Curious, what IS the best new car brand for privacy? Especially in the EV sector?
You’re not going to want to hear this but… Tesla. It’s always been Tesla. No ads, no subscriptions for seat heaters, no selling your driving data.
I’m waiting to see regular reviews of those slate trucks and maybe a second model year/iteration. And maybe waiting to see if they eventually get better range. Sure not having a radio or infotainment is overkill, and only hand crank windows is overkill, but for $25k-30k and no big screen, it seems quite reasonable if all I want is a reliable box that moves around.
That’s the allure for me. I can choose to buy what I can afford and then at a later date add other options myself as I want them or need them. But the range is an issue for me as a rural person where a trip to a clinic is 100 mile round trip. And if I need more, then it becomes a 200+ mile trip.
That is an ugly car. Why can’t EVs look like normal cars?
What’s a “normal” car?
The Canyonero
Fair point.
But companies always hold their promises…
To their shareholders…
the seat heater sub kept me away from buying a new one anyway
also the buck teeth grills
Not sure how I feel about this … sure it’s a very shitty practice in general. But on the other hand it only effects BMW drivers.
All BMWs need to be retrofitted with forced ads.
erm my car is not a billboard
Nothing says luxury car like trashy ads on your dash
Don’t believe a megacorp.
“Surprise mechanic”
I’m willing to bet that these cars do not get software updates wirelessly though. You gotta take your car into the stealership for those. But ads? Instant wireless transmission.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Walk like an Egyptian…
“we are a premium brand”
my ass.
These “premium” German brands are all committing suicide. Rejecting electric cars, rejecting nuclear power, designing cars that look like puke, and doing everything to monetize your use of the car.
With incompetent leadership like this, those 8k workers being laid off from BMW is just the beginning.
don’t worry, they’ll keep stoking nationalist paranoia and shift to weapon production. What’s the worst that could happen?
German car brands are rejecting nuclear power?
I was really looking forward to my luxury German nuclear-powered car as well >:(
suicide […] rejecting nuclear power
Uhuh. That plant in Romania that had to shut down, because the rivers are too hot.
You’re right, they should keep burning coal. Clean, beautiful coal, works no matter how hot it gets!
As if there’s not already entire countries with mostly renewable.
And why is it so hot, I wonder
CO², nuclear didn’t help much against it.
The premium is unfortunately not in the interior and infotainment experience, at least not these days. And I guess to non car people, the infotainment is what sells cars now.
The Germans still build the best* ICE drivetrains, the best chassis and suspension setups, to give you an excellent ride quality AND sporty handling in the same 2 ton family station wagon. Nobody compares, not even Volvo. But interior layouts have been going downhill steadily for like a decade now. And when it comes to EVs, you can’t really compete without being Chinese anyway. Other countries don’t have access to the same battery pricing, nor the same labor costs (to be fair the latter applies to both ICE and EV alike).
They’ll all die slow deaths. As EVs become mandated, Chinese companies will take over because nobody else can afford to sell cars for so cheap. The Chinese cars will of course have all the same infotainment issues like unwanted ads and they’ll be similar privacy nightmares, plus the prices will go up once you can only buy Chinese cars. It’ll be fun and we’ll all love it.
* Toyota Supra A90 used BMW’s B58 engine. That should tell you everything you need to know. TOYOTA didn’t bother coming up with their own engine for the chassis they also got from BMW. It’s been heralded as the modern 2JZ.
Plenty of non Chinese brands are on the EV train now.
I can buy an Alpine that it is, in every conceivable way, better than the cheapest VW EV (while being a bit cheaper, or the same price). How is this not a problem with German manufacturers specifically?
The Germans still build the best* ICE drivetrains, the best chassis and suspension setups, to give you an excellent ride quality
Dad has a BMW. It has a too smooth dampening and steering adjustment to speed, so you’ll vastly underestimate how fast you’re driving. I won’t drive his car anymore; too dangerous.
That tends to be adjustable in cars now. Oftentimes the comfort setting is vague on purpose on a lot of cars. My Audi in comfort is fine if not a bit too soft for spirited driving on back roads, on Dynamic it’s perfect for that. It’s a 2007 Allroad though. Still has hydraulic (but variable) power steering and such.
When I had my 2019 C-Class, it felt just right for this type of driving, even though that one had steel springs and no adjustable dampers, but did have adjustable steering since it was fully electric power steering. It also felt completely at home cruising at 150-160 km/h (no autobahn here so I wouldn’t go faster than that usually).
Only BMW I ever owned was an E61 and that one also had superb road feel, though I hear the newer ones aren’t as good, since they do optimize for the highway rather than the curvy roads I personally prefer driving on.
In comparison, I test drove a Hyundai Ioniq 5, a small electric hatchback I thought would be sporty-ish, and that had zero road feel. Outright dangerous going fast into a corner with it, and with the electric torque it was certainly tempting to do so before I realized how little I know about its grip limits.
This sounds like something that should be illegal.
For people who had forgotten the seat heating subscription
Why do they keep trying to pull this bullshit?, they’re a luxury brand, there margins should be pretty good without trying to nickel and dime everything
Line must go up.
I think it has something to do with the markets infatuation with recurring revenue streams. Everything is a subscription model now.
Cos there are enough dumb people who are ready to pay for this shit.
Same with lootboxes in gaming, everyone hates them but there are enough people purchasing them so that the companies can keep pulling shit like this off.
Capitalism doesn’t understand “good enough”, only MOAR
Have you ever heard of next quarter?
No amount of money can satisfy their empty fucking hearts and minds
There are no brakes on capitalism. It’s always more, more and more.
Because income sources like subscriptions and ads are stable, predictable, and that makes shareholders happy.
No matter what BMW tries to tell you in their press releases, they were never considered a luxury brand in Europe. As for German cars it goes more or less like this: Maybach >>>>>>> Porsche >>> Audi > Mercedes >>>>>>>>>>>> BMW > Volkswagen > Opel.
I’d argue that Mercedes > Audi
Same. Merc is top to me. BMW close second. I have a lot of respect for Audi, but only had experience with A3 and A4 Wagon. Both had very aggressive and stiff ride feel. Fun, but not what I want from a daily commuter.
Where was this? And I would like to read the terms and conditions for purchase. I risk there is either a clause there for this and/or an entry way to file a complaint.
This poses an active danger. We are visual creatures. It will cause distraction.
This poses an active danger. We are visual creatures. It will cause distraction.
We are way past that point. Cars have had massive, phone shaped touch screens in them for years. Every year, more and more of the cabin controls are moved from physical buttons and knobs, that you can operate and adjust without taking your eyes off the road, to settings hidden behind multiple layers of menus on the gigantic touch screen. In some cars you can’t even change the direction of the air conditioning without accessing the touch screen.
Where is this? I am seeing a growing resurgence of buttons and knobs in recently built cars. And I have the impression of reading somewhere conventional controls are to be mandatory again because the screen based controls pose a distraction for driving.
I live in Australia.
As I walked out of my house, I made a conscious effort to take a peek on a few cars parked by the sidewalk and although many had the central console LCD installed, all had buttons and knobs to ajust and turn on and off things.
I’m in Europe.
Now I’m going to be on the look for the full LCD central console.
US
