3 year free car-net for eGolf is a scam

I tried pressing the "I" button today to get some questions answered on the car. The Car-net guy came on and gave me a very long speech on how great car-net is. Unfortunately, he didn't answer any of my questions except one: there is a 3 year FREE car-net deal for the eGolf functions, but you only get that if you have a regular car-net subscription. In other words, there is no 3 year free anything.

He couldn't answer any of my questions about the car, so transferred me to some VW person. She couldn't answer my questions either (is there a trip odometer? What does the 0.0 button do? Why don't I have any driving data? etc. etc.). When I started asking questions about the iPhone app (it just plain doesn't work) she said that question has to go to the car-net guy that transferred me to her.

All in all, and hour and a half wasted.

My post above turns out to be incorrect. The car-net guy had it wrong. At least in the US, e-Golf owners get the full car-net service for the first 3 years. This information was apparently top-secret, even to VW, as owners on this forum reported getting letters from VW to buy car-net after the 6 month trial had expired. Those letters were sent in error, according to newer information.

My impression is that there are two parts of car-net. We have 3 year of the EV part (whatever you see in the app) and 6 months of safety part.

Go to your Car-net Account page (top right)

Mine says:

VW Car-Net New Vehicle Trial
Subscription active until Dec 19, 2015
VW Car-Net 3 year EV Complimentary
Subscription active until Jun 19, 2018

Click to expand...

Looks like it will auto-renew the subscription, but it's just goes by a different promotional name.

The two products are actually different. The 6 month trial includes general "remote" features like door locking & unlocking. That will stop working after the 6 month trial ends. However, "EV" features like remote charging & setting up climate control schedules will work for that 3 year trial.

A Car Net rep said they are working on an "EV"-only subscription, that should be available by the time our 3 year trial runs out. The whole package with remote features costs $199/year, so hopefully the "EV"-only subscription will be much less (since that is all I'm really interested in).

My car is 10 months old and I just tried the remote unlock through the iPhone app. I got a text message back saying the doors had been unlocked.
I am not paying anything for an expanded Car-Net subscription...

phr00t said:

...The 6 month trial includes general "remote" features like door locking & unlocking...

Click to expand...

Just feel compelled to make a small correction here— the car-net app will allow you to unlock the car remotely, but will not allow for remote lock. This flat-out sucks because sometimes I walk away from the car and think, 'did I lock the car?' It would be nice if I could just use my phone to lock it, but noooooo.

It would also be nice if I could roll my windows up or down remotely, but that doesn't seem possible either. I use car-net for manually pre-heating the car when it's cold outside, and that's it. It's pretty close to useless otherwise.

On the Car Net website it shows icons at the bottom of the screen for the services available.
Battery, Climate and Remote are all available without a paid subscription (though remote does seem limited to unlock).
Vehicle health, Speed alert and Boundary alert require a subscription.