Car subscriptions are now a thing

[FSogol]

Volvo has begun a service where you subscribe to a car service. You get a brand new car with zero money down, all maintenance and insurance included. You pay a monthly fee and can get a new model every 12 months. Business experts hate the idea, since there is no negotiation. This will probably become popular.

https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/02/volvo-xc40-care-by-volvo-hands-on/

[safeinOhio]

1. $35,000 for $600? month,,,,,

How about a $17,500 car for $300/month.. that might take off.

[FSogol]

2. Probably have to wait for Toyota or Kia to pick up on that idea. n/t

[forgotmylogin]

41. Isn't a car subscription called a "lease"?

And wow...17.5k car for $300, that's what I'm paying! I can afford that! And they get the car back at the end!

[safeinOhio]

42. What got me was the

insurance and matainence.

[CK_John]

3. The idea of a gig vs a job.

[FSogol]

4. Younger generations are being primed to be lifetime subscribers of corporate products

They subscribe to:

cable, streaming services, gaming services, food delivery services, audio book services, delivery services, etc; Cars are just the next logical step.

I hate subscribing to anything. I hate monthly fees. I keep cars until they have 300k miles on them. I love every year that I get out of them without paying a loan on them.

[GeorgeHayduke]

5. Perhaps it's my frame of reference

but my observation has been contrary to that. In all likelyhood I've chosento surround myself with people of like-mind who eschew virtually everything subscription.

[FSogol]

10. I'm GenX so most of my friends aren't into stuff like that.

While satellite radio seems cool, I hate the idea of paying for it and have never signed up. Audible is tempting, but my local library carries a lot of audiobooks and even e-audiobooks. We have netflix (and prime) but that is mostly a replacement for the old VHS rental places.


But these subscription things are exploding, the neighborhood is filled with Blue Apron and Chewy boxes. Bike shares with a monthly fee are popping up around here too.

[Blue_Adept]

11. GenX as well but I love XM radio

Signed up for it when it first came out as I used to do a ton of driving up and down the eastern seaboard. Never hear the same song twice, dig into decades in particular, and lately just listing to a range of stand up comedy channels.

I think I've had them for 17 years now. When I end up in someone else's car with the radio on I realize how much I hate it because of all the commercials and all of the talk between the songs. Drives me nuts.

[mercuryblues]

33. I love XM

The no commercials are great. The biggest bonus for me is when I'm driving, I don't lose reception of a channel. The only time I have to change the station is when I want to listen to a different genre.

[Atman]

34. This.

I've had Sirius for years. I've also had one of those iTrip devices that beams your iPhone music to your FM radio. SUCKS, for the exact same reason radio sucks -- constantly having to switch stations to get a good signal. But Sirius is always there, no matter how far you drive, no matter what. It's one monthly payment that I consider totally worth it.

[mercuryblues]

36. We have it in all our vehicles

The one we have in the house we bought a lifetime subscription for, when they offered it.

I always laugh when Earl Baily, on Deep tracks tells us what songs he just played. I want call him to say that we can see the artist and song name on our screen.

[Atman]

39. I want to be the guy who does the commercials.

As you obviously know, some channels do have commercial. Mostly the news or talk channels. Sirius has one guy on contract who does the voice-over for every commercial their ad guys sell. Same guy that does the tax relief ads does the boner pill ads job seeker ads. I've done a few commercials...I'm not sure if that gig would be hell or easy money. Something tells me Sirius doesn't pay him much. But at least I could do different voices. Like a Mel Blanc for radio ads.

[Blue_Adept]

38. Exactly

The no commercials is a huge thing for me. I timeshift all my TV to avoid them or stick to streaming shows.

The biggest for me with XM was when I was driving from new england to virginia a lot and there were so many dead zones of local radio, trying to find anything decent, and then dealing with repetitive songs. I did a 10 hour drive south listening to just the 80's channel and never had a song come on twice.

[jmowreader]

46. Some of the commercials are better than the shows

Prescription drug ads are not better, but the beer ads are okay.

[crazycatlady]

6. There's more

I upgraded my computer last year. It took me forever to realize that for MS OFfice that I could do a one time purchase ($150) vs pay a subscription. The PC even came with a year of the subscription service.

Apparently the printer companies also offer subscription services where you get pay $X per month to print up to Y number of pages.

[FSogol]

7. In Philip K.Dick's novel, "Ubik," the protagonist, Joe Chip lives in an apartment, where he has to

pay a feed to open the door or refrigerator. Because he is out of work, he is reduced to arguing with the door that will not let him out.

Software subscriptions (my company has to subscribe to AutoCAD products) are evil. The constant upgrades amount to very little. It would be better to run a version for 5 years before upgrading.

[crazycatlady]

8. Yeah my old computer had Office 07 on it

Now I got the 16 version and I like the old one better. There's only so much you need out of programs like Word and Excel.

[Atman]

40. Tell me about it. I'm in Adobe hell.

Okay, it's not quite hell. As a freelancer, $50 a month is not brutal -- as long as I'm working. You get a couple of "free" months if you pay by the year, but I'd guess most of us don't do that. I only signed up because I had to. Adobe owns the market, and when i needed to upgrade my Mac OS -- which I held off a long time strictly because I didn't want to pay Adobe's ransom fee for an upgrade -- I was shit out of luck. I had to sign up for a subscription. It's really not that bad, I do like having the software constantly up to date. It's just the principle of the thing. I spent something like $2000 for the original license, now I'm paying them $50 a month for stuff I already bought. Kind of. Oh well. Cost of doing business.

[ProudLib72]

18. Software rental is not a new concept

It has been around for small business analytics for years. However, it sounds like this is a case of concept trickle down for the single, home consumer. It makes sense when you know there will be an upgraded program every two years. I'm with you, though; I don't like the new MS Office suite.

[crazycatlady]

23. I think individual use depends on whether you need the latest program

I know in my line of work (and when I was in school) I probably used less than 10% of the features on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I know those programs can do a lot more, and I cross that bridge when I get there (Google is my friend in this case). Also at least in my professional life, Google Drive (Docs, sheets, etc) is increasingly used as more than one user can edit a document at the same time (this time around I'm using my personal gmail as I don't have a work email yet. From personal gmail they're free). A casual user of a photo editor (such as editing photos for personal social media) doesn't need the tools that a professional graphic designer does.

The heavy feature users of such software are probably the ones where the subscription model makes sense.

[ProudLib72]

31. Oh yes, I agree

The other bonus of having a subscription is that all issues are handled out of house, so you don't need an IT person. Then again, you are completely reliant on the software company to solve issues, and it might be that their IT people are not good or take forever.

I like the idea of software subscription purely on principle because it would seem to promote entrepreneurship (like selling pussy hats ). I just don't know how well it works in reality, but it must work for a lot of people since it still a "thing". What you are talking about is the scalability of the software subscriptions. A subscriber can choose different options a la carte to make a personalized management system. So an individual with a start up, a handful of cash, and a cell phone could choose a cheap subscription that just allows for management of invoices by number or customer name. It's fascinating stuff. It wasn't until I took a class in business management systems that I learned just what was available.

[poboy2]

20. Software, ye. You are no longer able to buy outright programs but have to be a monthly/yearly subscr

[blake2012]

9. Car sharing service is the wave of futurenot 100% usage subscription

Although I like the idea of car share services like Zipcar and others, and I know they are moving to all electric fleets which helps with carbon emissions, it would be nice in at least urban areas to see some more rules laid down such as congestion taxes and other ways to not only create more incentives for public transportation on buses and rail but also help fund that expansion of public transportation.

[FSogol]

14. Disagree. Americans are terrible at sharing. Outside of urban areas or very progressive enclaves,

it will never catch on.

[Le Gaucher]

12. So leases are subscription now?

There are two things at play

1) A continually depreciating asset
2) interest rates to finance that asset

As long as your payments cover both - I dont care what you call it - lease, rental, subscription - it's all the same fucking thing.

[FSogol]

13. In a subscribtion model, you do not own the car. It is not your asset.

I am also not promoting it. I buy a car and keep it until it truly drops dead. I currently drive an '07 Jeep Wrangler, my wife has an '02 Jeep. My previous vehicle, a '94 Jeep Cherokee had about 350k miles on it when I got rid of it.

[Le Gaucher]

16. Someone has to own it .. And regardless of who it is - the depreciation/finance has to be paid for

Unless we are taking about car on demand - where the car may change ever other day - to me subscription is same as leasing ( except in former you probably have no insurance in addition)

[Mosby]

29. you can negotiate leases

Price of the car, depreciated value, money factor, term.

You can't negotiate anything with the subscription model.

[Azathoth]

35. Sure you can, or at least you can customize your subscription plan

Negotiating a car lease is way overrated. The salesman and finance people have a little haggle room to give you the illusion of choice, but at the end of the day you're still going to pay a monthly rental fee within a preset window for one of a small number of fixed terms for a car whose actual market value is depreciating much faster than whatever residual value is specified in the agreement.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

43. In a subscription model, who buys the insurance?

If I get a three-year lease on a car, I have to provide the insurance. I'm responsible for the car. If I break it, I buy it.

Is a subscription different?

[FSogol]

44. Yes, insurance is included in the subscription model. n/t

[CTyankee]

15. We are elderly and we now lease our vehicle. It is a 2018 model Sentra. Excellent car.

We don't drive a lot any more.

[crazycatlady]

27. I wonder about all these rental companies all of a sudden being called 'sharing'

For example the bikeshares found in many cities-- you're paying for the use of the service so technically you're renting the bike not sharing it.

Makes me wonder how long before laundromats will be rebranded as 'laundry shares."

[Phentex]

17. They have had that here for a while. I checked into it after my car accident...

but it seemed to be for people who want to experience different kinds of fancy cars without buying them. You can change them out all the time and not just annually.

https://www.clutchatlanta.com/

[edhopper]

19. This isn't for people

it's for businesses. 100% write off on taxes. And we subsidize it

[FSogol]

22. His? n/t

[edhopper]

25. THIS

fixed, damn android keyboard.

[FSogol]

28. Oh. n/t

[ProudLib72]

21. You can have my car when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!

There is not a single new car I want to drive. Unlike the majority of car consumers, I don't look at a car as just a means of getting from point A to point B. Plus, I don't trust very many people to work on my car, so I don't want some crappy maintenance subscription.

Blech!

[LanternWaste]

24. New business models are frightening to people

New business models are frightening to people who will pull out every creative work of fiction possible to instruct us on its negative-only consequence, while fully accepting the model for one form of consumerism, and denying its practicality for another form... allowing us little more than a distinction lacking a relevant (or even supported) difference.

Changes, even those we may choose to avoid, can be disturbing to a mind closed to anything other than its own cleverness.

[FSogol]

26. Long-winded way to claim I'm afraid of change.

I'm not concerned with owning a new luxury car and don't need an outlay of $600 a month to have a new Volvo in the driveway.

Take my 12 year old Jeep. Let's say it cost $30k, insurance is $120 per month, and maintenance is $1500 per year. In 12 years, I've paid $30k + $17280 insurance + $18k maintenance for a total of $65,280.

Someone doing the Volvo subscription thing with have a new vehicle each year (which has to cost less in maintenance for the company, not the owner) but will pay $7200 a year. In 12 years they'll have spent $86,400.

Gosh, I saved $21,120. Mind opening?

[poboy2]

30. Score. -nt

[Azathoth]

32. Surprised this hasn't been done sooner

Cars are overpriced money pits. You either dump a third or more of a year's salary into buying one new, or you buy second-hand and bleed yourself slowly with repair costs (I know some good repair shops that charge lawyer-level hourly rates). Or you can lease, which is essentially a rental agreement like this one but with even worse terms.

The luxury lines are always the pioneers (think Tesla, etc.). Once the mainstream Japanese manufacturers get into the smart-car-as-a-service model, I see this as the wave of the future. The average family pays around $200 a month for freakin cell phone service. If you told them that for an additional, say, $400 a month they could have a nice car that is guaranteed for life and will never cost them repair bills... I'm pretty sure most would jump at the chance.

[CTyankee]

47. Yep. Leasing was our best option, however.

It's weird getting used to not owning a vehicle but we are heading to Assisted Living and would just as soon be rid of the car, altho we could have one. In assisted living they take you to doctor's appointments and they have shopping outings. They have services to accommodate the religious folks or they take you to Mass, Protestant services, Jewish services.

We were warned to choose only the non-profit AL homes which I think is a good idea. There is a Jewish home near us, which we would like because my husband is Jewish (I have no religious affiliation, but I like and appreciate the Jewish community we have here in New Haven).

[JDC]

37. Porsche offers this, but it's any car you want on demand, brought to you

More expensive, but models can be rotated.

[DavidDvorkin]

45. I've bought lease-return cars

and have been very happy with them. I wonder if this will result in subscription-return cars.