An apologetic Toyota apologized to the motoring public today after announcing that the 2013 RAV4 shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show was not the actual production vehicle.

“The SUV revealed at the Los Angeles Auto Show was not the new RAV4, but was in fact a design study done by one of our employees as a moonlighting project for a competing automaker,” explained Toyota spokesman Ashiro Nakasorry. “The guilty party has been reprimanded and punished with a 2-year extension of his employment contract.”

Nakasorry would not give exact details as to how the American public relations department revealed the wrong vehicle, describing it only as “a massive miscommunication” and “an act of regrettable optimism.”

“Toyota would never knowingly risk alienating its loyal customers by introducing a vehicle with such unique and radical styling,” Nakasorry told Autoblopnik. “We humbly apologize to the motoring public, and while we are not ready to reveal the actual 2013 Toyota RAV4 just yet, we can assure you that it will be comfortably predictable and derivative. Actually, it looks a lot like the current one with a slightly different grille, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

© Autoblopnik