BMW stirred up a storm when it announced that it would start charging drivers in certain markets a monthly subscription to use heated seats. It wasn’t so much the monthly fee that annoyed people as the fact that the hardware is already present in the car, but isn’t activated until you sign up to a subscription.
Now Renault’s budget sister, Dacia, a company known for its no-frills, high-value vehicles, has come up with a suitably low-tech, low cost alternative. The company is giving away “heated seat saviours,” better known as hot water bottles, to drivers visiting some of its UK dealerships.
You don’t need to be an existing Dacia owner to claim one of the Dacia-branded bottles, or to buy a new one. You simply need to visit one of three Dacia dealers located in London, Manchester or Swansea, Wales, though the salesmen at each location will no doubt do their best to warm you up to the idea of driving out in a new Sandero, Duster or Jogger.
Related: BMW Thinks You’ll Get Used To Subscriptions And It’ll Reap The Profits
“Our ‘Heated Seat Saviours’ are a bit of fun, but they do highlight the direction the wider industry is going regarding subscription-based access to features,” said Dacia’s Luke Broad. “Asking someone to pay extra to activate factory-fitted equipment certainly isn’t Dacia. We believe in simplicity, offering our customers technology that makes driving more convenient and comfortable with features included in a car’s initial price.”
And just to be clear, Dacia doesn’t want drivers to sit on half a gallon of boiling liquid. It suggests they place them in the car for a few minutes before setting off on a journey, though even some Dacia drivers don’t have to resort to that: despite their back-to-basics image, Dacia’s top-spec Sandero Stepway, Duster and Jogger are fitted with heated seats as standard. And no, you don’t need to pay to turn them on.
Are you coming round to the idea of paying subscriptions to use the features on your car? Leave a comment and let us know.
