Rendered at 05:58:14 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Cloudflare Workers.
DanOpcode 5 minutes ago [-]
Wouldn't it be fair if BMW at least shared the advertisement revenue with the car owners?
It's so ugly that they first sell cars, and profit from that. And then they utilize the fleet of cars to squeeze out more revenue, even though that was never part of the contract to begin with. What right does BMW have to do that?
If they found a new revenue source, it would be nice if they at least shared that with their customers. Now it's just abuse of their customers. Where BMW is one-sided profiting while the customers are suffering.
helterskelter 2 hours ago [-]
Great way to tank a brand. Part of BMW's value is/was the expectation of an upper middle class snob driving it, but having your car force ads on you is something people wouldn't even expect from a Kia Soul leased off a used lot.
dehrmann 1 hours ago [-]
It's like a basic Kindle. Or Ryanair.
Between this, the proprietary nut patent, and the heated seat subscription, I'm probably not going to look at BMW for my next car. They've been going back on things, but all of this adds up to they don't get it.
2muchcoffeeman 11 minutes ago [-]
A BMW is like a flagship smart phone. It looks like luxury, but everyone has them.
riffraff 25 minutes ago [-]
Ryanair is the epitome of "cheap with compromise" which is the opposite of the BMW brand. And kindle basic gets advertising as a known feature at buying time.
Pushing advertisment after sale on a premium product is absolutely not similar.
mplewis 59 minutes ago [-]
No, it's obviously not like that.
calmbonsai 1 hours ago [-]
Yup. I'd say ICE cars peaked in UX, performance, and safety in the early 2000s.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 1 hours ago [-]
This has nothing to do with the method used to propel the vehicle. There's nothing stopping this from happening in an EV.
edoceo 26 minutes ago [-]
The electric motor is better for torque and speed than ICE.
rvz 2 hours ago [-]
> Part of BMW's value is/was the expectation of an upper middle class snob driving it
BMWs are no where near for that "class". A Mercedes-Benz is for that and even they also put ads in their own dashboard screens. [0]
So on HN-land, time to rule out BMWs, Chevrolets, Mercedes-Benz, Teslas, Volkswagens, Kias. What else?
Mercs and BMWs occupy the same market space. They are direct competitors.
Mercedes may have a car or two that reaches just out of upper middle class but they are largely a middle to upper middle class brand, just like BMW.
The fact that Merc would do it too just means they are both happy cheapening their brand to align with practices of cheap off-brand android TVs.
jchw 2 hours ago [-]
I don't think I'll be buying recent model years any time soon.
femto 1 hours ago [-]
I'm beginning to think that my '96 Toyota Starlet is "peak ICE". It has EFI, no infotainment, no power windows, no power steering, no automatic transmission. It is basically an engine, gearbox and wheels. An electric Starlet would be Nirvana.
Edit: Just read that Toyota is toying with the idea of an electric Starlet. It'll probably have an infotainment system and power "everything" though.
I'm not a mechanic but I have rebuilt an engine (common rail diesel with electronic injection) with a friend and do some work on my own cars. I don't really get the "everything needs to be mechanical" push. My previous car was mid 2000s, automatic, electronic basically everything. The reason why I scrapped it was because it had too must rust. The engine, transmission, and electronics were still fine after 200k and 20 years of harsh winters.
My current car had an electrical issue last year... but it turned out it was a mechanical issue. Something had chewed through the wires to the MAF sensor. Fixed them, and all good. It's no different from something chewing through a fuel line, except OBD was able to tell me what subsystem was not working correctly.
The problem I see with current cars is that the infotainment system is tied into everything - and usually the software sucks. If they just went back to seperate dashboard, AC controls and radio I'd have no issues with them.
My current car is from 2016, and I specifically looked for something that was like that. It is hybrid and has modern tech (e.g. radar cruise control), but everything is compartmentalised. First upgrade I did was replacing the headunit with a Chinese one that supports Android Auto/CarPlay. No functionality was lost, as the old head unit was literally just a radio and screen for backup camera.
yegle 2 hours ago [-]
Volvo, with their terrible infortainment system's performance, I'm not sure if it's capable of displaying ads.
dylan604 5 minutes ago [-]
And here you thought they were just incompetent. Turns out, they've been looking out for you this whole time
kridsdale1 2 hours ago [-]
My Lexus 2025 remains perfect and user friendly. I have all the online connected stuff enabled. Zero enshitification.
mentalfist 1 hours ago [-]
Many NA produced lexus models have seen deteriorating quality issues past 5 or so years. Maybe yours is produced in Japan?
ludicrousdispla 1 hours ago [-]
>> Zero enshitification.
Lexus should put that on the cover of their product brochure.
roundwego 1 hours ago [-]
Lexus is a kino sleeper.
chaostheory 1 hours ago [-]
You make it sound like there's no choice. Toyota/Lexus and Honda/Acura don't do it to my knowledge. Am I wrong?
EDIT Add Volvo and Genesis to the list of no ads
c7b 11 minutes ago [-]
It sounds awful, but it might not even make the top-5 of the most annoying/concering things you'll get in a new car (bought in the EU at least), many of which are now mandatory by regulation. What you'll also get is a camera that tracks your eye movements to play an alert when they're not on the road, an alarm when you drive over the allowed speed limit as determined by a camera, an alarm plus a mechanical yanking of your driving wheel when you're approaching the side of your lane without a turn signal on. As a cherry on top it's unclear what happens with all the data generated by these systems. And I'm probably forgetting a few.
I'm wondering what a good cutoff date is when considering buying a used car.
maxgashkov 6 minutes ago [-]
I get all of these with more or less recent (2023) Mazda here in Japan, but all of them can be turned off in settings. Are they always-on in EU?
c7b 28 seconds ago [-]
I haven't driven a recent model but afaik the answer for most is Yes, or at best you can disable them for the current ride and they turn on again automatically on every start.
dylan604 6 minutes ago [-]
My 2015 has none of these things. It has a rear camera, no telemetry, physical buttons, no internal nav, and no giant tough screen.
narmiouh 2 hours ago [-]
Samsung the same with their display on fridge, I'm not sure how is this legal and why someone thinks this is ok.
These decision makers are meant to be educated people with may be at least a tiny bit of values in their lives...
cautiouscat 2 hours ago [-]
I agree that it’s abhorrent. However the doomer in me can’t help but think they do these things because consumers still buy them. You’d expect GE to go “Oh yeah well we don’t put ads on OUR fridges.” but it seems like in every industry they all just follow suit.
jaredhallen 2 hours ago [-]
I suppose they've determined the revenue from the ads outweighs the potential competitive advantage.
dfxm12 1 hours ago [-]
It's not like they're showing ads on fridges/cars in the commercials or the display units in Lowe's/the dealership. By the time you see the ad, it's too much of a hassle to return it, even if you can...
tootie 1 hours ago [-]
No coincidence, BMW and Samsung did product placement in the movie too. Very conspicuously.
DrewADesign 2 hours ago [-]
I wonder if they say: "A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure."
kridsdale1 2 hours ago [-]
Start…the…reactor
smlacy 23 minutes ago [-]
The ultimate driving machine... for marginal revenue.
fumeux_fume 2 hours ago [-]
> BMW's own PressClub release described the advertisement as a special surprise for drivers...
That one got a chuckle out of me
userbinator 1 hours ago [-]
Like coming back to your car getting broken into, a surprise doesn't necessarily have to be a positive one.
walrus01 2 hours ago [-]
If please drink a verification can was applied to automobiles.
powerpcmac 2 hours ago [-]
The car will remain in park until you roll down the windows and yell "I love McDonalds!"
squirtle24 23 minutes ago [-]
Spend $20 at your local Burger King and we'll turn off that oil leak!
walrus01 2 hours ago [-]
Earn 300 bonus BMWBucks by visiting your local Taco Bell (R) (TM) drive through in the next 15 minutes! Limited time offer!
tonyedgecombe 3 minutes ago [-]
[delayed]
OsrsNeedsf2P 2 hours ago [-]
Great to see the Consumer Rights wiki has been picking up steam. Lots of passionate people behind the project
userbinator 2 hours ago [-]
Hopefully their lawyers have considered the possibility of a bug causing this ad to play while the car is being driven and leading to a distracted driving accident...
on suitably equipped vehicles running BMW Operating System 7, 8, 8.5, 9, or OS X built after July 2020
For those who were surprised by that naming, Apple hasn't used "OS X" for nearly 10 years.
foo12bar 2 hours ago [-]
This looks like it, possibly. There doesn't seem to be a banner that you click on like it states in the consumer rights article, but rather an icon, so not sure.
I don't see how. One is a full-screen commercial. The other is a free album in your library.
userbinator 1 hours ago [-]
They're both violations of boundaries associated with ownership.
jcastro 1 hours ago [-]
It depends if you like U2 or not I suppose.
Markoff 20 minutes ago [-]
this is what you get for buying cheap noname brand car from Temu
similar thing happened with that British LGBT brand, which is gone
though it's clear people who buy BMW are not mentally sane anyway, I'm yet to see BMW driver with stable personality who would not vent their mental issues on the road, these people will buy BMW with literally any design and specs just because it's BMW, no matter it looks like ugly tank
I honestly believe if we banned BMW car registrations number of accidents would drop much more than it's their total share on registrations.
fnord77 2 hours ago [-]
I got hit with this Wednesday morning when I started my 330i. I cannot wait to sign up for the class action lawsuit.
artisinal 1 hours ago [-]
Time to upgrade to a 2008 330i
fragmede 2 hours ago [-]
One of the best things one of me mates from high school did for me, is buy himself a BMW. The amount of problems and money he had to deal with helped me realize I didn't actually want a BMW, they're just nice to look at.
Markoff 15 minutes ago [-]
they were nice to look at before they hired some military tank designer
and even looking at them is safe only seen they are parked, I warned my kids to be extra vigilant when they are nearby BMW on the road, by far the most dangerous drivers on the road with mental issues
genter 2 hours ago [-]
They're also really nice to drive (at least when they work).
calmbonsai 1 hours ago [-]
Only the older ones without screens. A naturally aspirated inline 6 with a manual gearbox and 50/50 weight distribution is it's own special kind of bliss.
I only take it out maybe 20 times per year, but after merely 30s behind the wheel I remember why I keep it.
artisinal 1 hours ago [-]
And no electronic steering like the newer ones.
fragmede 2 hours ago [-]
Oh he let me drive it a couple of times and the thing was an absolute beast.
onetokeoverthe 2 hours ago [-]
and the in-dash eye tracking device shows 66% of drivers engage for at least 5 seconds!!
artisinal 1 hours ago [-]
The ad will pause if you look away!
matheusmoreira 14 minutes ago [-]
I suppose it could be worse. The ad could torture you with loud high pitched noise until you look at it, like in Black Mirror's 15 million merits.
roundwego 1 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
isoprophlex 55 minutes ago [-]
this isnt 4chan
asciii 2 hours ago [-]
Drove a lot of BMWs when I was working summers as a mechanic
It's so ugly that they first sell cars, and profit from that. And then they utilize the fleet of cars to squeeze out more revenue, even though that was never part of the contract to begin with. What right does BMW have to do that?
If they found a new revenue source, it would be nice if they at least shared that with their customers. Now it's just abuse of their customers. Where BMW is one-sided profiting while the customers are suffering.
Between this, the proprietary nut patent, and the heated seat subscription, I'm probably not going to look at BMW for my next car. They've been going back on things, but all of this adds up to they don't get it.
Pushing advertisment after sale on a premium product is absolutely not similar.
BMWs are no where near for that "class". A Mercedes-Benz is for that and even they also put ads in their own dashboard screens. [0]
So on HN-land, time to rule out BMWs, Chevrolets, Mercedes-Benz, Teslas, Volkswagens, Kias. What else?
[0] https://www.motor1.com/news/797846/mercedes-screen-plays-ads...
Mercedes may have a car or two that reaches just out of upper middle class but they are largely a middle to upper middle class brand, just like BMW.
The fact that Merc would do it too just means they are both happy cheapening their brand to align with practices of cheap off-brand android TVs.
Edit: Just read that Toyota is toying with the idea of an electric Starlet. It'll probably have an infotainment system and power "everything" though.
https://www.drive.com.au/news/2026-toyota-starlet-rumours/
My current car had an electrical issue last year... but it turned out it was a mechanical issue. Something had chewed through the wires to the MAF sensor. Fixed them, and all good. It's no different from something chewing through a fuel line, except OBD was able to tell me what subsystem was not working correctly.
The problem I see with current cars is that the infotainment system is tied into everything - and usually the software sucks. If they just went back to seperate dashboard, AC controls and radio I'd have no issues with them.
My current car is from 2016, and I specifically looked for something that was like that. It is hybrid and has modern tech (e.g. radar cruise control), but everything is compartmentalised. First upgrade I did was replacing the headunit with a Chinese one that supports Android Auto/CarPlay. No functionality was lost, as the old head unit was literally just a radio and screen for backup camera.
Lexus should put that on the cover of their product brochure.
EDIT Add Volvo and Genesis to the list of no ads
I'm wondering what a good cutoff date is when considering buying a used car.
These decision makers are meant to be educated people with may be at least a tiny bit of values in their lives...
That one got a chuckle out of me
on suitably equipped vehicles running BMW Operating System 7, 8, 8.5, 9, or OS X built after July 2020
For those who were surprised by that naming, Apple hasn't used "OS X" for nearly 10 years.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Z8v2tsYdgRk
similar thing happened with that British LGBT brand, which is gone
though it's clear people who buy BMW are not mentally sane anyway, I'm yet to see BMW driver with stable personality who would not vent their mental issues on the road, these people will buy BMW with literally any design and specs just because it's BMW, no matter it looks like ugly tank
I honestly believe if we banned BMW car registrations number of accidents would drop much more than it's their total share on registrations.
and even looking at them is safe only seen they are parked, I warned my kids to be extra vigilant when they are nearby BMW on the road, by far the most dangerous drivers on the road with mental issues
I only take it out maybe 20 times per year, but after merely 30s behind the wheel I remember why I keep it.