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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Also known as how to ensure a robust used car market until they pull their head out of their ass.
Damn, I would be pissed if my car started showing ads. I hope this enshitification doesn’t spread.
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.
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.Their new $85k Charger will surely save them…
Hornet, Journey, Charger. That’s it. Hornet is a piece of cheap, charger has ads. Journey…?
Journey exists for rental fleets.
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*
Oh, look…!!
Yet another good reason I’ll not buy a new car. 🙄
Perfectly happy with my current 03 model thank you…
Narrator: And that’s when he hit a speed bump, and the whole engine just fell out.
Seriously! My 2003 has a CD player and a tape deck
Is that an 8-track tape deck? 😉
😂 🤣
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!!
My ‘15 car is amazing except for the fact that it only has slow-ass laggy Bluetooth and NO AUX JACK
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.
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 🙄).
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.
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?)
They really don’t make them like they used to.
adds Dodge to the no buy list
Which one is NOT on that list?
Public transportation subscription.
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.
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?
If you disconnect the car’s cellular network, do the ads go away?
If you can find an antenna it can be blocked or disabled. Basic instructions for a faraday cage can be found very easy.
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.
gas-as-a-subscription service. For $300 a month you can get gas at select service stations at no cost to you. Terms and conditions apply.
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!
Welp, my days of not buying Dodge cars seem to be coming to a middle.
Be careful, it might be illegal to not buy one.
Fuck this made me giggle
For that rhyme you deserve a nickel!
Better than a twisted nipple.
You sure? Sounds like a nice tickle.
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.
If this ever happens to any car I buy, it’d be going right back to the dealer.
I would drive it straight back into the dealership through their display room window.
No you wouldn’t.
Of course he would. If he stopped outside he’d have to watch another fucking ad.
Is this your first time on the Internet? Welcome!
I bet you might have a court case if you could prove that the dealer had disabled this advertising “feature” during your test drive.
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
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The Muse’s cleavage knows what’s up.
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Greater than the sum of their parts, love it.
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.
This is like shooting a hole in the bottom of the boat so the leaking water has somewhere to go out.
