Five car company April Fool's jokes that are actually good ideas

Tuesday, 2 April 2019

Making cars is a serious business, but not so serious that car makers can't occasionally enjoy a good joke. Well, okay; it's really all about marketing, but that doesn't mean that some of the April Fool's jokes that come out of the car industry each year aren't funny.

And some of them are even great ideas that we would really like to see happen. Here are five of those.

Skoda ProjectaPal

Skoda might be joking, but projecting reminders on the ground when you open the door would be super handy.

'This all-new Simply Clever feature means that birthdays, wedding anniversaries and even bin days need never to be missed again' said Skoda in the April 1 press release about a system that uses LED puddle lights (that are increasingly common) to allow owners to set reminders that are projected on the ground when they open the door.

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Skoda may have been joking, but we would seriously love to have this feature on a car, not only because it would be actually useful, but also because you could set deeply embarrassing messages to be projected when your significant other used the car. If you were that sort of person…

Holden resurrects an old idea as a joke, but we would like to see them make it.

BMW lunar paint

BMW has always been good at the April Fool's thing, even going so far as to not only put the X6 into production, but also releasing the X4.

But this year's joke would actually be amazing if it was real - a new paint that uses 'revolutionary photovoltaic technology' to passively recharge EV batteries when the moon is out. They even came up with a slogan for it: 'Sun Down. Charge up.'

Forget the Commodore, this is the ultimate Australian car: a convertible Toyota HiAce with a built-in pie warmer.

Leaving your EV out under the moon at night to passively add charge to the batteries would be absolutely brilliant. If it was actually technically possible. Which it isn't.

Holden Hatch Hutch

In attempting to top last year's punchline that none of its vehicles were now built in Australia, Holden revived an idea that they actually produced many years ago - the Hatch Hutch.

Technology that keeps shopping trolleys from smashing your ankles and car doors? Yes thanks.

Revealed with a cheeky photoshopped image released on social media and the words 'Designed for the modern explorer, we're reissuing the Hatch Hutch. The ultimate outdoors pack that transforms your Commodore into your home away from home', the Hatch Hutch is a tent-like add on to convert a Commodore wagon into overnight accommodation.

And, yeah, 'reissuing' isn't a mistake - Holden actually produced just that accessory for the Torana back in 1976.

Toyota HiAce convertible

To mark the release of the all-new HiAce van, Toyota Australia dropped a brilliant April Fool's joke in the form of a convertible option across the entire HiAce range. Which is silly, but would be fantastic.

According to Toyota 'the soft-top convertible option will be available across the entire new HiAce van range, including the two-seat long wheel base and super-long wheelbase configurations, as well as the five-seat LWB crew vans and 12-seat SLWB Commuter buses.'

Sealing the deal, however, was the reveal that the HiAce convertible would also come standard with the 'PieAce' pie warmer installed in the rear.

BMW aisle assist

Yeah, this is the most outlandish one, but it is probably the one we would like to see made real the most - BMW aisle assist for shopping trolleys.

BMW Australia announced that it was set to 'revolutionise an item that millions of Aussies use every day' and that its 'Melbourne engineers' had spent the past year integrating BMW tech such as lane keep assist, speed limit information, cross-traffic warning and evasion aid into the humble shopping trolley with the aim of rolling it out nationwide.

If only this were true…