To be fair, they have produced some howlers over the years, among which was the BMW Mini that could operate on a warm beverage; it was rebadged as the Mini CooperT, for obvious reasons. On the other hand, on the day that the British Mint announced that both 1p and 2p coins would be dropped from circulation, Seat Cars announced that a coin-op slot positioned next to the parking-brake lever would help to reduce car overheads and get rid of unwanted copper coinage.
Even Tesla boss, Elon Musk, made an announcement on Twitter, that his company was going bust, after its share values dropped dramatically, he also stated that ‘the company was so broke, you would not believe it!’. Not unknown for being outspoken, he posted the tweet, accompanied by a photograph of himself passed out and surrounded by bottles of ‘Teslaquilla’. As it happens, Tesla has been riding something of a crest of a wave recently, although its financial position is often rumoured as ‘shaky’.
Hyundai has been among the nation’s pranksters and, on the back of its online ‘Click-2-Buy’ process, in 2017, it announced that its cars could be delivered by drone…Triumph Motorcycles announced that it was trialling a steering wheel, rather than handlebars for its next new motorbike… meanwhile Nissan suggested that its Qashqai could be fitted with a GYM button that would help motorists to lose weight, while driving, as depressing it would switch off the power steering and stiffen-up the pedals and gearshift, in the process increasing exertion levels.
This year’s pranks include the remote installation, on the Isle of Skye, of an EV charging post that is 15-miles from the nearest road. Purportedly appealing to Land Rover owners’ ‘spirit of adventure’, a cleverly photoshopped image of a Range Rover, with the striking Skye Cuillins in the background, offers just the right amount of creative appeal.
MG has been ‘at it’ with a new development in coloured tyres, which means that rest-of-the-year pranksters, keen to leave their mark at the local fast-food eatery, can do so in multi-coloured style. They have been developed by the good Dr Gull Abel, MG’s Professor of Pigment. Quite!
Inventive as ever, Skoda seems to have created a ‘reminder’ app that runs through its on-board information screen and projects messages as diverse as ‘Put the bins out!’, to ‘Don’t forget the dog!’, from its puddle lamps. It is called ProjectaPal and was developed in-house by Skoda’s resident Infotainment Manager, Dr Ivor Tüchskreen.
Finally, perhaps the most amusing of them all was carried out by now defunct Reliant, which offered an NHS prescription windscreen service on its Tamworth-built three-wheelers. The most amusing thing was that some customers genuinely believed it!
