Oh the irony of this one. Europe's most famous xenophobes, the French, champions of any and all things French, claim that their homegrown Peugeot marque can't seem to make a car fast enough for their police.

Being highly vocal members of the EU, you might think they would look around the rest of Europe, and at least consider something from another EU country such as Italy or Germany. Mais non, mes amis. Okay, then maybe something nice from, oh, say, Sweden? Encore, non.

So what did these masters of doublespeak and pretzel logic do in their quest for a car that can go over 150 mph? They went to the next most xenophobic nation in the world--Japan. That's right, folks. Subaru, a division of Fuji Heavy Industries, won the contract. Apparently Subaru can pull off making a fast car for a few hundred thousand apiece less than Maserati, Lamborghini, or Ferrari.

So can Porsche, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, and Saab (which also makes nifty turboprops and jets), to name a few. I sense a theme here. Saab is 50% owned by GM. Then there's whole Mercedes connection with Chrysler. Porsche, aside from that fugly SUV is has, is known for its sports cars. Can't have your police force driving anything connected with America, for chrissakes, can you? Can't have your cops driving a 9-11 or a Boxster with no room for all that police equipment, can you? Besides, they'd look ridiculous with the requisite roof lights, and the boards flashing at motorists to pull over in several different languages.

So Subaru fit the bill. The cars are nondescript enough to not cause public outrage about cops driving luxury cars, especially while the current public outrage is about 20-somethings not being guaranteed jobs they won't perform and can't get fired for not doing. Yes, the labor law riots are just the thing to provide a well-timed smokescreen for buying Japanese. Sneak in a contract like this while the public's attention is diverted, and hope it's forgotten before the public moves on to some other petty thing about which to be outraged.

I love it. This particular story was just to juicy to let fall by the wayside without a little commentary from yours truly. Bear in mind that there are not that many European and American car accounts I didn't work on at one time or another, back in my ad agency days.

Sayonara,
Froggie