Car Journo's selling out to the devil
Discussion
Been a bit of talk of Ferrari trying to bias reporting recently however I find this gem in this weeks Autocar from Steve Cropley who does his "week in cars".
TUESDAY
"A frenetic day began at Dunsfold Airfield near Guildford, home of the Top Gear test track and venue for this year's headlinauto "Masterclass". Fifteen budding motoring hacks were there to road test some cars and to hear from several speakers about the grisly inner workings of our business. Once I'd done my bit, just before 11, I had to dash 170 miles to Lotus, south or Norwich, for a 2pm press conference. Made it with half an hour to spare, thanks to the deeply impressive ground-covering abilities of a new Mercedes C220 CDI coupe, an agile and sweet-handling fastback whose computer refused to show less than 52mpg"
I never knew that car was a fantastic point to point machine. Especially at lunchtime around the M25 when things are more dependent on traffic flows than anything else. Hmmmmm.....
If you say the words in bold above in an Alan Partridge voice it is even more suspicious. Has Steve been sweetened by Mercedes Benz without him knowing it? That would be surprising considering his vast experience. Is there any clues elsewhere in the magazine? Lets roll back 24 hours from Tuesday to Monday and see what we can find
MONDAY
"Most important arrival in our car park is the one and only supercar I'd buy with my own money, if I had any. It is powered by the kind of grumbling, big cube V8 that fed my earliest fantasies, correctly front mid-mounted to drive the rear wheels. It also has the gullwing doors, a feature I have admired since my childish eye first fell on Mercedes 300SLs in photographs half a century ago. It is of course the Mercedes SLS AMG, a magnificent zero-miles edition in Magno Monza Grey, scheduled to be with us for six months. Christmas has come early already"
No no clues there, the C220 CDI must really be a fantastic A to B car in the SE of England, no £160,000 sweetners needed, nor a Ferrari team of crack mechanics and boffins.
I'd hope the Pistonheads team of journo's wouldn't stoop so low.
Andy
TUESDAY
"A frenetic day began at Dunsfold Airfield near Guildford, home of the Top Gear test track and venue for this year's headlinauto "Masterclass". Fifteen budding motoring hacks were there to road test some cars and to hear from several speakers about the grisly inner workings of our business. Once I'd done my bit, just before 11, I had to dash 170 miles to Lotus, south or Norwich, for a 2pm press conference. Made it with half an hour to spare, thanks to the deeply impressive ground-covering abilities of a new Mercedes C220 CDI coupe, an agile and sweet-handling fastback whose computer refused to show less than 52mpg"
I never knew that car was a fantastic point to point machine. Especially at lunchtime around the M25 when things are more dependent on traffic flows than anything else. Hmmmmm.....
If you say the words in bold above in an Alan Partridge voice it is even more suspicious. Has Steve been sweetened by Mercedes Benz without him knowing it? That would be surprising considering his vast experience. Is there any clues elsewhere in the magazine? Lets roll back 24 hours from Tuesday to Monday and see what we can find
MONDAY
"Most important arrival in our car park is the one and only supercar I'd buy with my own money, if I had any. It is powered by the kind of grumbling, big cube V8 that fed my earliest fantasies, correctly front mid-mounted to drive the rear wheels. It also has the gullwing doors, a feature I have admired since my childish eye first fell on Mercedes 300SLs in photographs half a century ago. It is of course the Mercedes SLS AMG, a magnificent zero-miles edition in Magno Monza Grey, scheduled to be with us for six months. Christmas has come early already"
No no clues there, the C220 CDI must really be a fantastic A to B car in the SE of England, no £160,000 sweetners needed, nor a Ferrari team of crack mechanics and boffins.
I'd hope the Pistonheads team of journo's wouldn't stoop so low.
Andy
Edited by zakelwe on Wednesday 29th June 20:34
zakelwe said:
No no clues there, the C220 CDI must really be a fantastic A to B car in the SE of England, no £160,000 sweetners needed, nor a Ferrari team of crack mechanics and boffins.
Yet another person having a pop at Ferrari for having a support crew at magazine tests and choosing to overlook the several comments about McLaren having even MORE support crew than Ferrari at all the recent twin tests.Or are we waiting for another blog from Chris Harris before we are allowed to talk about it?
Maybe Mercedes are hitting a purple patch and the propucts are deserving the praise they are attracting?
To be fair the C Class coupe has been generally well received in quite a few areas of the motoring press.
And the SLS is rather easy to fall for, it's a bit unique and seems to have a rough-neck muscle-car charm.
Following a unexpectedly good hire car experience I'm mulling over a C Class saloon right now. Merc seems to be getting it right.
To be fair the C Class coupe has been generally well received in quite a few areas of the motoring press.
And the SLS is rather easy to fall for, it's a bit unique and seems to have a rough-neck muscle-car charm.
Following a unexpectedly good hire car experience I'm mulling over a C Class saloon right now. Merc seems to be getting it right.
Matt UK said:
Maybe Mercedes are hitting a purple patch and the propucts are deserving the praise they are attracting?
To be fair the C Class coupe has been generally well received in quite a few areas of the motoring press.
And the SLS is rather easy to fall for, it's a bit unique and seems to have a rough-neck muscle-car charm.
Following a unexpectedly good hire car experience I'm mulling over a C Class saloon right now. Merc seems to be getting it right.
Are Mercedes Benz paying you off too? To be fair the C Class coupe has been generally well received in quite a few areas of the motoring press.
And the SLS is rather easy to fall for, it's a bit unique and seems to have a rough-neck muscle-car charm.
Following a unexpectedly good hire car experience I'm mulling over a C Class saloon right now. Merc seems to be getting it right.
Matt UK said:
Maybe Mercedes are hitting a purple patch and the propucts are deserving the praise they are attracting?
To be fair the C Class coupe has been generally well received in quite a few areas of the motoring press.
And the SLS is rather easy to fall for, it's a bit unique and seems to have a rough-neck muscle-car charm.
Following a unexpectedly good hire car experience I'm mulling over a C Class saloon right now. Merc seems to be getting it right.
Indeed, Mercedes are back on top. They are easily the best of the big German three once again. They make excellent cars.To be fair the C Class coupe has been generally well received in quite a few areas of the motoring press.
And the SLS is rather easy to fall for, it's a bit unique and seems to have a rough-neck muscle-car charm.
Following a unexpectedly good hire car experience I'm mulling over a C Class saloon right now. Merc seems to be getting it right.
(Not that I've had the pleasure of driving any of them!)
Currently, out of the big three Mercedes Benz are currently by far and away the most appealing; visually they are IMO gorgeous, the AMG range sounds superb and gets the little kid in me all excited. BMW's latest line-up is, to my eyes at any rate, criminally dull (note, not 'awful', just dull. Awful can grow on someone. Dull doesn't.) and to be honest I just do not get Audis. At all.
Whereas a nice C63
Currently, out of the big three Mercedes Benz are currently by far and away the most appealing; visually they are IMO gorgeous, the AMG range sounds superb and gets the little kid in me all excited. BMW's latest line-up is, to my eyes at any rate, criminally dull (note, not 'awful', just dull. Awful can grow on someone. Dull doesn't.) and to be honest I just do not get Audis. At all.
Whereas a nice C63
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff