Did you ever stick a potato in someone’s car’s exhaust pipe? How about change all their radio station settings to not-so-easy listening stations?
Today is April 1st, better known as my favorite holiday: April Fools Day. Seeing as it’s THE day for practical jokes, what we’d like to hear from you today are what are your favorite automobile-related (corporate or otherwise) April Fools pranks. And, that’s no joke!
Image: Hoaxes.org
Hooniverse Asks: What's History's Greatest Auto-Related April Fool's Day Joke?
By Robert Emslie
Apr 1, 2016
Jeff Glucker
I think Carscoops.com’s Charger TBi story in 2011 was the most skillfully executed…just credible enough to realize so many people in.
Just credible enough to confirm the worst preconceptions of Fiatsler
Trolololol
Imagine the possibilities with that blank canvas…
http://www.karmann-ghia.org/photo2/56noir.jpg
I’m still convinced that this is an April fools joke by the engineering department that got carried away. Marketing never got the joke. http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–AIrxYtXx–/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/1371028550806346344.png
http://tanshanomi.com/temp/animated/Lina-Lamont_I-Liked-It.gif
It had been around a while before it got the pentastar, but in the 80’s Chrysler sold more turbo cars than anyone, making them the experts on Turbo Encabulators.
…”reliability, durability and quality”. I see how that got uncovered quickly.
Fantastic gibberish, I love it!
Ah, the TurbEncab… There are a surprising number of variations on this video. I always thought it was a screen test for narrators of technical films (which are worse than Sci-Fi dialog to memorize.) I hadn’t seen this one with the younger guy in the second part. Love the corn starch.
Please tell me “SnoopaVision” is an April Fools joke. See small YouTube icon between “CC” and ‘gear’.
The video beats Quick’s original 1944 print article for entertainment value, but Quick still wins for coming up with the original.
The head of GM’S design Ferrari. https://www.google.com/search?q=gm+design+Ferrari+vacation+joke+modified&client=ms-android-att-us&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvtYiTxu3LAhUK5iYKHeWyDG0Q_AUIBygB&biw=360&bih=559#tbm=isch&q=gm+design+chief+Ferrari+prank&imgrc=i2S1fi4JYVJwQM%3A
I’ll admit I cried a bit when I realized it was a fakery.
http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/hrdp-0804-amc-concept-cars/
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v519/dacko_3/Cars/HotRodGremlin.jpg
Limo anybody??????
Why did BMW built these “convertibles” in the first place?
p.s:
I know, I know, they didn´t exactly built them but rather ordered them from a coachbuilder. But however, I cannot see a sense in these weirdos.
Roof racks.
http://www.motorgems.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/bauer.jpg
Thx. This is indeed the only reasonable explanation I heard of.
Other than roof-racks, roll-over crash standards.
Which it was widely assumed would apply to all cars, including convertibles, hence this and the Mk1 Golf convertible and the Triumph Stag and the early Jaguar XJSC, and the demise for a while of the US domestic market convertibles,(and the invention of the ‘T’ top).
This didn’t eventuate, the panicked response was an over-response and convertibles came back, notably the K-cars , then the laterSaab 900s, E30s and W124s etc.
Meanwhile, over at the Hemmings Daily blog:
Barn find of the millennium: Entire production run of 1962 De Sotos found in warehouse
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2016/04/01/barn-find-of-the-millennium-entire-production-run-of-1962-de-sotos-found-in-warehouse/
The real story behind the 2016 Lancias as well.
The AMC Gremlin was introduced today in 1970.
It’s not a complete joke, but you have to wonder what upper management was thinking!
http://www.decodesystems.com/gremlin-premier.jpg
Introduced April 1st with a plate that indicates July 2nd? That’s very ambitious.
Also, evidently the Chrysler 200 wasn’t the first gallywagit imported from Detroit.
Imported from Kenosha, yo!
One of the car magazines (Car and Driver?) published a short Consumer Reports parody called
“Condemner Reports” – including a road test of an F1 car of some type. IIRC they particularly liked the rear “storage shelf”. This may have been in response to an actual CR road test of the Corvette, where they complained about how the vehicle had too much acceleration, and didn’t have any trunk space.
And, of course, the many Road and Track April “road tests” (which they stopped a few years ago it appears, after being bought out).
Where have I seen that? Even the color’s familiar…
That would make the Model 3 today’s Henney Kilowatt.
http://img0101.psstatic.com/159765901_-1959-henney-kilowatt-4-door-sedan-red-magnet.jpg
I’ve run across several of these in the Philadelphia area over the years. They seem to have all been red.
Maybe Tesla’s strategy is to totally dominate the burgeoning Amphicar market?
I’d say the the M3 Ute was a pretty good one, but the joke really was on us in that they didn’t build any more than one
http://resources.carsguide.com.au/dp/images/uploads/bmw-m3-ute-w.jpg
BMW has quite a tradition of these. In Britain.
http://www.bhatnaturally.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/bmw_high.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/97/24/eb/9724eb5d2061b1d68f4b6b9b07679367.jpg
http://hoaxes.org/images/remote/http_aprilfool.s3.amazonaws.com/1987bmw_thumb.jpg
http://hoaxes.org/images/made/images/remote/http_aprilfool.s3.amazonaws.com/1986bmw_thumb_257_195.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h208/sublibwag/1seriesadd.jpg
http://www.crainium.net/jdjArchives/Bmw-recall.jpg
See if you can pick the ones that aren’t really from BMW.