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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    1089 days ago

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

    • KayLeadfootOP
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      689 days 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.

      • 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.

        • @lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          17 days ago

          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.

      • @Petter1@lemm.ee
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        78 days 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.

      • Ulrich
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        68 days ago

        Their new $85k Charger will surely save them…

      • @hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        38 days 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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      248 days 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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    688 days 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
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    508 days 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.

  • @PeteWheeler@lemmy.world
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    478 days ago

    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.

      • @Zink@programming.dev
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        118 days 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.

  • Ray1992xD
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    318 days ago

    Forget about just the web. Modern tech is about to become unusable due to ads.

  • vortic
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    308 days 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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      78 days ago

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

  • LupusBlackfur
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    279 days ago

    Oh, look…!!

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

    Perfectly happy with my current 03 model thank you…

      • LupusBlackfur
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        89 days 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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        38 days 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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      48 days 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
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        38 days 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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          48 days 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
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            38 days 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.

      • @lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        27 days ago

        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 🙄).

    • vortic
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      48 days 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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        8 days 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.

        • @lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          27 days ago

          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).

          • @Petter1@lemm.ee
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            27 days ago

            😄my infotainment is only a "dumb” touchscreen radio with android auto / carPlay support anyway

            • @lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              47 days ago

              That’s how my minivan is. It’s a 2008 Toyota Sienna with an Alpine ILX-407 and iDataLink Maestro RR for vehicle integration (i.e. steering wheel controls and OBD-II). Works great.

          • @xthexder@l.sw0.com
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            27 days ago

            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.

            • @lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              7 days ago

              Toyota hasn’t offered an update for our 2015 Highlander’s Entune system since 2017. I snag the map updates for cheap from eBay, but that’s about it. The system sucks so bad… My parents’ 2015 Camry has the same system and they don’t use the navigation at all, choosing Google Maps or whatever instead. I mean there is absolutely no reason why entering one address needs to be divided into multiple ambiguous fields over multiple screens, completely dependent on what region you select on the first screen, which may or may not be correct since it looks for exact matches and not a “general” area; and stopping the navigation should be “stop navigation”, not “delete destination” ffs. Garmin, TomTom, Magellan, etc. had this figured out 20 fucking years ago.

              I get why Toyota likes to stick with “old but proven” tech, but that Entune system…jesus fucking christ what a dumpster fire.

  • @elatedCatfish@lemm.ee
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    278 days ago

    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