car Magazine

[satanboy]

I bought the car magazine for years until I noticed that they were biased. Hardly ever was there a negative thing said about any vehicle.

Today while watching the Ignition channel I almost fell off the couch laughing. A number of vehicle journalists were giving feedback about the new Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. Everyone hated it and had lots of negative things to say, on comes the car magazine journalist. He loved it and said he would definitely buy one, but the manual not the auto (only neg in his review). What a joke.

Any views on this?

 

[Chevron]

I bought the car magazine for years until I noticed that they were biased. Hardly ever was there a negative thing said about any vehicle.

Today while watching the Ignition channel I almost fell off the couch laughing. A number of vehicle journalists were giving feedback about the new Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. Everyone hated it and had lots of negative things to say, on comes the car magazine journalist. He loved it and said he would definitely buy one, but the manual not the auto (only neg in his review). What a joke.

Any views on this?

I'm holding the latest in front of me and almost every review has a pros and cons section and their car guide which lists all cars does the same.

I think they're being more professional the way they do it. Any adult anyway can tell from what a person doesn't say that something is wrong. Rants are usually reserved for brats on the internet.

 

[satanboy]

...
Any adult anyway can tell from what a person doesn't say that something is wrong. ....

That is not good enough for a publication.

Rants are usually reserved for brats on the internet.

I hope this isn't aimed at me, as this wasn't even close to one.

 

[Chevron]

That is not good enough for a publication.

Have you even open a magazine?

Every review has a section called "pros and cons" "advantages and disadvantages" "good and bad".

I hope this isn't aimed at me, as this wasn't even close to one.

Not this time, more to highlight how immature some people can be.

 

[satanboy]

Have you even open a magazine?...

As I said I read this magazine YEARS AGO. So no, I haven't opened one recently (+5 years).

 

[Rickster]

They arnt being bias, if X people (journalists) dont like it then it just happens that the Pajero didnt appeal to them.

And if the guy from the car mag liked it then it appealed to him, its got nothing to do with being bias. Its their opinion.

 

[Chevron]

They arnt being bias, if X people (journalists) dont like it then it just happens that the Pajero didnt appeal to them.

And if the guy from the car mag liked it then it appealed to him, its got nothing to do with being bias. Its their opinion.

Yeah. When it comes to cars there's lots that's personal preference.

 

[Quantum Theory]

Car mag is very biased. It was when Hannes was editor. Not sure if things have changed since Steve took over. I don't read magazines anymore...

 

[Fazda]

Car mag is very biased. It was when Hannes was editor. Not sure if things have changed since Steve took over. I don't read magazines anymore...

Hopefully things have changed - I requested Hannes to make changes on the Subaru spec section for close to three years, and nothing was done - they had a Subaru Forester listed as a 4x2, and they had service intervals of 12500 and a 60 000 service plan which was totally wrong.

They also tested the XV and pulled it to bits, ignoring any positives about the car - and Hannes simply said that he didn't like the car, so wasn't going to write something decent about a Subaru that wasn't a WRX or STi.

A magazine like theirs should write objective reviews, and not subjective ones, and they certainly don't seem to have worked that one out.

Any regular reader of Car will also see that there is a Porsche road test in almost every edition, whilst they claim lack of space/time for more "ordinary" cars...

 

[Gulio]

Ignition is crrrrap

 

[Inviter]

What other GOOD options are there besides CAR? More so on the back pages of all car specs

 

[Fazda]

What other GOOD options are there besides CAR? More so on the back pages of all car specs

It was the specs at the back that I was fighting about for nearly 3 years! If they were totally incorrect for Subaru (particularly on maintenance and fuel consumption where they chose to print the consumption of the turbo which was about 12% higher than the rest of the range, and then say that ALL models were heavy on gas, which is a straight out lie) - what about the other cars?

Did they only choose Subaru to stuff up, or are there massive errors on every other brand except their favourites?

I know for a fact that we have lost sales because of Car's quoted fuel consumption!

 

[Gaz{M}]

I don't need a magazine to tell me if they like the car or not. The way I see it is that these guys have been completely spoiled to drive hundreds of fancy cars over the years. If you've driven top end BMW's, Audi's, Merc's and exotics, then obviously a little hot hatch isn't going to set your pulse racing.

Instead, I need a magazine that gives all the technical data, so I can go out and test drive the ones that appeal to me. When I read an article, I already have a "strong opinion" about the car in question. Car is without question the most comprehensive magazine for technical data. All the others are light on stats and heavy on opinion and artistic licence.

For interests sake, car magazine is in love with BMW and certain other brands - they can do no wrong. So take their BMW reviews with a pinch of salt.

 

[Chevron]

I don't need a magazine to tell me if they like the car or not. The way I see it is that these guys have been completely spoiled to drive hundreds of fancy cars over the years. If you've driven top end BMW's, Audi's, Merc's and exotics, then obviously a little hot hatch isn't going to set your pulse racing.

Instead, I need a magazine that gives all the technical data, so I can go out and test drive the ones that appeal to me. When I read an article, I already have a "strong opinion" about the car in question. Car is without question the most comprehensive magazine for technical data. All the others are light on stats and heavy on opinion and artistic licence.

For interests sake, car magazine is in love with BMW and certain other brands - they can do no wrong. So take their BMW reviews with a pinch of salt.

have you actually read any of reviews? They review cars according to class and compare cars to others in the class.

Sometimes it's like you guys read one issue 5 years ago and let that form your opinion.

 

[SauRoNZA]

All magazines that have advertisements in them are biased...how else do you think they get money to publish?

The only magazines that can't be biased are the ones that don't take ads from the same people they write content for/about.

 

[Fazda]

have you actually read any of reviews? They review cars according to class and compare cars to others in the class.

Sometimes it's like you guys read one issue 5 years ago and let that form your opinion.

Did you read what I had to say?

The Editor of Car admitted in a letter to me that he didn't like the car personally, so couldn't actually give a damn how poor the road test was - this is Subjectivity - something that Car is very good at!

As for technical stats - you possibly didn't read that either - if they write utter trash about a car that you know, how can you believe the rest of their stats?

 

[Maverick Jester]

Agreed with Fazda. Car magazine has been putting out subjective reviews for years. It's why I stopped reading them (that, and the now frankly ridiculous price of the magazine). Still buy it once a year for the annual performance shootout.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Agreed with Fazda. Car magazine has been putting out subjective reviews for years. It's why I stopped reading them (that, and the now frankly ridiculous price of the magazine). Still buy it once a year for the annual performance shootout.

How will reviews ever not be subjective? There can be objective things they take into consideration (output, fuel efficiency etc.) but the interpretation and experience of these will still be subjective.

But I think there is a limit where obvious bias can be spotted.

 

[Maverick Jester]

How will reviews ever not be subjective? There can be objective things they take into consideration (output, fuel efficiency etc.) but the interpretation and experience of these will still be subjective.

But I think there is a limit where obvious bias can be spotted.

Agreed, but it's the obvious bias that is too easily spotted in their reviews.

 

[Fazda]

How will reviews ever not be subjective? There can be objective things they take into consideration (output, fuel efficiency etc.) but the interpretation and experience of these will still be subjective.

But I think there is a limit where obvious bias can be spotted.

I agree that nothing can be totally objective, however, in my direct dealings with them, they actually don't seem to care about objectivity when it comes to certain makes that they don't like.