By Jeff Glucker
Just the other day, Ford made news when it used a prototyped electric F-150 pickup to pull one million pounds worth of rail car (and cargo). It’s a move that makes for one hell of a headline. But it’s also a PR stunt. Once rolling, the rail cars move smoothly, which is part of the benefit of the rail system. Sure, getting it moving is a feat and it’s likely that the cars were stopped by the brakes on the train and not those on the truck.
There have been many automotive PR stunts over the years. The goal is to get people talking about your vehicle, and when properly utilized a good stunt is fun for everyone. Some can go wrong though, of course.
Can you think of any that remain memorable to you? It can be for the right or wrong reasons. We just want to hear about it. Sound off below.
Ha! Awake early and so I get to be the guy who posts the Stacked Volvo Ad!
Ha! Awake early and so I get to be the guy who posts the Stacked Volvo Ad!
And yet here I am parking my Volvos side by side and running low on space for more, like a fool.
Ikea really needs to do Volvo stackers, they’re really dropping the ball here.
I hear they just click together: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c86ddf736220fb8e63611bea24ce48a6a645f44dd282a46a4849199b430785f8.jpg
But most of your VOLVOs are DAFfed, so that might not apply.
I had no doubt this would be first. Well done!
http://www.miamilakesautomall.com/jeep-blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/84/2016/05/1992-Grand-Cherokee-Plate-Glass.jpg
Is driving a Grand Cherokee up a few steps a big deal? Not really (see the Acura in Vancouver that was accidentally driven down a staircase earlier this week), and crashing through a plate glass window isn’t all that special either (especially one that was specifically rigged for the purpose). But it’s still a memorable image, and one of the earliest stunts I remember.
These days Cadillac probably would not run an ad commending a drunk driver for ascending the steps of the Capitol in DC. Nor, as rumor has it, would they now deliberately get a guy drunk, tie him to the controls, then point him at the steps in order to generate ad copy. I assume.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fabd3384481a86c3fbdf781e8a4fbf44f0ccdee2d05c62560d002db90d945131.jpg
not sure why, but I always liked the stunt of disassembling three cars, mixing the parts, and putting them back together (I read about it 15 years ago, had to look it up)
https://www.autoblog.com/2017/07/28/cadillac-the-standard-of-what-opinion/
“Where do I sign?”
Sir, that’s a concept car.
“How much of a deposit do I need to put down?”
It’s not for sale. It won’t be put on sale. We were just having some fun at the design studio.
“Sell it to me now.”
It isn’t anything that we have planned for production.
“I want it!”
Sir, we don’t want to crap up the car by filling it full of airbags, and antilock brakes, and air conditioners. We don’t even know what to do about a roof, or windows, or outside door handles. For an engine, all we’ve bothered to do is get our ancient pushrod smallblock V8 and graft two more cylinders into it.
They ended up making it.
http://motorbase.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pictures.ubh/2007/03/27/fs_1989_Dodge_Viper_RT_10_Concept_Car_at_the_NAIAS_in_Detroit_Rt_Rr_sv.jpg
Average almost 175mph for 24 hours to prove your fast new Corvette really is fast. http://www.corvettereport.com/morrison-1990-zr-1-speed-record-aver-24-hour-174-885-mph/ https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/52416cd676a37f0078f31635cfbd0fa36fc4e66fa53f0bdb6fe426d8980a1fdf.jpg
3 SAAB 9000s going full throttle for 20 days and nights, doing about 100k kms in the process, all to show how well-made they were:
Hat’s off to that other Swede.
Ford Australia did a similar thing, but in their case it was a make-or-break exercise to arrest the poor reputation of the Falcon. I gather that Dearborn approved the exercise because they had also approved the construction of a high-speed track – but that hadn’t been built yet, so instead they were using the Ride & Handling track. I’ve driven on that, and don’t think we went over the 70mph speed that these cars averaged!
Henry Ford II arrived by chopper during the trial, quickly concluded they were mad, and left. Most cars had tyre failures that lead to them leaving the track and rolling. One car hit a giant boulder hard enough to shift it – still all cars were patched up and made it to the end.
It was featured on the national news at the time, following progress no doubt because there was some spectacular footage available.
https://www.shannons.com.au/club/news/xp-falcon-the-crazy-70000-mile-gamble-that-saved-ford-australia/
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb19d52754407004b3c129d9bf4a84554f20905b27074d31e974876f9b35f536.jpg
Ford Australia did a similar thing, but in their case it was a make-or-break exercise to arrest the poor reputation of the Falcon. I gather that Dearborn approved the exercise because they had also approved the construction of a high-speed track – but that hadn’t been built yet, so instead they were using the Ride & Handling track. I’ve driven on that, and don’t think we went over the 70mph speed that these cars averaged!
Henry Ford II arrived by chopper during the trial, quickly concluded they were mad, and left. Most cars had tyre failures that lead to them leaving the track and rolling. One car hit a giant boulder hard enough to shift it – still all cars were patched up and made it to the end.
It was featured on the national news at the time, following progress no doubt because there was some spectacular footage available.
https://www.shannons.com.au/club/news/xp-falcon-the-crazy-70000-mile-gamble-that-saved-ford-australia/
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb19d52754407004b3c129d9bf4a84554f20905b27074d31e974876f9b35f536.jpg
Wow, that is wild. It’s on a different level with these issues, but somehow probably more fitting for Australian conditions of the day.
“Favorite” is tougher, but “most memorable”? The first thing into my head was this one, so…this, I guess:
[Dis]honorable mention for the Volvo automatic braking demonstration that, uh, still needed some kinks to be worked out.
…y’know, for a company that pretty much everyone associates (or at least used to) with boring, safe, reliable bricks, Volvo sure is showing up a lot in this comment section.
I’ve only seen the top one before in lower resolution. Now that I’ve seen JCVD up close with that much makeup on, it’s impossible to unsee.
Yeah, those demonstrations are tricky: https://www.inquisitr.com/2123769/self-parking-car-hits-journalists-at-high-speed-watch-video-of-self-driving-volvo-accident-with-2-7-million-views-video/
The original and best, Bertha Benzs’ long distance road trip which she undertook without her husbands or legal permission. Without it, the patent motor wagen might have just been a footnote in history that its creator never properly marketed and cars might never have caught on. Every enthusiast owes something to this absolute hero. I also like to quote this one to EVangelists complaining about charge points and how there’s only “infrastructure” for internal combustion. Internal combustion could get going with expecting someone to build you a load of infrastructure. That’s one the things that so great about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Benz#First_cross-country_automobile_journey
Lutz and the CTS-V vs. the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l61b-_UkOL8
Putting a Tesla in orbit is my favorite so far.
In 2010 Mercedes and Volvo arranged for a PR demos of their new automatic braking technology.