Man Puts Sonic Marinara Sauce In His Toyota Center Console. But Seriously, What Is This Actually Supposed To Be Used As?: ‘It’s Like A Poverty Button’
If you’ve ever pressed an unlabeled “button” in your car and nothing happened, you’ve discovered a poverty button. A TikTok creator (@thatgiglife) found one on his Toyota RAV4.
“I saw a video where a guy was asking Toyota, ‘What is this for?’” the TikToker begins.
The video reveals a close up shot of his cubby hole.
“Like, what’s the purpose of this?” he questioned.
The Toyota driver slams down a packet of marinara sauce from Sonic into the cubby.
“I think it’s for the dipping sauce,” he shares.
One person used the term in the comments saying, “It’s like a poverty button.”
You’ll Have To Spend More To Get That Button
Poverty buttons are the little blank spaces on the infotainment system, steering wheel or center console that would be features for a higher trim vehicle, reports Jalopnik.
One person in this creator’s comments wrote, “It means you didn’t spend enough money.”
As noted there is something to this.
The 2019-2025 Toyota RAV4 has a small, seemingly useless compartment next to the gear shifter, which can be found on many other makes and models. According to one site, for which Toyota has provided no official explanation, it’s a “coin holder” because some RAV4 trims have a terrain mode selector in that spot.
In fact, the writer notes how there has been a “collective head-scratching” over the compartment. There are Facebook and Reddit pages filled with people asking the same question.
Toyota’s RAV4 coin pocket is one of the more creative interpretations, but every major manufacturer from Honda to Porsche has a similar pocket. Rather than tooling separate interior panels for each trim configuration, automakers use universal molds and fill the gaps with blanks.
On higher-end (i.e., more expensive) trims of the RAV4 (specifically the Hybrid, Adventure, and TRD Off-Road models), that empty pocket is occupied by a large Multi-Terrain Select dial or specific drive mode buttons.
This means the creator here likely has a gas-powered LE or XLE model and does not have the complex terrain-management hardware.
The message is cheeky, but clear: Next time, maybe spend more for the upgrade.
Why Tease Us With The Poverty Buttons?
These car brands want you to spend more money.
Not that it is necessarily the soundest reasoning, but one Tacoma owner summed up his frustration: “One of the biggest reasons I went with the TRD Off-Road upgrade package was to avoid the sea of blank switches. I don’t get why Toyota leaves them there if the feature isn’t included. Why tease us with the empty spots?
This isn’t accidental; it’s part of the psychology brands employ. These car brands want you to spend more money. Poverty buttons indirectly tell you that “you’re broke.”
Notable offenders:
| Brand | Model | Poverty Button Location |
| Honda | CR-V | The vehicle has multiple buttons for traction control and to open the trunk. However, there are four more with no functions. |
| Mazda | Mazda 5 | If you bought a Mazda 5 overseas, your vehicle could have a button controlling the side doors and trunk. However, these features aren’t in the American version, leaving a blank. |
| Alfa Romeo | Giulia | This sedan is one of the most underrated luxury vehicles on the market, but it has a poverty button on the dash. The most likely reason for its placement is simply for symmetry sake. |
| Toyota | Tacoma | Even with the off-road upgrade package, there are still empty buttons. However, there doesn’t appear to be any one trim without poverty buttons. Go figure. |
| Lexus | RC F | Similar situation here. They can’t have 10 different panels for all the option combos for this high-performance coupe, so they just use a common 6-button layout and put blanks for the poverty spec cars. |
These are just a few. Even the Porsche Cayman has a long row of buttons near the shifter, and some of them will be empty no matter what trim you’ve purchased.
From Poverty Buttons To Paid Subscriptions To Use Features
One other thing to remember is that most new cars now rely heavily on touchscreens, which is less than ideal for several reasons. Safety and security are two of them. They increase driver distraction and cognitive load and reduce reaction times, all of which lead to more accidents. Of course, the cars (and the phones we’re hooking up to them) are recording pretty much everything.
But also, car brands are increasingly looking for new ways to generate revenue. One way car manufacturers are doing this is through subscriptions to features inside the car (even a RAV4), these grayed-out buttons will become the modern-day poverty buttons.
Think about it: Now we’ll have software-locked features instead. Your car “has” heated seats, but you just can’t use them unless you pay that monthly fee on top of your car note.
MotorBiscuit has reached out to @thatgiglife for more information.
@thatgiglife Toyota do you have an official answer for what this space is? BC for now it’s my dipping sauce holder ? #toyotarav4 #rav4 #toyota #fooddelivery #deliveryproblems ♬ original sound – GigLife
