I completely crossed off all GM cars due to lack of CarPlay. I am boycotting Tesla. I don’t trust BMW because they tried to make heated seats a subscription. Now Jeep and Stellantis?
I’m on year 9 of my 10 year car plan. Current vehicle is supposed to become the kidmobile and I planned on a new one.
I won’t buy a new car though. If I do replace mine, it will be a used, unconnected car. I am so tired of iPads on wheels.
my 2008 BMW is the last without a computer screen and none of that stupid knob and I had to seek it out but it was absolutely worth it. Bonus that I can actually work on the car my self!
I think cars peaked ca. 2010. Anything added after that are annoyances or things being taken away.
If I could get a brand new facelift E90, that would probably be my next car.
To be honest, I would just get an old car and fit a tablet into it
Mercedes also includes a number of items as a subscription in some countries. Some stuff is app related. Others are things like getting full use of your rear-steering wheels and unlocking extra horsepower.
This only applies to GM EVs. Friend has a 2025 ICE Chevy which has both AA and CarPlay. Still dumb that the EVs don’t have it though.
Japanese manufacturers are not perfect but seem to be the least interested in doing this kind of anti-consumer nonsense, at least for now. I have been happy with every Mazda I’ve owned in the last decade (3 in total) for what it’s worth.
I just wish Mazda had a good EV. Their EVs just aren’t that good at the moment. I leased a BMW iX a few months ago, but my old car (which I still have) is a 2012 Mazda 3. Love the EV experience and I don’t think I’ll buy a gas powered car ever again.
Yup, Toyota has been solid for me. Though admittedly, they’re also one of the worst in regards to data privacy; You should assume that every single thing you do in a Toyota is being recorded and sent back to a Toyota server for ad/tracking purposes.
Lol what? Ur car got internet?
Just pull the OnStar /gps fuseMost cars have a SIM card with a very basic data/phone service. In many jurisdictions, it’s a legal requirement for cars to have a button to call emergency services, so they need phone connectivity for that. It’s also used for software updates, map updates, and of course, data collection.
Toyotas are still good
I am still awaiting my first map update to my nav system that has free lifetime map updates, my truck will be 10 this year.
Toyota Sales here Boy do I have some BMW Heated seat subscription crap to sell you
(Its not quite as bad as BMW. But one thing that really irks customers is the remote starter is restricted to a subscription service. unless you’re one of the lucky ones who got a vehicle that installed the wrong part/fuses. in which case you can still remote start your car with the fob. its still very finnicky)
Yeah that remote start subscription really pissed me off. If i could confirm a way to give them even less data i would.
Something to consider…
Elon may be going down a conservative rabbit hole these days, but this is the sort of thing Tesla would never ever ever do. And things like using the telematic system to sell your location and speed to insurance companies. Never happened on a Tesla. You may not like the guy, but the cars are fucking solid.
Doesn’t Tesla lock larger battery capacity begging a paywall?
Rainbow road mode is a bitch
Tesla’s have their own privacy issues, and build quality issues . Tesla’s staff have been caught spying on their customers and sharing sensitive images of people .
Oh, he’s just going down a rabbit hole! He’s going on a cute little adventure where he does a fucking Nazi salute in front of the whole country, then proceeds to recklessly dismantle huge parts of the US government, but it’s all just part of his magical little journey! Teehee!
Tesla? You mean the Ford Pinto of EVs?? https://www.rawstory.com/cybertruck-2671127676/
This is why you need government. This is why you need regulations.
Corporations are evil pieces of shit that would have you watch ads without seatbelts and without air bags.
They’d grind you and your entire family into a powder if it made them a few bucks.
Fuck Jeep and their shitty tin cars.
So is this considered distracted driving?
This looks like a Luigi level threat
I’m curious what the customer agreement is for this? Is it in relatively plain sight or is this buried deep in the purchase agreement
Jeep is a Stellantis product. Literally the worst quality auto manufacturer in North America. They are circling the drain and jacking up the prices on their vehicles and making Pikachu faces when they don’t sell. Their only customers are people who don’t know how to research their purchases, and putting advertisement hell into their cars is another example of that. I suspect they will not be in business a decade from now.
It’ll be less than a decade
I had two Jeeps, first was originally my dad’s. It was an old shitbox. The other one was a somewhat old shitbox. 1998 & 2010. We dumped more time and money into them than I’d care to admit.
Jeep Renegade is a rebadged Fiat 500L.
I work in the auto industry. Can confirm, Stellantis is in bad shape. I wouldn’t buy anything from them.
Out of curiosity, who would you buy from?
Out of the American big three, I have the most confidence in Ford. I’ve worked with engineers at all three, and the ones at Ford are the ones that I felt were most compitent.
That being said, my next car will probably be a Toyota or a Subaru. Both way better than the American OEMs.
What’s confusing is that some great auto brands from Europe are under Stellantis (Peugeot and Citroen at least)
And they’re actually not doing a shitty job in designing or selling their vehicles. It’s mainly the Chrysler brands or basically the US brands under Stellantis. I seriously hope the shit happening in Chrysler doesn’t come trickling down to the other brands
Peugeot and Citroën have their own issues in Europe (and technically in America) with the recall of car due to defective airbags.
Turns out regulations are good for businesses.
Regulations are definitely excellent for both businesses and consumers in the long term. But businesses are often too stupid to see past ANYTHING “quarterly”.
That depends on the business culture and how good their advisors are. And also the size if the business matter.
But yeah generally angelosaxton companies who have a mangement structure that’s way more in depth than it needs to be fuck these things over
“Either the Line Goes Up or the Rope Goes Up” - evil CEOs everywhere
They’re good for longevity, but they’re bad for quarterly profits. In the US, we care much more for the latter.
Absolutely fucking not.
Though it does sound like a good kicker for the after market systems to make a comeback.
Custom flashes are probably more likely given the system integration of the head unit. UBlock for your car. How crazy is that?
Not a chance. The new ‘infotainment’ clusters integrate necessary features like climate control to prevent aftermarket replacements in most vehicles. I honestly don’t know if any manufacturers even use the single and double DIN standards anymore.
The Chinese won’t be stopped by that. CANBUS integration controlled by a poorly designed app coming to your (2-3 versions old) Android head unit!
Despite no longer sticking to the DIN standard, and climate controls being integrated into the infotainment system, there still exists a big market for aftermarket infotaiment systems, they just have to be engineered for the specific make of car you have. But they can be bought for most cars that have infotaiment systems that are now outdated
I haven’t replaced a head unit in years, but I’m not surprised the proprietary systems require custom components for replacement. I can’t count the amount of head units I’ve replaced with my own ‘custom’ wire harness to save the $15 it cost for the Metra adapter. Lol
Mazda is supposedly one of the last major automakers that has mostly physical controls in their cars. Definitely at the top of my list for any future car purchases.
Mazda has been flying under the radar doing things right for a long time, in my experience.
I’m currently driving a 2012 Mazda3 that we bought new 13 years ago. It has been completely reliable while our 2013 Honda has needed some repairs. It is fuel efficient (40mg hwy), and it is still fun to drive. In the automatic transmission’s manual-shift mode the shift lever goes in the correct direction for driving dynamics (pull back to upshift, forward to downshift). In the normal automatic drive mode it seems to use an accelerometer to downshift when braking downhill.
My very first car was a mazda MX-6 from the late 80s with a 5-speed manual transmission. I bought it with 180,000 miles as a cheap junk “first car” and drove it for another 40,000 miles over the next few years. It needed some repairs, of course, but it was fun to drive and did a great job getting me around the state while I was in the late college to early independent adult years.
Now I’m middle aged and my drive to work is just a few miles via quiet twisty country road. I think I’m gonna get an MX-5 Miata next. 6-speed and soft top. That sounds nice.
For years I thought a fast dual motor EV sport sedan would be my next vehicle (whatever the non-Tesla model 3 performance equivalent would be) but a roadster would probably make it more fun to get up and leave the house. Plus so much cheaper and, given the small amount of miles I drive, probably more environmentally friendly. It would definitely generate a lot less microplastic pollution form the weight difference alone.
I highly recommend Mazda if this is something you care about. I had a 2016 Mazda 3, and now I have a 2022 Mazda 3. The infotainment is all controlled though a physical knob and buttons, the climate control is all physical buttons. I am not sure if the screen is even a touch screen… I don’t think it is, but I have never attempted to touch it since I was so used to using the physical knob system in my old 2016. The physical buttons are why I picked my current 3 turbo up over the WRX I also tested. The WRX and the other Subaru’s I checked out all annoyed me with forcing use of the touch screen snd buttons to change the climate settings. I hope Mazda never changes that aspect of their cars. Not sure if the other models also do this, but I don’t see why they would.
My 2018 Chev Trax may be the perfect level of tech for my tastes. Climate stuff is all physical, but it has a nice screen that you can hook a phone to through a USB or Bluetooth to pass maps/audio/calls through it with the audio and calls being controllable by buttons on the wheel.
The only actual car operation buttons on the screen are things you wouldn’t do when driving anyhow like decide if it locks automatically or setting the default volume.
Most obnoxious thing it does is keep reminding me that the sat radio subscription is expired when I start it.
Also, the climate control is all on smaller screen that just displays info with the climate system. The infotainment has nothing to do with the climate controls.
I have a 2015 Mazda 3 with 200,000 miles on it. I’ve spent $80 on repairs. An oil pressure sensor. It’s a fantastic vehicle.
Part of me is annoyed that I didn’t get a Mazda 3 when I got my car back in 2023, I got a 2021 Seat Leon FR PHEV Hatchback.
I like the Leon, but it has so much touch controls.
The worst is the controls for the fog lights, heated rear window and defrost.
They are all located on a small touch panel to the right of the steering wheel, it is also angled down making it harder to see.
So if I am driving and the windows start to fog up I need to take my eyes off the road and aim my finger to touch the correct button without touching any other controls as I might be blinding other drivers.
It is a terrible design.
The AC and battery management screens are all under different submenus on the infotainment screen.
The rest of the car is great though, and so far i have not seen any ads on the screen.
My 2023 Mazda has a touch screen but you never actually have to touch it. In fact, they put it far enough away that it is difficult to touch while driving and disable the touch when the car is moving. There are knobs and buttons in-between the front seats that control it. Also none of the important stuff is controlled through the infotainment system, it is just settings, satnav, and radio (or Android Auto/carplay). Not having to interact with a touch surface while driving is one of my favorite features of my car, and there are a lot of other things that I love about it too.
A friend of mine bought a Jeep last year and it looked cool so we were thinking if this would be something for us as a next car.
But sadly I’m allergic to advertisement, so I guess a Jeep is out of question until they rethink it.
There are plenty of better vehicles that aren’t outrageously expensive just because they can be.
I don’t recommend anyone buy a Jeep, not because of the ads but because they’re built like shit. Quality has been in free fall for decades while prices have skyrocketed. Death wobble issues (Wranglers), motor reliability out the window, rust, more rust, just not worth it.
I owned a 94 Cherokee and I loved it, and even though that 4.0L straight 6 had problems at least it would still run with bad piston rings, mysterious battery drain and holes in my radiator. The new ones just can’t compete.
You don’t need to be allergic to advertisement to want avoid shit like this. The fucking audacity of companies these days. There is no place they won’t try to shove these damn things to the detriment of every product, service, and personal moment. If they could put screens under your eyelids you’d have to watch drug ads one blink at a time and your dreams would be sponsored by AT&T.
Yeah there’s a huge difference between advertisements in free media vs advertisements in a car you almost certainly had to get a loan to purchase
They’ll justify stuff like that by telling you they sold it to you at a discount price because the ads offset your costs. That’s what Amazon did with the cheap tablet I bought for my wife.
I’ma turn into chief clappahoe if some bullshit like that shows up in my horse & carriage
They have parts that you have to replace right away so you don’t get stuck too. There are definite drawbacks.
Buy used!
Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, and Ram,
Not just a Jeep thing. at least not for long.
Holy cow. They’ve done the impossible - they’ve found a way to make a Dodge into a shittier vehicle. I am awestruck.
All the brands of vehicle that have some of the worst historical reliability!
I thought this was a funny onion type of article… It isnt. Wtf
Our whole existence has turned into an Onion article.
It really has. And it’s getting worse every day. I wish that was hyperbole.
There’s exactly zero chance I’d buy a car that showed me ads.
There was already zero chance I’d buy a Stellantis vehicle anyway after buying a brand new 1999 Dodge Durango that started rusting out sitting on our garage.
And while they did the bare minimum to remove the rust, but they didnt stand behind it. There was no way we were keeping it or buying anything else from them.
Dodge was owned by DaimlerChrysler in 99. I only know that because my family was in the car business and weren’t happy about that merger
Yep, all connected /same garbage IMHO I was a big DSM (Diamond Star Motors) fan back in the mid/late 90’s had a couple AWD Talons.
Meanwhile I used to drive a 99 Chrysler 300m and I swear it was one of the best vehicles I’ve driven. It only died because as an idiot 19 year old I thought the engine temperature gage could wait a day because I had to move into college.
That said it was the last car Chrysler made worth shit
Note to self: Don’t buy a Jeep.
Note to self: Don’t buy a Jeep.
And if the only way you remember that is by a strong hook and bass line, I’ve got you covered.
I dunno man. Harrison Ford made it sound like it was more rewarding than raising children and more important than world peace. You gonna turn your back on what seems to be something more fulfilling to Harrison Ford than religion just because it’s an inferior product and it’s pushing ads in your face like a free playstore game?
No fucking way. Not even if the car was free.
Now hold on there, I’d let them do the ads and the vehicle tracking bs if the car was nice and it was free.
If I’m buying the car, there’s no fucking way.
If it’s a Jeep the screen and audio might break on their own anyway
A Jeep was the worst car I’ve ever had
Stop 👏 Buying 👏 New 👏 Shit 👏
I could run a whole community on how to recycle, reuse, repurpose. Why the hell are people buying new cars?!
Make that community. I’ll join up.
Yup. Keeping old cars going on fossil fuels is so much better than millions of new cars being built every year, and in order for them to be built they ship them around the world to seperate facilities. I could go on and on
Because I’ve seen what people do with their vehicles. I bought my car new 13 years ago and I’ve been able to make sure it’s been properly maintained the entire time and no one else’s crud is all over the interior. I intend to keep it until it falls apart. Prior to that I had a truck I bought used and got maybe 5 years out of it before the transmission died with only medium mileage. I had maintained it but who knows what the person before me did with it.
That said if nothing changes with all this touchscreen infotainment shit I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ve hated every new vehicle I’ve been in the last few years.
