In covering car news, I will sometimes look at a new piece of technology and do a double take. “That can’t be real, it is simply too stupid for a room of automotive engineers to have signed off on it.” Often times, those pieces of tech are on Stellantis vehicles.
Here’s a winner that I had to confirm was real (spoilers, it is real). Popup ads in your car… for the Mopar extended warranty service.
Take a look, it’s the whole bleeping infotainment screen, every time you stop:
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Stellantis Heard Your Howls of Derision, and They Take Your Call Very Seriously…
Stellantis has had a tough year – dogged by quality control issues and flagging demand for even their flagship Jeep brand in their key North American market.
It’s not looking great for 2025, either, if you listen to the forums.
Surprisingly, I think this is a geniune Stellantis employee posting as “JeepCares” on the 4XE forums, and Kate has this to say about the Jeep ads playing on the car infotainment:
Thank you for tagging us and we are certainly sorry to hear of the frustration this has caused you. At this time, we advise that customers click the large [X] in the corner to close out and clear stored notifications from the vehicle. It should also be noted that ads are part of your contractual agreement with Sirius XM, but we are working on the frequency. Thank you for your patience.
I do love being reminded that ads are part of my contractual agreement when they pop up in my motor vehicle. Luckily, I don’t use that screen for anything important, just the GPS directions. I’ll go by dead reckoning, instead.
The next big off-roading mod: AdBlock Plus.
Enshittification and Rising Car Prices: Somethings Got to Give
If this is the future of in-car technology, it is looking grim. Automakers are already stuffing new cars with subscription services, but now we have full-screen pop-up ads while driving? With new vehicles costing an average of $48,700 in 2024, this feels like the worst kind of nickel-and-diming.
Between rising car prices and declining user experience, something has to give. Either Stellantis figures out that nobody wants ads in their dash, or buyers will start looking elsewhere. My bet? If Jeep owners wanted an infuriating user interface, they would have just bought a Tesla.
