Holy fuck!
On 27th of July 2026, BMW put a FULL SCREEN ad on all their cars at startup time for Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026).
Not loan cars or demo, on cars people had already purchased and fully paid for.
https://consumerrights.wiki/w/BMW_Spider-Man_in-car_advertising
@bastardsheep horrible looking cars. Mostly driven by people who care little about other road users in my experience.
@franksting I don’t mind them, but I still associate them with being expensive to buy & maintain due to parts coming from Europe. No idea if that’s still true or not, but in my head it still is because I haven’t been advised otherwise.
@bastardsheep @franksting
The fact that the parts are expensive is overshadowed by how unreliable and poorly made their cars have been for years. And the most expensive models are the least reliable.
On top of everything their designs are mostly hideous these days. They’ve replaced elegant minimalism with in your face gaudiness.
@freediverx
The European built cars are actually good quality, they're very popular here among small businesses for that reason and the no hassle leasing contracts. Still ugly though.
Aug 2, 2026, 5:09 AM@JorisMeys European cars are slightly superior to English or American cars in that way, but that's a low bar.
People buying anyl of the above cars new are not optimizing for anything, but flaunting their privilege.
@JorisMeys @freediverx @bastardsheep european “built” is no guarantee with European Marques
The Z3 was a pretty swish looking machine. 🤪
@isol @bastardsheep all those X variants appear to be driven by inconsiderate arsehats
@franksting @isol @bastardsheep I think since stupid people can afford these cars, no matter the model they're going to keep being a**holes
@franksting @bastardsheep excellent contribution
@franksting @bastardsheep Same here 😂 Whenever someone is speeding, reckless driving, or parking like an absolute asshole, half of the time it's a BMW. I'm from Germany and our "cool" people really love those.
They obviously learned nothing from U2 and the album launch farce of the century.
People are still buying iPhones, so I'm not sure what "lesson" was there to learn.
@apLundell @Arapalla @bastardsheep are they still buying U2 albums?
Aug 2, 2026, 3:56 AM@apLundell
Haven't bought a U2 album since.
@bastardsheep The advertising industry was a mistake.
Advertising was fine. It's MARKETING that's the mistake
@darwinwoodka @lambdacalculus @bastardsheep Capitalism was a mistake.
@theorangetheme @darwinwoodka @lambdacalculus I’ll buy that for a dollar.
Aug 1, 2026, 1:09 PM@bastardsheep Doors have been locked. Drink a verification can.
@bastardsheep modern cars: smartphone with wheels
@bastardsheep Lawsuit sense... tingling...
Aug 1, 2026, 3:08 PMEntire drive in theaters full of BMWs with owners trapped inside and the doors won't unlock
@darwinwoodka
And rapidly filling with freshly popping popcorn from that box under the driver's seat that the salesman couldn't tell you about.
@darwinwoodka @brettm @bastardsheep And credit card on account charged automatically.
@darwinwoodka @brettm @bastardsheep There was a funny story with the late Thai king. His standard limousine was a BMW, AFAIR armored. Once while he was inside, the car shut down and the doors could not be opened for hours. He did not use BMW after. I was told this story about 15 to 20 years ago by a Thai business partner. I am sure I have forgotten some details.
I don't like new cars anymore and things like the ad makes me dislike them even more.
@bastardsheep lol
@bastardsheep Caveat emptor. No one should ever buy Big Money Wasters to begin with.
Aug 1, 2026, 4:53 PM@bastardsheep@aus.social wtf
imagine buying an expensive ass bmw and then being subject to advertising for random products
not that this would be acceptable in any car
@jiub @bastardsheep I went to pick up someone from the airport in January. I usually take public transit because I don't drive but thought taking a cab back would be good, given the hour they landed.
I did not expect screens built into the seats in front of me.
I did not expect to sit there and have to watch commercials.
At least I could turn down the screen's brightness mostly all the way.
Not even once, Satan.
Aug 1, 2026, 6:16 PM@PatrickoftheG@mastodon.social @bastardsheep@aus.social oh yeah those screens are terrible! especially when they're at high brightness at night and can't be turned down
@jiub @bastardsheep It had been so long since I took a taxi that I was tremendously surprised. They took an unpleasant experience and made it much worse.
@bastardsheep shades of Apple and U2!
@bastardsheep I would be driving straight to my dealership to complain if that happened to me. Fortunately, I can't afford a car like that.
good grief
beyond the pale
@bastardsheep Enshittification ensues. Seriously, though. The marriage between tech and advertising needs to be severed.
@bastardsheep gross. I'll tell one of my favorite jokes here, as it applies.
What's the difference between a porcupine and a BMW owner?
On a porcupine, the pricks are on the OUTSIDE
Aug 2, 2026, 1:56 PMA classic!
@w_b @bastardsheep and every day I see it being so true 🙄😂
@bastardsheep More reason not to get cars. I'm using my four legs.
@bastardsheep That Slate truck is looking better and better!
@bastardsheep I tried to buy a car in 2025.
The Toyota had a nag screen that comes up every time you start it asking you to subscribe to their services.
The Honda had a cloud based navigation system you had to pay for monthly.
Both had integrated cellular modems you could not fully turn off, and I see no point in buying something expensive that I have to damage to make it usable.
I did not buy a car.
@mike805 @bastardsheep my local Subaru mechanic does a brisk business disabling telematics. Helpfully did the SO's imprezza a few years ago by physically disconnecting the antenna.
I drive an old car from the 80s that's on both its second motor and manual transmission, it's immune to enshitification.
@bastardsheep If your car requires online services to function, you don't own it. The company in charge can just do stupid shit like this without thinking twice about it.
Go for the secondhand market. There are a lot of technically fine cars there which don't require online services.
Grab your phone with a maps app for a routeplanner if you need it.
If you need music, again; your phone has a music player.
If you already own one, try "<model> telematics delete" in google to find out how to remove the modem.
@bastardsheep Owners of smart tvs: Sorry, it just occured to me that I don't even know how a coal-mine Canary works or sounds.
Next level: Pay extra fee or watch this ad to start and drive your car.
@bastardsheep Did nobody learn from the iTunes forced content fiasco?
@bastardsheep just in case you had the mistaken impression that having a physical object in your possession that you'd paid for meant that you owned it.
@bastardsheep This would make my insurance company sad, when I reported my car being found burning at the bottom of an abandoned mineshaft.
Aug 1, 2026, 10:25 PMUPDATE: See Replies
@bastardsheep Tell me your article was written by AI without telling me your article was written by AI:
"on any suitably equipped BMW running Operating System 7, 8, 8.5, 9, or OS X built after July 2020"
(hint, BMW doesn't run macOS, but do number their OS releases)
@david @bastardsheep There is equivalent wording in the referenced BMW Group press release: "BMW Operating System 7, 8, 8.5, 9 or BMW Operating System X, as well as a production date after 7/2020"
Aug 2, 2026, 1:02 AM@jamesh @bastardsheep I guess the main thing is Operating System X was reduced to OS X which was more famously the name of the Apple operating system for about a decade, after OS 7-9 .
Honest mistake on my part, but it did look like something an AI writing tool would do.
@david @bastardsheep the set of version numbers do have a MacOS smell, particularly by including 8.5.
@bastardsheep So uh, can I have a BMW for free?
@bastardsheep Every BMW customer should immediately bring the car to the dealership and ask to get the software reflashed! I mean obviously the car must be hacked when the screen suddenly does something it was not supposed to.
@bastardsheep are we surprised that the company that tried to have a paid subscription to access the heated seats they already had to put in your car also pulled this? because we probably shouldn't be tbh.