8:25 am, April 2, 2024
While most people were sleeping off their Bank Holiday hangovers yesterday, the motoring industry was up to its usual April Fools’ Day tricks.
The fact it was a Bank Holiday meant the usual downpour of awful jokes was more of an April shower, but still there were a few to digest.
This time of year is a chance for usually straight-laced PR teams to let their hair down and have some ‘fun’. But it seems few wanted to work over Easter…
However, before we get into our round-up, it’s worth pointing out our story on supercar dealer Tom Hartley having his underwear stolen at a health spa yesterday certainly wasn’t a joke. Someone really did pinch his monogrammed pants…
Here’s a look at a few of the motoring-themed April Fools’ Day jokes we saw do the rounds.
Harlequin paint job returns
Even the Germans got in on the April Fools’ Day action with a multicoloured EV. Made famous by the patchwork quilt Polo of the 1990s, the Harlequin paint job is back – making a super-dupe-r return for April, said the car maker. Volkswagen said the Electroluminescent ID.3 Harlequin Edition will have panels that light up and pulse in response to ‘beats from the car’s sound system’. Maybe they’ve finally cracked the gimmick needed for consumers to finally buy EVs? Low blow?
Honda goes to the dogs
Honda goes to the dogsHonda also made some tweaks to an EV with some dog-friendly technology on its e:Ny1 (the world’s most difficult to write car model name). Canine fun is a firm April Fools’ Day favourite, and here Honda said its PAW-S technology would allow the car to open the boot for the dogs automatically as they approach, sat nav designed to sniff out good local parks and woodland, walkie talkie feature to communicate with their human driver and bowl holders. Honda said although it is focusing on dogs now, cat, rabbit and pygmy goat accessories will follow later this year.
Something smells funny at Isuzu
Want to smell like a pick-up truck? No, we’re not talking hints of leftover McDonald’s wrappers and three-day-old Costa Express lattes – this is a fragrance that encapsulates ‘all that is an Isuzu’ (not Japanese plastics). The Japanese car maker said it was launching ‘Driven’, a scent for the ‘doers, grafters, makers and shakers’. Designed to capture the essence of the 4×4 D-Max, it mixes ‘Icelandic black lava with mountain mist, and fog’. Think soggy Bonfire Night.
Banksy tags Dacia Spring
Top Gear reported on a Dacia showroom incursion by the world-famous graffiti artist Banksy. The publication reports he broke into a Dacia showroom in Grimsby and spray-painted the rear, modifying the budget Spring EV and making it ‘utterly priceless’ in the process. The car dealership’s boss was said to be ‘gobsmacked’ and had not been that shocked ‘since that owl got in’.
Shoreditch edition Mini
It’s at the cutting edge of London, known for its kale and carrot smoothies and soy milk cappuccinos, but now Shoreditch has given birth to a new legend: the Mini Hipster Hatch. Offered exclusively by Small Cars Direct – a used car dealer in the New Forest – the model has Instagram-filtered windows, twin-cassette player and, like the buyer’s bikes, a fixed gear drivetrain. It even has stonewash denim upholstery and uses ‘upcycled’ materials throughout to really appeal to the gap-year buyers.
Roadchef’s Sail-Thru services
A motorway service station firm said it would be launching its first-ever Sail Thru services on Killington lake, where boats can tie up and order their food via an intercom. Roadchef said it would be building the new water-fronted site near the M6 southbound between junctions 37 and 36. We can’t help thinking they should focus on a few upgrades to their existing sites… mentioning no names (Sutton Scotney, A34).
