--- title: April Fools' Day Twist Awards NZ Woman Brand-New BMW description: The license plate reads "NoFooL" canonical: https://time.com/3766857/april-fools-bmw-car/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-01T13:36:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:18:14.015Z og:title: No Joke: A Woman Got a $50,000 Car Thanks to an April Fools' Day Twist og:description: The license plate reads "NoFooL" og:url: https://time.com/3766857/april-fools-bmw-car/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: No Joke: A Woman Got a $50,000 Car Thanks to an April Fools' Day Twist twitter:description: The license plate reads "NoFooL" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # No Joke: This Woman Got a $50,000 Car Thanks to an April Fools' Day Twist ## Video: Driverless Cars: The Future of Driving [Watch (HLS stream): Driverless Cars: The Future of Driving](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uDXtGW1i.m3u8) (4:57)  _Published 2014-05-06. Predictions about a future in which cars that will drive themselves have been staples of everything from science fiction to pop culture to corporate PR for decades. But now it looks like driverless cars, at least, may finally be hitting the road._  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Apr 1, 2015 1:36 PM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Apr 1, 2015 1:36 PM UTC Being skeptical [doesn’t always pay off](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c%5Fid=1&objectid=11426501) on April Fools’ Day. Just ask Tianna Marsh, who traded her 15-year-old Nissan Avenir for a new BMW worth $50,000 when she answered an ad that many New Zealanders dismissed as a joke. A BMW dealership put a front-page ad on the _New Zealand Herald_ offering a new car to the first person who showed up on April 1 with their current vehicle and the coupon. When Marsh arrived at 5:30 a.m., she asked for an employee named “Tom,” per the ad’s instructions, and quickly said hello to a new ride with the license plate NoFooL. “The ad was intentionally vague and definitely appeared too good to be true, but in this case we wanted to turn the tables and reward the first person who was willing to take the chance,” said Ed Finn, a spokesperson for BMW. The company will donate the money made from selling Marsh’s old Nissan to charity, and it also plans to upload video footage of Marsh claiming her prize to prove to skeptics it wasn’t a publicity stunt. The dealership hired security guards in the event of riotous crowds, but according to the company, few took the bait. \[[_New Zealand Herald_](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c%5Fid=1&objectid=11426501)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3766857/april-fools-bmw-car/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3766857/april-fools-bmw-car/"},"headline":"No Joke: This Woman Got a $50,000 Car Thanks to an April Fools' Day Twist","datePublished":"2015-04-01T13:36:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:18:14.015Z","description":"The license plate reads \"NoFooL\"","url":"https://time.com/3766857/april-fools-bmw-car/","keywords":["Newsfeed","April Fool's Day","Business"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3766857/april-fools-bmw-car/","name":"No Joke: This Woman Got a $50,000 Car Thanks to an April Fools' Day Twist"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Driverless Cars: The Future of Driving","description":"Predictions about a future in which cars that will drive themselves have been staples of everything from science fiction to pop culture to corporate PR for decades. 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