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Road & Track's beginning the automotive April Fools' Day silliness with an absolutely obvious faux story: a Chevy Volt convertible. Sorry guys, but you're one calf-skin driving glove short of a Concours. More »
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Automotive PR people use April 1st as an excuse to issue fake press releases and get revenge on journalists who do things like telling people to "point and laugh" at their cars. This is our guide to this year's goofiness. More »
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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the AMC Gremlin's unveil to the public. Later, everyone would realize the "first American-built import" with a base price of $1,900 was actually the funniest automotive April Fool's Day joke in history. More »
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April Fools Day is our absolute least favorite time of the year because everyone thinks they're hilarious half-rate comedians, Kia included. More »
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Mark Twain once said "a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." Thanks to radio and the web, it can now travel all the way around the world. Remember that list of automotive April Fools' Day jokes? Remember that C&D and Automobile joke about Toyota securing Olds' naming rights? Someone took it to be the truth. And that person was Ron Chapman, filling in for Paul Harvey on his extremely popular ABC Radio show. Ugh. In case you were curious, the appropriate Trademarks are here and here, and they are both owned by GM and good until 2011 according to the US Patent and Trademark Office. The crappy urban legend in the making below the jump. More »
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We resisted the temptation today to pull our own shenanigans, mostly because tearing the wraps off a fake photoshopped Ford Ranchero was too obvious. Similarly, calling a fold to the sham that is Chryslerberus would have just been plain mean. Luckily, we knew the online automotive world would pick up the slack. Sure enough we were right, and we quickly found ourselves inundated with all kinds of April Fools' hijinks. Without further ado, below are the ten most amusing automotive hoaxes of the day. Make sure to vote for your favorite. More »
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[UPDATE: Also check out our top ten list of the best...or was it the worst...April Fools' Day automotive gags.] Occasionally, an automaker likes to have a little fun on April Fools' Day by announcing a car so ridiculous it couldn't possibly be real. Unfortunately, what happens more often than not is that an automaker will announce a car so ridiculous that it couldn't possible be real... and it is. Some are poorly-styled and ill-conceived, while others seem to fill no foreseeable niche other than a need to show they're doing something, anything. Below is our list of new cars that are punch lines to jokes no one ever told (i.e. the least dragon-able new cars). [UPDATE: We've added a poll so you can proclaim the most foolish car of them all] More »
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Historically speaking, April Fools Day is an opportunity for horribly unfunny people to be even less funny. We thought April Fool's Day had been cancelled this year so we didn't bother coming up with silliness for you. Which is probably a good thing because really, who wants to read made-up stuff when we can hear about what type of auto-related pranks you've pulled. We're looking for primo prankage here. Everyone has put a car on blocks, covered the windows with embarrassing shoe-polished messages and saran wrapped it like so much leftover Christmas ham. More »
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Of course, we're suspicious of the timing of Autoweek.nl's reveal of the alleged Volkswagen "Cross Phaeton." The shots indicate a new Phaeton with a body kit and higher ground clearance, along with a 220-hp 2.0-liter TDI. They say it'll be revealed at the New York auto show this week. We say they should have added a periscope and a bust of Ferdinand Pi ch as a hood ornament. Then again, they could be using it to announce the return of the Phaeton in the US. That would be sheer madness. – Mike Spinelli More »
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We've been covering this whole "horseless carriage" phenomenon for some time, but we're hearing this guy down the road from here's got a new way of making them. He's calling it "mass production" and it sounds like the cat's meow. In fact, with an emphasis on making workers jobs on this "assembly line" totally unimportant and meaningless, it's going to drop the cost of making these newfangled people-carriers to even the point that you or I can pick one up. And they're efficient — we're hearing the car, powered by a four-cylinder engine, will hit speeds of up to 45 miles an hour, and get 25 to 30 miles per gallon. Our spy photogs snapped the machine, which he's called the "Model T," and the machine's main man, Henry Ford, outside of his Dearborn-based "Motor Company" — hmm — we wonder. If he ends up calling it Ford, maybe we could start calling it Fo-Mo-Corp, or something like that. Anyway, we've no idea whether he'll be bringing it to New York this week — but we'll be on site in case he does, flash powder at the ready! – Ray Wert More »
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Action figure Steve Houston was found dead in his "Earth Speeder" vehicle at a residence in Montvale, New Jersey early Sunday morning. Houston, who was once described as "sucky" and "who the hell is that?" was purchased from P&J's Stationary in New Brunswick on December 25, 1978 by a local man. Sources say the man, Uncle Jeff, now 60, had been out drinking with his girlfriend the evening before, and allegedly chose Houston's "Intergalactec [sic] Playset" over a bag of Crazee Novelty pick-up sticks and a copy of Teen Beat featuring Leif Garrett. The Montvale Coroner's office has yet to rule out foul play, but a spokesperson said suicide was likely the cause of death. Acquaintances say Houston had been despondent for years, after having been deemed "lame-ass," and spent the next 27 years in and out of the attic, emerging only once a year for an annual tag sale. In his later years, Houston did enjoy a resurgence in popularity when he was featured several times on the eBay web site. But friends say he'd been unhappy with the "Buy it Now" offer that promised to banish him to a home in St. Louis, Missouri in April. Police ask anyone with information regarding the incident to just forget the whole thing ever happened and go on with their lives. More »
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We just got this tease of a message from one of our longtime tipsters: More »
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