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
It’s stupid when it’s only Stellantis doing this, but other automakers will follow. Ford has those in-car ad patents that show more ads when the system detects you’re in traffic. This is “the future” and you will not be provided an alternative.
Remember the Hyundai executive promising “features on demand”? It doesn’t matter if they could “sell more cars” by being “the automaker without [evil feature]”. They’re worried about only selling cars.
At this point, if you’re buying something put out by Stellantis, you’ve really got nobody to blame but yourself. They’ve told us who they are a dozen times now.
I am only adding a comment so that Autopian can say they got 80 gagillion comments on this story. Obviously this is terrible and anyone in marketing at Stellantis who agreed to do this should go somewhere to think about their choices for a while. I think the worst ad experience right now is Youtube mobile, but god I hope this never happens to my car.
I said in the comments of an earlier article that I keep wanting to root for, if not Stellantis itself, the CDJR brands, since I’ve owned Jeeps and Dodges over the years that I absolutely loved. At this point, though, I just find myself wondering how often a company can metaphorically shoot itself in the dick and still remain in business. It’s baffling.
If I found myself in the unenviable position of Stellantis CEO, there are a few ironclad rules and goals I’d enforce from day 1:
1) Never, under any circumstances, do anything to piss off an existing owner. We need their return business if at all possible.
2) Redirect all industrial engineering effort to focus solely on auditing and improving manufacturing quality. All new product launches are postponed until the audit is concluded and 90% of identified quality issues are resolved.
3) Effective immediately, every new Stellantis product is sold with a 10 year /100,000 mile transferrable warranty. (See #1) Yes, this is copying Hyundai’s homework, because it worked. This also means that #2 requires continued succeed-or-die focus, since if you don’t, the company will.
Once that firefighting is under control, then focus on developing products that people want at prices they can afford, with emphasis on market segments that the brands have historically excelled in. Stellantis isn’t GM or Toyota, so don’t try to be. Instead dominate in markets that are otherwise underserved – minivans, muscle cars, off-roaders, luxury sedans, whatever.
Probably easier said than done, but then again that’s why CEO’s are paid the big bucks, right? … right?
Leased two wranglers from a dealership, went to buy the second one and they screwed me. I cursed them on every online platform I could find and will shop at a different place from now on
If they wanted to be proactive, they could post coupons and deals for tow trucks.
That center-justified text tells me this is a rogue operation within marketing that bypassed UX, design, any pair of eyeballs that would have made this at least look professional.
This is absolutely vile
I haven’t seen this yet but I am preemptively fixing the situation by getting rid of my piece of shit 2022 GC Trail hawk this weekend and never touching Stellantis products again.
What kind of legal liability could Stellantis have if say one of these came up at just the wrong time leading to an accident?
it says only on startup and while the car is stationary
Stellantis is only still in business because of the lucrative Purgatory fleet market, where those trapped between Heaven and Hell must suffer to atone for their sins, and still occasionally need to drive somewhere.
They’re lucky the deal to buy the Trabant production line lock, stock and used Russian underwear fell through.
Would these features be better defined as poop-on ads, then?
Do you know what would be a very ineffective way to get me to buy another Stellantis product? Even something that would take them off my shopping list forever?
A. An ad for a Stellantis product showing up on my infotainment screen.
“Holy automobile enshittification Batman!”
— Probably Robin
Whatever executive greenlit this deserves to be exterminated like the cockroach he or she is. Some might say it’s a bridge too far, but I don’t think it goes far enough. Yes I am having a bad day.
Time to buy an aftermarket stereo. Or just burn the vehicle to the ground and claim it under insurance so you can buy a better vehicle with no ads.
I like to keep a running Do Not Buy list of products and companies advertised during youtube, Netflix, Prime, etc., videos and the like. You know, reward those advertising dollars with a quiet little personal boycott.
My Do Not Buy list is now so comprehensive, that it’s easier to keep a list of businesses I will support. And most of those shut down >40 years ago.
I have a virtual sticky note on my desktop for this. Most of the companies on the list are unavoidable or only have a few equally-bad peers.
The dark pattern of the decline button being labeled “Remind me later” drives me nuts. There’s no scenario where’d I’d want a follow up for an ad involuntarily shoved down my throat. There’s no scenario where I’d ever want ads in my infotainment screeen period. Remind me never and kiss my ass.
This is a great way to torch any brand equity you might have had with your customers. Nobody asked for this and nobody wanted this. It makes life demonstrably worse all because a large corporation wants a few more nickels to rub together. We really need to find a cure for “business brain.”
I just called the number in this article, they informed me there I no way to turn off the ads without first installing their app. I will now be working to determine the fuse I need to remove in order to disable the cellular modem
The fuse covered too much useful equipment so I’ve instead unplugged the cellular antenna. Bonus is the same module is the satellite radio antenna so I never have to accidentally listen to the siriusxm promo when cycling through audio sources
Granted I’m an ornery old bastard, but this is exactly the kind of thing that makes me write off a company for life.
My dad has an irrational hatred of Chrysler to this day, yet hasn’t owned one of their vehicles since the 60s…. and I don’t even know what the back story is.
Hate can last a long, long time so you’re not far off on the lifetime bans.
I got screwed by Sony in 2001 and haven’t purchased a single thing from them since and never will.
This is like the third round of these I’ve seen on my car and I’m honestly more okay with the battery catching on fire than in car ads. One round appeared after a service and I called the dealership to complain, they said it was direct from stelantis and please please don’t rate them poorly on whatever survey.
This is why Crutchfield is still around, and needed.
Every time one of their catalogs comes in the mail I have to send it straight to the recycling, lest thousands of dollars disappear.
If Autopian ever wanted to team up with another company for partner posts, Crutchfield would be absolute fire.
Maybe a series on replacing head units on modern cars.
And this is exactly why every automaker has shifted away from standard DIN units to iPads bolted to the dash.
Can’t swap that out for an ad/spyware free system.
I checked my options there for a new head unit for my Bolt. No dice. They don’t recommend it, probably because of the vehicle functions that depend on it.
The best customer experience is the one in which I never have to contact the manufacturer or dealer for any reason what-so-ever.
Look at it this way, Stellantis, if I have to call you it’s because you screwed up.
Ya know, I keep waiting for some far-reaching event which brings people from all walks of life together. Something to break this back-and-forth, toxic rhetoric that inundates our daily lives. An event that bridges us all together and makes us realize that we’re all just humans and we need to seek a better understanding. For a time, I thought that would be climate change. Then, I thought it would be Covid. Alas, not only did those fail to bring us together, they tore us apart even more. However, I think we finally found our answer. Our “first contact”, if you will.
We, as humans, can unite on how absolutely abhorrent this feature is and ask, nay demand, a better world. These are the ashes from which we shall rise.
Is the answer “fire”? I bet it’s fire.
Fire would make those ads disappear.
Jeep’s 4XE line has you covered with that option. You just don’t get to decide when you want the fire.
My wife and I test drove a Wrangler 4XE. I’m reminded monthly as to how glad I am that we said “heck no” and bought a 2022 Civic Si instead. Between battery fires, engine fires and apparently marketing spam, these Jeep products really suck. Best part is that the dealer was asking $72,000! The ONLY really nice thing about it was a dedicated button that said “display off”. I wish every car had that. Too many screens and useless light pollution ruining night vision when driving. Why it takes submenus to get to a display OFF setting, and then defaults back to ON upon restart…Evil.