There was a comercial on during the game the other night for a pickup truck that climbed a shoulder deep snow covered slope of an avalanche warning mountain so steep that the Ibex goats fell off it. This truck not only makes it up the mountain but beats a helicopter to the top! I think I owned that same truck some years ago and it got stuck once in my driveway.
A little later another car commercial came on, telling me that they deliver WAH. Sounds like wow to me.* I have seen a few of their cars deliver pizza, but I am not too sure about wow, or WAH for that matter, although the pizza was pretty good. My granddaughter says wow but in a sarcastic valley girl style of pronunciation, it usually follows one of my jokes. Wow.
Or how about an environmentally friendly diesel car. Falsified emission tests “proved” that their diesel vehicles were helping the environment. They got called on that one, didn’t they. To the tune of $14.7 billion.
Just like Farmer Steve, we are all looking to save a buck or two, and with gas costs rising a fuel-efficient ride would be the cat’s pajamas. What about one car manufacturer’s claim of 188 miles per gallon? It sounds to good to be true for a reason. It is. What I mean is it’s too good to be true, so it isn’t. Why do I have to explain this? Anyway, owners were seeing more like 40 mpg. Maybe you will get better mileage if you are driving downhill there and back?**
Or how about a car that they tell you is “self-driving” but it isn’t. I could see that being a potential safety issue.
These outrageous claims aren’t new. A 1970’s ad campaign claimed their car would appreciate in value over the next 20 years. What if I told you that car was a Pinto! Maybe you are too young to recall the recall due to a minor issue that Pintos had, that being their propensity to explode on impact?
Many of these examples, and there are many more, are repeat offenders. It seems like there are some car companies who lie, sell cars, get caught, pay the fines, and then lie again. I am not sure this is what Adam Smith envisioned when he invented capitalism.***
Buyer beware. When it comes to cars, truth is advertising seems to be the ultimate oxymoron. Wow.
*Editor’s Comment: “Wah” in Korean loosely translates to wow in English.
**Editor’s Comment: The Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport has perhaps the worst gas mileage out there at 8 mpg in the city. If you are spending $3.6M for a car, fuel efficiency is probably not your prime concern.
***Editor’s Comment: In his 1776 seminal work “Wealth of Nations” Smith lays out the basic concepts of capitalism. One of his concepts is “the invisible hand” in which he envisions the market as having a role in regulating commercial endeavours. When it comes to car advertising, it seems like the invisible hand is nowhere to be seen.
They need to be told “Wah” in English means yuk!