New BMW ad is freaking creepy
 

Have you seen the one where the guy in the 5er gets a call one his car phone asking if he wants to schedule an oil change?

Am I the only one who thinks this is deeply disturbing and weird? Not only that, it seems profoundly unnecessary, since the oil change intervals are now 15K miles.

That's only one aspect of it....

STORY

I had concerns when I bought my Yukon (and the associated On-Star system installed).

It has the possibility to really get out of hand.... if it is let to do so.

:eeps:

I wonder who pays for the call/minutes from the car? :)

Not bad. Pay $15/month (or whatever the cost is) for [m]o[ro]nstar so you can have someone call you every 15K miles to schedule an oil change. I guess they had to find some real-world use for it.

Yes. I would snip the wires to that thing as soon as I signed the papers.

Yeah, it's really dumb. My car has "BMW Assist" fitted, which I probably wouldn't have ordered (though I *really* dig having Bluetooth integration with my cellphone). When I looked at the list of offered services, I couldn't even be bothered to drive to the dealer to sign up for my year-long free subscription. I don't see any value add for this service, since I already own a cellphone and have a phonebook to use to look up the number of the local BMW dealer.

XM/Nav real-time traffic monitoring? Hell, yes (though BMW doesn't offer this). Satellite radio? Bet your ass (though BMW's solution is very kludgy compared with, e.g., VW's, at least they offer *some* factory integration, unlike Subaru). But "Assist" and OnStar--I just don't see the point.

a little off topic, but I think Onstar blew a huge opertunity during the Katrina/Rita disasters.

Onstar could have opened their service to non-subscribers for a few days after the storms, or for a limited time period, and they would have looked like heros.

I work with a guy who's daughter was a little north of New Orleans when Katrina hit. The way he knew she was still alive was when she called him with her Onstar phone. (he was very glad his wife insisted on activating it when the daughter went away for college)

That's exactly how my family in Biloxi was able to notify the rest of us that they were okay.

BMW is really promoting this service -- not just in the US, but also in Europe. They had big posters about it in their display area at the Frankfurt Auto Show.

As for OnStar, my stepdad had it when it was relatively new and it came with 1 year free on his Cadillac Escalade (first generation gussied up Tahoe....). I asked him how frequently he used it -- he said maybe once a week, usually for directions or for a phone number. Then he got the renewal agreement and decided it wasn't worth the annual fee...

And just what is wrong with a normal cell phone to do such notification?