Want to Remote-Start Your Toyota With a Fob? That'll be $8 Per Month

[kdonnel]

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I've never had to clean snow off my car. If it snows I just don't go anywhere for the day or two.

I can't imagine having to dig out from the plow. That snow looks dirty and dense.

Plus having to get all the snow off the car as I understand it is bad form to drive around with snow on the hood, roof, or trunk.

Long live warm climates!

 

[DisneyHardin]

Another vote for warm cars here. I don't have remote start, but I do have a wonderful DH that goes out on the cold days and starts my car for me about 15 minutes before I leave for work.

 

[Skywalker]

Honestly - yes. This.
And yeah, maybe its more than 2 cents. Who cares, its my comfort & money.

I know right? Plus personally I am too old now to be uncomfortable in situations where its easily prevented lol

 

[QueenIsabella]

I've never had to clean snow off my car. If it snows I just don't go anywhere for the day or two.

I can't imagine having to dig out from the plow. That snow looks dirty and dense.

Plus having to get all the snow off the car as I understand it is bad form to drive around with snow on the hood, roof, or trunk.

Long live warm climates!

In New York, at least, it's illegal to drive around with snow on your roof. I mentioned that we used to get 7 feet of snow a year--it wasn't uncommon to see someone drive down the road with a good foot of snow on top of their car, which would eventually fly off and smack another driver's windshield. That's why they made it illegal to do so. Then there were the people who would scratch a small "peephole" out of the ice on their windshield--probably also illegal (poor visibility), but you'd see it all the time.

Digging out after they would plow was a whole 'nother issue. We were lucky--we knew the plow guys, they'd be nice to us. But, woe betide the guy who used his snowblower to push snow into the street--the snow plows would plow it (and him) right back in.

Of course, where I live now, we got 2" of snow, and my kids got 4 days off from school. My NY friends had a real good chuckle at that one.

 

[tvguy]

I Mathed it lol. .27 cents. 1000x worth it. I am not so cheap that 1.50 a week is worth being cold. Aaaannnnd that’s another strike against California lol. I’m not living anywhere where it’s “against the law” to warm my car up. Nor will I ever get up willingly at 2 am for anything. Not even Disney. But also, I can start my car from my bed so there’s that. Tho since I’m getting kids ready for school I have what feels like 11 hours to drink coffee and let my car warm up in between yelling “brush your freaking teeth” and “why aren’t your shoes on yet!!”

No 2 am wake up 3 am at work anymore. But that was only for 13 years. 25 years before that it was 5 pm wake up and at work at 11 pm. And not knowing where you live, but I bet it is illegal where you live also.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I Mathed it lol. .27 cents. 1000x worth it. I am not so cheap that 1.50 a week is worth being cold. Aaaannnnd that’s another strike against California lol. I’m not living anywhere where it’s “against the law” to warm my car up. Nor will I ever get up willingly at 2 am for anything. Not even Disney. But also, I can start my car from my bed so there’s that. Tho since I’m getting kids ready for school I have what feels like 11 hours to drink coffee and let my car warm up in between yelling “brush your freaking teeth” and “why aren’t your shoes on yet!!”

Usually remote start vehicles are exempt from the laws on unattended vehicles with warming up. Most laws were structured around traditional key ones.

I'm unfamiliar with the CA laws but it's illegal in multiple cities in my area including the one I live in with an exemption "For the purposes of this section, unattended shall not be construed to mean a motor vehicle with an engine that has been activated by a remote starter system, when the motor vehicle is locked and when the ignition keys are not in the motor vehicle."

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think it's silly to charge to use a fob. I'm okay with an app charge for for a normal key? Come on

 

[KayKayJS]

Seems like they got some ideas from Chapek

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

On the topic of remote start it takes my car interior 10-15mins to heat up and cool down. It sounds luxurious to have a remote start. I usually drive with it still be quite cold in the car or quite hot at this moment. My husband's car is better (and newer) than my car at heating/cooling.

It's definitely true about needing to defrost and help melt the snow in terms of starting the car. I for sure start my car and get the defroster going and start working on my car. I'm not starting the car for warmth though. On a newer vehicle I wouldn't likely rely on manually clearing off of snow and ice as much as I do now with my old vehicle.

 

[tvguy]

And back to the original topic. Apparently Dodge is now also about to start charging for the use of items installed on their cars. Speculation on the auto Vlogs is that not only will the move generate income for the automakers, but it will lower production costs because they could equip every car their build with heated seats, heated steering wheels, remote start, even performance upgrades since it costs them next to nothing to do so, then charge customers who want to use those features.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epx...-to-keep-paying-for-features-you-already-have

 

[mrodgers]

Isn't it a company's job to price their products as high as they can to get enough people to buy? How does that make them "greedy"?

You removed all the context by only posting that one sentence of a paragraph. Absolutely it is the company's job to price their products where they will sell said products. You are agreeing with me. In context, I was cutting on the consumers because they call out the companies as being greedy, yet stand in line with their wallet out or in the case of cars, sign up for longer and longer terms on the loan.

I state this all the time when posts come up about prices. The consumer holds all the power. A company can't scam their feature into a service fee if no one is willing to pay said service fee. A company can't sell their cars for the ridiculous price of $40-50,000 if no one is willing to pay the ridiculous price. The consumer is willing to pay the price however, thus the companies are pricing their products exactly where they need to price them.

 

[mrodgers]

Well, we do get cold enough in December and January here for the car windows to ice up if left outside. That time of year I put a towel on the windshield and the from side windows, so no need to defrost. Just pull off the towels, start the car and go.

Explain how you do it when you wake up to ice from the rain the evening before, turned into 12 inches of snowfall overnight, and back to rain compacting it and adding more ice to your car? Folks from warmer climates don't understand the snowfall and ice that comes day after day after day after day very often in winter where there is winter.

 

[mrodgers]

Turning the a/c on recirculate dehumidifies the air inside so it doesn't fog. The towels get left next to the garage hanging on the fence.

Too late. The air in your HVAC system is the same as outside. Your windshield is the same temperature as outside. Your breath fogs the windshield and freezes frosting the inside of the windshield. Now you can't see while driving down the road for however long it takes for the heat to start blowing warm on the windshield. It just doesn't happen in the snow belt the way you think it does in milder climates. I'm halfway to work before I can see if I don't start my car and warm up the windshield prior to leaving whether it's snowing out or not.

I don't believe the AC compressor comes on below a certain temperature anyways, so it's a moot point. We're talking temps from 20's down to 20 below 0. Not the occasional cool winter day of a mild climate area.

 

[mom2rtk]

Explain how you do it when you wake up to ice from the rain the evening before, turned into 12 inches of snowfall overnight, and back to rain compacting it and adding more ice to your car? Folks from warmer climates don't understand the snowfall and ice that comes day after day after day after day very often in winter where there is winter.

Yeah, that's pretty obviouis.

 

[dez1978]

In New York, at least, it's illegal to drive around with snow on your roof. I mentioned that we used to get 7 feet of snow a year--it wasn't uncommon to see someone drive down the road with a good foot of snow on top of their car, which would eventually fly off and smack another driver's windshield. That's why they made it illegal to do so. Then there were the people who would scratch a small "peephole" out of the ice on their windshield--probably also illegal (poor visibility), but you'd see it all the time.

Digging out after they would plow was a whole 'nother issue. We were lucky--we knew the plow guys, they'd be nice to us. But, woe betide the guy who used his snowblower to push snow into the street--the snow plows would plow it (and him) right back in.

Of course, where I live now, we got 2" of snow, and my kids got 4 days off from school. My NY friends had a real good chuckle at that one.

Same here. an inch of snow equals no school bc 75% of our district is on gravel roads so it makes it harder for the buses.

No 2 am wake up 3 am at work anymore. But that was only for 13 years. 25 years before that it was 5 pm wake up and at work at 11 pm. And not knowing where you live, but I bet it is illegal where you live also.

I don't think that it is, but if it is, I do not care one single bit. And who is coming to enforce it? Who is coming out to the middle of no where to check?

I googled, it is only illegal in the City of St Louis. No where else in the whooooole state, so I'm safe. And even in Stl it's only illegal to let it run more than 10 mins. And again, who is monitoring that? Unless Karen is your neighbor, setting a timer every morning when you start your car... Police have better things to do than issue citations for petty stuff like this.

 

[mrodgers]

Fine advice. I'm definitely going to try that!

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Thank you!

To be honest, I'd be digging and brushing out the driver's door and starting it letting it warm while I dig the rest out in that situation, but in the driveway or the parking lot at work, it's sure nice to start the car and let the heat do it's thing so you're out there brushing and cleaning it off faster.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Explain how you do it when you wake up to ice from the rain the evening before, turned into 12 inches of snowfall overnight, and back to rain compacting it and adding more ice to your car? Folks from warmer climates don't understand the snowfall and ice that comes day after day after day after day very often in winter where there is winter.

I think if you haven't lived it, you just can't wrap your mind around it. When we lived in upstate NY, we'd have a week of -20 for the low, 10 degrees for the high. Then we moved to Southern New Hampshire, where it averaged 5 feet of snow, and you'd have a week of -10 to 20 degrees. When I said, "The winters are so much milder here!", people thought I was nuts. I also noticed that we turned on the furnace later in the year (Oct. versus late Sept.), and spring came earlier (March versus April). Here in North Carolina, we have, I say, a week of winter. I haven't worn an actual winter coat since we moved here. Had I grown up in North Carolina, I would have no clue.

 

[mrodgers]

Another vote for warm cars here. I don't have remote start, but I do have a wonderful DH that goes out on the cold days and starts my car for me about 15 minutes before I leave for work.

Did that once. First push button start. Started and cleaned her car for her on a Saturday. Left the key fob sitting next to her purse. She comes flying out of the bedroom, "I'm late!" grabs her purse and out the door she goes. I glance over and see the only key we got with the car sitting there. I was chasing her down the road. I did not want to drive 30 miles into her work at midnight when she realized she didn't have the key when she went to unlock the car to come home with needing to get up at 5 Monday morning. I ran FAST after her down the road, LOL.

 

[kdonnel]

Left the key fob sitting next to her purse.

I really think push button start cars should be much more obnoxious about the fact they are being driven without the key. Usually this is maybe an icon displayed on the dash but there needs to be lots of noises after say 5 minutes of driving without the key in the car.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Same here. an inch of snow equals no school bc 75% of our district is on gravel roads so it makes it harder for the buses.

I don't think that it is, but if it is, I do not care one single bit. And who is coming to enforce it? Who is coming out to the middle of no where to check?

I googled, it is only illegal in the City of St Louis. No where else in the whooooole state, so I'm safe. And even in Stl it's only illegal to let it run more than 10 mins. And again, who is monitoring that? Unless Karen is your neighbor, setting a timer every morning when you start your car... Police have better things to do than issue citations for petty stuff like this.

I don't know where you looked but KC metro on the MO has places where it's illegal (including KCMO) and it's common for the news to remind people as winter sets in. Frankly I wouldn't be concerned about the police writing me a ticket although they do do that here, I'd be concerned with my car being stolen and it happens all the time hence the law. Right now in the 'burbs car theft is incredibly high. Most are occurring between 3 and 6 am. Every day a post in Nextdoor about it and now there's an increasing amount of people having their vehicles stolen out of the garage. Just yesterday it happened. I guess the thieves are using devices that can talk to the garage door opener. In the case of this person they left their keys in the cars and both were stolen. I'm not making it easier on thieves with my traditional car key leaving my car running Too many ring videos shared in my area of thieves going up to vehicles in driveways testing if it's unlocked. My car is a piece of junk but it's my mode of transportation.

If it's one time I'd appreciate a "Karen" that would be it, looking out for each other is what people are doing. Thieves are looking for streets where it’s easy pickens and they strike multiple houses on the street. You live rural your concerns may be different than mine where I live in the metro. I did find a news story where KCMO police from 2019 in 1 week has 105 cars stolen with half of them the keys left in the ignition with the car running. You're right police have better things to do than chase down the car thief and your car because you left it running unattended.