[gnicholas]

I understand the frustration with this system, which I would hate to deal with as a customer. But when I read about it, I learned that you can decide to purchase the heating outright for a bit under $500, which I think is not an uncommon price for heated seats in many luxury vehicles (this was BMW). If a salesman framed it as "you can buy it outright if you want, or you can just buy it during the winter and save money", then I wouldn't feel so bad.

But if they deactivate the prepaid extras when you sell the car, that would be pure evil.

[agent008t]

The fact that 'they' can deactivate anything in an item you own is dystopian in its own right. In general, items need to be usable even after their manufacturer goes out of business and stops supporting them, which seems to be less and less often the case.

People used to laugh at Stallman, but increasingly it seems like he was actually a prophet of what's to come.