By Steven Symes 
Honda’s luxury division, Acura, has pulled the rug out from under quite a few car owners and they’re understandably furious. The company just announced on May 29 that come July 21, different subscription services like roadside assistance, automatic collision notification, and stolen vehicle locator will be switched off for cars as new as some 2022 models.
Toyota finds another excuse to jack up prices.
When we heard about this change in some car forums, we thought for sure people were embellishing the details out of frustration. But we found an official announcement from Acura confirming all of it is in fact true.
This is why we hate cars becoming giant smartphones on wheels. Not only do you have automakers like BMW trying to lock down certain features such as heated seats unless you pay for a monthly subscription, companies can suddenly just stop supporting services or even an entire vehicle.
Imagine if these were EVs and the software updates to keep them running and able to use public charging stations were just suddenly cut off. We guess that’s a great way to piss people off thinking you’re going to get them to buy a whole new car.
At least Acura will refund people if the already paid for services that are getting cut off. But this means some features of their vehicles will just no longer be available. Not only is that an inconvenience at best, it will negatively impact values for anyone looking to sell their ride.
We just hope nobody has an emergency and thinks they can call for help using their Acura.
What the luxury brand probably hasn’t even thought about is this just looks bad, really bad. Why would anyone want to buy an Acura in the future? So their three-year-old ride can have different features just shut off with not even two months’ notice?
Image via Acura