Yeah but it's a potentially perpetual ongoing per-unit cost that the manufacturers will incur for something they sell for a one-time payment. At some point it has to become unprofitable.

There are connected cars but iirc you have to buy a subscription or supply your own sim card to use the online features.

The connection is there so that they can have a long-lasting income from ads/snooping etc. They can share a bit of the spoils to get the meat.

If specific units are costing them beyond income, they can probably have telcos disconnect them, or just remote-disable the communication.