The new electric Mercedes-Benz CLA is ready for America, and while it does have a face like a large-mouth bass and an interior like a gentlemen’s club, it also promises 317 miles of range for $48,500. That sounds like a solid deal on paper, but the story doesn’t quite end there. While it’s not uncommon for base-model luxury cars to be a bit spartan when it comes to equipment for the money, the CLA takes things to another level by making you pay for stuff already installed on the car.
For a start, $50 for a front seat massage function seems like a good deal until you realize it’s just manipulating the lumbar support already built into each front seat. Mercedes-Benz could’ve just thrown in that software for free, considering it won’t need updating and uses existing hardware, but no. It’s locked behind a microtransaction. Likewise, Mercedes-Benz wants to charge you $200 to use a dashcam already fitted to the vehicle. You know what comes standard with a built-in dash cam? The new Toyota RAV4, and it’s far less expensive than the new CLA.
Oh, and the paywalls continue. Using hardware already baked into the car, Mercedes-Benz charges $1,950 for a “Digital Extra” package that includes lane keep assistance and automated lane changes when you flick your turn signal on and the coast is clear. You know, things that simply use the car’s onboard sensor suite. In contrast, Hyundai’s Highway Driving Assist 2 bundles both those features but doesn’t require a subscription. It’s simply standard equipment on SEL and higher Ioniq 5 electric crossovers and Ioniq 6 electric sedans. Considering an Ioniq 6 SEL RWD stickers for $1,655 less than a zero-option CLA 250+, which is a physically larger car, still offers 291 miles of range and bundles in the sort of ADAS that Mercedes-Benz charges extra for, the Hyundai actually seems like a more premium experience on paper than the Mercedes-Benz.
That’s not the most expensive ADAS option for the new CLA, however. A subscription package costing $3,950 for three years bundles those systems in with one that claims to automatically brake for red lights and stop signs when motoring along on adaptive cruise control. Someone has to maintain a database of stop sign and traffic light locations, so a subscription for this function does make a degree of sense. However, when you look at the pricing of other cloud-assisted advanced driver assistance systems, Mercedes-Benz’s pricing seems fantastical. Let’s look at Ford first.
Every Ford Mustang Mach-E crossover is available with BlueCruise highway driving assistance, and not only is Ford’s BlueCruise geofenced, relying on Lidar-scanned maps beamed in from a server, it’s also hands-free on controlled access highways. A driver monitoring camera on the steering column makes sure you’re paying attention, and the result is an ADAS experience that’s exceptionally good. Oh, and it’s substantially less expensive than the top-spec ADAS subscription on the new Mercedes-Benz CLA. Three years of BlueCruise will run you $1,485, and a lifetime purchase of the system costs $2,495.
However, BlueCruise isn’t the original hands-free highway ADAS system. That would be GM’s Super Cruise, which can now be used when towing a trailer and overtake slower vehicles without the need for turn signal input. Like BlueCruise, it relies on both the vehicle’s sensor suite and beamed-in Lidar maps, and since someone needs to update and expand those maps, a subscription isn’t uncalled for. So, what’s the damage? Well, Super Cruise is free for the first three years, then $39.99 per month after that. Extrapolate that out to three years, and you’re looking at $1,439.64 for 36 months of additional Super Cruise. Again, less than half what Mercedes-Benz wants for its top-spec ADAS system in the CLA.
There’s nothing luxurious about getting nickel and dimed for features already supported by a car’s standard hardware, and the price of the top-level ADAS subscription seems out to lunch once you look at what the competition offers. While premium pricing for physical options has always been a thing in the luxury car space, Mercedes-Benz charging more for software-enabled functions because it can runs the risk of rubbing consumers the wrong way.
Top graphic image: Mercedes-Benz
“Someone has to maintain a database of stop sign and traffic light locations…”
No they don’t, many cars with Level 2 driver assistance use camera based detection of these elements, which is more reliable than a map in a constantly changing world.
Some navigation apps show where traffic lights are on the map before you can actually see them yourself. Don’t know if those locations are updated automatically via input from other vehicles or not, but I think the point is that a database somewhere needs to be maintained and updated.
Google Maps does this ‘for free’ and if you opt out as much as technically possible they (Alphabet/Google) might not even be selling your driving behavior data too!
As my dear old dad used to say, you only deserve what you sit still for. Automotive subscriptions, other than Sirius XM, are on the Never Buy list. There is an optional remote start on my 2019 Lexus for $80 per year which I paid once and never again.
Did MB merge with Ryanair? I must have missed the news.
BlueCruise doesnt stop at stop signs or stop lights, so theres that. However, Ford’s free-of-charge option is basically just BlueCruise but you just have to keep your hands on the steering wheel.
Is Mercedes a hands off system?
The real question for the likely purchasers of this car is, can you roll the subscription costs into the total amount financed?
Along those lines, does any remaining subscription time transfer to a new purchaser? How does MB facilitate that handoff?
Mercedes might see this as a good thing, but stuff like this results in more rapid depreciation, which is going to have non-trivial knock-on effects when it comes to things like their CPO and leasing programs.
Please venmo $5 to David-Lorengo to see my comments for the next month.
Can you decide no to the options and make them remove the innards?
Anyone who wants to buy this fugly pig should pay extra for the visual pollution.
“While premium pricing for physical options has always been a thing in the luxury car space, Mercedes-Benz charging more for software-enabled functions because it can runs the risk of rubbing consumers the wrong way.”
Maybe that driver’s seat just needs a feature that rubs the right way?
If they keep this up, at some point people will stop seeing Mercedes as a luxury brand and instead, just a brand that is a worse value than other brands.
And if you want quality, you’re better off with a Lexus.
As the gap between “luxury” and mainstream cars continue to close, it’s becoming clear such ridiculous upsells will be the difference between “luxury” and mainstream vehicles.
The way it’s going it might differentiate them right out of business. MB lost its mojo a couple of decades ago.
Hacking cars to bypass locked software will be the new tuning.
It has been a thing for awhile now.
Hey MB, the 2017’s called and they want their bussiness model back.
Also you know what’s subscription-free and recognizes stop signs? My eyeballs.
(I was SO tempted to put “eye” in parentheses)
My thought exactly. If you need that tech, you should no longer have a license.
Well, it looks like the tech industry is developing much needed driving tech for blind people, chronic alcoholics, people who had their license revoked and so on. The altruistic investment on behalf of these small, overlooked demographics is laudable.
Those demographics are bigger than you think.
Big tech doesn’t do shit “out of the kindness of their hearts”
Using a niche demographic is their way to claim altruistic intent, which the real reason is full self driving and the ability to Own the tech that makes that possible, corner the market and control, all for a (likely) subscription fee that companies (and some individuals) will be happy to pay.
As long as the subscription for self driving is lower than the annual costs of a human driver… companies can justify the subscription costs…
For well off consumers it will be a ‘stars on thars’ flex to show off to their friends how they have money to burn and as a way to distinguish themselves from the crumudgwnly ‘poors’ that hahaha still drive their vehicles themselves, the poor poor slobs
Man, I was being SO sarcastic. I was too smooth though so I will clarify. Except for niche cases, my opinion is that self driving cars are a solution looking for a problem. The sad part is when they hide behind grand causes such as reducing traffic deaths and they cherry pick data, compare apples to hubcaps (such as how safe Waymo is in DT Phoenix vs average cars traffic data including high speed highway traffic etc). The latest was pretty rich from the grand old NYT (paywalled) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/opinion/self-driving-cars.html
The guy doesn’t even mimic effort to be impartial and mention OTHER ways to reduce traffic deaths such enforcing rules or say, mass transit.
Ugh.
iBalls
Remember when buying a Merc ment getting a dignified car with impressive build quality, durability, and a long list of standard features?
Pepperidge Farm Remembers.
Yep. Not an aspirational marque now imo.
My memory doesn’t go that far back. They haven’t produced anything good in decades. All over-priced, bling-bling, poor quality garbage in recent memory.
A W124 is high on my list of wants.
My other car is a w-123 so, yes, I really remember.
What is your other other car? I think W123s were peak Mercedes. The W124s weren’t quite as attractive but still nice and now I don’t find anything they make appealing.
A 2012 Nissan Frontier
Those days are several decades in the past at this point, not quite as ancient history as when Cadillac was able to use “standard of the world” unironically, but getting there
Sigh. Another victim of Y2K.
Yeah, but Mercury went out of business 20 years ago… Did you mean Benz?
See, I read stories like this and I have to wonder why consumer rights advocates get upset. We have more rights than ever!
We have the right to pay additional subscription fees that handily bypass dealers and regulators to keep companies afloat with endless revenue streams packed on and into durable goods.
We have the right to pay for fixed systems for years, at no additional cost or effort to the supplier or manufacturer.
We have the right to pad margins, revise income and balances, and boost revenue in ways that could only have been a fever dream 30 years ago.
We have the right to have these rights revoked, per the EULA that flashes on the screen and which operation of the vehicle implies consent to these terms until such time as they be modified, rescinded, or cancelled without notice to the consumer by the manufacturer, and by god, we have the right to mandatory arbitration to fight for it, circumventing one of the few, nearly-effective tools consumers have in the form of a class-action lawsuit.
Honestly, it’s like you just can’t make people happy. Look at all the rights, all the power, we have in these situations!
Is your real name Jerry Lundegaard?
https://fargo.fandom.com/wiki/Jerry_Lundegaard
Now, that clear coat, see, they put that clear coat on at the factory!
Oh good… just as long as it’s not TruCoat…
Damnit,I was trying to do it without looking out up and missed it! Gg though haha
And you have the right to be laid off, since your job is no longer necessary for the company to earn sustainable revenue, and – wait, where did all the customers go?
Meanwhile at Porsche they’re considering a subscription fee to remove some of this nonsense.
Reminds me of Clarkson describing the standard features on a BMW:
“(gesturing around the cabin) all this air is free.”
That makes me think of a new subscription idea- proprietary valves on the tires so you have to air up at the MB dealer!
Coat the interior of the tires with white phosphorous to prevent poors from using their own air compressor.
Circulating it however….
“What do we say to the God of Subscription-based Car Hardware?”
“Not today”
Hey, that’s what I used to say to Sata-oooh I get it
I suppose if you want one of these things you could calculate the total cost by adding the subscription fees to the sticker price. This is all a shell game so they can advertise a lower price up front before telling you how much it will really cost you. Lame.
See “tipping”.
Ah, “Luxury”
I was thinking “surely the $200 dashcam fee is for cloud storage for all the footage” but nope, you need to provide your own memory stick. It really is just to unlock a feature.
All that $200 unlocks is my seething rage.
Do I own the car, or do I own the car?
Nonsense like this is why I have zero desire to own any brand new car made by anyone at all. If I want to drive a Mercedes and have ongoing costs of ownership, I’d just drive a 50-year-old W123 and spend it honestly on replacement parts instead.
Mercedes may consume a parcel of phalluses.
You own the car – you do not own the software. That is the status of all new car sales if you read the fine print.
I refuse to do business in print that fine. Hell with that.
I own the radio in my car. The signal is free. I also own the seat warmers in my car, as well as the heat they make. If I don’t, then have the decency to use a blank plate for all the shit my car ain’t got, and don’t sell me the gear without including what the gear actually does.
The old sales advice says “sell the benefits” – you’re not selling a dashcam, you’re selling safety and peace of mind. Welp, MB is only selling you a dashcam. If you want the safety and peace of mind, as in, for it to actually cam from your dash, that’ll cost you extra. Damn that.
The “dash cam” is using the forward mounted cameras that are required by law to provide automatic emergency braking. You get that functionality when you buy the car. Want more functions – you get to pay for the development work.
Software isn’t free – never has been free.
“Software isn’t free – never has been free.”
My Raspberry Pi disagrees.
Cool. Use one to tap into a cars AEB system to turn it into a dash cam.
I dunno about that but I can do pretty much anything I want on PC on a Pi for free instead of paying Microsoft.
Hell, even the browser through which I am typing this very comment disagrees.
“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch,” some might say. Yes, this free app is provided through advertising dollars, which I am not paying. It’s still free to me, the end user.
So is the music playing on the radio station coming through the radio that I own, which is installed in the dashboard I own, which is installed in the car I own, for the same reason.
Hear that distant thunk sound? That’s the sound of every open source developer’s heads hitting their desks.
Hello from Linux.
If you owned the car, but not the software, you could just load your own software onto it and keep owning the car without issues, right?
BS.
Sure – as long as you replace it completely and don’t care that you no longer have a warranty. Can’t use the OEM software as a base.
Maybe you should use Linux
I do, and so do automakers — they’re not making anything from scratch, nor are they using something like Windows.
My point is, this isn’t the case. Automotive hardware and software are locked together in such a way that you don’t own your car’s hardware. I shouldn’t need to go pull legal precedents or examples for that.
No, automotive hardware and software are not locked together in a way they cannot be separated. There simple is no reason for the average person to try to separate them because there is little to nothing to be gained. People that want to modify their cars are in the extreme minority of car buyers.
It is also true that modern cars are complicated enough that a single person does not have the resources to wipe one clean and start fresh but a team of people could do that and create an open source car OS as they have for computers or phones.
If car payments weren’t so obscenely elevated, perhaps I would consider a subscription for features like the Bluecruise in our Mach E.
However, last time I checked, they are, so any automaker who attempts these nickel and dime shenanigans can fuck right off.
Well, payments are just a function of interest rates, how much you put down, and term lengths, so that’s more a symptom of increasing car prices and general financial strain most Americans are under. That is to say, car payments are increasing because cars are more expensive, so let’s focus on why cars are more expensive to buy.
I have a Mach-E as well. I still have another 6 months of BlueCruise included from when I bought the car, but I probably will continue to pay for it afterwards as I find it useful, especially for boring stop-and-go highway traffic. I’m ok with subscriptions for things like BlueCruise because data maintenance like keeping up-to-date maps and adding new features isn’t free, and to Ford’s credit, they have dramatically improved BlueCruise with free updates in the 3 years I’ve had the car.
Importantly, Ford is NOT charging subscriptions to use hardware built into and run on the car itself, like heated seats, etc. You can also use all of the BlueCruise features sans the hands-free portion for free without a subscription. I guess there is that Performance unlock you can pay $1000 for on the newer GT cars via the app, but that’s not available on my 2022 GT.
Remember when Mercedes-Benz would just quietly put a 6.2L NA V8 into everything?
Pepperidge Farm remembers!
*looks at current C63, proceeds to walk directly into the ocean*
You have used it enough that I had to look up: “Pepperidge Farm Remembers”.
Family Guy. Carry on.
Hideously ugly AND nickle-and-diming you on things. Oh, and probably shit quality too.
It’s what makes a German car, a German car.
I thought they made them in America. Just in The South, like Hyundai, so The Union can’t bother them over their labor practices.
…huh? What’s the UAW?