I remember when you could just adjust or swap the carb… I would never in a million years buy a soft-locked car.
If the feature is there, it better work without a monthly cost. I’d order it factory delete, otherwise. Probably not an option with the goofy computer systems they put in vehicles these days. I loathe touch-panel controls in cars. I want knobs and buttons, not controls buried 3 clicks deep into some awful UI behind a crappy low res resistive touch panel. Gross.
And in 5 or 10 years, whenever your car computer becomes obsolete and no longer connects to the control servers, what about your features then? I presume they’ll just stop working without a server to approve it.
There’s nothing good about this ecosystem. It’s meant to cost you indefinitely before premature and manufacturer-premeditated replacement.
“India’s doing some bad stuff. Terribly bad. It’s Tremendously bad. As Americans, you all need to pay me extra for it”