Friday 23rd August 2002

Spin Doctors and Lap Dogs

Car makers are controlling media output says Robert Farago

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[Podie]

An interesting and well written article. As someone who works in the industry (albeit not for GM) it is amazing how many parallels are true in other motor manufacturers.

[danger mouse]

yep Podie, I agree entirely. Very wel written and relevent Rob.

I was going to post today on a similar suject myself anyway.

From my usual bog-time reading matter (in this case CAR)it seems to me, if your companies intials are FMC or GM you can pretty much take anone elses ideas, wait a couple of years, and say they were yours.

The new saab 9-3, not unsexy if utterly predictable new comer to the GM vectra-clone clan, has passive rear wheel steer provided by "ford-style Control-blade" rear suspension. As if ford's focus was the first car to ever has such a system.

I think it totally unfair on the engineering teams that worked,probably cocurrently on the Citroen ZX and ED9 Honda civic platforms, that just because their respective companies don't have the clout to argue with the big boys, they have to just roll and let others take credit for all their good work. It just sucks!

Now looking on the CDN Website, it seem ford is doing it again, but even more aggressively. Ok Mazda was never really percieved as a ground breaking company (certainly not PH material), but like all the jap builders it was innovative. Wankle engines anyone (don't say NSU, mazda's actually worked!). Now under the ownership of FoMoCo, they are being sat on. Ford say it is to allow Mazda to bring more relevent products to the euro market. With the new demio or 1 as it will be called, how do the intend to do this? Well by taking what was an innovative concept (High sided, high capacity mini MPV), and do absolutley nothing with it. To let the market catch up!

Are Ford just trying to teach Mazda a thing or two about timing and markets, or are they pulling the age old stunt of bringing your enemies close and bringing them down fom within?

Mouse.

www.cardesignnews.com

[double clutch]

I agree with the previous authors and would add that the situation is an order of magnitude worse in the US. I've read some of the Brit mags and what they have to say when they review a car and they seem to call the shots a lot better than their US counterparts. In the US, there is no publication known that will say a car is bad if it's indeed bad. One paritcular magazine has gone on record as saying that "Really, there are no bad cars made these days." Relative to what??? And these people are supposed to be car-critics? My example pertains to a simple car test article, who knows what they are, or are not, telling us as far as news is concerned? For this reason, I have refused to subscribe to any US auto magazines.

I can not agree more with the last sentence in this article, but the cynic inside says that things won't change because money (and gifts) will always speak the loudest.

[danmangt40]

dbl cltch- I'm sorry, you're judging the whole of the us auto mags by the ones who are clearly bought out. Ever wonder why motor trend seems to get "inside info" all the time, regardless of whether it's accurate 2 or 3 years later? It might have something to do with the fact that the motor trend car of the year is never labeled what it actually is, the DOMESTIC car of the year. But they never say that on the commercials, now do they. Road and Track has been less of a sell-out, but I'll be derned if I've seen a negative review from any of their pages in the last 5 years. Automobile has very poor formatting,(where is the comparison test structure? Even Road and Track has one, albeit a really screwy one) but TRULY excellent writing, and should be considered "reading for the automotive enthusiast", if not a true evaluation mag. Autoweek's faults are in its constant misquotes, but it always lists corrections right at the end of its news section, which has got to be the reason anyone subscribes. Short of the internet, its the quickest way I get info about the auto industry. (The british mag I subscribe to, Autocar, which is a fantastic mag that delivers a shocking amount of content on a weekly basis, generally arrives late enough per issue that I've already heard most of its "news" content). However, Car and Driver is flawless. Sure, there is something conspicuous of the way that BMW seems to win its comparison tests with regularity, but they make note of their strange continuous stream of superiority, and never seem to be any more positive in their writing, especially about bmw than autocar or top Gear, some of British mags you seem to believe have SOOOO much more integrity.
Car and Driver also seems to be able to show appreciation across a wide range of values, never giving the minivan awards to the hot rod of the bunch, whereas the british mags show a much narrower, harder view, always prejudiced against a car that doesn't work in their market or make the british auto industry look good. Tvr's are brilliant, sure, but c'mon now. They way they hold them on such a pedestal while claiming something like a corvette and viper are so dramatically inferior is ludicrous. I simply don't buy it. If you really think Car is the best mag out there, that's fine. But if you really think its worth more than twice the newsstand price of Car and Driver, then I pity your empty pockets.

[danmangt40]

oh, and about that comment about there being no bad cars anymore, well, that's more true than anyone would like to admit. How bad is a hyundai tiburon or xg300? not that bad. What about the bad wrap that nissan has shaken from 4-6 years ago when they had that weird old dude and dog on their commercials, but no sports cars. 350Z, altima, new infiniti models, all brilliant. Hell, even economy cars are doing great. Look how much better the focus is than the old escorts. a lot of people didn't like the f-bodies. They're gone now. Content sells, and its been that way long enough now that everything on sale really is that much better than what was for sale a full set of model cycles ago.

[ChrisD]

About german auto magazines I can only say: Especially when it comes to the more sporty (meaning more than 150 HP engine power) models, magazines use superlatives as if they got literally paid for. It's definitely hard to compare high performance cars by reading the magazines - even a BMW Z3 seems to offer mind-boggling acceleration, race-car-like handling characteristics and the like. The only exception I can name is SportAuto, evaluating the truely relevant stats (laptimes on Nürburgring and Hockenheimring, max. G, Downforce at 200km/h, etc.), but on the other hand they skip "normal" testing completely.