IKEA to launch a car?

So what kind of car are you going to get next?

Perhaps, I might tempt your credulity by asking you to consider a new eco-car called the LEKO.

A Toyota?

No, an IKEA.

A strange Web site has appeared, roulez-leko.com, on which a very relaxed, modern, eco-friendly chap, allegedly the great car designer Christophe Grozs, stands next to an apparent car draped with the word LEKO and the tagline "la voiture selon IKEA."

Yes, the car according to IKEA.

The LEKO (L'eco, get it?), allegedly has the backing of the World Wildlife Fund in France. Does this imply the fund has put money into the creation or that the car will have plastic panda-skin seats to remind us of the good we are doing.

It also will save you untold (because unspecified) amounts of money on your expenditure. And it is humongously eco-friendly.

If IKEA made a car, the doors might not fit quite perfectly into the body. Then you'd really have to work hard to use those tiny screwdrivers to make sure the engine didn't wobble. And just imagine the number of screws it would take to put in the cup holder.

There's the name too. Real IKEA product names never make sense. They always seem to resemble a fair to middling Scrabble hand--for example, KLIPPAN or LYCKSELE.

LEKO is far too meaningful.

The LEKO will launch on April 1.

However, just to complicate your purchasing decision, April 1-7 is Sustainable Development Week in France. And here is the Web site to prove it.

Or is IKEA simply trying to amuse French people into doing good?

Chris Matyszczyk Technically Incorrect

It's a week early… but April Fools.