THE LIGHTER SIDES OF AUTOMOTIVE WOES PART 1

EVEN THE MOST RESPECTED AUTOMAKERS FIND THEMSELVES occasionally on the wrong side of propriety—or common sense. Leafing through the last two months of my favorite automotive journal, Automotive News, I came upon these four howlers. (Don’t snicker, other automakers; your day in the barrel is inevitable.) Tidbits follow in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow.

Abede, Abede, Abede, Tatts All, Folks. Nick Bunkley reports, “Lawsuit Says Mercedes Seats Tattooed Drivers with Hot Metal AMG Logo on Sunny Days,” Automotive News, August 25, 2026. 

“The plaintiffs,” Buckley recounts, “both say their injuries happened when parking in the California sun and wearing clothing that left their neck and shoulders exposed.”

Buckley cites, “One of the drivers, Gabriel Lahijani of Los Angeles, received first- and second-degree burns in May that a board-certified dermatologist called ‘AMG inscribed,’ according to the lawsuit. He had leased the 2026 Mercedes-AMG E-Class several months earlier.”

“After the vehicle had been parked in the sun, Mr. Lahijani entered it while wearing a tank top en route to the gym,” says the suit filed Aug. 5 in U.S. District Court. “His left upper back briefly contacted the raised AMG logo badge on the driver’s seat, causing immediate severe pain and a burn visibly bearing the distinctive AMG design.”

Ouch!

Buckley continued, “The other plaintiff, Karendeep Bath of Chatsworth, Calif., suffered a ‘materially identical injury’ in July, according to the lawsuit. Bath wore a sleeveless top to a 90-minute lunch before returning to the car she had parked on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles. Despite briefly feeling a ‘burning sensation,’ the suit says, ‘she did not initially realize she had been burned; over the following days, a mark in the shape of the AMG logo darkened and became visible on her skin.’ ”

Buckley concludes, “The lawsuit demands compensation for the plaintiffs’ medical expenses as well as their pain and suffering. It seeks class-action status and for Mercedes to remove the logos from other drivers’ cars.”

Talk about taking product identification too far.

Meh for “So Mc-Benz.” Speaking of logos, Automotive News, August 17, 2026, reports “Mercedes Misfires with McDonald’s China Promo.” Details: “Mercedes-Benz last fall turned to McDonald’s to promote its latest model in China, a striking move for an automaker that for decades relied on its German engineering to win over Chinese buyers.” 

“In the ‘So Mc-Benz’ campaign,” it describes, “Mercedes allowed a cheeseburger figurine to take the spot of its traditional three-pointed star on the all-electric CLA, a sedan it hoped would stop sales from sliding in the world’s largest car market. The ads were supposed to make the vehicle popular with China’s young buyers.”

“It didn’t work,” Automotive News recounts. “Mercedes sold only 1,153 units in China in the first half; a fraction of the more than 80,000 similarly priced SU7 sedans Xiaomi delivered in the period.”

“The performance,” Automotive News relates, “echoes the challenges BMW, Volkswagen Group and Porsche face in China, where they all reported second-quarter sales declines of at least 30 percent, worse than the overall market’s drop. Meanwhile, Xiaomi, BYD, and other key Chinese brands are taking customers from them, depriving the Germans of a key growth and profit driver. So far, none of them has found a way to arrest the downward spiral.” 

The problem, of course, is the Chinese government’s heavy subsidizing of its auto industry.

Tomorrow in Part 2, we revel in test drives, one “extended,” the other Flock-interrupted. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026