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Automotive April Fools' joke roundup [w/videos]

Happy April, everyone. And we all know what this first day of the month means: April Fools' Day. Today is a national holiday for pranksters with the Internet acting as a serious enabler, and it's always fun to see what kind of vivid imaginations exist out there in the automotive world. The abundance of fake news gets a little old as the day rolls on, but we did manage to get in a few chuckles thanks to a handful of major automakers and automotive news outlets that got into the pranking spirit this year
Some of our favorites this year includes Subaru showing what happens when you combine a bunch of rumors, a Corvette some may have already thought was a joke or Honda providing some in-car innovation circa the late 1980s. Honestly, we're still waiting for official confirmation from Mitsubishi that the recently introduced 2014 Mirage is an elaborate April Fools' joke using a failed design intended for the 1995 Geo Metro. We dug up as much "official" OEM foolishness we could find, as well as some of our other favorites, and posted them all below.

Volvo EX30 Deep Dive: Designing a budget SUV

We just spent a couple days with, in and around Volvo’s latest all-new electric vehicle, the EX30, at the companyÂ’s headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, and we came away impressed. We went in with questions, and came out with answers, or so we think, though some of them will remain until we drive it in November. A number of automakers are promising truly affordable EVs, ones that not only undercut the current, $4,600 price differential between new battery-powered cars and their internal combustion powered siblings, but ones that are significantly lower than the general average new car transaction price, which is currently nearly $50,000. Mass market EVs like this are important, if we are to make a real environmental impact with our switch to battery power, as there is little that is green about the resource-hoarding production and utilization of niche, six-figure, five-ton electric pickups and SUVs. Volvo aims to be first to market with such a car, with the compact EX30, which it plans to sell starting at $35,000. This is a new category offering for the brand, one that slots in well below the current XC40 Recharge EV in terms of price and size. For contrast, that car starts at around $50,000, and is 8 inches longer, 4 inches higher and nearly 3 inches wider. Volvo EX30 View 22 Photos This seems like a strange move for a company whose mission, since being purchased by the Chinese manufacturing company Geely, has been to move upscale into the same consideration set as the luxury German brands. But, as is often the case, Volvo is taking its own path. “This is indeed a lower segment for us,” says Joakim Hermansson, the vehicle product lead for EX30, as he walks us around the car, inside and out, and allows us to sample the sharp accelerative abilities of the range-topping, 442 hp, dual-motor, all-wheel-drive model (0-60 in 3.4 seconds.) “But itÂ’s still premium for Volvo, providing hallmark features of safety, sustainability and personalization, as well as performance.” He's not wrong about any of these. This EX30 comes standard with VolvoÂ’s extra-strength safety cage as well as lane-keeping, adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitoring. Perhaps most notably, it has an all-new interior design that capitalizes on the efforts the brand has been making toward its internal goal of being fully circular in its sustainability efforts by 2040.

Ford tumbles to second worst in Consumer Reports reliability survey, list dominated by Japanese [w/video]

It's no secret that MyFord Touch has had its share of problems since being introduced, but the most recent reliability survey from Consumer Reports shows just how much this infotainment system has affected Ford. Just two years ago, the automaker was in the top 10 for the institute's reliability rankings, but since then, it has tumbled to the second-lowest rung just above dead-last Jaguar. In addition to MyFord Touch, CR also attributes a handful of new products that have had issues right out of the gate.
Compiled from 1.2 million subscriber surveys, this year's auto reliability survey heavily favors Japanese automakers, with eight of the 10 spots hailing from Japan. Toyota brands grabbed the top three spots (Scion, Toyota and Lexus - in that order) with Mazda, Subaru, Honda and Acura filling the next four spots. The only non-Asian automaker cracking the top 10 was Audi at number eight.
Audi climbed a total of 18 spots from last year, and Cadillac and GMC round out this year's top gainers breaking into the top 15. Helping Cadillac's upward movement, the CTS Coupe was named the most reliable domestic car. Lincoln, Volvo and Chrysler join Ford on this year's biggest loser list.