Dodge Chargers Now Have Pop-Up Ads at Every Stoplight... Just What Nobody Asked For

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.

Stellantis looking at all that blank ad space on your infotainment console: "It's free real estate!"
Should we make better cars that don't have the interior of 2002? No. Better add ads!
- The american dream right here.
  It's why american cars suck. Nobody buys dodge overseas.
  You have to be stupid enough to buy something just to support your ruling class in order to buy american cars.
Capitalism is an ouroborus
- They're solid vehicles. My 08 caliber died last year with nearly 300k miles. Their interiors are just so old looking. I had an 97 Contour that doesn't look much different than their current interiors.

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

I laughed pretty hard, thanks for that
I think I know who’s responsible.

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.

This should be punishable by firing squad.
- Or better yet, the masterminds behind this will lose someone due to distracted driving over an ad.
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.
- Dodge alone is down 29% in sales year-over-year.
  "Clearly we need to add more AI, internet of shit, microtransactions and advertising on the cars to compensate!" - Stellantis CEO
- I had never heard of Stellantis until the comments on this post.
  That's at least a little good news, but I want day-after total zero existence for stunts like this.
  As in executed the day after murder kind of immediate punishment. In this case, total, irrevocable punishment.
  C suite people literally living in shelters fighting for leftovers at a food bank after paying out years of employee salaries and benefits kind of punishment.
  You can't just fine people like this for crimes. You have to actually take away money and the ability to accrue more than enough to live on.
- Actually, Stellantis has their global HQ in Hoofddorp, Netherlands.
- I wonder why they can’t get it right

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.

What does this have to do with brave-browser users?
- Brave derives revenue from advertising.
  Brave devotees are the only people I've ever seen defending advertising as a user friendly revenue model.
- I've noticed brave users are some of the biggest useful idiots on the internet.
  I genuinely think there are 2 classes of brave users: people who are invested in the company trying to viral market it, and the morons who fall for it.

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.

2026 will be the year of the Linux car

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.
The linux dashboard
- car assistant
I drive an ‘03 Lexus SC430. No dealer locked bs, never has issues, documentation easily obtainable, new OEM parts still sold.
Basically a Linux car.

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.

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.
- Arcology: architectural ecology, a city intended to be contained in a single structure.
Encrypted ECM? Build a new foss one and sell them online, you'll make bank.

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...

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.

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

This what I don’t get, those huge “infotainment” screens are perfectly acceptable, but you can’t answer a phone.
Edit; missed the letter “a”.
- You are typically allowed to have limited interaction with a mounted phone.
  You can't pick your phone up or anything like that, but you are allowed some very limited usage if it's mounted. It's no different than a built in car dash at that point.
  However, fuck this, this is beyond expected use, and is definitely going to cause distracted driving.
- You're usually not supposed to interact with the screen either when driving, and it's easier to put your hand back on the wheel when the screen is mounded instead of dropping your phone... but I get what you mean.
If you do you must buy something
- As long as your purchase is over $10,000, you have immunity from prosecution for vehicular manslaughter during the transaction.
  This law brought to you by Carls Jr.
- C O N S U M E

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

I have a Renault master from 2016. I'm pretty sure I can squeeze another 50 years out of this diesel bitch with adequate maintenance and care. Plus my other car is an e-bike.
- That's awesome ! My dad had a Renault back in the 70s air cooled...which is super weird for living in middle of nowhere. He overheated it eventually haha
The cost of used cars isn't much better assuming you don't want a piece of crap. After almost being killed by 2 used cars I'd prefer to not risk it anymore.
- I was very lucky in that I can repair most cars. It's a lot harder now. Before I had a real job, all my vehicles cost less than 3k. If you learn what to look for and to stay safe (brakes, tires) you shouldn't really be in danger with a used car. Now in an accident, some ass in a 30 foot tall dodge truck will kill you, but that's kind of unavoidable even if you're on the sidewalk
- Subaru has great safety ratings and the "used Subaru tax" (as in, a used Subaru tends to be more expensive) is because they are very good cars. They have some of the best safety ratings on the market.
- Skill issue. Used cars are dangerous if maintenance is neglected.

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.

It does appear... pretty bootleg.
Starting price on a new Dodge Charger is $61,590, get on that inflation train, boss!
- It seems like every US brand under Stellantis has completely lost their minds.
  Jeep has become all around terrible while becoming more expensive at the same time and it looks like the same thing is happening to Dodge.

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

I know right? I would totally get an ad supported free car. Who knows, someone might make an ad block for it.
They'd be showing ads on the windshield and windows for that
- An ad that appears at the top of the steering wheel, that always stays at the top since they embedded a circular screen into the wheel so the ads can always be shown.

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!

As long as the money never touches the hands of those who need it, the ruling class is satisfied.
Until it becomes illegal

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.

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

Did we?

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.

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.
- Unless everybody now says “I’ll never buy anything from dodge”. If it doesn’t impact sales it really will become the new norm.
- That's exactly the attitude that makes shit like this possible.

That seems like a lot of hassle if you're then going to buy a new car anyway.
Good that you have an older Civic. The newer ones are lemons - Honda cheaped out on the air condenser from 2017-2021, so no AC! The electrical shit in the dash is all kinds of fucked up too.
I drove 80's and pre 92' VW's up until 2019 and now I'm exclusively driving pre 04 VW's . They are futuristic to me , heated sats , heat , AC its crazy .
I've amassed enough maintenance parts and transmissions to keep me going indefinitely..or until some jackass makes them illegal then I guess I'll just ride a bike

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)

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!

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.
- The quiet means you have to deal with your own thoughts and theyre certainly not going to do that!
- Lol seriously! When we had our first kid and moved to a new place we didn't unpack the TV at all and that made things inside the house quiet. Like weird quiet.
I really fucking dislike that you used Hyundai when they are like the one company that still does cool fucking shit at prices normal people can afford.
- They are also one of the worst ones at collecting your data
- Is a forced subscription to use basic features included in this supposed "cool fucking shit"?
  Because they do that, now I won't tell you how to live but I would not categorize selling basic features back to me as "cool fucking shit"
- Do their newer cars still burn oil like crazy because thats not so great

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.

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.
- 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.
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?

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

I chose the right decade to give up driving.

I chose the right decade to get a car without any options whatsoever
- My 2007 just clicked over to 271K miles and I'm going to keep it running as long as possible. It has all normal bells and whistles of a limited version, but was built before all this madness began. It's a CAR.
- We were rocking an 08 Mazda without even power windows up until a few years ago. Even that is too much these days. I'm happier on buses and trains.

Here's the source so you can see it for yourself. https://redlib.private.coffee/r/Charger/comments/1gq9nyf/ads_on_the_center_screen_now_thats_wild/?

Oh, I would definitely hit that call button. Then proceed to ask a bunch of stupid questions and wast as much time as possible.
- First question: What the hell is this?
  Second question: What the hell is wrong with you people?
- Bold of you to assume dodge can't afford the 15¢ an hour they pay to some poor soul in bangledesh.
- "engagement numbers are up!"
what is redlib private coffee? i like that layout!
- redlib is, analogue to invidious, a proxy service for reddit. private.coffee is just the domain of the person whose proxy you are using.
  https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib

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.

I believe you need to actively turn on internet through Bluetooth, at least on android phones.
- Correct, Bluetooth pairing and Bluetooth tethering are two separate functions. First is for playback, second for internet sharing.
- It's a weird thing in apps when you accept permissions. The app is allowed to ostensibly tether over the Bluetooth link enabled in the app.

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

Error my ass. "Market research" was the word they wanted.
"OH no, we accidentally deployed ads to your car using a system that took months to develop, how could that have ever happened"
"Oops! The error seems to have spread to our next most profitable lineup. We'll get right on that!"

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.

Lmao, meanwhile I'm reading your comment about ads in an article about ads in a car, and your comment appears on my screen right under an ad for Bumble. (I'm on Lemmy Sync)
- Lemmy sync? Why not something ad free? That has been one of my favorite experiences so far with lemmy; Finally not being face fucked by ads constantly

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

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.

Good on you for working on yourself.
I can only respect that. Dodge ought to be afraid of you.

Hear this person. I pray thee.

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...

Any particular trick? Pulling a fuse or antenna or just declining requests to go online?
- The latter, disabling all connectivity, even emergency, etc. I'm watching it closely, but it hasn't re-enabled.
It must be annoying to remove their mobile antennas though? It seems like most new cars have built-in connectivity.
- To be completely honest, I haven't gone that extreme yet. I know where the antenna is and could disconnect it fairly easily, but for this particular model it doesn't seem necessary. I've disabled all wireless connectivity (similar to airplane mode) and so far it persists through battery changes. No nags after the first one and no attempts to connect or re-enable wireless functionality, but I'm keeping an eye on it...

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.

That's the grim truth, isn't it
Look up "depraved-heart murder."
It's when someone knowingly does something that's so obviously likely to cause death or injury that that indifference to life can essentially be treated as intent, and if someone does as a result it isn't manslaughter or wrongful death, but murder.
Classic examples would be arson or knowingly selling tainted medicine.

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.

I'd quit my job and start running the campaign for anyone who's willing to run on outlawing this shit. I'd work 75 hour weeks handing out fliers about distracted driving.

Tfw your car is trying to reach you about its own extended warranty

So... um... will the buyer get money from Dodge to drive this shit then?

Just make a list of advertisers who actually advertise in these, and actively avoid & shame them. It is fair that they try new things out, but the problem is, when the consumers accept them.

Yet another car I’ll never buy.

I never thought I would say this, but thank god there are a bunch of car hobbiest in my area.

If this type of invasive shit becomes mainstream, I at least know that the auto community around me will be able to fix anything that gets put into my travel device.

nobody deserves it more than dodge charger owners

Mmmm, delicious unbridled capitalism.

Why's it taste like Red 40 and a non-zero amount of rat hair?

I sometimes wonder if my current car will be my last new car. My car has some tracking that I can supposedly disable, so I understand the appeal of classic cars more. I might have to pick up a mint condition early 2000s car for my midlife crisis.

I see an MX5 and track days in your future.
I got a Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear from 1995 for my crisis. Its a cool vehicle tho.

If you've bought any Stellantis Fiat Chrysler Dodge Jeep etc. product in the last 20 years then you deserve this. Absolute junk.

I bought a Pacifica plug in hybrid because I wanted electric and needed a minivan for my 3 kids. Worst decision ever.
My 2006 dodge says I do not deserve this.

I would take that car back immediately. Fuck that.

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

That’s one way to increase running red lights.

Like that sounds like it should be banned by the ntsb or dot… oh wait they don’t exist anymore, or soon to be cut.

Before starting the engine please watch this 30 second unskippable ad

Saying "before x" and giving the amount of time kinda implies unskippable.
I bet the ad doesn't even get removed when you buy the warranty.

Probably for bail bondsmen

Hard no on that shit

This offends me to the core. Stellantis has made my shit list, and I will never purchase any product they are involved in. EVER !

Their cars are trash anyways so you're better off.

They picked some good frogs to test this on

I saw this on Lenny about Jeeps. I asked someone sitting in a new Jeep if she got ads when she came to a stop and she said no. So now I wonder if there is something about the trim level or something. She said it was 1 year old. Maybe this just started.

They could also just be A/B testing shit to see how much backlash they get.

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.

And so it begins.

Exactly why I wont buy any vehicle with any sort of network connection outside of the CANbus.

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

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.

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

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

Excited to see what cool things people can do with a jailbroken car.

Fuck NO

Well, that's truly horrible, but at least it can distract you from the fact you are in a car like that for some reason. Unless it's an ad for the a newer model.

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

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