Best Automotive April Fools’ Jokes

Another April Fools’ Day has been and gone. From googly eyes stuck to household items, to hidden rubber ducks and prank calls, people like to play all sorts of jokes to celebrate the day. Companies all over the world have frequently used it as a marketing opportunity, and automakers are no exception, giving car enthusiasts a good laugh with (sometimes very convincing) prank announcements.

From odd paint options to space travel, car companies have used their creativity to the max when coming up with ways to prank their customers. CarBuzz has pulled the odd stunt too; remember the Dodge Challenger Ghoul? It’s the first entry on this list, so read more about it below. Let’s take a look at this and some of the best automotive April Fools’ jokes in recent years.

1

CarBuzz Dodge Ghoul

We start our list off with our very own work: this CarBuzz prank article was published in 2019, supposedly announcing the imminent release of an eye-wateringly powerful version of the Dodge Challenger called the Ghoul. Inspired in name by the SRT Demon, the Ghoul was meant to be even more powerful, and more expensive.

According to the “story”, FCA had started to take $20,000 deposits from prospective buyers interested in the Ghoul, with the total price tag reaching $200,000 (more than twice that of the Demon). We can only imagine there will have been a small subset of (very deep-pocketed) hardcore gearheads who will have been devastated at the news that the Ghoul wasn’t real.

2

BMW E9X M3 Pickup Truck

Next up, an even crazier creation, courtesy of BMW. In 2011, the brand “launched” a pickup truck version of the E9X-generation M3. The truck, of course, turned out to be a one-off joke rather than a legitimate production model, but it still caused a stir amongst gearheads the world over.

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The fact that this truck was just an April Fools’ prank does not, however, mean that an M3 pickup truck had never existed: another one-of-a-kind custom creation was built in the late 1980s, shortly after the arrival of the E30 M3. BMW engineers were so impressed by the car’s performance, they converted one into a pickup truck to be used as a parts hauler around BMW’s manufacturing facilities in Munich. The modern truck is somewhat of a tribute to this vintage legend, but sadly both will remain one-off vehicles.

3

BMW Climate Control

Sometimes what starts as a joke ends up becoming a reality, even if not quite in the same form. This is more or less what happened with the innocuously named BMW Climate Control system, “introduced” in 1999 for the 7 Series. This futuristic climate control function supposedly allowed the user to choose one of a variety of literal climates from around the world: “English Summer”, “Bavarian Mountain Medley”, “New England Fall”, “Bessarabian Breeze”, and so on.

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While this innovative function turned out to be a prank, we do have something similar in BMW models of today with MyModes, a function that allows the user to save specific climate control, ambient lighting, and digital display settings.

4

HRE Wheels Turbo Alloys

California-based company HRE Performance Wheels posted this humorous prank on their social media channels for April Fools’ Day 2025: the product being “introduced” was the HRE 528 Turbo, a wheel-integrated forced induction system.

The device integrated a turbocharger directly into the wheel hub assembly, supposedly simplifying the process of forced induction by using the wheels’ motion to push air through the system. The post is, as expected, riddled with puns and jokes, specifying that the system is made out of “hyperspace-grade stuff” and designed to replace “any form of logic”. We can only dream that, someday, automotive engineering will be advanced enough to come up with something like this in real life.

5

Dacia Duster Space Programme

Automotive enthusiasts might remember Tesla’s famous “Starman” publicity stunt, where a first-generation Tesla Roadster was launched into orbit with an astronaut dummy as a passenger and David Bowie’s Space Oddity playing on the sound system. Dacia, the European brand known for inexpensive runabouts, decided to launch its very own space program as an April Fools’ prank in 2021, complete with a photo of a Duster being sent out into the stratosphere.

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We have to admit, the Photoshop job is quite convincing, although there is no Starman in sight here. We can only wonder what would be playing on the Duster’s stereo, were it to go to space for real; the Beatles’ Across the Universe, maybe?

6

Porsche Patina Paint to Sample

“Patina” is a term generally used to describe the poor state of the paintwork on an old car that hasn’t received much TLC; however, a certain Stuttgart-based brand seems to think there is a market for it out there. Their April Fools’ prank for 2022 consisted of introducing “Patina Paint”: a special type of paint that would give your Porsche the rusty look, without having to park it in a barn for 40 years or expose it to the elements.

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This cutting-edge type of paint had supposedly been developed by Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur as part of the “Paint to Sample” program, which allows customers to provide a color match and get a matching paint job for their car. We think most people will be happy to stick with actual, rust-free colors.

7

Volkswagen/Voltswagen Name Change

A rebrand is always risky, and Volkswagen caused quite a bit of controversy when, in 2021, it suddenly broke the news: the company would be changing its name to Voltswagen, to declare its commitment to electrification. Several automotive news outlets, including CarBuzz, were fooled into thinking the announcement was legitimate, before the company eventually admitted it was all a big April Fools’ joke.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), however, wasn’t very happy with the joke, and Volkswagen briefly found itself in trouble with the accusation of having used the campaign to manipulate share prices. Turns out, sometimes you just can’t predict when a joke is going to land flat.

8

Subaru Suba-Shoes

If you’re the kind of car enthusiast who loves buying merchandise from their automakers of choice, and shows up at car meets head-to-toe in brand apparel, you might have been very disappointed by this particular April Fools. In 2023, Subaru made an announcement on its social media channels regarding the launch of the “Suba-Shoes”: branded sneakers with a large Subaru logo on the side, a shock-absorbing outer sole, and, supposedly, “All-Heel-Drive” enhanced all-terrain walking capabilities.

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The company went as far as setting up a fake product code for people to inquire about the Suba-Shoes. Who knows, maybe if there’s enough interest they might even bring them back for real one day.

9

4-seater Mazda MX-5

Ever been out for a drive in your beloved MX-5 Miata and thought “It sure would be nice if I could bring three friends along with me”? If the answer is yes, in 2014 Mazda might have briefly gotten your hopes up.

An announcement on Twitter, complete with carefully edited photo, proudly presented to the world the latest addition to the MX-5 family: the MX-5 four-seater. Combining practicality with sportiness and style, and sporting a racing stripe on the side, the MX-5 four-seater might have been convincing enough to look like a real car at first, however the company soon revealed its introduction was in fact a prank.

10

Audi “B-Tron” Honey-Powered Car

Our list comes to an end with a bee-themed prank, courtesy of Audi. In 2019, the German brand used the growing movement for eco-friendly transport as inspiration for its April Fools effort. As automakers around the world strived to look for green fuels, Audi solved the problem by building a honey-powered car: the b-tron. Of course, the b-tron also featured a series of bee-inspired design elements, like an on-board toaster and a hexagonal fuel cap.

Sadly, the production of this unique model reportedly encountered one major obstacle: according to Audi, the b-tron prototype attracted thousands of real bees, who swarmed testers and built a hive in the glove compartment. Guess we won’t be seeing the b-tron in showrooms anytime soon.

Sources: Audi, Mazda, Subaru, Volkswagen, BMW, Dodge, HRE Wheels, Dacia, Porsche