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.

  • LuxSpark@lemmy.cafe
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    1 month ago

    Damn, I would be pissed if my car started showing ads. I hope this enshitification doesn’t spread.

    • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
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      1 month ago

      Dodge dropped 29% in sales in the USA last year, and something tells me, this isn’t going to have folks lining up to buy Chargers in 2025. Watch the free market* take care of this one.

      *Unless you’re Tesla, in which case the market costs $277 million to purchase.

      • SecondaryAnnetagonist@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 month ago

        I think that has more to do with ending production on the LX Platform Challenger / Charger tbh. They haven’t quite managed to gather the same hype among domestic car nerds with their replacements as those old boats had.

      • Petter1@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        Free market doesn’t work if all car brands are owned by like 5 companies and all of them agreeing to add ads.
        That is why we need to regulate cooperations as well as enforce them properly.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        Hornet, Journey, Charger. That’s it. Hornet is a piece of cheap, charger has ads. Journey…?

    • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Narrator: “It spread. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. Really you wouldn’t believe how much it spread. It spread like Domino’s™ all new creamy red sauce on only the freshest of dough seasoned wi—”

      *car crashes*

  • Devadander@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I thought GM foregoing CarPlay in favor of their own proprietary UI was a great way to kill sales, this is absolutely genius. Way to ensure I would never purchase your products!

  • blankmind@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Took my Dodge vehicle in for service. They wanted my email address “so they can get in touch with me if I don’t answer the phone.” I gave it to them.

    It took less than half a day for the first spam mail to hit my inbox.

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        1 month ago

        For me right now? Mazda. They have always been enjoyable to drive, and if you look at their interiors in everything from the MX-5 and Mazda3 up to their big family SUVs, you see physical controls in the foreground and a moderately sized infotainment screen up and back. Good location for glancing at it, and not for using a touch screen for everything in the car.

        I’ve been commuting in a 2012 mazda3 for several years and it’s been fun to drive and mechanically reliable. Also very fuel efficient with one of the early Skyactiv branded drivetrains.

    • tehn00bi@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      That was my idea as well. You are providing a negative feedback for following the rules.

  • vortic@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    It seems like displaying an ad at a stop light would be a safety issue since it makes it so you can onky look at the screen while moving.

    • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Not to mention it has the potential to completely distract the driver when the light turns green and other traffic starts moving again.

    • vortic@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You know, I was annoyed by that when I had to pay for an out-of-warranty update but now I’m pretty happy that my car is one year too old for automatic updates.

      • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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        1 month ago

        How is a software update a warranty claim? They should be free, like a recall. Maybe a DIY option with a USB or SD card. Either that or whatever they’re adding probably isn’t worth the update to me.

  • LupusBlackfur@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Oh, look…!!

    Yet another good reason I’ll not buy a new car. 🙄

    Perfectly happy with my current 03 model thank you…

      • LupusBlackfur@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        😂 🤣

        Yeah, mine did too…

        I updated the “entertainment deck” to a unit with aux, usb, sd card, and Android Auto (which is what I really wanted).

        All good!!

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        My ‘15 car is amazing except for the fact that it only has slow-ass laggy Bluetooth and NO AUX JACK

    • i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      I said that about my older reliable car. Until I was rear ended at a stop light and it was totaled. During a time that used cars were more expensive than new. (I did find an 8 year old Corolla with high miles and lots of body damage for $18k though!)

      I went without a car for nearly a year. Had to buy one when my partner was forced back to work in the office.

      Peeking at the used market, it’s still not great where I am. Better than 2022-23 at least.

      • LupusBlackfur@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        A wreck like that is my one fear…

        Doesn’t take much of a hit to “total” an older vehicle like that. 🤷‍♂️

        • i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 month ago

          It really doesn’t. I also dislike the fact it can be more difficult to find some parts for older cars too, so even if you wanted to salvage, it may not be viable.

          • LupusBlackfur@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Haven’t run into the “finding parts” problem…

            That may be a regional feature though. Driven older vehicles my whole life and never had too much trouble finding parts… even from junk yards if necessary.

            I have many junk yards within 50 miles, most within 20. 🤷‍♂️

            And I’m familiar with local/online companies that provide NOS as well as new fab for older vehicles.

    • reddig33@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I bet you might have a court case if you could prove that the dealer had disabled this advertising “feature” during your test drive.

    • oyo@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I would drive it straight back into the dealership through their display room window.

  • StreetKid@reddthat.com
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    1 month ago

    You do realize this is based on a almost half-a-year old reddit post? What has happens in the meantime?

    Note to self, never buy a Stelantis car. Not that I have ever considered that anyway!

    • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
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      1 month ago

      4 months is “almost” half a year, I guess.

      Point of the post is that this popup ad thing has expanded from Jeep (small brand) into Dodge (large brand) from the parent company (Stellantis). What has happened in the meantime is that a bunch of other Dodge drivers has confirmed the issue is widespread and difficult to disable.

      (Ope: I got fact-checked, turns out Jeep sells more vehicles per year than Dodge. I’m old, and apparently Dodge has lost a ton of market share since last I checked!

      If y’all are concerned about recency, I updated the article to include more images of the popup ads, including one from as recently as 3 days ago.)

      • raptir@lemmy.zip
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        1 month ago

        Jeep sells more than twice as many vehicles per year as Dodge. They are not the “small brand.”

          • raptir@lemmy.zip
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            1 month ago

            Yeah, maybe 50 years ago but with the popularity of SUVs Jeep is dominant at Stellantis. They sell almost as many Wranglers as Dodge sells vehicles in total.

              • raptir@lemmy.zip
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                1 month ago

                So I drive a Bronco that’s 99% stock. I have a roof rack that I added. I do go offroading, but we also have it to tow behind our motorhome since the bronco is flat towable.

                I ran into this guy who’s in a new (last 5 years), heavily modded Wrangler. He has the fenders cut away, huge winch on the front, etc… I ask him if he has any favorite spots around here and he says “nah I don’t really get out and do that anymore.”

      • StreetKid@reddthat.com
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        1 month ago

        I’m glad people are made aware of it!

        My point was, if the ads are still pushed to cars, I’m surprised FuelArc used a 4 month old reddit post as reference. Someone most have contacted Dogde, Jeep, or Stelantis for a comment on this.

        • Opinionhaver@feddit.uk
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          1 month ago

          Someone most have contacted Dogde, Jeep, or Stelantis for a comment on this.

          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.”

          Source

      • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        Where are others confirming this? Not in the article.

        Im in a challenger every week and have never seen an ad on the screen ever.

        • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
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          1 month ago

          Is your Challenger using the dealer installed SiriusXM? That would be for new and CPO vehicles. That seems to be what it is linked to.

          Y’all are… surprisingly hard to persuade! I thought sharing a literal image of popup ads in the car would be the proof y’all needed to believe it was happening.

          I mean, there are… more images of it happening…? Like, damn. Here’s an instance of it happening in a Challenger.

          • acosmichippo@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Y’all are… surprisingly hard to persuade! I thought sharing a literal image of popup ads in the car would be the proof y’all needed to believe it was happening.

            people are being rightfully skeptical of an auto news site using old reddit posts to promote themselves on lemmy. a single instance does not show how widespread the issue is. if you want to be a journalist do better.