Harry's Garage - YouTube
Discussion
Sway said:
I like the Bentayga. Used to drive past Harwoods Bentley in Pulborough daily and whilst there's some shocker specs possible the examples I'd see where surprisingly tasteful.
I'm definitely in the minority regarding the Cullinan, but I see them all the time around Goodwood. In deep navy blue, they're fooking gorgeous.
Plus, if I bought one everyone locally would just think I worked at the factory. Therefore fewer t
t points. Every little helps.
Spec is a funny thing. That green one looked nice. You'd think one in purple would be a shocker but the one I saw a while back had Tommy Iommi behind the wheel and it somehow looked spot on for an aged rocker. I'm definitely in the minority regarding the Cullinan, but I see them all the time around Goodwood. In deep navy blue, they're fooking gorgeous.
Plus, if I bought one everyone locally would just think I worked at the factory. Therefore fewer t
t points. Every little helps. I saw a Cullinan the other day driving around here and weirdly my first impression was that it seemed a bit small! I think this might stem from seeing my first Phantom. It used to be parked up in Sonning when they were first out and it just looked absolutely enormous back then. There was nothing really on UK roads that came close to it. Today there are a lot of very big cars so maybe the Cullinan didn't stand out in the same way as I was expecting.
DonkeyApple said:
Modern touchscreen stuff is going to transpire to be a defining element of this era of cars. It's utterly illogical to charge men who have never left their bedroom, never functioned in normal society with the task of designing a user interface for normal people. With many of these systems, like with satnav and other tech they exude the passive aggressive cluelessness of people with quite severe social problems. And there is often that Germanic overlay of simply not comprehending why there may be another way to do something.
IIRC on the new RR Ghost, they eschewed the touchscreen in favour of buttons as that is what the owners/buyers wanted.DonkeyApple said:
Sway said:
I like the Bentayga. Used to drive past Harwoods Bentley in Pulborough daily and whilst there's some shocker specs possible the examples I'd see where surprisingly tasteful.
I'm definitely in the minority regarding the Cullinan, but I see them all the time around Goodwood. In deep navy blue, they're fooking gorgeous.
Plus, if I bought one everyone locally would just think I worked at the factory. Therefore fewer tt points. Every little helps.
Spec is a funny thing. That green one looked nice. I'm definitely in the minority regarding the Cullinan, but I see them all the time around Goodwood. In deep navy blue, they're fooking gorgeous.
Plus, if I bought one everyone locally would just think I worked at the factory. Therefore fewer t
t points. Every little helps. M4SER said:
The end result of having all the sponsors on board is I can do videos I want to do, rather than having to cover stuff just to get more views (drag races, etc.). It makes no commercial sense to drive a Rolls Royce Shadow to the Arctic, or Testarossa to the Sahara but by having these sponsors on board, I can say bks to it and just go do it! Hence why I'm hugely grateful for their continued support.
ks to it and just go do it! Hence why I'm hugely grateful for their continued support. 
Leithen said:
DonkeyApple said:
Incidentally, in the early 90s my friend's father drove his Testarossa into one of his fields and slung a kaput sheep in it on his way home, thus disproving the need for a farmer to have an old Landie. 
If you had been at the Oban sales in the 70's you might have seen the odd Daytona, along with an occasional green faced passenger politely declining the offer of a return trip. 
monthefish said:
Leithen said:
DonkeyApple said:
Incidentally, in the early 90s my friend's father drove his Testarossa into one of his fields and slung a kaput sheep in it on his way home, thus disproving the need for a farmer to have an old Landie.
If you had been at the Oban sales in the 70's you might have seen the odd Daytona, along with an occasional green faced passenger politely declining the offer of a return trip. M4SER said:
Not keen going there after last week shenanigans! The little bit I will add, though, is many YouTubers are doing it as a business and in today's Influencer world, what might appear outlandish and a bit of a cheek, isn't seen that way in many other industries Influencers are prevalent in.
There's a long history of specialist automotive media reviewing cars and because potential buyers are often spending an awful lot of money, then need to have trust in the opinions of so called expert reviewers. That's why I, and many other what I might term old school car journos, treasure their editorial integrity above anything else. Opinions shouldn't be bought, they should come straight from the reviewer's experience, without any monetary interference.
Back in evo days, there was often the dreaded Advertorial to have to deal with, which always grated with editorial. The money was often great, though, so if one came along I'd always do my best to make it of value to the reader. I can remember Peugeot booking an advertorial in evo around Le Mans time and I got the legendary Brian Leban to do his insider's guide to Le Mans (which he used to live for) in a pocket book we bagged with the issue. That meant Peugeot got value and evo readers did too.
Then concerning my relationship with my sponsors, they came about after I noticed Goodwood were sponsored by Mastercard and used their logo on any video they put out. It didn't interfere with my viewing pleasure and I thought it worked really well, so I thought it worked really well. I approached Footman James and a deal was done in the early days of HG. I still have pay full price for my insurance, though, as that's organised by a completely separate department.
CTEK joined later and while most of my cars were already on CTEK trickle chargers, they do occasionally send me a new version to try out and I would always make that clear in any video by saying 'CTEK sent me this to try..' I do videos with Silverstone Auctions too and really enjoy doing them, as there's zero guidance on what I should feature. Then Magnitude Finance approached and I thought they had a good website that works out possible monthly payments on any car you fancy buying, so they seemed a good fit too.
The end result of having all the sponsors on board is I can do videos I want to do, rather than having to cover stuff just to get more views (drag races, etc.). It makes no commercial sense to drive a Rolls Royce Shadow to the Arctic, or Testarossa to the Sahara but by having these sponsors on board, I can say bks to it and just go do it! Hence why I'm hugely grateful for their continued support.
Thanks for sharing There's a long history of specialist automotive media reviewing cars and because potential buyers are often spending an awful lot of money, then need to have trust in the opinions of so called expert reviewers. That's why I, and many other what I might term old school car journos, treasure their editorial integrity above anything else. Opinions shouldn't be bought, they should come straight from the reviewer's experience, without any monetary interference.
Back in evo days, there was often the dreaded Advertorial to have to deal with, which always grated with editorial. The money was often great, though, so if one came along I'd always do my best to make it of value to the reader. I can remember Peugeot booking an advertorial in evo around Le Mans time and I got the legendary Brian Leban to do his insider's guide to Le Mans (which he used to live for) in a pocket book we bagged with the issue. That meant Peugeot got value and evo readers did too.
Then concerning my relationship with my sponsors, they came about after I noticed Goodwood were sponsored by Mastercard and used their logo on any video they put out. It didn't interfere with my viewing pleasure and I thought it worked really well, so I thought it worked really well. I approached Footman James and a deal was done in the early days of HG. I still have pay full price for my insurance, though, as that's organised by a completely separate department.
CTEK joined later and while most of my cars were already on CTEK trickle chargers, they do occasionally send me a new version to try out and I would always make that clear in any video by saying 'CTEK sent me this to try..' I do videos with Silverstone Auctions too and really enjoy doing them, as there's zero guidance on what I should feature. Then Magnitude Finance approached and I thought they had a good website that works out possible monthly payments on any car you fancy buying, so they seemed a good fit too.
The end result of having all the sponsors on board is I can do videos I want to do, rather than having to cover stuff just to get more views (drag races, etc.). It makes no commercial sense to drive a Rolls Royce Shadow to the Arctic, or Testarossa to the Sahara but by having these sponsors on board, I can say b
ks to it and just go do it! Hence why I'm hugely grateful for their continued support. Really enjoy the vids - keep up the good work!
rich350z said:
M4SER said:
LM240 said:
Harry.... is it true you get your CTEK chargers for free, CTEK pay you £25,000 each video, plus every charger sold you get a margin?
Having worked with manufacturers in EVO days from the traditional motoring journalist side and now part of the YouTube content side of things (though different league to the other dross)... what’s your take on this recent storm in a teacup?
Any anecdotes from the magazine days where integrity was challenged by manufacturer offers?
My impression is you’re pretty straight in terms of telling people who is sponsoring when you talk about the product.
Though understandable if you don’t want to wade into it.
Not keen going there after last week shenanigans! The little bit I will add, though, is many YouTubers are doing it as a business and in today's Influencer world, what might appear outlandish and a bit of a cheek, isn't seen that way in many other industries Influencers are prevalent in. Having worked with manufacturers in EVO days from the traditional motoring journalist side and now part of the YouTube content side of things (though different league to the other dross)... what’s your take on this recent storm in a teacup?
Any anecdotes from the magazine days where integrity was challenged by manufacturer offers?
My impression is you’re pretty straight in terms of telling people who is sponsoring when you talk about the product.
Though understandable if you don’t want to wade into it.
There's a long history of specialist automotive media reviewing cars and because potential buyers are often spending an awful lot of money, then need to have trust in the opinions of so called expert reviewers. That's why I, and many other what I might term old school car journos, treasure their editorial integrity above anything else. Opinions shouldn't be bought, they should come straight from the reviewer's experience, without any monetary interference.
Back in evo days, there was often the dreaded Advertorial to have to deal with, which always grated with editorial. The money was often great, though, so if one came along I'd always do my best to make it of value to the reader. I can remember Peugeot booking an advertorial in evo around Le Mans time and I got the legendary Brian Leban to do his insider's guide to Le Mans (which he used to live for) in a pocket book we bagged with the issue. That meant Peugeot got value and evo readers did too.
Then concerning my relationship with my sponsors, they came about after I noticed Goodwood were sponsored by Mastercard and used their logo on any video they put out. It didn't interfere with my viewing pleasure and I thought it worked really well, so I thought it worked really well. I approached Footman James and a deal was done in the early days of HG. I still have pay full price for my insurance, though, as that's organised by a completely separate department.
CTEK joined later and while most of my cars were already on CTEK trickle chargers, they do occasionally send me a new version to try out and I would always make that clear in any video by saying 'CTEK sent me this to try..' I do videos with Silverstone Auctions too and really enjoy doing them, as there's zero guidance on what I should feature. Then Magnitude Finance approached and I thought they had a good website that works out possible monthly payments on any car you fancy buying, so they seemed a good fit too.
The end result of having all the sponsors on board is I can do videos I want to do, rather than having to cover stuff just to get more views (drag races, etc.). It makes no commercial sense to drive a Rolls Royce Shadow to the Arctic, or Testarossa to the Sahara but by having these sponsors on board, I can say b
ks to it and just go do it! Hence why I'm hugely grateful for their continued support. I think for the likes of Hazzer (MASER!), it's a virtuous circle; those manufacturers that make decent product will strive to put their products in his hands as they know that the review will be honest and will therefore carry far more weight that an equivalent length video with an 'influencer'.
Leithen said:
monthefish said:
Leithen said:
DonkeyApple said:
Incidentally, in the early 90s my friend's father drove his Testarossa into one of his fields and slung a kaput sheep in it on his way home, thus disproving the need for a farmer to have an old Landie.
If you had been at the Oban sales in the 70's you might have seen the odd Daytona, along with an occasional green faced passenger politely declining the offer of a return trip. 
The Bentayga video never showed up for me, but it did last night so I watched it.
Other than the trigger moment for me of Harry having to deal with the awful controls on the dashboard (not being able to set the heat of the seat without pressing one button then trying to aim your finger on the touchscreen to solve it, the car constantly resetting itself on restarts because no one thought to save settings to the computer as standard etc), it struck me that I have seen that front before, especially the lights.
And as I couldn't sleep, it kept rolling around in my head. Where have I seen those lights before? Then it hit me.
Someone at Bentley has taste, going back to the E11 Toyota Corolla for the light layout
Joking aside though, for a vehicle that costs nearly £150,000 in standard form, it amazes me that they seem to have spent so little attention to the ergonomics of the vehicle. I was watching another video about Norton Desktop - back in the days of Windows 3.0/3.1 you could buy this software and it would make it more intuitive. Stopping short of a Start Menu you would get with Windows 95, but making it easier to use. The lad making the video pointed out something interesting, that the defaults of the software are odd. They seem to be more geared towards technical users rather than ordinary Joe Soap users. He put it down to the fact that technical users would be more likely to feedback rather than standard users, so the feedback was skewed in favour of those users. The standard users wouldn't say anything, but then would feel overwhelmed by the options presented to them and would either never use them or just give up on the software.
I'm wondering whether car makers are experiencing the same thing. They give these cars to people and they focus on the first impressions of the technology. The fact you can touch a screen and anything comes up. But they don't get the feedback from users who use them on the road, or have to live with them? Because watching Harry trying to set the heat on the seats, you could see how much it was taking his attention away from the road. If you put that car with someone else in a different location, like near a school, it's horrible to think what could happen from having these controls which actually demand proper attention to operate.
Good ergonomics should be a case of reaching out to a specific part of the dashboard, pressing a button or flicking a switch, without you needing to look at it and not taking your attention away from the job in hand. And I think, especially with flashier cars, that's not being thought about because it doesn't look fancy or futuristic. They'll be sold on the basis of either being lovely to drive, or the fact that there's a touchscreen that gives you a 360 degree view of the vehicle. The buyer sees it and goes "wow, I want that". Buys the car, then gets it, and then wonders after a time why it's so hard to turn the heating down while on they're on the M6.
Other than the trigger moment for me of Harry having to deal with the awful controls on the dashboard (not being able to set the heat of the seat without pressing one button then trying to aim your finger on the touchscreen to solve it, the car constantly resetting itself on restarts because no one thought to save settings to the computer as standard etc), it struck me that I have seen that front before, especially the lights.
And as I couldn't sleep, it kept rolling around in my head. Where have I seen those lights before? Then it hit me.
Someone at Bentley has taste, going back to the E11 Toyota Corolla for the light layout
Joking aside though, for a vehicle that costs nearly £150,000 in standard form, it amazes me that they seem to have spent so little attention to the ergonomics of the vehicle. I was watching another video about Norton Desktop - back in the days of Windows 3.0/3.1 you could buy this software and it would make it more intuitive. Stopping short of a Start Menu you would get with Windows 95, but making it easier to use. The lad making the video pointed out something interesting, that the defaults of the software are odd. They seem to be more geared towards technical users rather than ordinary Joe Soap users. He put it down to the fact that technical users would be more likely to feedback rather than standard users, so the feedback was skewed in favour of those users. The standard users wouldn't say anything, but then would feel overwhelmed by the options presented to them and would either never use them or just give up on the software.
I'm wondering whether car makers are experiencing the same thing. They give these cars to people and they focus on the first impressions of the technology. The fact you can touch a screen and anything comes up. But they don't get the feedback from users who use them on the road, or have to live with them? Because watching Harry trying to set the heat on the seats, you could see how much it was taking his attention away from the road. If you put that car with someone else in a different location, like near a school, it's horrible to think what could happen from having these controls which actually demand proper attention to operate.
Good ergonomics should be a case of reaching out to a specific part of the dashboard, pressing a button or flicking a switch, without you needing to look at it and not taking your attention away from the job in hand. And I think, especially with flashier cars, that's not being thought about because it doesn't look fancy or futuristic. They'll be sold on the basis of either being lovely to drive, or the fact that there's a touchscreen that gives you a 360 degree view of the vehicle. The buyer sees it and goes "wow, I want that". Buys the car, then gets it, and then wonders after a time why it's so hard to turn the heating down while on they're on the M6.
Doofus said:
I find myself wondering why governments don't outlaw touch screens. They're not only a PITA to use but surely they're dangerous too?
It does seem an odd moment in time when using one's phone is deemed lunacy yet having to fanny about with the exact same sort of destructing device to change any function on a car is fine. I'm sure it will all level out but I still remember test driving a Model S through Highgate I'm notoriously bad roads and you didn't stand a hope in hell of accurately touching any of the screen controls, the whole system endlessly removed your eyes and concentration from the road ahead which isn't ideal at any time let alone London and at night the massive screen was a serious destruction.
The best balance I've found so far was in a Seat loan car. That just seemed sensible and worked very well for just being able to jump into a car and use it without having to learn an entirely new operating system.
Intrusive, passive aggressive IT can just ruin a perfectly good car and great IT can make a poor car a superb daily.
Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff