Nothing quite says “high-performance muscle car” like a popup ad for a Mopar Extended Warranty covering your whole center console. That’s right, Dodge Charger owners are now experiencing an exciting new feature: pop-up ads that appear every time the vehicle stops at a light. This absolute garbage feature was spotted in the wild, take a look here.
You know, I was annoyed by that when I had to pay for an out-of-warranty update but now I’m pretty happy that my car is one year too old for automatic updates.
How is a software update a warranty claim? They should be free, like a recall. Maybe a DIY option with a USB or SD card. Either that or whatever they’re adding probably isn’t worth the update to me.
Often it’s controller remapping to resolve transmission or engine issues. Those are typically recalls. The software updates you’re thinking of are typically for the infotainment system, which gets data from the rest of the vehicle and controls any wireless connectivity (if equipped).
Well I think in the case of controller remapping, that’s a recall. But an infotainment update should also be free and possible to do yourself. If it isn’t, that’s terrible.
Toyota hasn’t offered an update for our 2015 Highlander’s Entune system since 2017. I snag the map updates for cheap from eBay, but that’s about it. The system sucks so bad… My parents’ 2015 Camry has the same system and they don’t use the navigation at all, choosing Google Maps or whatever instead. I mean there is absolutely no reason why entering one address needs to be divided into multiple ambiguous fields over multiple screens, completely dependent on what region you select on the first screen, which may or may not be correct since it looks for exact matches and not a “general” area; and stopping the navigation should be “stop navigation”, not “delete destination” ffs. Garmin, TomTom, Magellan, etc. had this figured out 20 fucking years ago.
I get why Toyota likes to stick with “old but proven” tech, but that Entune system…jesus fucking christ what a dumpster fire.
😄my infotainment is only a "dumb” touchscreen radio with android auto / carPlay support anyway
That’s how my minivan is. It’s a 2008 Toyota Sienna with an Alpine ILX-407 and iDataLink Maestro RR for vehicle integration (i.e. steering wheel controls and OBD-II). Works great.