Motoring journalist clichés
Discussion
Greetings all!
So, week three as editor of PistonHeads and next on the to-do list is to come up with a style guide for the contributing writers. Such is the extent of editorial control freakery but this is a traditional tool for making sure everybody knows whether we use ps, hp or bhp, write 3 Series or 3-series and the rest.
Yes, I can get a bit OCD about such things.

I also wanted to make sure we weed out some of the more glaring motoring hack clichés. And who better to rule on that than PHers!
So, here’s your chance to chip in with what you consider to be the most over-used motoring journalist clichés in an effort to make sure PH leads the way in, well, coming up with new ones.
Personal irritations of mine include anyone who ‘thumbs a starter button’ and the automatic assumption that you can’t write the word Nurburgring without prefixing it ‘notorious’ or ‘infamous’. And to save you the bother, yes, I’ll have used every cliché out there over the years so there’s no need to go trawling for examples with my byline. If it’s boasted a throbbing V8, stump-pulling torque, cornered on rails, offered decent real-world performance or, dare I say, delivered a race-car experience for the road I’ll have been there, done that and submitted the invoice.
So, consider the floor open. And let’s hear ‘em!
Cheers!
Dan
"Same power, but loads more torque than competitor X, which really shows on the road."
But often, they just have more torque and longer gearing, which cancels it out... so god knows what they are actually observing except actually knowing what the figures are because of foreknowledge.
Dave
But often, they just have more torque and longer gearing, which cancels it out... so god knows what they are actually observing except actually knowing what the figures are because of foreknowledge.
Dave
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