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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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

I would take that car back immediately. Fuck that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Hard no on that shit

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Hear this person. I pray thee.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Some day every surface we look at will have advertising on it. Some Day.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I liked that part of Minority Report where he gets his eyeballs replaced and then all his customized ads in the mall are targeting the wrong person.

... In a dark, dystopian crystal-ball sort of way. Not in a "corporations should use this as an instruction guide" sort of way.

Who would have thought, the customized ad part would be right, but the expecting malls to exist part would be wrong?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Philip K. Dick was an unacknowledged prophet in so many ways.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Like the ridiculous subscription mouse a few months back, I'd be willing to bite with the right incentives, but those aren't incentives the manufacturer is going to be OK with. I'd take a car with ads, so long as it was sufficiently discounted compared to a normal car. And then I'd look up how to disable the ads.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (1 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I believe you need to actively turn on internet through Bluetooth, at least on android phones.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Correct, Bluetooth pairing and Bluetooth tethering are two separate functions. First is for playback, second for internet sharing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Not really. You cant tether unless paired first. And pairing is definitely not only for playback.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Why can't I find a single image of this?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

... Have you tried looking at the image in the linked article? :,)

I'm real good with hand tools. Not real good with humans. It's this.

https://preview.redd.it/ads-on-the-center-screen-now-thats-wild-v0-wk2i5ihf8n0e1.jpeg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=9dbd8a0ac3d2d2fbabf1bf035fb9a6e864d9a93c

Or what Astro_Plane describes... which is also linked... in the article.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I saw it on reddit a month ago but it was on some dudes jeep right after his warranty expired. Same car manufacture FYI.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Well let's just wait for the next "hacarthon" and see who can play DOOM on the pop-up first.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I want to really know how often this works. Has there ever been a single instance where someone says....."let me read this popular. Oh my! I really should get am extended warranty. Let me just click accept."

And even if they do accept it, what then? Does Dodge expect the person to continue reading the terms of service and enter their credit card info....in their car?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago (1 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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My wife's first car was a Dodge Stratus. It was the worse. It had a battery leech and I couldn't find what was leeching power. She was stuck on the side of the road and I bought a battery to try and save her and didn't realize I was also needed to remove the front passenger tire.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Why on EARTH would you need to remove a TIRE to replace a BATTERY...!?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Because you shouldn't trust dodge Chrysler to plan a birthday party, let alone a damn car.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

What made things even harder was that the plastic wheel well used steel wood screws, which is exposed to salt. So the screws were completely rusted out. I ended up having to breaking the screws and zip tying the plastic wheel wells in place.

Never ever again.

I fucking hated that car.

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