So just to be clear, he's a salesman for a car dealership or something and accompanying this awful woman on a test drive, where she's doing double the speed limit (and presumably in an urban zone?).

I would have told her to slow down, and if she didn't. I'd have told her to stop the car and get out. And if she didn't do that, I'd call the cops then and there.

This isn't a driving test. It's a test drive. Still...

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From CBSNEWS.com

"UPDATE: Well, I mentioned it was a marketing gimmick, and like so many good ones, it turns out that this one sadly isn't real. The video was produced by Funny or Die's company Gifted You, and the terrified salesman is in fact an actor. So is it still funny? Sure. But is it real? Nope."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-57574078-10391705/disguised-jeff-gordon-test-drives-car-with-a-salesman/

I don't care what any PR/Ad Agency says.....This is 100% Fake. A car salesmen wouldn't act like a bad actor during a crazy test drive.

Also, I'm pretty sure it was established that the car wasn't driven by Gordon, but by a stuntman. With that in mind, how do the scenes at the beginning and end of the commercial fit together with the car driving scenes taken from inside the car.

It just don't make no sense1!!!!

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http://videosift.com/video/Disguised-Jeff-Gordon-Takes-Car-Sale-Person-For-A-Test-Drive#comment-1610574

It was a complete set up and prank - The salesman was NOT in on the prank. I'm going to call this REAL!!

"...But the incident wasn’t as spontaneous as it appeared. According to the owner of the car dealership where the video was filmed the setup started long before Steve met Gordon. It was also reveled that the actual car used didn’t belong to the dealership.
Jeff Gordon and Pepsi MAX go to a car dealership where a disguised Jeff Gordon takes an unsuspecting car salesman on the test drive of his life. #GordonTestDrive
Pepsi MAX & Jeff Gordon Present: "Test Drive"

“We started early in the morning,” dealership owner Wayne Troutman said in an interview with the syndicated show ‘RightThisMinute’. “Probably 6:30 in the morning that they did that video and they were there until dark that night. They supplied the car it was a very high performance car since they knew they would be going with some special tricks with that one."

Troutman praised his unknowing salesperson Steve.

"He did a great job,” Troutman said. “He fell right in to it and a lot of his reactions were very realistic because they were. Once he realized he'd been punked he settled down, but he was really hot when he came back in as you could see from the video. In fact he actually went out on another normal ride with Jeff.”

In fact Troutman added that Gordon himself had a great deal of involvement with the project.

"Jeff had a lot of input in this,” he said. “Not only to the car that was selected to the disguise to the…he actually tried to ahead of time pick the salesman he thought would be the best one to try to pull the prank on. We actually loaned Jeff a 1998 Chevy Venture Van to ride in so he looked like he was another normal North Carolina redneck."
http://www.examiner.com/article/what-happened-behind-the-scenes-of-jeff-gordon-s-pepsimax-prank?cid=rss

"The video, which is promoting Pepsi Max, features NASCAR racer Jeff Gordon in disguise taking a test drive of a new Camaro.

Gordon takes the salesman for a wild ride through the Troutman Motors lot, into Philip Morris, including racing along the top of a loading dock.

Racer Brad Noffsinger, who works with the Richard Petty Driving Experience, did the stunt work for the production.

The video was produced by Gifted You, a division of Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die company. About 75 people were employed during the shooting of the video."

-Several sources.

>> ^Sniper007:

Two 30 minute test drives would definitively demonstrate the case either way. One trip without the fan operating. One trip with the fan operating. Which method leaves the batteries with more juice (or goes farther before dying, etc).
It's so remedial a solution, you have to believe he's done it.


It's not as easy as that. Measuring how 'full' a battery is has never been managed to a sufficiently accurate level to compare. Better would be to equip the car with several volt-meters and ammeters, recording the input and output of electricity.

Two 30 minute test drives would definitively demonstrate the case either way. One trip without the fan operating. One trip with the fan operating. Which method leaves the batteries with more juice (or goes farther before dying, etc).

It's so remedial a solution, you have to believe he's done it.

@Auger8

Shrug, we'll see. I hope they follow up with it when the guy does or does not get charged for something. His business will suffer, but chances are he'll just shut it down and open another with a manager between him and the customers.

I think they might have a charge of something against him, and unauthorized may fall under it...but I think he has wiggle room despite the evidence because the news people never stopped him from doing that stuff....seeing it happen and letting it continue with something you have legal authority over (they rented the car) is kind of letting it happen. Hopefully they had police involved before long into it.

And I say all this knowing a little bit about how they handle car lot laws and customer vehicles...you can hold onto a customer vehicle and use it for a lot of things if the customer gives you permission and leaves the keys. And they can do the same to your vehicles on a long test drive.... Which is why you don't let them go on drives alone. Cops only care really if the law is broken (traffic infraction, wreck) or if vehicle is stolen. If they guy takes your vehicle and handles it like an asshole peeling tires, flooring it from a dead stop in cold weather and whatever else...they don't care and there ain't a whole lot you can do aside from try to claim damages if it results in some immediate issue following these actions and that's just going to court.

YouTube description (via Google Translate) says:

April 7, 2012, a driver in the car Suzuki Grand Vitara, rode in his car in the showroom Nissan Pelican Auto and gave it a pogrom. There is little information, showroom not comment on the circumstances. It seems no one was hurt ...

Comment witness:
The man on the Grand Vitara, drove straight into the cabin, and called in like 2 times from different angles, twisted on itself, and the cabin has finally parked in the middle of the cash department. Outcome not weak, raskurocheno passenger compartment floor, crumpled at least two demonstration vehicles (X-Trail and Qashqai), completely demolished wall of cash on the street crushed Patrol for a test drive. Thank God, he was told no one was hurt, the girls from the cash register had time to rebound.

Nothing about faulty shocks.

>> ^hpqp:

Answer: no.
(also: what a ripoff of the Smart).


And every minivan is a ripoff of the VW Microbus...whatever.

I was recently in the market for a car and I looked at the Scion iQ and gave it a test drive. It was actually pretty cool and unique, and better than the Smart in almost every way conceivable (I've also driven a Smart). Here's the catch, it's billed as a city car, so it has a crappy CVT Transmission. As well as No cruise control, I cannot have a car without cruise control and this didn't even give the option.

Toyota will get my money when they bring the TOYOTA iQ over from Europe...not some crappy ripoff with bigger wheels.