‘We Strongly Shun The Idea:’ I Asked Every Carmaker If They Plan To Put Pop-Up Ads In Their Cars, Here Are Their Answers

The idea of having a pop-up advertisement appear in your car for the latest lease deals at your local dealership or for a hot new offer for a subscription service may sound like a dystopian nightmare from the far future. But it’s not.

These exact kinds of pop-ups are appearing in people’s cars right now, in the today times. Stellantis, the conglomerate behind brands like Ram, Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler, has caught a lot of flak for having pop-up ads appear in their vehicles this year. Making the pop-ups stop isn’t merely a matter of pushing a button; you have to call a toll-free support line, which feels pretty damn anti-consumer.

It’s not just Stellantis that does this. Subaru also pushes pop-up ads to its customers, as I found out this week. It turns out it’s been pulling this move for years to help sell SiriusXM satellite radio subscriptions.

Wondering whether this was a wider-spread problem than the world realized, I decided to take it upon myself to reach out to pretty much every automaker selling cars right now. My goal? Find out which are using their vehicle’s connected services to beam ads to drivers, and which aren’t. I got a wide range of answers, including a few very entertaining responses.

The Method

At the beginning of the week, I sent out just over 40 emails asking representatives whether their vehicles utilize pop-up advertisements of any kind and whether their company plans to implement such features in the future.

I didn’t discriminate based on company size or the types of vehicles it sold—Toyota got the same email as Pagani. I just wanted to know if this was something they were thinking about doing, seeing as how it’s a foolproof way to get your information into the hands of customers.

As of this writing, I’ve received just over 20 responses from various automakers, which I’d say is plenty enough to gauge the industry’s feelings on the matter.

Let’s Get The Boring Answers Out Of The Way

Of the answers I received, the vast majority responded with what I’d consider the correct answer: “No.” Most of those “Nos” arrived as a version of this message below, which came to me from Czinger (who, to its credit, responded very quickly):

We don’t have or plan to implement pop up ads on our vehicle.

Mitsubishi, Toyota, Lexus, Genesis, and Aston Martin all had similarly brief replies that covered both questions.

Honda and Volvo provided a bit more background for why they’d prefer not to have pop-up ads in their cars, citing safety concerns. Here’s Honda’s reply:

Honda and Acura vehicles do not utilize in-vehicle (“pop-up”) advertisements. In designing the user interface of our vehicles, we always prioritize the end customer experience and concern for driver distractions. At this time, we have no plan to add in-vehicle pop-up ads.

And Volvo’s:

Volvo Cars currently has no plan to implement pop-up advertisements in its cars’ displays.

We continually evaluate how to communicate applicable offers to our customers in the right place and at the right time based on their context and preferences.

The Volvo Car UX is designed for a safe, focused and personal in-car experience, making complexity simple for Volvo customers.

To me, that makes a lot of sense. Of those who reportedly received those pop-ups from Subaru I mentioned earlier, one person told me they even received it while driving, distracting them and obstructing the view from their navigation screen. That’s not very cool and seems borderline dangerous. Companies like Volvo famously rave about the safety of their vehicles, so having distracting pop-up ads might put a dent in its reputation.

Of the plain “No” responses I received, there was one that only answered my question about currently deploying pop-up ads but did not reply as to whether or not they might do so in the future: Ford. Here’s the response I got from its representative:

We do not have pop-up ads in our Ford or Lincoln vehicles.

Sure, neither Ford nor Lincoln has pop-ups right now, but it’s possible the company could be planning something down the line. When I followed up, Ford simply told me it doesn’t comment on future products. Take that as you will.

These Companys Do Have Pop-Ups, But They’re Used For Good

This next section consists of automakers that do have pop-ups, but they’re not used for advertising, but rather for stuff that’s actually useful for the user, like service reminders, software updates, and warranty changes. BMW and Hyundai were the two companies that replied this way. Here’s Hyundai’s full response:

We do not deliver pop-up ads to our vehicles’ infotainment screens. We can and do send messages to vehicles’ Bluelink ‘Message Center,’ but these are tailored communications regarding the customer’s vehicle (e.g. vehicle is due for an oil change, recall notifications, etc.).

I’m putting one of my favorite responses to this little survey in this section too, because it proves that modern cars and tech can still be fun and whimsical when there’s enough creativity involved. From MINI’s spokesperson:

While the answer is “no in-car ads” in the traditional sense, we’re actively serving up useful and fun content on the screen. For example, there can be service reminders with call to actions for scheduling service directly with their dealer all through the screen itself.

Additionally we serve up periodic fun videos that go out to the latest generation cars which are meant to be a surprise and delight, for example for MINI’s birthday and a Winter Celebration video is coming in the next few weeks.  One that I enjoyed was on Valentines Day. When I entered my home destination in the navigation system, a Cupid arrow flew across the screen and landed on my home destination on the map which was marked with a heart.

MINI also has more fun easter egg stuff you can interact with, like the one shown above. That’s in-car entertainment done right.

“We Don’t Even Sell This Car Yet, But The Answer Is Still No”

Two of the companies I reached out to about this, Bugatti and Scout Motors, don’t currently build any cars (Bugatti is an ultra-low-production manufacturer that’s between models right now, and Scout is still developing its first modern cars for release in 2027). But they still had answers for me! Let’s look at Bugatti’s first:

Bugatti will not have pop-up adds in the Tourbillon, which is the only current model to have an infotainment screen.

Bugatti prides itself on its vehicles’ lack of screens, with its former design boss saying back in 2022 that the amount of screens in cars these days “scared” him. The one in the Tourbillon can retract and hide itself inside the dashboard, which gives you a good idea of how little designers care for the device’s position in the cabin. Meanwhile, here’s Scout’s reply:

Initial production of Scout Motors’ vehicles is targeted to begin in 2027, but the company does not intend to implement pop up ads in its vehicles. The user experience in Scout branded vehicles (Community UX™) is being developed to bring people together while in the vehicle and enabling a better user experience for drivers and passengers​.

How an infotainment system will “bring people together,” I’m not entirely sure. But at least it won’t bring me any updates on lease deals, which is what matters.

This Company Might Kinda Be Doing Pop-Up Ads?

I only received two responses that sort of danced around my questions. Depending on how you read them, you might think Kia and Nissan are, in fact, using their infotainment system to push pop-ups to occupants. Let’s look at Kia’s first:

Our connected Kia vehicles have the ability to trigger a pop-up with a short message and image, i.e. a QR code. We have used this functionality for new product information and availability on connected vehicles.

To me, this sounds like Kia has used pop-ups to communicate new products to drivers. But I haven’t been able to find anyone complaining about such an experience online. This is the type of stuff people love to complain about, so if it were happening, I’m sure someone would’ve chimed in on a forum or a Facebook Group somewhere. It’s possible the representative meant something different, like pop-ups for stuff like warranty updates or recall work mentioned above (I’ve reached out for clarity, but have yet to hear back). In the meantime, here’s Nissan’s response:

“We want drivers to have a safe in‑vehicle experience, free from unnecessary distractions. To support that, Nissan and INFINITI do not deploy third party ads and limit pop‑up messages in the infotainment system so drivers can stay focused and enjoy the drive.”

While this statement certainly covers Nissan for any safety-related concerns involving pop-ups, it also reveals that the company is using pop-ups on its infotainment system, albeit in a limited capacity. What information those popups convey, though, is unclear. Again, I haven’t heard any complaints on the matter, so it may just be a case of getting some more clarity from the automaker. Before you ask, yes, I followed up. And no, I haven’t gotten a response yet.

The “Are You Friggin’ Kidding Me?” Section

I’ve reserved this section for my two favorite answers. Not only did these brands say “No” to pop-ups, but they made it clear that pop-ups are something that shouldn’t be in any car, ever. These are the types of responses I wish I could’ve gotten from every automaker. First, we’ll look at Lucid, which was the first manufacturer to respond to my email out of every company I emailed:

Lucid has no plans whatsoever to introduce pop-up ads to its infotainment systems. Zero. Hope that helps and hope that echoes what you’re hearing from other automakers.

Quick, decisive, and to the point. Love it. If this Lucid rep is reading, they’ll be happy to know that yes, this same sentiment is what I’ve been hearing from pretty much every other automaker.

This next reply requires a bit of explaining. You see, small brands like Hennessey Performance and Gordon Murray Automotive often don’t want to spend a bunch of money on a press relations team of their own, so they hire an external team to handle PR. Oftentimes, these PR companies handle several brands at once.

As a result, the PR for Gordon Murray and Hennessey is handled by the same person—a common occurrence for small or new brands. I reached out to this person for individual, separate comments from both manufacturers, and they got back to me with precisely the type of response you’d expect from automakers propped up by pure, raw passion:

Ha! Well, you could have guessed … ads and the thrill of driving don’t mix so both brands strongly shun the idea.

Hennessey Special Vehicles focuses on delivering utterly extreme hypercars at the pinnacle of power and performance. Its customers buy Hennessey hypercars for their visceral, awe-inspiring driving experience, so there are no plans to divert any attention from this core mission.

Gordon Murray goes further still. Gordon himself believes digital screens in cars are distracting and unnecessary, pulling focus away from driving. Pursuing the purity of the driving experience, he insists on beautifully designed analogue controls and clear instrumentation that are intuitive to use and enhance the brand’s characteristic ‘driving perfection’.

Hell yeah. That’s exactly what I like to hear.

Those Who Didn’t Respond, And What We Learned

I got a healthy amount of responses, but I wouldn’t look at these as a strict analysis of the industry’s attitude as a whole. For a more accurate industry-wide result, I would’ve liked to receive answers from a few other big players like the Volkswagen Group, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, and Jaguar-Land Rover. But it’s the holiday season, which means information tends to move extra-slow.

I’d view this as more of a fun experiment to find out what some car brands were thinking, including those that you’d normally never think about when it comes to this type of stuff (like Czinger and Gordan Murray). And, as I kinda suspected when I started this mass emailing, most automakers are smart enough not to incorporate pop-up ads in their vehicles. And the few that do are immediately called out for it.

If you’re an automaker reading this, take notes. It might be tempting to chuck a new lease offer onto a car’s screen, but I don’t think the backlash is worth it.

Top graphic images: Subaru; DepositPhotos.com