Do motoring journalists actually drive the cars they review?

Stoke

Is there any point to motoring journalism anymore? I imagine most reviews are biased beyond rational belief and those that aren't are heavily influenced by how much money exchanges hands.

The best place to find out about cars is the internet. There's a plethora of personal knowledge and experiences, right at your finger tips.

thescouselander

Horizon81 wrote: »

They'll be on backhanders to say how awesome certain cars are, then there's personal bias. Take it all with a pinch of salt.

Yes, I definately agree with that - especially when it comes to reviews involving BMWs. Not that BMWs aren't excellent cars (I've even owned one) but to always say something like the 3 series is best in class, as seems to happen so often, when competition is very good does seem a bit suspect.

Stoke

thescouselander wrote: »

Yes, I definately agree with that - especially when it comes to reviews involving BMWs. Not that BMWs aren't excellent cars (I've even owned one) but to always say something like the 3 series is best in class, as seems to happen so often, when competition is very good does seem a bit suspect.

I'm surprised at how much positivity BMW gets.

forgotmyname

Same as buying an iron from Argos, some reviews said it was very light and some said ity was very heavy???

Which one is it? I did wonder if it was light before they added the water and then it was heavy?

Similar issues with the super wonderful best engine in the world the Ford 1L ecoboost. They raved about the torque from such a little engine then a very brief and hope you miss it mention that fully loaded the car struggled on the hills.
So the torque is lacking then???

bigjl

thescouselander wrote: »

Yes, I definately agree with that - especially when it comes to reviews involving BMWs. Not that BMWs aren't excellent cars (I've even owned one) but to always say something like the 3 series is best in class, as seems to happen so often, when competition is very good does seem a bit suspect.

I remember when TopGear reviewed the Mondeo and reckoned it was every bit as good as the 3 Series.

Or maybe that is just my memory.

I personally think the mk3 Mondeo was better than the 3 Series of the time and the Mk4 Mondeo was also one of the best cars in that segment.

WellKnownSid

Volkswagen have been the darling of the motoring press for years. Even against a £500,000 V12 Mercedes, every journo will happily explain how they prefer the latest Golf L.

arcon5

How have you measured the size of your sat nav screen?

AdrianC

Horizon81 wrote: »

Agreed. Who is this guy?! I've never seen such poppycock randomly spouted on every post (apart from DM of course). Sounds like a non-native.

Even DM would be embarrassed. I think it's a particularly poor AI bot.

patman99

Well, TheScouslander, why not set up a blog and write your own reviews. You might even be able to make some money from it.

jase1

None of what the motoring press say has anything to do with the respective advertising budgets of the manufacturers involved. That would be a slanderous accusation.