 40-60 miles of range from the same physical battery.

Media:

Mercedes-Benz

EQS Rear-Wheel Steering: Mercedes charges €489 ($575) annually to unlock 10-degree rear-wheel steering, though all EQS models have the full hardware installed but are software-limited to 4.5 degrees without payment.

Media:

The Drive: “Full Rear-Wheel Steering on Mercedes EQS Will Be $575 Annual Subscription in Germany: Report” (July 26, 2021)
J.D. Power: “Mercedes-Benz EQS Rear-Wheel Steer Requires Subscription” (2021)
Motor1: “Mercedes Charging $575 Per Year In Germany For 10-Degree Rear Steering On EQS” (July 23, 2021)
Performance “Acceleration Increase”: Mercedes charges $60-90/month or $600-900/year for 60-80 horsepower increases (e.g., EQE 350: 288hp → 348hp, EQS 450: 355hp → 435hp) through software unlock of existing hardware capabilities in EQE and EQS models.

Media:

Car and Driver: “Mercedes Reveals EQE and EQS ‘Acceleration Increase’ Subscription Pricing” (April 26, 2023)
Mercedes-Benz USA: “Mercedes-Benz USA Announces Performance Acceleration On-Demand Upgrade for EQE and EQS Customers” (April 26, 2023)
Carscoops: “Mercedes Releases A $1,200 Annual Subscription To Unlock A 60 To 110 HP For Its EVs” (November 25, 2022)

Audi

Climate Control Sync Function: Audi charges $758 for a basic HVAC “Sync” function where the physical button is present in the vehicle but disabled until payment, with reminder messages appearing when pressed.

Media:

The Drive: “Audi Owner Finds Basic HVAC Function Paywalled After Pressing the Button for It” (April 1, 2022)
CarBuzz: “Audi Driver Horrified After Basic Functionality Hidden Behind Paywall” (April 2, 2022)
Team-BHP: “Audi EV owner finds paywalled HVAC function” (April 5, 2022)

General Motors

OnStar Mandatory Subscriptions (2022-2023): GM required buyers of Buick, GMC, and some Cadillac models to purchase mandatory $905-$1,675 three-year OnStar subscriptions for remote start and connectivity features, with all hardware pre-installed. Customer backlash led to partial policy reversal in March 2023.

Media:

CNN Business: “A $1,500 ‘option’ is now mandatory on GMC, Buick, and some Cadillac models” (August 10, 2022)
Car and Driver: “GM Confirms It’s Making $1500 Option Mandatory on Some New Models” (August 9, 2022)
Carscoops: “GM Now Forces You To Pay $1,500 For OnStar Service On All New Buick And GMC Models” (August 12, 2022)

Ford

BlueCruise Hands-Free Driving: Ford charges $49.99/month or $2,495 one-time for hands-free steering and lane-change assistance using cameras and sensors installed at the factory. Initial pricing of $75/month generated customer backlash, leading to 38% price reduction.

Media: