mmarshall

By "joke", I don't necessarily mean the vehicle itself (there have certainly been enough of them through automotive history). What I mean is do any of you have a joke, image, or cartoon about a car that you particularly like?

Here is one of my favorites, which came out during the 2000 Presidential campaign:

Ralph Nader was getting ready to make a campaign speech to a crowd, when police asked the crowd to clear the way for a vehicle. In drove, very slowly, a Chevrolet Corvair, with George W. Bush at the wheel and Al Gore in the front seat. The car stopped, and both of them got out to listen to the speech. Nader looked at the car, turned and looked at the crowd, and said..........." Don't be fooled, folks. Even with dual air-bags in it, this car will NEVER be safe ! ".

mmarshall

Here's a couple of others that I think are funny:

Aron9000

^ I hadn't heard of Ralph Nader getting punked, the fact that both George W and Al Gore were in on it makes all the more hilarious. I still think Nader's an a@@hole for singling out the Corvair for snap oversteer and unsafe handling while the VW Beetle, Porsche 356 and 911 had the same damn problem. He pretty much dropped a bombshell on GM that made management extremely risk adverse and hostile to approving any sort of innovative engineering in small cars for decades.

mmarshall

Nader, as I recall, did mention the squrrely handling on the rear-engined VWs and Porsches of the period (some early Corvettes, even with their front-engine/RWD layout, also used that swing-axle rear suspension). But that was back in the days before the globalization of the auto industry, when most of the VWs and Porsches were built in German plants, and not subject to American regulations (there were very few regulations anyway until 1966). And it wasn't just the air-cooled, swing-axle German cars and Corvairs that had handling problems. Tom McCahill, an older guy and one of the well-known auto reviewers of the period (his views were published in Popular Mechanics magazine) managed to flip over a small rear-engined Renault while testing it (I think it was a Ranault Dauphine, but I don't remember for sure). He was not hurt, fortunately.

I assume you've read Nader's book......Unsafe at any Speed. (it, of course, is part of my automotive library). In it, he goes after a lot more than just the early Corvairs. He criticizes much of the general auto industry at that time, from tires that were too small for the weight-limits of the cars, to the lousy brakes of the period, to interiors full of dangerous hard-metal projections, to over-styled bodywork that was dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists, to non-standard shift-pattterns on the lever that sometimes caused damaged transmissions, to eye-glare in the sun from too many chromed parts, and many other design faults, not to mention how the companies themselves were managed.


Anyhow, you you have a favorite automotive joke or cartoon? If so, by all means post it.

Aron9000

For automotive humor, I always like Top Gear. One of their first cheap car challenges is they all bought running, working cars for 100 pounds. This works on a couple of levels, it was funny, and very ironic at the same time. Environmental regulations are so strict in Britain that you have to pay junkyards to take your car, hence you can buy running, road legal cars with their tax/MOT inspection done(big deal in England) for peanuts. Granted these heaps they bought probably won't pass their next MOT inspection without dumping some $$$ into them, but they become like leopards because the previous owners don't want to spend more $$$$ on them to keep them road legal or spend $$$$ on them to junk them. Where I live, those cars would sell for $500-1,500 in a county that doesn't check for emissions and probably have been on the road another couple of years, and that was 12-13 years ago when this clip was made.

Then they decide to run their cars into a brick wall at 30mph to see which is safest. They've done some dumb/risky stuff on that show, but just for sheer stupidity this takes the cake. Jeremy is the only one who is hurt, breaks his wrist in a Volvo, makes it even more ironic/hilarious.

Htony

Friends talking,
A: I crunched up my car yesterday.
B: How come? What happened?
A: There was a very good looking blonde walking on the side walk.
B: I see, you were distracted watching her. right?
A: No, wife suddenly covered my eyes with her hands.