this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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Nothing quite says “high-performance muscle car” like a popup ad for a Mopar Extended Warranty covering your whole center console. That’s right, Dodge Charger owners are now experiencing an exciting new feature: pop-up ads that appear every time the vehicle stops at a light. This absolute garbage feature was spotted in the wild, take a look here.

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[–] bradd@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I've been saying this for a long time. We need to recognize it for what it is, attention rape, and reject it completely.

The junk mail you get in your mailbox should be illegal. I've tried contacting people to have them stop, but low and behold it's USPS that's responsible and there is no mechanism in place to stop it.

So many platforms now make you pay for their service and then show you ads with it. You pay to be advertised to. I mean the car is exactly what I'm talking about.

I honestly believe it's a detriment to US culture, how saturated every environment is with advertising, people don't even see it anymore, it's "normal", invisible.

Do not pay for a service that show you ads, I wouldn't even use a service that relied on advertising. Use only paid services that do not advertise. Do not buy products that advertise to you.

[–] ksigley@lemm.ee 3 points 3 days ago

Hear this person. I pray thee.

[–] wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works 102 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Welp every manufacturer that shows this should go down immediately upon first offense.

Not even kidding, this should be corporate suicide.

Dodge and Jeep are (well Jeep already was tbh) both firmly on the "actively speak out against" list. If I was in a place of hugely inflated power, I would dismantle the entire company, and sell it to whoever that company likes the least.

This should honestly be a brand ending scenario in less than 5 seconds after the first ad. CEO should be in the bread line TODAY from getting hit with this.

ABSOLUTE zero tolerance. There are no valid arguments against this and I will die on this hill.

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 20 points 4 days ago (8 children)

Jeep and Dodge are both owned by Stellantis :) It's one shit-circus out of ~~France~~ the Netherlands (corrected because apparently I don't know geography).

On the good news front, the market is beating them like a rented mule. Dodge alone is down 29% in sales year-over-year.

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[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This should be punishable by firing squad.

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[–] foggy@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago

Welp. Never buying a new Dodge vehicle or from a Dodge lot.

0 tolerance for this.

BMW, Mercedes, Tesla, Toyota, Jeep, Dodge have all tried to add subscriptions to their vehicles basic functions or otherwise monetize owned property.

Hit their mommies and daddies, while Im at it.

BMW Group: BMW, Mini, Rolls-Royce

Mercedes-Benz Group: Mercedes-Benz, Smart

Tesla, Inc.: Tesla

Toyota Motor Corporation: Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu, Hino

Stellantis (Owner of Jeep & Dodge): Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Ram, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Citroën, Vauxhall.

[–] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 218 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Why? Well, probably because Dodge badly needs the money. The brand’s U.S. sales plummeted 29% in 2024

This'll help sales, I'm sure.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 53 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Should we make better cars that don't have the interior of 2002? No. Better add ads!

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[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 60 points 4 days ago

Stellantis looking at all that blank ad space on your infotainment console: "It's free real estate!"

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 29 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Capitalism is an ouroborus

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[–] chakan2@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

I would take that car back immediately. Fuck that.

[–] Zzyzx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 48 points 4 days ago (6 children)

But I'm still not allowed to touch my cellphone while behind the wheel because the screen is too distracting, right?

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[–] Bellingdog@lemmy.world 113 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Hey so I'm getting this thing on my new Charger, I think it's a check engine light?

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[–] Solocore@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

Hard no on that shit

[–] applemao@lemmy.world 46 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Stop buying new cars until they remove this bullshit. We can go 40 years with existing cars without buying a single new one.

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[–] ErinCrush@lemm.ee 29 points 3 days ago

I will not buy or watch anything with ads. I can't stand ads. Ads represent everything wrong with the US and capitalism. Just not stop shit shoveled into our faces.

[–] commander@lemmings.world 65 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

They're just testing to see what people are willing to accept.

Every time you see a useful idiot saying "it's not that bad" or "they're a business and they need to make money", you know who to blame for why things are the way they are.

[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 51 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Did you know John Deere tractors have a dedicated piracy scene? Because the tractors require authorized technicians to service them and doesn't allow farmers to service them themselves, spoofed firmware has appeared and is fairly frequently used to bypass this.

My point is, if you can jailbreak a tractor you can jailbreak a car. Just a matter of time.

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[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 3 days ago (3 children)

So, here's a solution that will likely work but I'm just extrapolating based on auto industry stuffs. If the ads are driven by SiriusXM, they're likely coming over the satellite radio. The shark fin on top has several antennae in it, including the XM antenna, which is on a specific frequency band and antenna type. Find the wiring harness for the shark fin, trace the SiriusXM cable, unplug or snip it. You'll lose XM, but, honestly, based on the garbage I hear on a lifetime subscription radio these days, I don't understand why anyone pays for it, except for living in or traveling through remote areas with frequency and wanting live background noise.

Chances are it's possible they'd also try and load the ads via a paired Bluetooth phone for Internet, (maybe) if that's the case it's a little more difficult. Probably impossible on iPhone, but on Android may allow one to disable the act of shuttling data to the car stereo via Bluetooth. If Stellantis uses an app to proxy data to the car stereo, deleting the app on the phone would break it.

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[–] bricklove@midwest.social 58 points 4 days ago (6 children)

2026 will be the year of the Linux car

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[–] daq@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 3 days ago (2 children)

As an unfortunate owner of a Chrysler and having owned and driven a ton of other cars I can confidently say Stellantis makes the shittiest cars you can buy in US. On screen ads are just a small piece of an immense garbage island that is this shitty company.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I forget where I heard or read it, but there was an anecdote about a guy that worked for Toyota engineering in a department that would purchase competitor vehicles to disassemble them and see what they were up to, like what kind of innovations they were adding. They didn't bother with chryslers because the most they'd gain was new ways to design a car to be difficult to maintain or repair.

My friend had an early 00s intrepid and would always bring up needing to remove the passenger tire and wheel well to replace the battery any time car maintenance was brought up.

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[–] alxmg@slrpnk.net 34 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I’ll accept this when the car comes for free.

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[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

So while you are allowed to use a cars dash for car functions, you should not be drawing someones attention away from the road while at a red light.

How could this be anything but distracted driving.

What happens when this ad pops up, you look at it and read its quite lengthy text, and then get rear ended because you weren't keeping an eye on the rear mirror?

I'd love to see that lawsuit (although it'd suck for the hurt person)

[–] SleepNotRequired@lemmy.world 38 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Starting price is now $58,000.

They ditched selling the accessible models for the luxury market and they do the most cheap and trashy thing possible.

It's incredible how stupid millionaire CEOs can be.

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[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 69 points 4 days ago (20 children)

Any minute now one of those brave-browser idiots will be along to tell us all how great ads are because they can make us aware of products that we had not yet discovered or remind us of products we didn't know were near by.

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[–] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago (1 children)

We dun fucked up when we made tarring and feathering CEOs illegal.

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[–] Tungsten5@lemm.ee 18 points 3 days ago (7 children)

I open this article up about pop up ads in chargers. Meanwhile there are 4 pop up ads on the website. Fuck this shit dude.

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[–] cortex7979@lemm.ee 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I just want a car that drives and doesn't collect any tiny bit of data about me

[–] chakan2@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Electrify a classic. It's cheaper than a midrange new car these days.

[–] eric5949@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

This is why I'd rather rebuild my 30 year old civic's engine than buy a new car.

[–] joe_archer@feddit.uk 22 points 4 days ago (4 children)

That seems like a lot of hassle if you're then going to buy a new car anyway.

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[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 49 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This literally happened to Jeeps a month ago.

“It should also be noted that ads are part of your contractual agreement with SiriusXM, but we are working on the frequency,” replied a Jeep Cares representative. “Thank you for your patience.”

A Stellantis spokesperson told Fortune in a statement that “a temporary software glitch affected the ability to instantly opt out in a few isolated cases, though instant opt-out is the standard for all our in-vehicle messages. Our team had already identified and corrected the error, and we are following up directly with the customer to ensure the matter is fully resolved.”

Fool me once, Stellantis...

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[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 28 points 4 days ago (9 children)

Pretty much everyone asked for this with their actions and choices as consumers. Lucky us, we can still choose not to buy a Dodge Charger or a Swasticar.

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[–] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 31 points 4 days ago (2 children)

If someone develops an aftermarket fix to make the ads go away, now that might be a product/sertvice people will want to pay for. Look at Dodge - creating new job sectors!

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[–] 1995ToyotaCorolla@lemmy.world 18 points 4 days ago

You mean the "oopsie poopsie it's just a glitch nothing to see here" thing that was happening to jeeps a little while ago?

Color me shocked

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[–] commander@lemmings.world 21 points 4 days ago (2 children)

What's sad is a significant amount of people have simply been conditioned to accept that level of noise in their lives.

If things are quieter and they aren't getting products shoved in their faces 24/7, they become visibly uncomfortable.

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[–] Tronn4@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago (3 children)

They just did this with jeeps last month. Said it 2as an error

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago

Error my ass. "Market research" was the word they wanted.

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[–] PotatoLibre@feddit.it 5 points 3 days ago

I would drive back to the seller istantly.

Car is mine. No internet connection if I don't won't, no data exchamge with the producer, nothing.

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