BMW is no stranger to offering features on a subscription basis, and the scope of these add-ons has controversially continued to grow. Motor1 reports BMW has made M Adaptive Suspension available as a subscription on some models, despite the hardware being present as standard. It appears BMW also quietly introduced this subscription late last year in Australia.
It’s available for purchase via the ConnectedDrive store. You get a one-month free trial, though after that it’ll cost $29 a month. You can also pay $290 to have it for a year or $449 for three years.
This means you no longer need to pay for it as part of the upfront cost of buying your BMW, with there now being an option to pay for it monthly or annually. Alternatively, BMW will charge you a one-time fee of $639 to have unlimited access to it. Your BMW must have the necessary hardware to support it, as paying the subscription or total fee merely unlocks the software so you can use it.
Once it’s activated, you can switch between Comfort and Sport modes for the electronically controlled shock absorbers, with electromagnetically controlled valves adjusting the damping forces. While M Adaptive Suspension is included as standard on many of BMW’s performance models, it’s available in a package on others. On the base 3 Series and 4 Series it’s one of the features included in the $1462 M Sport Package Pro, while it’s added in the same package on cars like the X3 for a higher premium of $2308.
BMW’s ConnectedDri.