Ok, so some of you would have seen this already, but for those of you who haven’t check out the video below. It goes for a while but I’m sure you’ll get the gist of it after just a few moments.
Yes this is … was a real US$250,000+, 2008-ish Lamborghini Gallardo and no it was not just some big corporation publicity stunt … sort of.
Apparently this successful Chinese entrepreneur was fed up with repeatedly having to attempt to fix, the mechanically problematic engine and was so disappointed with the service he received from an authorized Lambo dealer – the car was returned to him with bumps and scratches and with the engine running worse than before – that he hired a team of hard-hat wearing, Smurf-blue jump suited minions to take to the body of the Italian supercar he paid closer to £300,000 with sledge hammers (made in China I bet). The owner himself, one Han Nan (bravo Mr. and Mrs. Nan … took your time coming up with that name didn’t you?) even vented his frustration with a few swings of the hammer, much to the both shock and delight of the crowd.
The philosophy behind this decision revolved around making a statement to Lamborghini and the authorized dealer on ‘World Consumer Rights Day’ (who knew that existed?!?). Whether it would garner any sort of positive outcome for Mr. Nan remains to be seen.
My thoughts you ask? Well my first reaction was “Noooooooooooo!”
My second set of thoughts focused on the belief that there HAD to be a less destructive way to display your customer service dissatisfaction. Here are a few I thought in the time it took for the Smurf minion to reduce that supercar’s body into scrap metal:
- Write an angry letter to Audi AG and the Volkswagen Group – who actually own Lamborghini now
- Post a contemptuous but comical song video about Lamborghini on Youtube
- Blog about it on your personal blogspot.com site
- Telephone a customer service rep and call them a douche bag if they won’t personally send you a new Gallardo
- Go back to the dealer and get all Kung-Fu Panda on their ass until they get it right
- Stalk then kidnap Stephan Winkelmann (CEO of Lamborghini) and demand a new Gallardo as ransom
- Go trade your Lambo in for a Chery A1 (Google it)
- Just Don’t ... repeat DON’T do anything to the car!
But you want to know the real message Mr. Nan sent to the world? That Chinese business people and entrepreneurs are getting so rich on the back of a strengthening and soon-to-be-overtaking-US economy that they can treat US$250,000 supercars like a microwave that stopped heating properly after 4 months that Walmart wouldn’t allow Bobby-Ray to return.
So while I hate to see such a thing of beauty destroyed in the name of public spectacle, Kudos to you Han Nan for trying to stand up to “the Man” … even if all you get out of it is 5 minutes of fame and a slap in the face to the Western Economy.
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