QOTD: Just How Bad Was Volkwagen's Prank?

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

The reaction to Volkswagen’s epic fail of an April Fool’s Day prank seems to be running the gamut from “how dare they lie” to “Eh, it was dumb but who cares?”

So I figured that while journalists, academics, and others can make their opinion known on Twitter, I’d ask y’all what you think.

I am fully aware that no matter how we feel about what VW did, we’re going to generate attention to it by talking about it. So, in that sense, it may have been successful for VW. Any publicity is good publicity, you know.

Then again, this is a company with credibility issue from the emissions scandal, and we’re living in an age of misinformation/disinformation spread by liars who seek political and/or monetary gains, so maybe it’s not good to knowingly lie to reporters about an important topic, such as a name change, even if you think it’s all in good fun and/or a way to generate buzz.

I have my own thoughts, which I might unload on you guys today or tomorrow. But before this story mercifully works its way out of the news cycle, I want to hear your thoughts.

You know the drill.

[Image: Volkswagen]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • FreedMike FreedMike on Mar 31, 2021

    This is a lot of ink to spill a topic that's been talked about repeatedly over the last couple of days. I'd say if VW's intent was free publicity, then, man, has it won.

    • See 4 previous
    • Scoutdude Scoutdude on Mar 31, 2021

      @28-Cars-Later It put them at the top of Tim's priority list so win some loose some.

  • Sirwired Sirwired on Mar 31, 2021

    I'm sure automotive journalist slack channels or whatever are all aflutter about this, and they should be, but I don't think it has any relevance whatsoever for the general car-buying public.

  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Mar 31, 2021

    Tesla's PR department hasn't misled anyone for awhile now.

    • Jalop1991 Jalop1991 on Mar 31, 2021

      That's right. Musk farted and the automotive press swooned.

  • Sgeffe Sgeffe on Apr 02, 2021

    Marketing. Sometimes a Master’s degree in bovine excrement is all you need!

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