Car review bias

[tazzieman]

Well I guess this is how the world works , I tend to skip over new car reviews these days.

 

 

"A few — or more than a few — would never say anything bad about a car, because they wanted to keep getting free cars to drive," says Jim Mateja, the Chicago Tribune's car reviewer from 1970 until March 2010. 

In truth, few reviewers, nearly all of whom are freelancers, could make a living without free cars from carmakers. In return they're saddled with a big-ticket version of the freebie ethics problem that comes with all consumer product reviewing, whether of cars, travel, outdoor gear, wines, fashion or home furnishings. In the case of cars, automakers subsidize reviews not to promote good journalism, but simply because reviews have proven more effective and cheaper than ads at motivating customers to buy, according to Heiler, the veteran car publicist. Since the auto industry realized this shortly after World War II, he adds, car reviewing "has evolved into one of the most powerful marketing tools for one of the most powerful industries on the planet." 

Hmm. So while car reviewers like to see themselves as independent critics, carmakers see them as pawns, or maybe knights, in their marketing campaigns. And the freebies seem to help: An informal survey of several hundred reviews for this article found that reviewers who take carmaker freebies sang the praises of nine out of 10 cars while Consumer Reports, which doesn't, praises just two out of three. Freebie-takers also tend to shy away from such questions as whether a car is likely to prove reliable or is worth its price, matters on which Consumer Reports routinely weighs in. Lifetime ownership costs, emissions, safety and theft rates often go unnoted by freebie-takers, too, especially if the results are bad.

 

Anyway , for reference http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=5141

 

I'd read a Choice car review article though...

[SteveT]

A few years ago I was buying a new motorbike and was studying reviews to try to work out what to get. In the end I actually emailed the late Greg Wootton (AMCN editor) and asked are all the bikes really that good. He replied that in the main brands they in fact were. Not sure about the honesty of his answer but I enjoyed riding what I ended up buying (Suzuki SV650S)

[tungatina64]

that would be Ken Wootton.....straight down the line bloke and he would have provided you with his honest thoughts.

[SteveT]

Oops, yes Ken. I knew as I was typing that something didn't seem right!