Car Reviews and Reviewers You Don't Like!

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Kent

Kent

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GTP_Kent
This is a complaint thread for Reviews and Reviewers that you don't agree with or don't like.

The reason I've started the thread is simple.
The AMG A45 got a review where the reviewer was going back and forth, one turn was understeer, the next, slight oversteer. Slowly I started to realize the chassis was well balanced and the reviewer wasn't doing his job. Instead of recognizing that the car did what he told it to do, he thought it should be tracing the perfect line with perfect balance in each turn (regardless of his flawed driving techniques).
Needless to say I was disappointed with the overall tone of the review simply because I knew this journalist, pretending to be a racing driver, didn't really understand how to evaluate a car.

Not saying I'd do a better job but I certainly believe drivers pretending to be journalists do better reviews than journalists pretending to be drivers.

Any thoughts?
 
Jeremy Clarkson is certainly the first one who comes to mind. He's fairly entertaining, but for actual, serious car reviewers he's hopeless.
 
ImmalovemaGTR
Top Gear is not a serious car review show...
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I understand this, and I watch it for entertainment. Sometimes though, Clarkson can be a bit much. The other two can be serious or silly, but he never seems to be able to choose. He often takes silly stuff too seriously and serious stuff too, erm, sillily.
 
Has anyone who nominated Jeremy Clarkson actually read Top Gear magazine? Instead of just nominating his fabricated TV persona?

Anyway, I dropped my subscription to Automobile magazine after editor Robert Cumberford butchered a eulogy of Ferdinand A. Porsche in what I thought was a profoundly disrespectful way, spending the lines talking about how he wasn't that great and shouldn't really get credit for the 911. He could be right about everything he said, he just pissed me off with the bitter, curmudgeonly way he went about the whole thing.
 
Wolfe
Has anyone who nominated Jeremy Clarkson actually read Top Gear magazine? Instead of just nominating his fabricated TV persona?
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I haven't read any of Clarkson's articles in the magazine, but if the columns posted on their website are anything to go by, it's not far off how he acts on the show. When he's not talking about cars however & in a serious mood, he can make quite a point.

I think Hammond & James are obviously the more serious of the 3, though I feel like Hammond over-presents his point. James seems to think the most logically in his reviews, but seeing as he dives into all sorts of things & gives his opinion, that's not too surprising.
 
Jeremy Clarkson is still Jeremy Clarkson, but in order to take the TV characters at face value you have to believe they're really quite stupid people. Which they're absolutely not. "Torks" as a unit of torque? These men know what a foot pound is. They play dumb so they're not lecturing the audience with too many intracacies of the industry and engineering. On the show, they're entertainers. In print, they're journalists.
 
Wolfe
Has anyone who nominated Jeremy Clarkson actually read Top Gear magazine? Instead of just nominating his fabricated TV persona?
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No, I haven't. I guess he's better. If I have the money, I may get a subscription to either it or EVO when I move to the UK.
 
Top Gear....to the point I don't even bother watching it anymore.
 
Zenith
95% of Jalopnik.
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Really? I didn't think Jalopnik was really all the bad. Granted, they've had their moments but generally they were too bad. There are far worse reviewers than them.
 
Man, this guy and his reviews. What a progressive-hippy-liberal-democratic-vegetarian-eco-nut writer.




;)
 
Yeah, screw that dude. I hear he just stops productivity for an entire season to just hang out at home.

Slashfan
Really? I didn't think Jalopnik was really all the bad. Granted, they've had their moments but generally they were too bad. There are far worse reviewers than them.
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Jalopnik tends to polarize. To me it boils down to their habit of oversimplifying complex engineering concepts to appeal to a reader base that knows a whole bunch less about cars than they think they do.

Their "Everybody buy a stick-shift wagon or an MX-5" crusade is also pretty annoying.
 
Zenith
Yeah, screw that dude. I hear he just stops productivity for an entire season to just hang out at home.



Jalopnik tends to polarize. To me it boils down to their habit of oversimplifying complex engineering concepts to appeal to a reader base that knows a whole bunch less about cars than they think they do.
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Touche. I can't really argue with that.
 
Zenith
Jalopnik tends to polarize. To me it boils down to their habit of oversimplifying complex engineering concepts to appeal to a reader base that knows a whole bunch less about cars than they think they do.

Their "Everybody buy a stick-shift wagon or an MX-5" crusade is also pretty annoying.
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+1.

I see a lot of Jalopnik articles also posting things that get famous from a few forum posts. The problem is...they don't end up reading the whole threads, so they jump the gun on the articles.
There's probably 2 or 3 Ferrarichat related topics where Jalopnik made a story, but didn't bother looking into what really happened.
 
Zenith
Their "Everybody buy a stick-shift wagon or an MX-5" crusade is also pretty annoying.
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This is fairly annoying, and their wagon obsession is kind of odd too. But really Jalopnik is more or less reddit, if reddit was purely an automotive website.

Still doesn't prevent me from reading the site though, mainly because some times it's really slow at work and I need to read something that's not a health journal.
 
Beeblebrox237
No, I haven't. I guess he's better. If I have the money, I may get a subscription to either it or EVO when I move to the UK.
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Don't bother with Top Gear if its between those two. Evo recently had a redesign to bring it to more clean, modern standards, and the writing is on a whole different level compared to TG, which largely reads like the show these days.

Plus, the subscriber covers are gorgeous!
 
Hey, EVO has always been better. And now they've stolen Chris Harris from Autocar, they've got the best print team on the planet.

I'd love to work under their set-up, but sadly, the local EVO outlet closed up shop.
 
Consumer Reports. I admire their attempt to buy their own cars so they're not beholden to manufactuerers, but really, these liberals have no business telling anyone what car to buy. When they finally took a break from FWD-I4-slushmatic I've-given-up-on-life-mobiles and reviewed muscle cars, they (of course) took time to comment on how well-tuned the Mustang's stability control is. YOU ARE IN A MUSTANG. ON A TRACK. WHY IS THE STABILITY CONTROL EVEN ON? Additionally, they tend to regard luxury, obnoxious gadgets, and fuel economy/low emissions as the end-all, be-all measure of any car's value, with very little attention paid to performance.
 
niky
Hey, EVO has always been better. And now they've stolen Chris Harris from Autocar, they've got the best print team on the planet.
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Harris hasn't been at Evo for about two or three years now ;)

He's back with Haymarket, writing for Pistonheads. And obviously the Drive stuff. Still, Evo's writing team is pretty formidable.

White & Nerdy
Consumer Reports. I admire their attempt to buy their own cars so they're not beholden to manufactuerers, but really, these liberals have no business telling anyone what car to buy. When they finally took a break from FWD-I4-slushmatic I've-given-up-on-life-mobiles and reviewed muscle cars, they (of course) took time to comment on how well-tuned the Mustang's stability control is. YOU ARE IN A MUSTANG. ON A TRACK. WHY IS THE STABILITY CONTROL EVEN ON? Additionally, they tend to regard luxury, obnoxious gadgets, and fuel economy/low emissions as the end-all, be-all measure of any car's value, with very little attention paid to performance.
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While Consumer Reports isn't brilliant from an entertainment perspective (a parody website once described their editor as "Editor in chief of reviewing cars like a toaster"), I fear you may be missing the point of them a little.

Clue's in the name: Consumer Reports. It's not in any way aimed at the enthusiasts. And as such, "FWD-I4-slushmatic I've-given-up-on-life-mobiles" are actually what most buyers want to buy. See: Camry. Ditto reviewing Mustangs with the stability control on. Most people are, in effect, morons. So organizations like Consumer Reports need to ensure safety systems are capable of minimizing the idiocy of the people who buy cars.

Any fool can tell you a Mustang is fast, but CR isn't really doing its journalistic duty if it isn't testing the more mundane features of the car like safety systems, trunk space or whether your back hurts after eight hours at the wheel.
 
Harris ain't in print, anymore? Awww. As EVO's local outlet has closed, I only buy their mags rarely, though I do catch it online. Hard to justify spending four times the cover price of the local version for an import from the UK.

-

While I've issue with some of what Consumer Reports does, like the Lexus stability control issue, and the way their survey is set up (they really should separate "reliability" issues from "annoyances" like squeaky brakes!) they really do try to hit their target market square on. Their annuals are a good information resource, and they are very consistent and methodical in their approach towards cars.

Much of what we do in the COTY testing and awards is similar in approach to what CR does. And enthusiasts are similarly at odds with the results of our yearly competition, but enthusiasts are not the primary market of the awards. Consumers are.
 
homeforsummer
*defending CR or something*
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I haven't actually mentioned the worst of it. First of all, they nominated the Toyota Prius as the best family car you can buy. Even though it's significantly worse than Toyota's own Corolla (with which it shares a market segment) in nearly every way except that all-important fuel economy and emissions... and it costs as much as some Camries IIRC so that fuel economy isn't going to do you much good. Unless the government pays you back or something, in which case you're officially contributing more than you otherwise would to out already-hopeless national debt.

Then they complained about the Ford F-150's stability control allowing the truck to understeer (I'd hate to see how bad a car has to be before CR says it understeers). Yes ladies and gentlemen, in the least shocking piece of news ever, a pickup truck actually understeers when driven quickly. It's just a CPU box, CR, it can't allow the truck to magically violate the laws of physics.

Modern cars are becoming more & more joyless, and CR with their almost-complete refusal to admit that enjoyment of driving is not evil, is part of the problem.

Their one redeeming feature is that they are, at least, good at sorting out the bum products - the ones that can't even be counted on to not kill you.

The sad part is, it's not that easy to find a magazine that doesn't rely on press samples AND doesn't treat cars like the fridges and washing machines they also review.
 
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White & Nerdy
Modern cars are becoming more & more joyless, and CR with their almost-complete refusal to admit that enjoyment of driving is not evil, is part of the problem.
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First: how many modern cars have you driven?

Second: CR doesn't approach the topic of driving enjoyment because the vast majority of their target audience doesn't care. Yet unsurprisingly, this is too complex an idea for you to grasp.

The sad part is, it's not that easy to find a magazine that doesn't rely on press samples AND doesn't treat cars like the refridgerators and washing machines they also review.
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It actually really is. The only serious threat posed to the enthusiast magazines these days (other than appealing to an already-niche market) is digital media. I believe EVO, for example, now shifts more of their digital copies than regular.
 
White & Nerdy
I haven't actually mentioned the worst of it. First of all, they nominated the Toyota Prius as the best family car you can buy. Even though it's significantly worse than Toyota's own Corolla (with which it shares a market segment) in nearly every way except that all-important fuel economy and emissions... and it costs as much as some Camries IIRC so that fuel economy isn't going to do you much good. Unless the government pays you back or something, in which case you're officially contributing more than you otherwise would to out already-hopeless national debt.
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Have you driven a modern Corolla?

Have you driven a third generation Prius?

Have you driven a brand-new Camry?

The Corolla has spongy brakes, a terrible suspension and terrible steering. It's tinny. The footwells are oddly shaped and the plastics are horrible. (Though the recent facelift fixed the plastics).

The Prius is much quieter, much better balanced, has more front and rear seat legroom (except where the center console spreads out) and a big hatch out back. It's also quieter than the Camry, and offers around the same mid-range performance as the four-cylinder, though it may be slower off the line.

The hybrid system means it goes further between gas station stops, can sit at stoplights with the engine off (less vibration) and it goes longer between oil changes and brake pad changes.

It's not great at saving money unless you do a lot of miles a year, but given US tax breaks, it's a perfectly fine family car to buy. It certainly isn't the most fun to drive, but that's not because it's a Prius, it's because it's a Toyota.

White & Nerdy
Then they complained about the Ford F-150's stability control allowing the truck to understeer (I'd hate to see how bad a car has to be before CR says it understeers). Yes ladies and gentlemen, in the least shocking piece of news ever, a pickup truck actually understeers when driven quickly. It's just a CPU box, CR, it can't allow the truck to magically violate the laws of physics.
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The AdvanceTrac system on the Ford Explorer prevents snow-plowing understeer. Ford's stability control has the ability to brake each tire separately, to trim a vehicle's attitude. If the F150's system doesn't do the same, then they have every right to report it doesn't do what every other Ford system does.

White & Nerdy
Modern cars are becoming more & more joyless, and CR with their almost-complete refusal to admit that enjoyment of driving is not evil, is part of the problem.
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Have you ever read Consumer Reports from cover to cover? They note in many reviews whether a car is fun to drive, or has good handling and acceleration. Their reviews aren't as sterile and joyless as you believe. Just very technical and loaded with detail.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...s/mazdaspeed3-review/14684540001/71169599001/

Oh... look... they like the Mazda3! How awful! Because it's not a Corolla. And they're testing a Mazdaspeed3, to boot! How bourgeious, how irresponsible!

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...f-mustang-vs-camaro/14644277001/594183805001/

Videotaping pony cars? Blasphemy! And drifting, to boot. Shame. Shame.

Honestly. You should actually... I don't know... research and possibly read things before you judge them.

Just because CR looks at reliability, fuel economy and safety, doesn't mean they don't report on the finer aspects of motoring. They just don't concentrate on it like enthusiast-based magazines do.
 
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Steve Sutcliffe of Autocar, but in person (see Youtube), as admittedly haven't read him in print. "Smug" doesn't even come close, and just a personal thing but he pronounces Porsche "Porsh", which I know a lot (most?) people do, but I like the way most journos seem to make a point of pronouncing it correctly/fully.

I have tons of time for Chris Harris, he's great. The Top Gear boys are just daft (again I don't read the mag) but very entertaining. Clarkson is just a bit too anti-eco though and also has a habit of mispronouncing a lot of words/names (Prius and Barrichello come to mind).
 

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