BMW is taking a page out of service-based pricing by turning a lot of traditional car options into software services that can be enabled (and disabled) at any point in them.

The German automaker made the announcement in a VR presentation that was streamed live from company headquarters in Germany. BMW tackled a series of digital updates to a lot of its models, but the most significant part of the presentation involved plans to turn a lot of its options into software services that that can be enabled through the new MY BMW app.

Subscription-based services are not a new deal with BMW, are they?

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No, they're not. In fact, BMW has talked about this for a while. The basic gist of BMW’s planned subscription-based service is straightforward.

Suppose you bought a 3 Series with no options for heated seats and a heated steering wheel, you can retroactively avail those options through a subscription service. These options can be added manually (hardware subscriptions) or as updates (software subscriptions) through the new MY BMW app that all new BMW models will come with as standard. BMW can offer a free three-month trial and then you can basically buy a subscription for these features for a set amount of time.

What’s the difference between this new subscription tool and the Connected Drive Store that’s been operational since 2014?

The Connected Drive Store that BMW launched in 2014 allowed car owners to book or avail digital services, but more often than not, those features were directly tied to the car’s infotainment features.

Safety features like active cruise control with stop-and-go functionality or a high beam assistant can be availed after-the-fact for a set period or until you have no use for them, in which case you can unsubscribe the service.

This is a good thing, right?

It’s a good thing in the sense that you don’t have to pay for heated seats in the summer when they’re basically useless. Those who lease their BMWs - a significant part of the car-buying population in the US — won’t have to spend for features that they have no use for, saving them some money in the process.

At the same time, consumers can cherry-pick the specifications they want from their BMWs without having to buy bloated bundles and packages that include options they don’t have any use for. In this sense, service-based subscriptions could potentially save buyers or leasers a lot of money.

What’s the downside to BMW’s service-based pricing?

For all of the perceived benefits that this will bring to car buyers, there are some potential downsides to it, too, especially when it comes to used car sales.

If you’re buying a used BMW and you have to spend more to avail of features and services that have been discontinued in those cars, that’s a hit to the wallet that you probably don’t want. If money isn’t an issue, then you can have a better-equipped BMW than the previous owner of the car.

You’ll just have to pay extra for that distinction. It’s not hard to make the financial connection, especially when you look at it from BMW’s perspective.

This is another source of revenue that BMW, and other automakers, can take advantage of. Whether it becomes an actual thing that’s sustainable will be determined by how hard BMW pushes to make it happen.

Is it going too far when you have to subscribe to safety features that you should probably get as standard on your models in the first place? Perhaps it is, but service-based pricing is the rage these days, and it seems that the auto industry is itching to jump in that bandwagon, for better or worse.