Auto Journalism?

[MrH]

Then why are they testing performance cars and not just minivans?

Obviously it's because nobody would watch them because the subject matter is boring as hell.  So instead we fill up the interwebs with "reviews" of cars they can't even drive hard enough get get a feel for it.

???  They do mostly test every day cars.

If I'm buying a 911 or something, I'm not going to watch The Straight Pipes and then buy one.  But they'd give me a pretty good feel of what's good and bad about driving one every day.  I'll go learn the nuances of feel by driving it myself.

[Eye of the Tiger]

I only watch Motor Trend and Mr. Regular. The majority of Youboob reviews are just ugh. Let's read the window sticker word for word and then play with the radio.

[CaminoRacer]

New car reviews are pointless, IMO. The Motortrend stuff like Roadkill, Dirt Everyday, Hot Rod Garage, etc are way more entertaining for car enthusiasts. Although IMO Roadkill has gone downhill a bit.

[cawimmer430]

Remove Before Race is also pretty good. He usually reviews AMGs, but also high-end BMWs and other cars. What I like about him is that he explains things so well in such a simple and elegant manner, and although he's AMG-biased, he will mention and criticize the faults and downsides of these cars. He's the next Chris Harris. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MsxkKoI-Hs



Love the Star Wars intro here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZa9Vc7xBps


Another cool thing about his videos - incredibly professionally filmed. The best part is is how he'd be standing next to the car he's reviewing and, when giving a history about it, the car he's specifically talking about will appear. Cleverly done, see the screenshots below, in this case a quick history of the G-Class.

[12,000 RPM]

You guys really aren't giving Savagegeese enough credit.  Dude is probably the best independent Youtuber when it comes to reviews, imo.  His underbody and chassis walkthroughs are pretty fun and unique in the genre.

Oh yea he is in the rotation. Working through the RDX review now.

Truthfully there are a good bit of decent enough ones. Maybe too many to actually watch regularly. Off the top of my head, the only channels I regularly check are savegegeese, AoA, Harry's garage, TST and Autocar. I have a MToD subscription just for Engine Masters and the motorcycle channel... the main MT guys are so shameless in shilling for free trips and cool cars it's unbearable to watch. With many of the rest (Straight Pipes, Matt Maran, some of the other big ones) they are good, but I feel like I've heard all they have to say about any car going forward.

Guy takes himself waaaaaaaaay too seriously.  It's like a corny drama every time.  Can't stand him. He sounds like he's impersonating Matthew Mcconaughey in a Lincoln commercial.  I like his editing and camera work, and his underbody shots, but that's about it.  He's terrible as an actual host.

I cut him some slack... he's hinted to as much but it's clear he grew up in an abusive household and seems to be working through some anger issues. He is more knowledgeable and goes more in depth than anyone outside of Alex Dykes so that alone makes him valuable to me.

To be totally frank though, cars have become so commoditized and iterative that reviews in general are kind of pointless. A new 911 just came out.... like the last 2 generations, everything has been dialed up by 10% and it looks about the same. You know what you're getting. Surprises in the industry are few and far between, and with the polar + sensationalist nature of the "media" in general these days you really need to wait for real world impressions from owners to come out to get anything meaningful. It's all entertainment. Truthfully all anyone needs to make any kind of left brained car purchase is a CR subscription.

[Xer0]

Guy takes himself waaaaaaaaay too seriously.  It's like a corny drama every time.  Can't stand him. He sounds like he's impersonating Matthew Mcconaughey in a Lincoln commercial.  I like his editing and camera work, and his underbody shots, but that's about it.  He's terrible as an actual host.

Yeah, production value is great, as is his knowledge, but his presentation is way too serious.

Oh man, I love it.  He's no more serious than the Alex on Autos guy and far more knowledgeable.  Plus, his presentation skills are getting better and better every review and some of the "comedy" quirks present in his earlier reviews, like the bodies in the trunk jokes, are thankfully no longer around.  His recent review the RDX was great, imo.

[FoMoJo]

I love The Straight Pipes. Such delightful, sunny and content Canadians. I also do Redline Reviews, Matt Maran Motoring, and some stuff on M/T on Demand such as Engine Masters, Hotrod Garage, and Roadkill.

Most print auto journalism is not very good. Not sure if it got worse. I remember C/D being far more biting now it's sorta dorky. M/T has always been sorta dorky/CR-ish. R&T has always been on the fringes.

I miss the magazines.  I, occasionally, glance at them on the magazine racks, but they just seem very superficial now.  Road & Track was the class of the field way back when John Bond was still in charge.  With journalists line Henry Manney III covering F1 and Geoffrey Goddard taking brilliant photos, I couldn't wait for the next edition to show up.  Car & Driver was my second choice, but not as good.

[12,000 RPM]

I think more people should take doing reviews seriously. I blame Top Gear for all the clown shit. TG was funny when I was a teenager but now that shit is boring. I wanna actually know about the car, not whether it can beat an Italian speed boat down the Amalfi coast

[BimmerM3]

To be totally frank though, cars have become so commoditized and iterative that reviews in general are kind of pointless. A new 911 just came out.... like the last 2 generations, everything has been dialed up by 10% and it looks about the same. You know what you're getting. Surprises in the industry are few and far between, and with the polar + sensationalist nature of the "media" in general these days you really need to wait for real world impressions from owners to come out to get anything meaningful. It's all entertainment. Truthfully all anyone needs to make any kind of left brained car purchase is a CR subscription.

Maybe that's my problem. Seems like 99% of what's out there is either pure speculation or super click baity. I've recently become a fan of Engineering Explained but even his video titles border on click bait sometimes.

[MX793]

I think more people should take doing reviews seriously. I blame Top Gear for all the clown shit. TG was funny when I was a teenager but now that shit is boring. I wanna actually know about the car, not whether it can beat an Italian speed boat down the Amalfi coast

There's serious yet enthusiastic, and then there's Detective Joe Friday serious.  I don't mind if you aren't cracking jokes/puns or doing donuts/powerslides, but at least crack a smile and act like you enjoy what you're doing.  Jay Leno's reviews are generally pretty serious, but I never doubt his enthusiasm.  DeMuro and Matt Marran go a little too far into the dorky, overly enthusiastic at times spectrum.  Savagegeese can seem downright gloomy at times.

[Eye of the Tiger]

One of my favorite things is fist pounding the dash board, which is unpadded plastic in most vehicles, and complaining how cheap it is. Nobody cares.

[Speed_Racer]

I don't consume as much auto news as I used to, but a lot of everyone's opinions here mirror mine.

New car news: I use Jalopnik to jump to the press releases. Or what's posted here on the Spin. I get MotorTrend but only glance thru it when I remember to bring it into the bathroom 

Car vids: Redline/Doug Demuro, Savagegeese are too drab/long winded for me.
I do like Straight Pipes because they're just having a good time together, Everyday Driver because they're locals, Petrolicious, Harry's Garage.

[BimmerM3]

I think more people should take doing reviews seriously. I blame Top Gear for all the clown shit. TG was funny when I was a teenager but now that shit is boring. I wanna actually know about the car, not whether it can beat an Italian speed boat down the Amalfi coast

I still the TG style stuff is fun when it's done right. The problem is that YTers don't have the budget to do it right.

But that's not to confuse that style of media with proper journalism.

That said, even though I got a little too joke-based at times, I miss the old news segments that they started the show with. Something like a weekly 10-20 minute video highlighting the major auto-industry stories with a few comments for each one would be great. The problem is that most YTers make each one of those stories into a 10-20 minute video.