New car news

01 April 2009 - 10:00

We pity the Fools

Ah, April 1st. April Fool’s Day. When year on year from the dungeons of the motoring industry the greying, witless hoards send out a deluge of deadpan press releases designed to befuddle the morons of The Media.

This year it’s energy-saving sails for the Kia Soul, Hyundai’s modified i10 for environmentally aware world leaders, a magnetic towing device for BMWs and a wind turbine on the Seat Ibiza.

There is, however, one small problem. Day in, day out for the rest of the calendar year the inboxes of Top Gear are pressure injected with thousands of press releases promising us similarly ludicrous crap but without the voluminous insincerity.

We’ve had Mazda supplying the Army rugby team with Mazda5s, the green credentials of the Mercedes E63 AMG, the world’s economy saved by the Honda Insight and even a hybrid version of the Cadillac Escalade.

As the suits of the industry chuckle into their polyester sleeves, the annual April Fool’s fiasco simply floodlights the well trodden path of professionally orchestrated rubbish that is often the daily press release.

Maybe this is a bit Bah Humbug. Maybe we’re not getting into the spirit of things. But then again, maybe we’re only joking…