The Automotive Industry's Best April Fools Jokes of 2019

Each year automakers (and automotive outlets alike) try to outdo one another with funny stories that are also borderline believable, as is the April Fools tradition. It’s the one day of the year where companies that are known for their serious image allow their PR departments to let their hair down and announce crazy versions of cars they already make, crazy new cars, or some sort of barely believable industry news about mergers you’d never expect.

Well, 2019 was no exception, and this year we got our fair share of amusing barely believable automotive tales. Here’s our selection of the funniest April Fools specials we found this year.

Audi b-tron

Audi’s Aussie arm wanted to stir some buzz with the unveiling of a new alternative fuel SUV, the b-tron “powered by its revolutionary new hex-cell technology.” The engineer behind it is called Imker Honig (Beekeeper Honey) and the department he supposedly works for within Audi is called Komplett Geschminkt (Completely Made up). However, even though this is all baloney, the wrap applied to the e-tron in the photos is literally sweet as honey and joking aside, Audi should somehow find a way to offer its customers a wrap like that.

BMW i-Setta

BMW used Instagram in order to propagate one of this year’s April Fools jokes, the news that the Bavarian automaker is putting the Isetta bubble car back into production, but with a twist to keep it fresh for modern times. We are not shown the inside, but you can, apparently, control it through an app installed on your phone or smartwatch. Now this particular idea may be purely made up, but would the prospect of electrifying a classic BMW Isetta and infusing it with extra tech make sense? I think so, because it would make the iconic bubble car better in every single way.

Honda Passport 90s interior makeover

Honda released a video revealing a purported 1990s-inspired theme for the 2019 Passport crossover with the punchline “the past never looked so good.” It’s essentially the very latest Passport on the outside, but inside it looks like any Honda from the 1990s. And that would be a good thing because those interiors sure age well, probably better than what Honda’s current interiors will look like in a few decades’ time. Sadly, 90s nostalgia freaks with a penchant for crossovers won’t be able to have this special version because it was all just made up.

Hyundai N Roadster

Now while some of these April Fools stories made us laugh, this one made us raise an eyebrow... and keep it raised. Hyundai showed off a series of renderings that reveal the company’s idea for a two-seater roadster that looks like it would be aimed squarely at the Mazda MX-5 / Miata. I mean the MX-5 doesn’t really have any competition, and at the same time Hyundai is doing all it can to improve its image - a small, fun roadster to take on the legendary MX-5 would really get people talking. So, if this is some kind of joke, we’re really not laughing - in fact, we urge Hyundai to reconsider this being a joke and start developing it for production. Hopefully, the automaker was not just trying to be funny but also gauge opinions on such a model - well, now its officials know what we think of the idea. We want one. Yesterday!

Jeep Sedan

When I first saw the doctored photo portraying the alleged Jeep Sedan, it was on my phone and on that small screen, the design looked very believable. Even when I later opened the image on my laptop, the design still looked suitable. What I found really amusing about was the fact that while most manufacturers are ditching traditional car body styles in favor of anything with higher ground clearance and SUV-like look, here came Jeep with its first-ever sedan - it made no sense and that just made it even more amusing to me.

Toyota Yaris Adventure

When I saw photos of the new 2020 Toyota Yaris and immediately realized it was a rebadged Mazda2, I thought that was the April Fools joke Toyota had prepared, but it turned out it was indeed the new Yaris. It’s not as enticing as the Hyundai N Roadster, but if it was made in a limited series and sold not only in the States, especially further south on the American continent, then there’s no reason for it not to be a real thing - in fact, why isn’t Toyota selling a small subcompact-sized pickup on the American continent (any part of it)?

The Kingdom of Castle Combe Circuit

Using the #combexit hasthtag, the Castle Combe Circuit in the U.K. announced it had declared itself a new sovereign state. The thing is, such news isn’t particularly unusual coming from the United Kingdom, a territory littered with so-called “micronations,” like Forvik, Frestonia (that lasted until the 1980s), the Lagoan Isles, Llanrwst (no, it’s not a typo) and, last but not least, Sealand which was created in 1967 in an old WWII fortification located off the British coast. So this “Kingdom of Castle Combe Circuit” isn’t so far-fetched in that context.