Worst motoring magazine articles

[saaby93]

I have an October 2010 Autocar. Every now and then it appears at the top of the pile.
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/fiats-2...



Fiat's £20k Elise
As you can see all they've done is photoshopped an Elise. The roof bar is still there with the same mounting points, the seats look the same, the headlights pretty much the same.
It never happened

Any others?

[Dave Hedgehog]

autocar since the beginning of time have had spurious articles about mythical cars that never appear, ever since early computers became powerful enough they have been using mock ups of said mythical cars

the 2006 RS3 lol, or S3 with shopped RS4 wheels lol

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Friday 6th June 08:25

[crostonian]

Personally I can't stand the 'Famous 5 go to Wales' type articles prevalent in Evo where the journos seem to talk about themselves more than the cars, far too public school chummy for my liking.

[danp]

Mazda mx-2 reveal:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mazda/32905/mazda-mx-...

Must be loads from autoexpress/autocar!

[Harji]

Not a particular article, but when Porsche bring out a 'new' 911 or when they have a anniversary or something you seem to get half the magazine filled up about it and writers banking themselves all over it, where for most readers it's 'meh'.
Same with when ever BMW or Audi release a new SUV type vehicle, we don't need masses of pages on it.

[Escort3500]

Pointless articles on overpriced watches in 'upmarket' car mags

[Mastodon2]

I remember one in EVO a few years back that was particularly bad, one of the journos was trying to get from John O'groats to Lands End in under 24 hours, in an R35 GT-R and there was snow in some places! It read like "I'm amazing, no one else could even dare to attempt such a feat! This car is like wrestling a greased bulldog, but I'm an amazing driver with years of writing for car mags so I can handle it!".

[Baryonyx]

EVO are particularly bad reads. They have mastered a pallid, turgid formula for writing their articles which they rarely seem to deviate from. The usual recipe is for some mention of the car, a heap of shameless self-aggrandisement and some stock superlatives. The superlative generator is cranked up depending on how much the man from Porsche is paying.

I'm trying to remember the last time they were particularly disparaging about a car, I think it was the 9-3 Aero HOT. I suspect GM weren't interested in paying for accolades, and because the Saab wasn't a £100,000 Porsche it was ripe for a slagging (for balance, and all).

[Fantuzzi]

saaby93 said:

I have an October 2010 Autocar. Every now and then it appears at the top of the pile.
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/fiats-2...



Fiat's £20k Elise
As you can see all they've done is photoshopped an Elise. The roof bar is still there with the same mounting points, the seats look the same, the headlights pretty much the same.
It never happened

Any others?

The rumour was fair play. But why not get an in house design team to make something up, its not like Abarth don't have any previous models they could have 'modernised'.

I think any thing by Tom Ford in TopGear magazine is up there for the worst, I remember reading some of his a couple of years back (it was a stocking filler, poorly chosen), they were all dire.

Escort3500 said:

Pointless articles on overpriced watches in 'upmarket' car mags

Yes! kill of the fking watch adverts and associated pretentious bullst! Stupid sunglasses, pictures of Gulf striped tts in over priced jackets, oh and Steve McQueen used in advertising of any sorts. I'll let off Paul Newman because he's awesome. And you never see him in any adverts.


But on the subject of bad 'future' cars must go to EVOs 2015 Gransport, their mock up of a midengined, lightweight Maserati was truly awful. Could you imagine the people that were responsible for the Granturismo churning out this crap!

[Baryonyx]

saaby93 said:

I have an October 2010 Autocar. Every now and then it appears at the top of the pile.
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/fiats-2...

In fairness to Autocar (it's usually a dreadful read), they did have a few scoops. They side-stepped a press embargo on photographs by having an artist produce colour sketches of the S1 Elise, they got the first pics of the mk2 Focus when a dog walker accidentally discovered a press-tent filled with cars one morning. They had a few more scoops they celebrated in a recent feature for their 25th anniversary, but I forget the other ones.

[Fantuzzi]

Gaz. said:

I stopped reading EVO after that massive u-turn on the F50 after they actually drove the bleeding thing and made me wonder what other garbage had we been served based on preconceptions & no experience of what they were writing about.

Any more info on that, it sounds interesting!

[carinaman]

saaby93 said:

I have an October 2010 Autocar. Every now and then it appears at the top of the pile.
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/fiats-2...



Fiat's £20k Elise
As you can see all they've done is photoshopped an Elise. The roof bar is still there with the same mounting points, the seats look the same, the headlights pretty much the same.
It never happened

Any others?

Well it's half right. That's the 4C isn't it?

[AJB]

I somehow found this Autoexpress article about tuning boxes the other day, which was the worst bit of motoring journalism I'd seen in a very long time. The comments beneath it all seem to be spot on.

Edited by AJB on Friday 6th June 23:36

[saaby93]

carinaman said:

Well it's half right. That's the 4C isn't it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_4C

[carinaman]

What's a 4C if it isn't an Elise? Alfa are part of the Fiat group.

I'm not defending the magazine article but it's not as though it didn't happen. They got the badge and the price wrong.

[gleeman]

Any article where they try to combine a review of the car with going somewhere, like the south of France, of a factory to collect it. I'm reading a car magazine, not a bloody holiday special.

I personally hate modern photography in car mags. I want to see what the thing looks like, not how clever the photographer is. You see to get comparative shots but they've gone - eg three cars reviewed, so you'd get three photos of the dash, side profile etc.

[gleeman]

And another thing... General BMW/Porsche love where they review some new special edition that isn't really special at all, but is just a few options added - I don't see five page spreads about a Mondeo business edition. All the latest car about the Porsche Cayman GTS is a perfect example of this.

[ceebmoj]

Fantuzzi said:

But on the subject of bad 'future' cars must go to EVOs 2015 Gransport, their mock up of a midengined, lightweight Maserati was truly awful. Could you imagine the people that were responsible for the Granturismo churning out this crap!

Sorry for the selective quote. MR2 with cut and paste Maserati stilling features?

[cologne2792]

It would also be an Auto Express article from the time of the newfangled unleaded petrol. An article written with the accent on the glaringly obvious that yielded little previously unknown to the readership and then came the clincher; The guide to determine if your car was unleaded ready:

' If it can run on unleaded there will be a specific code stamped on the inlet manifold '

All good so far but then they lose the audience by stating:

' If you don't have the correct code on the inlet manifold then the vehicle can be safely run on unleaded by swapping the inlet manifold for one that does '

Don't think I've read Auto Express since...

[Debaser]

AJB said:

I somehow found this Autoexpress article about tuning boxes the other day, which was the worst bit of motoring journalism I'd seen in a very long time. The comments beneath it all seem to be spot on.

Edited by AJB on Friday 6th June 23:35

It reads like an advert.