Not as bad as the new bmw way, want a heated steering wheel? That's £10/month
OH, that touches a nerve...
My dad ran BMW's for his last 3 or 4 company cars before retiring, even he was skunnered to their way of "optioning" everything. He specced one up with business trim level and optioned leather seats. I didn't appreciate that lumbar support would be yet another option to add to that. So you're spending £40k on a mid sized saloon, and you need to splurge even more for lumbar support?
My BMW 6 coupe started from £70k mine is £80k as optioned, I bought it a few years ago for a fraction of that, but some of the stuff it's lacking is frankly embarrassing, standard kit was halogen bulbs, option was xeonos, option plus was adaptive xenons that steer into a corner, I've got xenons, the 4 year older peugeot coupe that cost a third of the price BMW had adaptive xenons. If you're buying an £70k+ GT coupe, you shouldn't need to "option" sports seats to get the side bolsters, fortunately my cars previous owner did, but you get the point.
Fortunately, some people have figured out how to hack / "code" their BMWs and there is a thriving community around that scene. The cars afflicted by the subscription features palava are typically still in their first owners hands, and under warranty, but once they hit the used market, I have no doubt that the scene will hack the living bejeezus out of these vehicles.
