Either way, the hardware is already fitted. Both #1s that I drove last week had a heated steering wheel, just not a switch for it. At some point, Smart might deign to provide the heating, perhaps for free, perhaps for a price.
I hate the idea of it costing. The heater element is already there because it’s cheaper to fit all cars with one than some without, given the percentage of buyers who would like one.
So the potential scenario exists: you’re driving your Smart to work, where you will be told off for being late, with your hands chilled to the bone, because you spent many painful minutes walking Gran into a health centre in sub-zero temperatures.
You’re wondering whether she will be okay and how you’re going to handle the impending carers’ expenses, on top of the other ever-rising bills. And you will have a choice: bear the numbness or get some badly needed warmth back into your delicate fingers by swiping some of your hard-earned pounds, which mean a great deal to you, in the direction of companies to which they mean nothing, because they made over £20 billion in profits in 2022, so that software can automatically enable a switch for a feature that you own and have already paid for.
Paying for features that already exist is not a new, Smart-centric idea, I should add. BMW (2022 profits: £20bn) introduced subscriptions for features like heated seats to plenty of outrage. Tesla (2022 profits: £9.9bn) enables adaptive cruise control features via subscription to less outrage, because there are owners who would applaud Elon Musk for punching their dog.
