Car companies seem to find new ways for customers to hate them. For example, in late 2022, BMW came up with a way to soak it’s customers for every penny; subscriptions. The Germans streamlined their manufacturing process, making every car coming off the assembly line a ‘fully-loaded’ model. And anyone plunking down $69,420 for a new BMW M3 was certainly paying in full for the remote starter, heated seats, and driver assists. But BMW would not ‘activate’ these features unless you paid them a monthly subscription to use features already installed on your car, which you paid for. Makes you wonder who actually owns that car!
Now it looks like Jeep has found away to out-do the slime-balls in Stuttgart. This week, some new Jeep owners have been reporting a new and even more irritating way of begging for cash. Pop-up ads in your car!
Extended warranties are a big cash-grab for car companies, so if you didn’t plunk down the extra couple grand for the pseudo-insurance policy, your Jeep Gladiator will display a sales pitch pop-up ad on your GPS screen every time your car stops.
- Just think about all the marketing opportunities the car company has when you are a captive audience:
- At the red light: Have you thought about an extended warranty on your new Jeep?
- In the drive-thru: Protect your vehicular investment with a Flex-Care Extended Warranty!
- In your driveway, after an hour long commute: “We’d like to talk to you about an Extended Warranty on your Jeep.”
The fact that a car is stopped does not absolve the driver of responsibility. Motorists must still pay attention to what’s moving around them; pedestrians, bikes, lane-splitting motorcycles. That’s why every district in North America has laws against cell phone use while driving.
It is just unfathomable that a car company like Jeep would intentionally distract drivers to make a buck. Want to quickly glance at the GPS screen to see how traffic looks? Nope. Not until you’re subjected to an irritating electronic sales pitch, then good luck clicking the little ‘x’ on screen to close the pop-up window!
Unless regulators step in to curtail this practice, it will just grow. It’ll become like YouTube, except in this case, you won’t be able to put your car in drive until you watch a 45 second un-skippable ad,
Remember, the Jeep’s parent company is Stellantis, which also owns brands like Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroen, Dodge, Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot and Ram Truck. This pop-up advertising stupidity might be on its way to your new car too!
Crazy!
If I ever experience such a pop-up thing on my new car, I’m ripping out the GPS and putting in an old AM/FM car stereo I have sitting in the basement. No way, Jeep!
Our 2008 Acura mdx has a built in gps which we don’t pay a dime. Looks like newer model we need to pay money!
I have a Mini Cooper with a GPS too (no ongoing fees) but when the maps are out of date, you still need to connect it to the mothership to download the latest versions.
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Of course all of this has been eliminated by things like Google Maps and Waze.
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But a pop-up advertisement on a car I already own> No way! That is just too much.
unbelievable.
Could you ever imagine Toyota pulling a stunt like this? I can’t.
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This looks really bad on Jeep (and their parent company).
absolutely not. toyota does offer a subscription for remote start, but they would never put ads in such a distracting place
Exactly. Toyota would never do this.
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Its almost shameful for a once-great company like Jeep to stoop to telemarketing-like techniques.
I have a 2024 Jeep but no ads…yet. I’ve heard them claim this wasn’t supposed to happen, but then why have the ads at all? I will be super pissed if this starts happening. I’m already getting email spam about their extended warranty.
I’ve really been following this story closely, as my wife is looking into a Wrangler Rubicon. Some of the well-known motoring websites have contacted the mothership (Stellantis) and the PR people are claiming that the pop-up ads were a glitch (software bug) that impacted only a handful of consumers.
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The company still wants “…to inform Jeep customers about extended vehicle care options…” but let’s be frank. This is blowing up in their faces.
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I suspect they tried to quietly try out this crappy marketing method, and the results are exactly what any logical person would have expected. People hate it.
I hope you’re right and they’ve abandoned the plan. There are times I regret not buying an older Jeep that has no computers or electronics. Carburetors and window hand cranks for the win!
I think Im going to buy another pickup truck (or old Jeep) without fuel injection or any power features. Something that one of those doomsday prepperrs in Alabama would buy. The kind of vehicle that could survive an EMP.
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At least I wony have to worry about pop up ads or any new stupidy car companies develop!