Are these Vloggers just a scam? SOL or Shmee etc? (Vol 2)
Discussion
TheAngryDog said:
Seems Audi are giving out Audi R8s to various youtubers. Queen B and JayEmm appear to have one currently...
The R8 is struggling and most likely will be killed off in a couple years so I guess giving it to influencers is the last ditch effort to entice "new money" kids to buy one. KHK said:
TheAngryDog said:
Seems Audi are giving out Audi R8s to various youtubers. Queen B and JayEmm appear to have one currently...
The R8 is struggling and most likely will be killed off in a couple years so I guess giving it to influencers is the last ditch effort to entice "new money" kids to buy one. KHK said:
The R8 is struggling and most likely will be killed off in a couple years so I guess giving it to influencers is the last ditch effort to entice "new money" kids to buy one.
A YouTuber being loaned a car really gives me no urge to buy one. If they went and bought it with their own money then maybe. Truckosaurus said:
And is it any different to Evo/The Autocar/CAR/TopGear magazines being given similar long term test cars? And they'll only write a couple of paragraphs a month on the car.
That's a fair question. I'd say it is because those guys would be happy to say a car wasn't good if it genuinely wasn't. I've never seen a YouTuber not "love" their car when they've been loaned it.The only time I've seen it is when Seen Through Glass got an M4 and just hated it.
Motoring journalists (generally) seem more objective than your average YouTubers, who seem more concerned with not saying anything that might offend manufacturers and get in the way of being allocated the next freebie. The last one was Hyundai and I thought they were all buying one as their ''next daily driver''? Mind you, we're only really talking about a relatively small group who's videos all pretty much repeat the same old guff anyway. Thankfully, there's plenty of alternatives.
Good to see Dan's Integra coming back together with a proper cage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCm_3eF1MYE
Good to see Dan's Integra coming back together with a proper cage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCm_3eF1MYEEdited by 1602Mark on Wednesday 17th July 06:56
Related to the often repeated point about how influencers by and large only say positive things because they want to be invited back, Chris Harris and Dickie Meaden were talking about this on the latest Collecting Cars podcast (episode 7).
Chris seems to reckon the time for this will come to an end and soon they'll have to start being more honest, as people want to know what the cars are actually like. There was also an interesting point about how he'd feel guilty for effectively lying to people, and would rather be honest to someone who's actually putting their own money in to buying a car and deal with upsetting the PR/marketing people at the car company than the other way round.
Chris seems to reckon the time for this will come to an end and soon they'll have to start being more honest, as people want to know what the cars are actually like. There was also an interesting point about how he'd feel guilty for effectively lying to people, and would rather be honest to someone who's actually putting their own money in to buying a car and deal with upsetting the PR/marketing people at the car company than the other way round.
StevenRugg said:
Related to the often repeated point about how influencers by and large only say positive things because they want to be invited back, Chris Harris and Dickie Meaden were talking about this on the latest Collecting Cars podcast (episode 7).
Chris seems to reckon the time for this will come to an end and soon they'll have to start being more honest, as people want to know what the cars are actually like. There was also an interesting point about how he'd feel guilty for effectively lying to people, and would rather be honest to someone who's actually putting their own money in to buying a car and deal with upsetting the PR/marketing people at the car company than the other way round.
But here’s the rub. 90% of them wouldn’t know what a good car is. Most have zero credentials. What makes a great car for ‘most’ Fast, looks good. If do they are qualified. If I. Serious about a performance car I’m off to see what Harris and his ilk have to say. Chris seems to reckon the time for this will come to an end and soon they'll have to start being more honest, as people want to know what the cars are actually like. There was also an interesting point about how he'd feel guilty for effectively lying to people, and would rather be honest to someone who's actually putting their own money in to buying a car and deal with upsetting the PR/marketing people at the car company than the other way round.
Some quite open discussion by AHR with SOL in his latest video about how much each of the cars was bought and sold for. A bit more comprehensive than in previous videos: https://youtu.be/atgtkeL4LxM
Burwood said:
But here’s the rub. 90% of them wouldn’t know what a good car is. Most have zero credentials. What makes a great car for ‘most’ Fast, looks good. If do they are qualified. If I. Serious about a performance car I’m off to see what Harris and his ilk have to say.
What makes someone qualified to be a good car reviewer? Most "proper" journos have english degrees, not engineering degrees, and trust me when I say a lot of the established magazine journalists I've driven with on events, really aren't that great behind the wheel.This means the best form of "qualifications" is a wide array of experience with a large number of cars, along with a passion for the subject. Automotive vloggers at least have this. I agree some of them are overly positive about everything, but also who's really making a bad car these days?
SL22 said:
Some quite open discussion by AHR with SOL in his latest video about how much each of the cars was bought and sold for. A bit more comprehensive than in previous videos: https://youtu.be/atgtkeL4LxM
Really enjoyed this video. I wish Paul was a bit more like this all the time.I do often wonder how they attract buyers to come and pay more for the cars they own such as Paul's Gallardo, Archie's Corvette and especially Paul's AMG GT S, I literally have no idea who'd pay more for the car, he butchered it with the Renntech mods, even Tony said the car was undriveable.
Edited by AlexNJ89 on Wednesday 17th July 22:25
Sod supercars and people doing up broken/burnt supercars, what you need is two slightly unhinged chaps converting a 1980s mobile library into a car transporter,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HXSigszx5w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HXSigszx5w
Burwood said:
But here’s the rub. 90% of them wouldn’t know what a good car is. Most have zero credentials. What makes a great car for ‘most’ Fast, looks good. If do they are qualified. If I. Serious about a performance car I’m off to see what Harris and his ilk have to say.
Yep totally agree with this. I can't think of a vlogger who's opinion on dynamics I would take any note of. There's only really Catchpole who will criticise but he does it in such a nice way he's the only one that manages to give objective information that might not all be positive and still gets press invites. The whole car media system is broken and as I've previously commented on here we are now in a world where a lot id the vloggers/jurnos have never actually driven a proper car with no or hydraulic steering/none servo brakes etc. None of them really demonstrate any car control skills and few get the cars for anything other than a snatched half hour.
Some of the cars that get hyped up are really not that good but will have had the likes of Chris Harris bursting a blood vessel about how great they are. When I first drove a Cayman R and later a GT4 that's when the penny dropped for me that 99% off reviews are just sticking up to the manufacturers. 2 examples there of cars that are "OK" but yet both enjoy god like status despite being a bit meh really.
The media is good for showing us how shiny things are but is also enabling manufacturers to get away with producing ever more boring cars.
E36Dan said:
Cheers Mark, although I just replied to you (I think) on YouTube asking you to man up. No hard feelings 
I'd be fricking pissed if I went to collect my car and it had 4 ton of scrap badly welded into it though.
Hoonigan still putting up some cool stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osqWG2jnawc
Edited by 1602Mark on Thursday 18th July 06:45
fridaypassion said:
Burwood said:
But here’s the rub. 90% of them wouldn’t know what a good car is. Most have zero credentials. What makes a great car for ‘most’ Fast, looks good. If do they are qualified. If I. Serious about a performance car I’m off to see what Harris and his ilk have to say.
Some of the cars that get hyped up are really not that good but will have had the likes of Chris Harris bursting a blood vessel about how great they are. When I first drove a Cayman R and later a GT4 that's when the penny dropped for me that 99% off reviews are just sticking up to the manufacturers. 2 examples there of cars that are "OK" but yet both enjoy god like status despite being a bit meh really. The media is good for showing us how shiny things are but is also enabling manufacturers to get away with producing ever more boring cars.
Autocar still tests cars in the same way they always did - and ranks competitive cars. The Carwow videos give judgements and rankings as well as showing a lot of detail. Harry's real world reviews do exactly that. And vloggers such as Shmee provide a great deal of information while entertaining the masses with a small window into their lives.
What's your idea of a good car and what do you want to know about new cars? Most of us rarely if ever drive a car at its limits so seeing Harris drift is more entertaining than informative. But there is generally widespread agreement about whether particular cars are good to drive - for example, Alpine, M2 Comp and as you say GT4 good, Alfa 4C a rare disappointment.
Incidentally you don't have to get too far up the car food chain for today's cars to get far too powerful to fully exploit on UK roads (who can actually use 600 plus bhp?) So the things that contribute to their wow factor are a more important part of their make-up than what they are like to drive.
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