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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[–] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 219 points 1 week 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.

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 60 points 1 week ago

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

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 53 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

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

Capitalism is an ouroborus

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[–] Bellingdog@lemmy.world 113 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 23 points 1 week ago

I laughed pretty hard, thanks for that

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

I think I know who’s responsible.

[–] wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works 102 points 1 week ago (11 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.

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[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 69 points 1 week 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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[–] commander@lemmings.world 65 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 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.

[–] bricklove@midwest.social 58 points 1 week ago (3 children)

2026 will be the year of the Linux car

[–] Zetta@mander.xyz 18 points 1 week ago

Aptera, what I'm waiting for. They claim they will have all parts available online for easy repairs, and IMO it's just a really cool car concept.

[–] thann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)
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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 52 points 1 week ago (2 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.

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Hell yes I do.

When that old antipiracy ad was like "you wouldn't download a car," turns out they were vastly overestimating your average American tractor owner or car driver's respect for the corporate arcology.

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[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 50 points 1 week 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...

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 15 points 1 week ago

Companies sure so have a lot of "glitches" and "technical difficulties" when they're introducing controversial features that forces it on a group of people, only to be nearly immediately removed with all kinds of excuses..... And then the feature is forced for everyone within a few months.

Almost like it's NOT unintentional, they're NOT experiencing technical difficulties, and they're actually just testing the waters before diving in, with neatly 0 intent to pull back unless the consumers put upenoigh of a fuss the company execs get scared.

[–] Zzyzx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 48 points 1 week 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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[–] applemao@lemmy.world 46 points 1 week 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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[–] SleepNotRequired@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week 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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[–] alxmg@slrpnk.net 34 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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

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[–] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 31 points 1 week 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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[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 week ago (1 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.

[–] thebluehood_380@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It’s def gonna spread tho. This is just one model one make. For now. In 2, 5, 10 years? CP77 without any of the fun shit.

[–] SaraTonin@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Unless everybody now says “I’ll never buy anything from dodge”. If it doesn’t impact sales it really will become the new norm.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago (5 children)

You'd really need to boycott anything made by the Stellantis group, which includes

  • Abarth
  • Alfa Romeo
  • Chrysler
  • Citroen
  • Dodge
  • DS
  • Fiat
  • Jeep
  • Lancia
  • Maserati
  • Opel
  • Peugot
  • RAM Trucks
  • Vauxhall

Because the exact same thing was reported by Jeep drivers a few weeks ago. Maybe the behavior stays contained to just the American brands under the Stellantis umbrella, but better to be safe than sorry.

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[–] eric5949@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 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 1 week 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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[–] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (17 children)

Stuck in traffic......introducing, the all new 2025 elantra! Hyundai has done it again! We all known it sounds like sentra but they keep making new elantras every year! Now just 54,978.73 with a 56% Apr amortized weekly!

Papa pa pa paaaa! I'm loving it!

New on the McDonalds menu!

Thanks for listening to 100.7! Your friends Krissy and tushy.

Avocados from Mexico!... Now just $4.50 extra on every taco!

Donate to Snt Vincent's cousin Alfredo Medo. Every year thousands go hungry without a proper apply wristwatch...

At Von's club we're family!

You've arrived! Welcome home! Don't forget the two dildoes on your Amazon cart! The pink one is Christina's favorite. Antonio loves the blue one because its gir....door slams!

Hatchback opens.....when you open up a new Coke check under the cap to win a trip to Eldorado! ...hatchback slams!

[–] commander@lemmings.world 21 points 1 week 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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[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I chose the right decade to give up driving.

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[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

The worst asshat psycho drivers in my city tend to drive those things. Good schadenfreude comes from learning this news

[–] doc@fedia.io 21 points 1 week ago (18 children)
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[–] Tronn4@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

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

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

"OH no, we accidentally deployed ads to your car using a system that took months to develop, how could that have ever happened"

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[–] 1995ToyotaCorolla@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week 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

[–] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If this happened to me and assuming I had physical knobs/buttons for AC, etc, and those wouldn’t be affected, I would take a hammer to it, mount an iPad Mini or something for GPS, and just listen to music/podcasts/audiobooks on my phone via a Bluetooth speaker.

I already have bad road rage (I’m not proud of this & am actively working on it) and this would send me over the edge.

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[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 15 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Brand new 2024 vehicle: I disabled all connectivity. No software updates, no remote start through their app, nothing; it will never connect to the internet. These greedy car and ad companies have lost the benefit of the doubt. Literally no amount of money will ever be enough for these giant corporations...

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[–] weremacaque@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

We need to tally up all the accidents and pedestrian hit-and-runs that occur involving cars with this “feature.” It would likely be enough of an increase you could reasonably make a class action lawsuit. I have no sympathy whatsoever for a car manufacturer that can’t get it through their heads that distracted driving is a major cause of accidents, and could easily happen by their own features.

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