2019 Car Industry April Fool's Pranks: The Good And The Bad

It’s 1 April, which means the Internet is essentially useless for a day. The car-focused corner of the Web is far from immune to April Fool’s japery, and as usual, we have a mixed bag of attempts from a variety of parties.

We’ll let you rate 2019’s efforts in the comments below…

Fiat Panda 'Hawaii Edition'

Someone at Fiat UK has clearly been hitting the first series box set of The Inbetweeners hard. This limited-edition Panda, Fiat says, celebrates the 10th anniversary of the, erm, 11-year-old show. All the right references are there - it has a “pre-dented” red passenger door, free tickets to Thorpe Park for the first 14 buyers (including “queue-jump passes for the front seats of Nemesis Inferno”), and yes, a standard-fit tape deck.

MG 'Colour The Road' tyres

MG’s entry isn’t exactly imaginative, but the SAIC-owned brand has at least gone to the effort of ‘explaining’ how its ‘Colour the Road’ tyres work. “The tyres are coated with a water-soluble dye that covers the road as it drives, before fading off shortly afterwards,” we’re told.

Skoda 'ProjectaPal' reminder system

Had Skoda scaled back on teh lolz, a few people might just have been fooled by this one. After all, as modern car tech becomes increasingly gimmicky, you wouldn’t put it past someone coming up with customisable puddle lights.

‘ProjectaPal’ could be used to give handy reminders about putting the bins out or even project a picture of your dog on the floor. “Every week, I forget to put my bins out for recycling…Then I thought ‘why don’t I ask my Karoq to remind me instead?’” says infotainment boss Dr. Ivor Tüchskreen. Yep, they went there.

BMW always goes all out for 1 April, and this year is no different. Its ‘Lunar Paint’, which apparently “uses revolutionary photovoltaic technology to passively recharge your battery in the hours of darkness,” even has its own microsite. Admirable commitment.

F1 to Castle Combe?

It isn’t just car manufacturers getting in on the action. Here we have something from Castle Combe circuit, which, rather bravely, broaches the thorny subject of Brexit. The release states:

“In an attempt to remain total political neutrality [sic] amidst current Brexit uncertainties, the race track, now known as ‘The Kingdom of Castle Combe Circuit’, plans to use its new-found status to host its very own leg of the popular Formula 1 championship.”

Not bad, but we’re docking points for what must be one of the worst Photoshop jobs we’ve ever seen.

Land Rover's 'most remote charging point'

Although the Photoshop job isn’t quite as bad as Castle Combe’s, the cringeometer is working overtime for this effort from Land Rover. “Watt a feat!” the manufacturer exclaims, as it talks of installing “the UK’s most remote charging point on Scotland’s Isle of Skye…15 miles from the nearest road”. Oh, and the press release also includes a quote from ‘Max Watts’, obviously.