They say there's no such thing as bad publicity. But don't tell that to Volkswagen and its former CEO. The funny thing is nobody ever talked about VW on television until Dieselgate struck, but now John Oliver is making fun of zee Germans and their deceitful nature.
During this weekend's edition of Last Week Tonight, the HBO comedy show decided it was time to make fun of the TDI diesel scandal. John Oliver likes to spice up his show with lots of scandals, so Dieselgate is right up his alley.
You guys already know the gist of the story: Volkswagen makes TDI engines that can fool emissions tests, 11 million cars are involved, major scandal ensues and the CEO quits.
Obviously, the connection between Volkswagen and Hitler is too obvious not to make a pass. But I think "Trust us, Hitler did" is kind of a low blow. Of course, the internet has been making Auschwitz jokes for the best part of a week.
John Oliver really had a field day with the speech of VW USA president and CEO Michael Horn, which boils down to "We're sorry, now here's Lenny Kravitz."
Because there's a very dry and serious atmosphere surrounding the scandal, John's team of crazy writers had to come up with something completely original to flesh out the story. So they made a fake 2015 Jetta commercial where VW allegedly claims the brakes are made from gold and driving one of their sedans makes you immortal. But the best part is that it can give you a BJ while you drive. Suddenly the boring old Jetta is a lot more interesting!
The biggest scandal faced by the automotive industry this decade has yet to play out. After quitting, the VW CEO will get a pension worth over $30 million per year. Can anybody make a Winterkorn pinãta? Because Greenpeace wants to beat the hell out of it.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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