Nothing new, really. My 2005-built Mazda3 had a UK brochure at the time that was adorned with photos of the model in colours and spec (e.g. a sunroof) not available in the UK.

Most makes also tend to put their top-of-the-range models on the glossy brochures (and pdf / online versions) to, IMHO, imply that most of the range is of similar spec, when they ain't, or are stuffed full of (expensive) optional extras, as well as, as you say, things not available in the UK.

The brochure for my car showed, if I recall, cars with Spanish number plates because of the lovely vistas they presumably wanted for the photo shoot.

Note also that often the advert or glossy brochure doesn't give optional extras or at least the current prices for having them fitted. They soon add up to quite hefty amounts.

A lot of the time they are not even real cars - just computer animation

Quite often I find that the colours shown on the '360 degree' car visualisation on websites bears little resemblence to what you see in real life when the car's not under artificial light in the showroom.

Rather like the press days that miraculously always take place on perfectly smooth roads, so the journos don't speak about the rock-hard ride quality over even minor bumps, etc.

No substitute for us to get a good look around and decent length test drive on a variety of roads.

A lot of the time they are not even real cars - just computer animation

Quite often I find that the colours shown on the '360 degree' car visualisation on websites bears little resemblence to what you see in real life when the car's not under artificial light in the showroom.

Yeah, have noticed that as well - if they don't show what colours actually look like I'm not sure what the point of them is.

One colour I though I liked was the metallic / titanium grey from those 'images', but having seen the car in real life, they are just yet another shade of dark grey. The 'reflective' properties on the publicity photos are never replicated in real life.

This advert for the Rover 800 was highly misleading. At the 17-18 second mark, it clearly showed that a Rover driver could confidently expect as many as three headlamp bulbs to be working at the same time! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGEFVWDifbA

I think this was raised during another thread over the past year, as I remember watching that video before. Still puts a smile on my face.