I'm sure this is just some crappy attempt to gain web traffic at the expense of truth, credibility, and reality. The article itself sounds like it was machine-translated by a Commodore 64 and then typed into the web page by a monkey wearing mittens. But it's already been brought to my attention on Facebook. So what's going on?
The article is a barely-comprehensible report on the alleged new 2015 VW Microbus. The top image they use is a photoshopped variant of VW's 2001 concept (they added round headlights, which I actually prefer), though the other images are unretouched.
The article makes some attempts to sound credible, saying things like
The final motivation for this New VW Microbus is to maximize the investment in the group MQB "matrix" platform.
... and some of the clumsy errors the article makes do suggest a very exciting possible Microbus:
Further, 170 h 2.5 liter in five-cylinder, 2000 hp 2.0 liter turbo-four and 140 hp 2.0 liter TDI turbodiesel-four will equipped by Front wheel Drive.
Wow, twice the power of a Veyron? You'd have to be crazy to take that 1860 HP drop just for the diesel.
So, the real question here is why is this article here at all? Is it just a cynical attempt by the publishers of WeAreSurfers to get some clicks by making up a non-existent car that they know their target audience of surfers would like?
Maybe some super-secret consumer research department at VW is planting these articles to gauge public opinion. Based on the questions about this I've been getting on Facebook and other channels, it just confirms my belief that VW is leaving money on the table by not going ahead and building this damn thing already. This rumor that VW will build a new Microbus has been going around for over 10 years now. If it happens, we'll know.
Have any of you been sent this article by curious, non-gearhead friends? Anyone remotely interested in cars would be able to spot this as a fake easily, but this is a vehicle appealing to many not otherwise interested in cars.
Anyone have any idea what's going on here? Are fake posts like this really a staple of shady click-hungry websites? I mean, I'm not really surprised, it's just jarring to see outright misinformation like this.