Back in the day, when you buy a product and pay the company for it, the deal is done. The company would have made its money from you and that was that until you purchased from them again. However, it’s not particularly sustainable as companies would essentially need to keep courting buyers.
This also means that during particular times of the year, revenue could be down. This is why we’re seeing an uptick in subscription services that at least guarantees that existing customers continue generating revenue for companies, even if they aren’t necessarily buying new products. This is the case with Toyota who are now charging customers $8 a month in order to keep using their key fobs for remote start.
For those unfamiliar, one of the features of newer Toyota cars is that the key fob that comes with your car has the ability to remotely start your vehicle. This means that instead of getting into your car and turning the engine on, you can actually do it remotely while walking to your car, which can be pretty useful in some situations.
However, according to a report from The Drive, it has been confirmed that 2018 models or later that are equipped with Toyota’s Remote Connect functions, car owners will need to pay $8 a month in subscription fees to take advantage of this feature. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean if you don’t pay the fees you can’t use your car anymore, but rather you’ll be missing out on this feature.
That being said, another thing to note is that Toyota already bundles a subscription with cars purchased with the Audio Plus package and Premium Audio package. The former will give users a free three-year trial, while the latter offers a 10-year trial, so depending on which package you chose, you might not need to pay this subscription for years to come.
Filed in . Read more about Social Hit and Toyota. Source: thedrive