The truth about subscription fees in your vehicle

There’s been a lot of to-do about the fact that General Motors is phasing out Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of a native navigation system, which will eventually be accompanied by subscription fees. But here’s the thing, this is the way all automakers (including Tesla) are moving. Yes, there’s a free trial period, but after that time you’ll pay a monthly or annual fee.

And a lot of automakers don’t even know what those fees will be yet because some of the trials last 8 to 10 years – and that’s a long time from now. Until you blink and it’s 2032.

So, let’s dig into subscription fees a bit, what they cover and why you might want to pay it.

App subscriptions

We’ve gone through most of the major automakers and detailed their subscription fees for things like remote start and lock/unlock capabilites. Pricing varies widely, but there are usually monthly and annual options. Tesla, for example will charge you $9.99 for premium connectivity features, or you can just pay an annual fee of $99 to save a few bucks. Toyota, however, will charge you between $8 and $32 a month, depending on the which services you want to utilize. You can check out our articles on General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis (parent company for Ram, Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, etc.) as well, but your best bet is always to check directly with the automakers’ websites.

Trial periods

All these pretty shiny features offer free trial periods, and these not only vary depending on the manufacturer but also on a per-feature basis. So, one automaker could have a 3-month trial for something like SiriusXM radio, and then an 8-year trial for a constantly updated native navigation system and over-the-air updates. The idea is to suck you into a feature you can’t live without, so by the time the trial is up, you’ll gladly pay the fee to keep it. In the case of a 3-year or 8-year trial, there’s always the chance that you’ll ditch the car long before the trial period ends, so maybe it doesn’t matter.

But the moral of the story is this: If a feature seems to good to be free, it probably isn’t – at least not forever. For example, while GM is phasing out CarPlay and Auto, the native Google-powered system is pretty damn good and offers an 8-year trial. The caveat: GM hasn’t decided what that subscription fee is going to be when the trial is up. So, if you’re buying one of the new vehicles with this system, like the recently revealed 2025 Chevy Blazer, just understand the free Googliness has an 8-year expiration.

Why you might want to pay subscription fees

There are a lot of great features hidden inside the subscription fees. If you download the vehicle’s app, most of the remote services – think remote start or lock/unlock – are housed here and have associated fees to use them after a trial period. While a lot of vehicles have remote start on a key fob, and you think you don’t need this feature, you might change your mind on a -14 degree morning when you can turn your car on from your phone while you’re still snuggled in bed before you run out the door to an early-morning exercise class.

As someone who’s been carjacked, a feature I’d pay money to have is for the vehicle locator service most automakers now offer on their vehicles. While some automakers offer this as an in-app, for-a-fee feature, most will require you to call into a service with a police report number, and that service will only discuss the vehicle location with the police so you don’t go all vigilante on them and try to get the car back yourself.

Then there’s the native navigation. While I appreciate Waze and the heads up for police on the route as much as the next guy or gal, there are some instances where the native navigation is just better. Especially on EVs. These systems are specifically designed to integrate with the vehicle’s propulsion system to give you a real estimate of your range. They take into account traffic and temperature as well as your past driving behavior to give you an accurate idea of how much range it takes to get to a location. While this doesn’t matter if you’re just using your EV as a commuter car and don’t drive more than 30 or 40 miles in a day, it’s a BFD if you’re taking a road trip in a rural area and need to plan charging stops, which we experienced on our Volvo EV road trip.. So, yeah, this is something you want on your car. But the problem right now is, most automakers who are Googlifying their infotainments systems don’t know how much the subscription fee will be because the trial period is “so long.”

The bottom line

Few things in life are free. And cool car features are one of those things that won’t be free forever. If you change your cars every couple years or have a ton of disposable income, perhaps these fees don’t matter. But if you’re on a fixed income – or will be in the near future, you need to go into your new vehicle purchase with eyes wide open.

Read the fine print and know what your future fees will be – or if you’ll have them but they’re still TBD.