Originally Posted by JST
So, a study in contrasts.
At the end of last year, Tesla decided to implement a charge for "Premium Connectivity," which gives you continued access to streaming music, traffic info, etc. There had been talk of this coming, so it wasn't a surprise. Tesla sent me an email, I clicked on the link, entered my cc info, done. Services never were interrupted. This could also be done through the Tesla app.
BMW apparently has a four year complimentary subscription to its "ConnectedDrive" services. When my car turned four the other day, the services stopped working. No email, no notice through the app, nothing. The app does not have a way to purchase the services, instead directing you to a phone number.
Today I called the number, and after a 20 min wait, the (nice) guy on the other end ran through a bunch of options that might or might not be compatible with my car. I picked two, he tried to charge my card, and got some sort of back-end system error. Told me to try online later.
The online store does not clearly identify which packages work with my car--or, it claims to, but I don't see how to get the traffic info back. I picked one that clearly does apply, tried to checkout, and got the same error message.
Also these services are priced for one year with no apparent auto-renewal option, so I will have to go through this again next Feb.
At the end of the day I just want the functionality that I had last week back in the car, but it's not clear how or whether I can make that happen, or when I might get it. Which is really dumb.
So, just in case you thought the legacy automakers could do everything that Tesla can...no.
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