Stellantis is often criticized for manufacturing cars prone to breaking down. That’s why some Jeep owners are receiving recurring, in-dash advertisements to purchase extended warranties. At least, that’s what viewers of a viral TikTok are speculating.
Car enthusiast Christopher Pearce (@thechristopherpearce) uploaded a TikTok referencing complaints from Jeep drivers. It accrued over 560,000 views as of Saturday, and many expressed that they hoped this isn’t the start of a new marketing trend from automakers.
“This just sucks if you own a Jeep,” he says. “Jeep’s just spamming customers with ads, inside the cars that look like this.”
At this point in the video, Pearce points to an image that has been green-screened into his clip. The infotainment system of the Jeep vehicle displays a message urging customers to buy an additional service.
It almost seems as if Jeep owners’ are getting pop-up ads by simply driving their cars. “Purchase Peace of Mind. Mopar Vehicle Protection Maximum Care Plans are factory backed. And offer you Peace of Mind in case of a mechanical breakdown,” one section of the message reads.
Jeep recalls
Reuters reported that in 2024 alone, Stellantis (the company that owns Jeep) recalled 1.46 million vehicles. The problem? “A software malfunction in the anti-lock brake system.”
Earlier in the same year, Stellantis recalled over 1 million other vehicles for malfunctions in their cars’ rear-view cameras. The hits in 2024 kept coming: 332,000 other Stellantis vehicles were recalled over faulty seat belt sensors. Towards the end of 2022, the company recalled “an estimated 1.23 million pickup trucks” for purportedly rolling out the factory misaligned. Moreover, a quick visit to the brand’s Safety Newsroom shows a long list of different recalls throughout the years.
Considering that Stellantis, along with Tesla, became the most recalled car manufacturer of 2024, contextualizes the ad in Pearce’s video.
Pearce continued
The second half of the message the TikToker features in his clip provides a shortcut for drivers to immediately converse with a sales rep. “Press the ‘Call’ button to speak to a specialist. Odometer must be less than 36,000 miles to purchase.”
While many would find a series of recurring, invasive, in-car ads frustrating enough, Pearce had other concerns.
“I don’t care, I think it’s a safety hazard,” he says. “I mean imagine stopping at a red light. And instead of being able to see your maps. Or your music, an ad is just thrown in your face. That you can’t skip.”
Furthermore, Pearce states that numerous Jeep drivers have said the advertisements are persistent.
“Jeep owners are reporting a relentless pop-up ad that keeps popping up on their infotainment screen,” he shares. “Pushing them to buy something called ‘Flex Care.’ An extended warranty.”
Moreover, the TikToker indicates that there’s only one way to disable this recurring message. And it’s by signing up for the deal the manufacturer keeps shoving in your face. “Worst part? There’s no way to turn this ad off, without buying it,” he says.
A buyer’s gripe
The picture, Pearce says, was taken from a Reddit post uploaded by a Jeep Grand Cherokee owner. They wrote that the ad wouldn’t just show up when he started his car. Maddeningly, it would materialize each and every moment his vehicle came to a stop. Consequently, he’d have to hit the ignore message each and every time it appeared just to use his car’s infotainment screen.
“He was p*ssed. Said every single time his car came to a stop at a red light, this ad was just thrown in his face,” he says. “He would click okay, and then get to the next light, and it would pop up again.”
Additionally, Pearce states that other Jeep drivers experienced this same issue: “That’s, not just one owner. Here’s a guy in a Wrangler who had the same problem. He was getting harassed by this ad. Got four pop-ups in 12 miles.”
The TikToker says Stellantis avers this isn’t a widespread issue and that it’s a “glitch” that only occurred in a handful of cars. He says, “Now if you ask Stellantis, they’ll say it was a glitch. It only affected certain cars. And they’re supposed to be a permanent opt-out option.”
But Pearce can’t fathom why there would be any ads inside a vehicle’s infotainment system in the first place.
“But let’s be real: why are there in car ads in the first place?” he asks. “You already spent $50,000+ dollars on your Jeep. Why are they still trying to sell you stuff?”
Commenters were miffed
One TikTok user who responded to Pearce’s clip wrote, “That should be illegal.”
Whereas another thought that this would culminate in drivers taking matters into their own hands. “Aftermarket stereos about to get real popular again,” they said.
Someone else remarked, “I’d bring my jeep back to the dealership immediately.”
Whereas another person on the application thought that this was a massive potential safety hazard: “So we have been fighting distractions in cars for years and now we are having ads thrown at us while driving.”
And there was one user who thought that the problems for Jeep/Stellantis just kept mounting: “The death wobble and now ads?”
@thechristopherpearce Sorry Jeep people #carnews ♬ original sound – Chris Pearce
Pop-up dash ads
Numerous other media outlets have penned about this phenomena in Jeep vehicles. Fortune wrote about drivers complaining about identical experiences with their cars. The Family Handyman also wrote about the same occurrence, and questioned whether or nor this is the future of car ownership.
Kelley Blue Book also referenced the recurring Jeep in-car marketing for extended warranty services. Furthermore, one Reddit entry also linked to a forum post where Jeep owners criticized the move.
The backlash was blunt. “They’ve discovered that reliability wasn’t what their customers craved. It was actually just more ads,” one Reddit user penned. Another said that it certainly feels like Stellantis is manufacturing cars poorly on purpose. “Hilariously, the article says the advertisements are for their extended warranty service program. So they made their cars sh*tty by forcing advertisements that are trying to convince owners that their vehicle might be sh*tty in other ways too.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Stellantis and Pearace via email for further comment.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
