Are American Motoring Journalists too forgiving?

[Luciferous]

I've noticed a lot within UCP (particularly on the Car Comparisons Forums) that there seems to be a problem when comparing US cars to European cars. The US cars seem to be rated just fine when in the US, but when removed the International journo's sometimes get a bit nasty.

This leads to 2 different points of view that often collides when US users and European users talk about American cars. Since every car from America obviously isn't changed to be made worse everytime it gets exported or whatever, what can we put this rift in opinions down to?

I personally put it down to maybe the American Journalists are too forgiving with the cars, so that the people in the US might not get the best idea of the car. This can be seen in the saga of the C6 vs the 997. One car got all positive marks in the US, but once removed, was found lacking in some areas. This led to pages and pages of an argument which most of us know about.

What do you guys think?

PS I'm trying to be objective and find where all these arguments are coming from, so try and be objective in your thinking too.

[Matra et Alpine]

First point is that there are often entirely different setups for the casr in the US and elsewhere. So both can be right.

Secondly, especially British journalists are about finding what is WRONG and aiming for the jugular. So write-ups tend to be VERY scathing. If the reader is 'sensitive' to the car in question it can be upsetting.

Third, Clarkson and Top Gear is what most folsk see/read. They're NOT the best and JC has led them to a VERY attacking style of write-up. Again not easy for the sensitive readers. BUT FUNNY

Finally, America as a population is obsessed with statistics and figures over opinion. So a baseball batter isn't takljed about the grace of his swing or the quality of the action, but about the batting average to 3 decimal places. So most of a report takes the measurements as the basis of a write-up. So a car with .01 better rating on the skid pan g-meter gets a more positive writeup on its handling. 0.1s faster on the 1/4 mile gets better performance quoted. The loss of subjective comment versus the comments backed up by objective measures ( even those measure mean next to nothing )

Jsut my 4 cents worth to kick this off.

This is gonna be a good thread

[Luciferous]

I think your right with the way the cars are tested. I can't see a real point for the skid pad test beyond it sounds really cool to say that your car can generate X amount of G-forces. But its what the Yanks want so I guess they're happy.

I'll admit the British journo's do get pretty brutal, but your are right in that it provides a hell of a laugh sometimes.

[Matra et Alpine]

no sitting on the fenceLuciferous - nice attempt to start the fight and then retire

What about Aussie journalists, I've never read any of them. In afact never even seen adn Aussie mag. So how do things compare between Us and Australian articles.

We're not letting you out of the ring

[fpv_gtho]

I think most magazines are more forgiving to their home grown cars, i guess you see it all the time with Wheels and Motor in respect to the Commodore and Falcon. I think its decreasing though the last couple of years with both cars becoming increasingly respected worldwide.

But i think in the case of this its to do with the different range of cars available on each respective continent. In America for instance, its all the US manufacturers, but go to Europe and you might have English, German, Italian and French manufacturers; all with different characteristics of their own etc. which might lead European journo's to rate cars differently, perhaps picking at the faults like Matra said

[charged]

Aussie jurnos arent to bad dont get weighed down by facts and figures,fairly harsh if need be.Not biased either in our last few performance cars of the year its been split between,bmw,porsche and mitsubishi.

[Luciferous]

Haha fair enough.

OK Aussie journo's tend to pretty much crucify anything that comes out of America. I think the new Corvette hit the spot well enough in a one-off test, but the Viper got an icy reception, but I suppose that was because of Chrylser America trying to be a bunch of pretentious assholes trying to hock off decade old cars for 250k AUD. I think maybe 2 were sold. The Cadillac CTS-R got an intial thumbs-up, but most cars imported from Chrylser or Ford aren't taken to nicely at all. Crappy build compared to the Japanese and Europeans, and a price that doesn't make you forgive.

The thing to remember is the Australian market has a large amount of Japanese, with the Europeans holding their own, and the local manufacturers churning out competant cars at good prices, so its a pretty concentrated cut-throat environment.

Do I think that American Journo's are too forgiving? Yeah I do. They need to be. If they weren't, the 'Buy American' mentality wouldn't have happened and so GM, Ford and Chrysler would have been screwed. The Journalists needed to be forgiving so the American cars would still be bought so the companies cold survive.

[Luciferous]

Aussie jurnos arent to bad dont get weighed down by facts and figures,fairly harsh if need be.Not biased either in our last few performance cars of the year its been split between,bmw,porsche and mitsubishi.

Even if Porsche has won something like 9 of the last 13....

Also Nissan won it once too, along with Lambo last year with the Gallardo.

[drakkie]

Do I think that American Journo's are too forgiving? Yeah I do. They need to be. If they weren't, the 'Buy American' mentality wouldn't have happened and so GM, Ford and Chrysler would have been screwed. The Journalists needed to be forgiving so the American cars would still be bought so the companies cold survive.

Dont forget the pressure from the big manufacturers.If they get a lot of neg feedback, they arent happy, and the journalist may lose his job !!! They are quite powerful so...

[Matra et Alpine]

Yeah, ONLY Top Gear would get away with doing the test drive on the City Rover thingy. Hilarious

[:Exige:]

I think if a nation is happy with a car then fine .. if another nation isnt then they should put up a valid argument. Of all the car magazines I subscribe to there is only one really biased, unproffessional one who doesnt really back up arguments and doesnt get their facts right .. "Car" magazine. Funnily, its mainly when theyre not murdering cars that they do this .. I dont even know why I subscribe anymore apart from the photography .. and Evo beats them at that most of the time. Autocar magazine seems to be the best at having an unbiased opinion .. photography isnt as good as any of the monthlys though.

[Tuscan666]

I think EVO like Porche too much tho...

[quattro_20v]

Manufacturers also often give the journos money and other joyable things to write good things about their cars... but they never say anything about that.

[PininfarinaPIMP]

Well the problem is that american journalists tell you all of th great things and none of the bad, so you buy that car and are disappointed. British journalists say whats good about the car and whats stress whats bad so people dont bitch, moan, and be subsequently disappointed with their purchase...all in all Brit journalists are purely honest.





"I dont drive fast, I fly low..."
"Guns dont kill people, dangerous minorities do..."

[Coventrysucks]

I think EVO like Porche too much tho...

Or it could just be that they make verry good cars...