You may have heard about BMW's move to charge monthly subscription fees for some common features like heated seats. It seems the entire world has heard since Motor1.com broke the news about an $18 monthly charge for warm seats in South Korea. BMW apparently heard as well, prompting the automaker to release a statement clarifying its subscription service known as BMW Functions on Demand.

The primary takeaway is that, at least in the United States, BMW won't charge a subscription for options already selected and paid for by the purchaser. In simple terms, if you buy a new BMW X3 or any Bimmer with heated seats either as standard equipment or a paid-for option, it's a done deal. No monthly subscription is required to use, and that goes for subsequent owners who buy the car secondhand. If the feature is included or added as an option, it's always available for the life of the car.

In its statement, BMW explains that Functions on Demand works with software-based features using hardware already installed in the vehicle. It allows buyers to sample a feature before deciding if they want it, presumably saving a bit of cash on the purchase price. As an example, BMW highlights a dash cam feature currently available through Functions on Demand in the US, using cameras already installed for advanced driver-assist systems. The automaker also relegates remote start to Functions on Demand, requiring either a subscription or a purchase to activate it.

If the hardware is already in place, why place functionality of the features behind a paywall for use? In such a regard, the user is paying for the software to use it. For now, only these two features are offered through Functions on Demand in the US market. But as we saw with BMW's heated seat feature in South Korea, not all markets are equal.

BMW Group is planning a radical change in the way it sells new vehicles on the European continent. The automaker will introduce a direct-sale model in the next few years, which should make the process of buying a new BMW or a new Mini more transparent and easier for the customer. That doesn’t mean there won’t be dealerships involved, however – and BMW Group’s sales and marketing director Pieter Nota recently provided more information on how the new approach will work.

BMW calls this new way of selling cars an agency model. Under this strategy, BMW will invoice customers directly and the dealerships will receive a fixed fee for each sale - and customers will get the same prices everywhere the new sales model operates. The company believes this new method will benefit all three sides involved in the process of buying a new vehicle. BMW also says there has been a misunderstanding regarding the way this new sales process works.

But when does this new experience will begin? BMW Group will pioneer it with the Mini brand in 2024, followed by the BMW brand about two years later. For now, this agency model will be applied only to the European markets with no word regarding whether BMW will also implement this business practice in the United States.

“We will improve the customer experience and provide an attractive business model for our agents, and at the same time gain direct access to the customer. Those are the three most important aspects in our plans,” Pieter Nota told Automotive News in a recent interview.

Mini, BMW Group’s UK-based brand for small vehicles, is already preparing for the new agency model. Nota told the online publication, however, the marque isn’t a guinea pig “that we could do then do better at BMW two years later.” The new structures and the IT development that will support this major change are already “very far along” and it seems that there’s no turning back – like it or not, BMW will soon sell you a brand new BMW or Mini at a fixed price and will pay its dealers a commission for every deal. Doesn't sound bad, right?

Last year, BMW underwent media and customer hellfire over its decision to offer a monthly subscription for heated seats. While seat heating wasn't the only option available for subscription, it was the one that seemed to infuriate everyone the most, since it concerned hardware already present in the car from the factory. After months of customers continuously expressing their displeasure with the plan, BMW has finally decided to abandon recurring charges for hardware-based functions.

"What we don’t do any more—and that is a very well-known example—is offer seat heating by [monthly subscriptions]" BMW marketing boss Pieter Nota said to Autocar. "It’s either in or out. We offer it by the factory and you either have it or you don’t have it."

BMW's move wasn't solely about charging customers monthly for heated seats. Rather, the luxury automaker wanted to streamline production and reduce costs there by physically installing heated seats in every single car, since 90% of all BMWs are bought with seat heaters anyway. Then, owners who didn't spec heated seats from the factory could digitally unlock them later with either a monthly subscription or a one-time perma-buy option. Nota still believes it was a good idea.

"We thought that we would provide an extra service to the customer by offering the chance to activate that later, but the user acceptance isn’t that high. People feel that they paid double, which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that," Nota told Autocar.

That's one perspective; another is that BMW was absolutely double dipping with heated seat subscriptions. The company started down that route to reduce production costs, making each car cheaper to build by streamlining the process. Fair enough. However, those reduced costs weren't then passed down to buyers via lower MSRPs. Customers were technically paying for those heated seats anyway, no matter whether they wanted them. Then, BMW was not only charging extra to use a feature already installed in the car, but also subjecting it to subscription billing, even though seat heating is static hardware not designed to change or improve over time.

Customers weren't happy, and rightfully made their grievance known. While it's good that BMW ultimately buckled to the public's wishes here, it doesn't seem like the automaker's board members truly understand why the outrage happened in the first place.

Going forward, BMW says it will continue to offer subscription-based services but only for software options, like driver assistance and digital assistant services, which is completely understandable. Customers will either pay monthly or once all up front to gain access to such capabilities. Thankfully, though, BMW seems finished with any hardware-based subscriptions, for now.

BMW is now among the ranks of Porsche and Ferrari, in offering motorsport-inspired center-locking wheels for some of its M cars. If you're the proud owner of a BMW M2, M3, or M4, you can order new center-lock wheels from the M Performance Parts catalog and feel a bit cooler on track. However, there's a catch. Well, there are actually two.

As neat as it is that BMW is offering center-lockers for its cars, us 'Mericans aren't allowed to have them, at least not yet. A BMW USA representative told The Drive that the center-locking wheels aren't offered in the United States market right now. While they may be available in the future, there's currently no word on U.S. customers being able to order them. Considering Porsche offers U.S. customers center-lock wheels on its 911 GT3 and GT2 models, it's unusual that BMW would exclude them.

The other catch is that European customers that do order them will also be on the hook for the tools required to remove them, as that's not included with the wheels themselves. With a center-locking wheel, there's only a single, very large lug that holds the wheel onto the hub, and it's much larger than a typical wheel lug, which means it needs a specific socket.

When you order a Porsche 911 GT3 with center-lock wheels, that bespoke socket comes with the car, in a little cubby in the trunk. Not so for BMW's wheels, as the socket is sold separately for a price the company hasn't yet disclosed. That means customers will either have to pay extra for the socket, on top of the 12,000 euros ($13,133) the wheels reportedly cost, or be forced to have a dealership handle any wheel removal. Considering many buyers will use these wheels on track and may need to swap setups on the fly, this seems especially stingy by BMW.

In addition to the specialized socket, owners will need to buy either a torque-multiplier or a big-ass breaker bar to get that socket off. That goes for Porsche's wheels, too. A heavy-duty torque wrench will be needed to tighten the center lug, too, as BMW claims it requires 685 lb-ft of torque (930 Nm).

For how much BMW is charging for these wheels, the socket should absolutely be included. Hell, for more than $13,000, they should come with a torque wrench and a lifetime subscription for upper body massages, to alleviate the pain of having to crank 685 lb-ft. Then again, this is BMW we're talking about. Is it any surprise?

BMW has long had the letter "i" at the end of its model names—325i, 540i, etc. The letter was initially used to differentiate fuel-injected cars from their carbureted counterparts, which had a three-digit name denoting series and engine size. But BMW has long since dropped carburetors, and it has the "i" electric sub-brand. So after decades, BMW is getting rid of the "i" from the end of model names.

A BMW executive confirmed the news to BMWBlog. The publication noted that the next-generation X3 is getting an M50 model whereas the current model is offered as an M40i. Bernd Köber, Senior Vice President BMW Brand and Product Management, Connected Company, told BMWBlog the automaker now wants "i" to mean you're driving an electric car.

In a world where BMW sells an i5 that's fully electric and a 540i that isn't, you can see how some customers could get confused. And yes, the lowercase "i" at the end of the model name is heritage, but the electric "i" sub-brand is also now a well-established property. It's also one of the best naming conventions in electric cars. The name i5 makes it obvious that we're talking about an electric 5 Series, for example.We're not sure when we'll see the "i" dropped from the rest of BMW's gas-powered lineup. It will be strange to see something like "330" on the back of a 3 Series, because the "i" at the end has become such a staple.

To this author's best recollection, the last time we saw a BMW badge like that in the U.S. was in the mid 1980s with the 325 eta, which used a low-revving long-stroke version of the company's M20 straight-six. Despite being fuel injected, some of these cars were badged as, simply, 325, while others were badged 325e. BMW has also subbed in the letter "d" for diesel cars, though we haven't had one of those in the U.S. for some time either.

For the first time ever, BMW sold more electric cars than Tesla in Europe. The July figures are now in, and according to analytics firm JATO Dynamics, BMW sold 14,869 new EVs in Europe last month. Tesla sold 14,561 new electric cars in July.

This means that BMW sold 308 more EVs than Tesla. And while that's a fairly small margin, it shows how much the German automaker has quietly become a power-hitter in the electric world, even as it continues to offer hybrid, plug-in hybrid and gas options too.

JATO Dynamics states that Tesla experienced a bit of a slump last month in Europe, with registrations of both the Model Y and Model 3 falling. Model Y sales were down 16% to 9,544 units sold. Meanwhile, Model 3 sales slid by 17% to 4,694. These slides allowed BMW Group to narrowly move into first place for EV sales in Europe in July.