Remember when Nissan announced it would buy a 1996 Maxima V6 whose owner advertised it in a funny video on Craigslist?

At the time, Nissan promised to restore the battered car to its former glory and that is exactly what happened.

“When we first learned about it we thought, ‘We gotta buy this car. He’ll never expect that. People will go nuts. How can you sell a car to a car company? We gotta jump on this,’” said Rob Robinson, Nissan, Social Communications.

Luke Aker’s video ad poked fun at luxury automotive marketing and became a viral sensation after a friend of his posted the video to Reddit. Today, his video is closing in on 2 million YouTube views. “I honestly didn’t think it would do that well. I was thrilled with the 20,000 views I had within the first week. I was like, ‘That’s it. It’s done. Let’s do another video. Let’s do it again,’” Aker recalls.

When Nissan contacted him to buy the Maxima, he thought he was being pranked by a friend. It was true however, and in December 2013 Nissan paid him $1,400 for the car and donated $1,000 to a charity chosen by Aker, called Wounded Warrior Project.

Nissan then asked its fans on social media what to do with the car, and most answers pointed to restoring it. The restoration work included mostly cosmetic changes like bodywork, new upholstery and carpeting. There was also some body and framework, plus a new set of brakes. After six months in the shop the car was once again like new.

But the folks from Nissan USA felt something was missing and social communications manager Robinson reached out to Aker and asked him to do a follow-up commercial that would describe the restored car in a funny way. Scroll down to watch it – there’s also a video that documents the restoration work and the original video that prompted Nissan to buy the car.

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