It’s that time of year again, when car companies dig deep into their well of holiday advertising campaigns and recycle the very tired and unoriginal concept of surprising a loved one by financing a major purchase as a holiday gift. Saturday Night Live recently showed how this might go wrong.

Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long for SNL to skewer this advertising bit.Lexus has been running this campaign for what seems like forever, However, given that 2020 has been a pretty consistent dumpster fire from the start, perhaps now is a good time to say...maybe this isn’t a December I want to remember.

Obviously, the bit goes over the top with the ridiculousness, but it hammers home the correct point. Regardless of the “savings,” unless you live that millionaire celebrity life, you probably should not be “surprising” your family or loved one with a major financial purchase. Of course, and I would imagine for the average person this gift would come across as “Oh great, you gifted me the thing we planned on buying anyway.”

Believe it or not, those corny commercials are accurate: people really do buy cars as gifts around…

If you insist on shopping for a car this holiday season, make sure you read all the fine print and get a good “apper.”