Dodge Chargers Now Have Pop-Up Ads at Every Stoplight
2 years ago by KayLeadfoot to c/technology
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.
Fuck this made me giggle
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.
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.
Despite their reputation, the LX platform was serious value, offering stupid power for cheap. It had the "classic American muscle car" vibes, and responds nicely to modifications.
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!
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.
DuckDuckGo offers a nice relay service; you get a duck.com email address that mails through to your regular email, but it strips out all the trackers and other bullshit. It's good for situations like that.
Pro-tip: Fastmail integrates with 1Password to generate random emails and save them.
.........do you not have a fake email you can log into?
I bet someone has "anyoneemailingmeisacunt@gmail.com"
Actually tried it, seems like gmail doesnt like swear words
If we had actual regulation here this would be illegal for distracting driving.
Illegal to look at phone (I know everyone does it and isn't enforced, but still illegal on paper) but not illegal to watch this short message from our sponsors?
I hate living through a bad joke. Much rather read about this shit and laugh then wondering what the next stupid thing is.
They really don't make them like they used to.
adds Dodge to the no buy list
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.
We need more dead ceos
And smart TVs, doorbell cameras, robo-vacuums, etc etc.
You'd may as well run the red light
Not to mention it has the potential to completely distract the driver when the light turns green and other traffic starts moving again.
Two weeks ago it was Jeep. Now it's Dodge. This is how it creeps. Are both those companies owned by Crystler?
Oh yeah I did hear that name recently
Yes, along with Ram pickup trucks and IIRC Fiat, somehow.
Chrysler Corporation (Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram) was owned by Daimler (which also owned Mercedes-Benz) from 1998-2007, then operated on their own again (and spun off Ram from Dodge) until 2014 when they were acquired by Fiat, forming Fiat Chrysler Automotive (aka FCA). FCA and PSA (Peugeot) merged in 2021 to form Stellantis.
There you go.
...to the loud apathy of us GM owners.
Blows my mind that this kind of stuff isn’t a safety issue… I guess as long as it’s “touch-free” it’s not considered distracted driving lol
The Muse's cleavage knows what's up.
Greater than the sum of their parts, love it.
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.
Often it's controller remapping to resolve transmission or engine issues. Those are typically recalls. The software updates you're thinking of are typically for the infotainment system, which gets data from the rest of the vehicle and controls any wireless connectivity (if equipped).
Well I think in the case of controller remapping, that's a recall. But an infotainment update should also be free and possible to do yourself. If it isn't, that's terrible.
Oh, look...!!
Yet another good reason I'll not buy a new car. 🙄
Perfectly happy with my current 03 model thank you...
😂 🤣
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!!
The removal of 3.5mm jacks with no simple, universal, physical way to connect an audio device has been such a thorn in my side.
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.
A wreck like that is my one fear...
Doesn't take much of a hit to "total" an older vehicle like that. 🤷♂️
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.
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.
That happened to me, too. During covid pricing, I had a 1992 Ford Taurus that I absolutely loved (and hated, but that's a different story), and got rear-ended on the freeway at the tail end of 2021. Wasn't severe and the car was drivable, but insurance still totaled it. The kicker is that even though I only paid $1000 for the car, insurance gave me a whopping $4700.
I managed to snag my current 2008 Toyota Sienna for $4500 when most were going for $6-8k. It needed some work at first, but it's a solid car and serves as our family hauler and handles multiple roadtrips a year like a boss (split custody, yay 🙄).
Narrator: And that's when he hit a speed bump, and the whole engine just fell out.
If this ever happens to any car I buy, it'd be going right back to the dealer.
No you wouldn't.
Of course he would. If he stopped outside he'd have to watch another fucking ad.
I mean like I need another reason to NOT buy a Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep/Ram
“Glitch”
More like
“Let’s see how people react”
Yes, Jeep, owned by Stellantis who also owns Dodge.
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.)
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, that's how I read it :)
Next thing you know they'll find a way to advertise in our dreams
DON'T GIVE THEM IDEAS!
This is like shooting a hole in the bottom of the boat so the leaking water has somewhere to go out.
I get that this is the point of the article, but wow seeing an ad in your car makes it look cheap as fuck.
There’s a chance I might tolerate it on a rental, but not on something I own. Absolutely not.
Been doing this with Jeeps already. They claimed it was a mistake.
"Oops! We accidentally incorporates ads into our software! It was an honest mistake..."
I've never wanted to go smashing car windows in a lot until now
You right. This is the second time I've felt the urge.
Yeah, happened to me last week. I wanted to do a simple bugfix and next thing I knew I had implemented, configured and released an ad solution to our software...
Whether it is a feature or a bug depends on how their sales numbers look for Q1 2025.
Call it Schroedinger's bug.
Also known as how to ensure a robust used car market until they pull their head out of their ass.
They'll see the sales of the Charger tank and will conclude that people just don't want muscle cars, which is sad because in the next few years I was thinking about getting one.
Oh well, what can you do.
This is the company that saw their North American sales dipping and responded, "let's discontinue the Challenger and Charger, our 2 recognizable nameplates that give the rest of our lineup a halo effect with our largest buying segment, that'll fix it!"
Then they brought back the Charger as an EV, which is exactly what that particular fanbase did not want to buy, at a starting price that'll make your eyes water. Now they've announced that they're doubling back and releasing a gasoline Charger, but by surprise and with no specs available in advance, as though they're panic-releasing it. It's a perfect shit show. Corporate idiocy on parade.
An EV with a fake exhaust sound, no less.
My god how lame.
As a muscle car driver in the past, oddly, the sound is a big deal. The sound scratches some primal itch. A muscle car sounds like mechanical power. It's hard to explain, it vibrates through the pedal, so I guess it's sort of a human-machine interface feature. But also emotional. A lot going on there, I actually find that dimension of the design real interesting, most potential buyers hate what they attempted.
I can see how the corporate suits and engineers wouldn't get it. But surely at least some of their engineers are gearheads? They tried to replicate it, and just widely missed the mark to most folks. It sounds really shitty in the videos I've seen.
You're right, tho, the simple answer... it's fake. It's much more expensive than it used to be, and it's clearly imitation. Nobody likes being a sucker, and a bad deal like that makes the buyer a sucker.
Memes only matter if they effect revenue. If profit climbed then the stupid stays.
Memes don't matter if revenue climbed
If you just do a standing burnout at every light will it not pop up?
The folk with the random alphanumeric username, asking the real questions
Welp. That sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Of the class action variety.
Don’t worry, on the mountain of paperwork you sign when you buy a car there’s probably an arbitration clause somewhere.
Oh, I thought you meant a lawsuit from me. When I, a pedestrian am crossing the street with my walk signal, when suddenly, the guy at the opposite side of the intersection just starts driving at a red light because he was distracted by McDonalds. Didn't even realize his foot was on the pedal, and now I got run over.
I'm pretty sure the point of showing the ads only at intersections is, that the car needs to be in a standstill
So they kinda give you "entertainment", while you're waiting
Obviously a completely shit move, but I'm afraid, we can't hit them for safety issues here
Maybe more relevant would be, that people will miss the green light or produce more traffic jams, because that they're clear to move on
(Or did I miss something how/when they show their stupid ads?)
Yes, but now the car can't pull data to operate the gas tank.
Operate the gas tank? What new feature did they add that requires a container of liquid to be networked?
I can feel the sarcasm but it would be remiss to ignore the fact that a lot of manufacturers are trying out subscription models. I would like to think of HP here and there ink service they offer with their printers but for cars.
The terms and conditions: no stations within 500 miles of you participate, so pay up on top of the no revocable subscription.
If you can find an antenna it can be blocked or disabled. Basic instructions for a faraday cage can be found very easy.
Weren't they going to discontinue both the charger and challenger?
I thought they discontinued the challenger in 1986. The whole brand kinda blew up.
Theres a core memory! Those 80s challengers were real pieces of shit. Ignoring that, challenger space craft have about the same longevity. Too soon?
Whenever I upgrade my car, if it has this “feature “ I will immediately change out the system.
There was an article about this few months ago and the exact same reddit post was used there as evidence of this being true. This was most likely a bug and it probably has been fixed since. If what the headline claims here was true there would be tons of videos of it happening to different people on YouTube.
Reported by drivers as recently as Tuesday.
One of dozens of such reports, confirming make, model, and frequency of the ads (at every stop): https://www.reddit.com/...
I'm the world's worst journalist, but I do try! When possible, I confirm facts with multiple sources. The "news" aspect here is that they were previously on a different Stellantis brand (Jeep), and now they have expanded to another Stellantis brand (Dodge).
If you have evidence that contradicts, feel free to share.
From your link:
this crap started popping up every time I stoped,
This should absolutely be illegal, as it blocks the use of the panel until the message is closed. This is an unnecessary traffic distraction, that is bound to statistically cause issues and even accidents.
2nd paragraph of the article:
Update: the above image is older, which has some folks on social media wondering
Stelantis was reported doing this with Jeep, and now they are doing it with Dodge too. You are confusing the issue because you are misremembering the facts.
3rd paragraph:
This isn’t the first time Stellantis has pulled this sort of stunt with popup ads, either. They already tried adding pop-up ads to Jeeps
This is just another example of the shitshow Stellantis has become! It's an unnecessary distraction that blocks the use of the screen until you close the message. This is bound to cause issues and probably even accidents.
This was most likely a bug and it probably has been fixed since
You have a source for any of your assumptions?
The source of my assumptions is my mind, but sure, here you go.
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.”
Ok even if that is the case. Why is it even possible for them to deliver ads to a car? The very fact it could happen "accidently" is more than enough for me to be angry.
Explanation is not excuse. Personally I wouldn't buy a car that has access to the internet in the first place.
The spokesperson did not answer questions about the frequency of ads or what cars were covered by the SiriusXM contract.
A spokesperson saying "we are looking into this" doesn't actually mean it was never intended or that it has stopped.
I’ve been debating getting a new car after paying a ton to fix up my old one but now I think I’ll keep her forever.
Anybody got a lead on a rebuilt turbo for a 2.0L TSI?
Same boat, big bill this time though. Weighing my options. Not really liking the price, quality, or connectivity of newer vehicles...
Absolutely not. The "I'd deal with it if I get [nice thing] for less" mindset is the entire reason we're in this situation to begin with. Companies see that people will put up with it, realize data collection from that is where the real money is made, then it leaches into everything else.
Fuck ads entirely.
This is old and they’ve already said it’s a bug. Stellantis sucks for sure though.
The ad was most likely supposed to be shown once. Not literally every single time the car stops at traffic lights. Car companies may be stupid, but not this stupid.
As if that is any better. My dashboard is not their fucking ad space
Be less gullible
time for a new sound system then, lmao
Next update: play Ozempic commercials every time you stop at a light.
@KayLeadfoot
Maybe try uBlock Origin on that "muscle" car?
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Welp, my days of not buying Dodge cars seem to be coming to a middle.
save