Publicity Stunt Gone Wrong: Audi A1 Rolls Over

After seeing Volvo's very own way to mess things up, we though there's nothing that could be more embarrassing for an automaker than to fail to demonstrate its safety technologies in front of journalists from all over the world. Today we changed our minds a little bit, as a new failed experiment took place in Cinquantenaire Park, Brussels, Belgium.

This time, we're talking about "the brand with the four rings", the German brand that now tries anything that's possible to promote its latest contraption, namely the A1, in several locations around the world.

In Belgium however, something went wrong. The A1 we were talking about was the subject of a public demonstration that was initially supposed to show people that despite its dimensions, the new model is actually a very easy to handle and fun to drive model. Well, it was fun, but not so much for the driver but for the attendance.

After driving the car on a quarter-pipe (don't ask us what's the reason for driving the car on such a thing, but Audi claims this is "an extreme situation that does not occur in everyday traffic"), the driver lost control, so the car rolled over and shocked the ones who expected to see a calm and quiet demonstration.

Organizers jumped in and rescued the driver and the front passenger who suffered only minor injuries.

Leaving this story aside, Audi says its A1 is fairly attractive and the company expects the model to top 50,000 sold units in 2010. Furthermore, it could bring the model in the United States, but such a plan is yet to be confirmed.