Remember earlier this year when people with Jeeps and other Stellantis products were complaining about how they were getting pop-up ads on their center stack infotainment screens, like filthy animals? And they were having trouble opting out of these miserable ads? Then a Stellantis representative told me that the lack of ability to opt out was just a glitch! It’ll get taken care of! But you know what wasn’t a glitch? The ads themselves.
Here’s the thing about getting pop-up ads on your car’s dashboard: nobody wants them. In fact, I can’t think of anything that might unite humanity more in these wildly divided times than the notion that not getting pop-up ads on your car’s infotainment screen is better, vastly, richly better, than getting stupid ads on there.
Nobody wants these. Pop-up ads on your car’s dashboard are about as appreciated as small, runny piles of feces are on your car’s dashboard. If there is someone out there who genuinely, honestly enjoys and appreciates getting pop-up ads on their car’s infotainment screen then I hope they’re somewhere safe, because there must be an army of scientists just itching to strap this hypothetical person down to an operating table and cut them open just to figure out what the fuck is wrong with them.
And yet, somehow, Stellantis is still trying to make this happen. Here’s a recent tweet from some poor afflicted Stellantis owner, showing a recent pop-up ad on a Ram 1500:
This is a real photo from a friend pic.twitter.com/PU8xcd1qt2
— A GMN Ape (@AGMNApe) November 17, 2025
The ad is euphemistically titled “Marketing Notification,” which just somehow makes this even worse, picking some other inane words that just mean “ad.” It’s like calling stubbing your toe a “extremity nerve testing opportunity.” It’s not helping.
And what is this ad for, even? $1,500 in “bonus cash” if you own a Stellantis car and want to buy a new Jeep? Is this working for anyone? Just seeing this miserable ad pop up would be enough for me to cross Jeep of my list, even if I was, say, a Fiat driver who wanted a new car. I’d love to know the numbers for how well this ad actually performs, because it is so far beyond my ability to imagine anyone seeing this and squealing in delight before poking that OK button with gusto. And I can imagine a lot of things, not all of them depraved, even.
Chrysler too pic.twitter.com/A3Yn1Obj8c
— The Net Guy Reviews (@TheNetGuyDotCom) November 18, 2025
Other people have replied showing the ad appearing on other Stellantis brands, like this Chrysler, which uses a much smaller typeface and you can see the strange choice to center-justify everything even more clearly.
I reached out to Stellantis to try and get some understanding of what is happening here; is this normal? Is this another odd glitch, or is this just part of owning a Stellantis product now? Here’s the response I got:
The In-Vehicle Message (IVM) technology in the Uconnect system is an important link that helps Stellantis stay in contact with our owners at critical points in their ownership. We use IVM to alert them to important messages, such as exclusive sales offers, vehicle recalls and vehicle health monitor alerts.
Recently, a select group of owners received a special marketing notification in their vehicle and we tailored this special offer to minimize any intrusions:
We acknowledge that not every owner is interested in special offers. Owners can always permanently opt out of in-vehicle marketing messages by calling Customer Care at 800-777-3600.
“Our goal is to deliver the best vehicle experience for our customers. As a result of these efforts, we have seen our customers take advantage of this offer.”
…and I guess I’ll take Stellantis at their word here, but these two bits are pretty hard to swallow.
The really important part is that if you just want to never get stupid ads like these again, you have to actually call their Customer Care department, which feels like how a gym makes you come in to cancel a membership. Stellantis very likely could have made this easy, a little button right on the screen to opt out, but it seems they chose not to, because it would be better for them if they made this process a little bit more difficult.
It’s maddening.
Here’s the opt-out number again, in case you missed it:
800-777-3600
I just don’t get Stellantis’ thinking here. It’s not like they’re doing so great as it is; you would think that any chance they have to not alienate customers would be an opportunity they’d take. Nobody wants pop-up ads on their dash. No one is asking for this. Seeing these ads just makes the world feel like a worse place, a miserable dystopia of commerce and avarice, and our cars should be havens from this kind of horseshit.
Do we already not get enough spam in our emails, our text messages, via phone calls, and in our physical mail? Have you no empathy? Do we really need to debase our own cars with this? Is it so much to ask to just not do this?
I’d encourage Stellantis to take a moment and really consider their actions here. Is this who you want to be? Are whatever short-term gains made with these ads really worth making your customers feel like driving their cars into lakes?
I don’t think so. At the very least, let people opt out on-screen. No one wants to call Customer Care and wait on hold and go through all that hassle. Come on. Be human.
Top graphic images: Stellantis; SPAM
This is worse than the obnoxious “This vehicle is connected by OnStar to limited services” verbal message newer GM vehicles have when you don’t pay for the OnStar subscription. Going older instead of newer for my last Jeep purchase is paying yet another dividend…
It says that verbally? Like every time you start the car? If so, I’m not so sure this is worse…
Yep, there is an audible message, though luckily it is not every time you start the car.
Step 1. Don’t buy a stellantis product.
Step 2. There is no step 2.
Step 3. Profit.
Only applicable if you are a non-Stellantis brand.
I’m not at all saying it would be prudent for someone to set up an enormous farm of ai bots to call that 800 number and waste at least half an hour of the time of anyone who answers the phone before starting to give them fake advertising campaigns…. but…. I think that’s something that someone in the world might consider doing. Not that I’d condone it.
If I was that proficient with computers, well I dunno, it’d be dangerous.
“Our goal is to deliver the best vehicle experience for our customers.”
That’s a lie.
All I have to comment about this is that this is complete crap and only a fool would buy a Stellantis product knowing that this exists.
I hope when you call that 800 number, you are inundated with scratchy muzak broken up every 30 seconds by polite reminders that you can get $3000 cash back on a 2024 Dodge Hornet
Every 30 seconds the cash back goes up by $500
If there was ever an argument for keeping cars stupid and not connected to the interwebs, this is it.
Seat heater subscription expired. Watch this ad for RAID SHADOW LEGENDS! to enable heated seats for the next 15 minutes.
I might’ve missed when these ads popup, but distracted driving is a big thing we’re crusading against. Then you have a manufacturer going and making up a big distraction that requires attention and eyes off the road. The depositions of the folks who thought this was a good idea will be pure entertainment.
Not to defend Stellantis here, but it is mentioned that it is only upon startup and disappears once the vehicle is moving
Yep, there it is. Caught it upon re-read. D’oh.
There’s no defending this.
Just stating what Jason wrote… And he clearly wasn’t defending Stellantis
For the love of God. I am considering buying a new Ram truck, but maybe I’ll just keep driving this 2006 Civic FOREVER.
After the lexusnexus thing, I disabled the uconnect wireless setting on my Ford so it doesn’t phone home and home doesn’t phone it.
Does it need an OTA update? Wireless Android Auto randomly disconnects and the backup camera doesn’t work 3 out of 4 times. But no, it doesn’t need an OTA update. I’ll ask for an update if it ever needs dealer work.
Stellantis: “I see you’re still underwater being only 24months in your 96month loan, but can we convince you to make further poor life decisions and trade your car in on a newer car that you can’t afford but we think you’re dumb enough to do?”
If my RAV ever starts putting up BS like this on the screen, I’m going to perform some really unhygienic surgery.
Fun. That bit about the IVM sending info.about recalls and all? Our wrangler 4xe hasnt said a word about either recalls. And the jeep connect app? Also silent. Funny enough, carfax notified us about recalls before Jeep did!
K-Mart level sweaty desperation.
Who the hell wants this? Like seriously?
Investors.
It is definitely not all. I haven’t gotten this, or anything like it, on my 2024 Charger EV.
That said, I definitely would be annoyed-to-angry if I did get one of these.
How are you liking the Charger? I don’t think I’ve seen one in the wild yet.
“…helps Stellantis stay in contact with our owners at critical points in their ownership.”
That sure is a critical point where I have decided never to buy one of these again.
News to me.
Apparently the best vehicle experience is abandoning their current vehicle experience for… roughly the same vehicle experience?
It’s like you don’t even believe in their goal.
So they can push out ads, but they can’t afford fuel pumps for their fuel pump recall? Come on Stellantis, get your shit together.
They make you call CS for the same reason companies give rebates instead of discounts. Even a little effort is enough to deter many people.
I’d forgotten about these ads, what a stupid idea. Companies need to start doing focus groups about things like this (or subscription heated seats, as another example). Merely presenting these ideas to the public hurts their reputations.
Companies without focus cannot assemble focus groups.
It goes without saying that I do not like this. There’s no aspect of this that can be justified on the merits.
That said.
I do think the response to this is a bit overblown. I get fliers in the mail and in my email all the time telling me about special offers from OEMs. I’ve had to dismiss the same pop up messages (Sync interacts with your phone while you’re in the vehicle!) & (Sync is due for an upgrade) every one of the thousands of times I’ve started my (Ford) truck in the 7.5 years I’ve owned it. I see billboards advertising everything under the sun every time I drive.
I’m not sure what specifically about this is so much worse than the soup of ads and popups we live in already. It’s bad, but more in a “why did it take them so long to think of this” way more than anything else.
Because they’re clearly testing the waters with this. They want to see if there’s any pushback or if people just accept it. No, it’s not a terribly intrusive ad and is easy to disable, but you know marketing companies are foaming at the mouth to introduce omnipresent ads for crap on infotainment systems.
The point is the die was cast long ago.
I have popups on my screen literally every time I start my truck. They just aren’t for ads, they are safety warnings/legal disclosures/prompts to upgrade. Other vehicles integrate them slightly better, but they’re still there.
This is worse, but not paradigm shifting IMO.
The difference is that your existing popups are just information about the actual vehicle and its systems. It’s not trying to sell you something or influence your behavior.
And yes, this is the tip of the iceberg. First it’s on startup, once. Then it’s every time. Then it’s every 30 minutes while you’re driving. Then you also get sounds and bright colors. Eventually half of your screen will be showing ads constantly – and none of it will be of benefit to you.
To me, this is irrelevant. It’s an annoying popup that I need to dismiss no matter what it says.
If all popups in vehicles were banned, I’d be on board with the change. If the nightmare scenario you lay out comes to pass, I’ll change my tune. Otherwise, this is no different than the status quo for me.
I’m kind of shocked that is irrelevant to you, when it’s the most important point.
Ford asking me to upgrade my Sync and Ford asking me to upgrade my truck are not so different in my eyes.
I agree. To me, the most egregious part of it is that you’ve got to call a phone number to cancel it, in 2025. Come on. Give me a button right there on the screen to opt out. We all know it’s possible to do it. But they don’t want to make it too easy.
I think part of it being so annoying is the difficulty in opting out, in a product you are paying for.
I personally hate unsolicited advertising. I make a lot of choices in my life to avoid them – ad free streaming, opting out of every junk mail I can, living in a state where billboards are illegal, a stack of ad blockers. Now a car I paid for is shoehorning an ad into the UI using a data stream that is begrudgingly tolerated because new cars without it are vanishingly few.
It feels like a betrayal of the imaginary relationship people form with manufacturers.
What???!!!
This is quite the lede-burial.
Vermont, Maine, Hawaii. It’s beautiful.
Thanks for buying one of our cars! Can we interest you in another? No? How about now? No? How about now? No?!
Well if you didn’t want annoying ads, why didn’t you just call our 1-800 number? Everyone loves spending their time calling customer service numbers right? We’re doing you a favor here!
I furthermore encourage people to be as snarky as possible when dealing with the person on the phone if they try any corporate-speak to try to get you to change your mind.
I used to work in a call center, and I disagree. It’s not the rep’s fault that they have to do those steps, and the company will never hear about your snark. Customer service is a crappy enough job as it is; no need to be jerks to them. It doesn’t help anything. They probably hate it as much as you do.
You’re going to have to get through a few layers of AI chatbots before you get a minimum wage human, I bet.
I’ll assume that anyone with a Stellantis vehicle new enough to be getting these ads has already decided they are never buying another Stellantis vehicle again.
Another way is to just not fix your UConnect screen when it inevitably starts flashing horizontal lines like a CRT with a bad vertical hold before failing entirely. No screen, no ads, almost like that was their built in opt out feature
Instructions unclear, Jeep 4xe keeps catching fire.