2016 Paris Motor Show: Mercedes-AMG trolls motoring world

MERCEDES-AMG has taken advantage of the fog of publicity ahead of the Paris Motor Show to cheekily troll its fans and the motoring press with teaser pictures of a toy.

The company showed pictures of the partially revealed rear and grille of what appeared to be a new high-performance SUV on its Instagram site at the weekend with the words “A little big something is about to be revealed – soon.”

This fooled a few followers and a couple of high-profile UK motoring sites, who speculated that “Mercedes-AMG is preparing an electric surprise for the 2016 Paris motor show” in a story which has since been deleted.

Another site cleverly picked up on the gag, remarking that it was indeed an electric crossover in the form of a battery-powered ride-on toy.

This was confirmed when AMG released a follow-up pic showing a silhouette of the little Noddy Car for the kid with everything, complete with LED running lights.

Best thing about this gag is that the toy, as well as being the most affordable AMG you can buy, is a more attractive prospect than AMG actually making an electric soft roader coupe.

The miniature AMG, which is yet to be named, will apparently share a stand at Paris with two full-sized drop-top versions of the AMG GT coupe.

The GT and GT C Roadster lose the roof, to be replaced with a retractable soft-top.

The GT roadster’s twin-turbo V8 engine will push you from 0-100km/h in 4.0-seconds, while the GT C, which gets a 60kW boost of power over the standard 350kW version, does the sprint in 3.7-seconds.