Tuesday 5th February 2013

PH Blog: PR by proxy

Is the view from the passenger seat ever worth hearing about?

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Ah the ridealong story. Brilliantly lampooned today by Sniffpetrol we were among the many in the motoring media to greedily sign up to Jaguar's invitation to Wales for a ride in the new F-Type, ambitiously claimed by some as an exclusive. Which isn't quite as cheeky as claiming a drive story based on an interview with a bloke on Jaguar's payroll who has been behind the wheel, which has also happened.

Sniff Petrol - bang on target as ever

Once upon a time ridealongs were the preserve of the journalistic elite and genuine exclusives based on serious amounts of arm twisting and eyelid fluttering. Now it's an accepted part of the pre-launch hype building exercise. One we chose to be complicit in by accepting a seat beside Mike Cross and the brilliantly named Erol Mustafa for a bit of a rag around the Welsh hills in the 'wrong' seat of an F-Type. So, should we accept such invitations? And can we actually learn anything worthwhile?

There are certain cases - F-Type being one of them and Harris's ride in the 918 Spyder another - where a car is sufficiently interesting and exciting that, dammit, we'll shamelessly accept any opportunity to get close.

My trip to the Monte Carlo Historique was another 'ridealong' invitation too but one with wider interest. Seeing a celebrated car being put through its paces by someone linked with its glorious heritage is always a pleasure. Jean Claude Andruet is perhaps not as well known outside of Alpine circles as many but the chance to ride beside him down the Turini was too good to miss.

Sometimes riding shotgun isn't all bad

More interesting was the ride back up, sitting in the back of a Renaultsport Megane with Renault boss Carlos Tavares on Andruet's tail. By their nature senior execs tend to be guarded and non-committal when talking with hacks - my meeting with BMW's Ian Robertson recently a case in point. The creepy resemblance to Tony Blair goes more than skin deep.

But purely by chance - there were loads of cars going up and down the Turini and I only ended up with Tavares by accident - here I was with the boss of Renault in his racing suit and bootees following an iconic sports car up an equally famous rally stage. This wasn't Tavares in a sharp suit delivering soundbites at a motor show. This was the unashamed petrolhead giving it absolute death in one of his own products just for the sheer hell of it. And the guy can drive. To experience that and then sit down alongside the guys who'll be building the new Alpine-Caterham on his watch was accidental but very effective PR in action. I'll have to try and regain some journalistic cynicism before committing anything to publication based on this but, suffice to say, I came away impressed.

The kind of PR that appeals to PH

A rare moment and, as later discussions with Renaultsport's Patrice Ratti proved, this is a business based on profits and bottom lines, not rose-tinted romanticism. And that's why we won't be getting a manual Clio 200.

But you have to hope that these glimpses of proper, petrolhead enthusiasm in the business do suggest there are some still on our wavelength. Whichever seat you happen to see them from.

Dan

[Sources: Sniff Petrol]

[Ex Boy Racer]

At least you don't need a license for a ridealong!

[Dan Trent]

There is that...

Dan

[Lowtimer]

I think it's a bit of a cynical PR exercise to draw it all out: you should be able to have a passenger ride and drive the car yourself, both on the same day.

But you can tell a lot about a car from a passenger ride. Not very much about what it's like to drive, but a great deal about the car itself and especially (obviously when you think about it) about what it's like to be driven it. Which, although we are mostly keen drivers here, should be a concern for most of us, who frequently carry passengers whose opinions matter to us.

Obviously as a passenger you miss the feel of the controls. But I also believe that when you are driving a car, especially a car that is new to you, you will spot things from the passenger seat that you miss from the driver's seat. You are more likely to assess the ride quality and noise levels well as a passenger. You sit differently in the seats as a passenger. You don't have the steering wheel to brace yourself and, crucially, you are less able to anticipate the car's movement. So you get a lot of additional information about how a car goes down the road if you have both driven in and been driven in it.

When buying old cars, where the focus is on the specific characteristics of an individual example of the car, rather than the generic characteristics of the type, it is very good to experience the thing from passenger seats. You can trace rattles, and really concentrate on hearing and seeing things that you could well miss with most of your concentration and observational powers being absorbed by navigating, positioning and controlling the car. When I go for a test drive I always ask to be driven part of the distance before I drive the car myself. For me it makes the driving part much more informative.

[sisu]

It is a tricky situation, some of the best automobile articles have been about everthing other than the car. But they were still written from the perspective of the driver. While I like these articles such as the 918 and the Renault stuff. The Jag one was the automotive journalistic equivilant of a reach around, well technically it was Mike Cross shagging someone and then you guys watching it, then having to explain what it was like and explain the look on his face.

Do I think Jag are taking the tantric PR mumbo jumbo a step to far - Yes. It is probably doing more harm to them as a manufacturer as normally when they launch a car they control the environment to highlight the aspects they love and mold the image of what the car is trying to be. In reality it should be something they can hand you the keys and say 'enjoy' and everyone wax lyrically about it being what the TVR could have been. Makes you question what they are hiding?

[Ekona]

If it's a mega-exclusive hypercar that you'll never be given a drive of (thinking One-77 or new Enzo) then I think it's justifiable. The 918 for example, I think worked.

This is a common or garden sports car that is released to the masses very soon. I'd rather any thoughts waited until they chuck you the keys, rather than play along with their cynical attempts to get the car into the press.

[RacerMike]

I usually agree with what most of Mr Harris says, but I found it a little odd that he lambasted the F-Type Ride stories quite so much when he, himself has been on two in the last 6 months. Whilst one (the Pirelli rally tyre test) was an obvious once in a lifetime experience, why is the ride in the 918 any different to the F-Type one? Both are pre production, development prototypes and both are fairly hotly antisipated (and indeed controversial) cars due for release in 2013.

So, I suppose the question really comes down to whether getting a chance to have a ride in a car prior to the launch is worth it or not, and the acceptance of the intvite or otherwise will surely come down to one thing, and one thing only...will the article increase sales/views? In this instance, I'd say most definitely yes! Internet based motoring sites (satire or otherwise) have been awash with discussion about the 'morality' of the F-Type drive story. So who are the winners here? Jaguar and the motoring media!

Ultimately, I'm happy to hear about a ride story. It's not as if there's the option for any journo's to drive the car yet as development hasn't quite finished, so why would you let anyone make a final driving decision based on dynamics that aren't quite signed off? If it's a choice between a ride story or nothing, I'd rather have the former! At the end of the day, it's no less of a sell out than any motoring journalism. Whichever way you cut it, every car magazine out there is just a happy medium for someone with 'experience' to help the car companies with their advertising!

[LongLiveTazio]

I think the problem is lack of restraint. There's nothing wrong with a passenger ride - after all, there are plenty of objective things you can talk about or questions to be asked - but there's no point speculating on the driving experience and the like when you're not actually holding the wheel.

[GTiFrank]

I disagree. You can tell a lot of the objective stuff about car dynamics from sitting in the passenger seat. Through your arse. Although you can't get any clues for break throttle or steering feel. You can however get a good idea about ride quality and the car balance.

Ride stories are my favourite type of pre lanch PR - miles better than a marketing mans spew at a motor show.

[jetfire]

As a kid and teenager I passengered in literally thousands of cars, as my father was a used auto wholesaler. There would be a different car every morning and night. Over time I developed quite a sense of what cars were like from the passenger seat, and when I joined the trade I found many of my impressions were spot on. With added detail from the helm, I did discover things like the Porsche 944 was a far superior car to the 911, that Alfas were just as brilliant to drive as their controls were heavy, and that a small, slow car can often equal more fun as you try to extract the most from it (old diesels excluded).

[richardaucock]

It's admittedly a tricky one, and naturally I risked being on a hiding to nothing. However, I still relished the opportunity to sample the F-Type for PH: if getting a taste of it in January rather than April meant from the passenger seat, then so be it. I'd still rather be there than not.

Key for me was speaking with the engineers at what is still a pre-launch phase for them. Find out what they've been trying to achieve, ask them about their aims and hopes. Get any snippets or revelations down on paper to give early clues about what's basically a very desirable car.

But while I wasn't driving it, I hoped I could still get some clues about what it's like, too. The noise, the interior, the composure, the basic balance. You'd get way more from the driver's seat, of course, but I found it interesting about just what you could feel from sitting in the 'wrong' seat for three hours and really, really concentrating.

I may commit: blog 1000 words on the intricacies of how the F-Type drives, and then compare these thoughts to how it actually is once I drive the thing. A very public sort of test, I guess... but Mike Cross reckons you can still detect basics from the passenger seat, so maybe I'll take him at his word...

Oh, and SniffPetrol Passenger Bingo was genius. I think I scored reasonably well, too - missed the 'slips it into D and we're underway' though. Sorry Dan - perhaps you could edit?

[darkmark07]

I think that the motoring press suffer from a bit of a herd mentality when it comes to new car (pre-) launches like this. If other publications are writing about it then they feel that they are missing out if they don't.

The same set of readers who are bemoaning the fact that this wasn't a 'real' road test would most likely complain that their favoured rag didn't leap upon the opportunity to put something (however tenuous) forward, so it's a case of 'us too' IMO.

Additionally, I expect that by not signing up to write fluff pieces like this it may also jeapordise future access to cars so it's a case of damned if they do, damned if they don't.

For what it's worth, I don't think that there's anything wrong with a view from the passenger seat - at least the journo was candid and upfront about not having driven it and it does get us an early insight into what promises to be a very interesting car.

[Whiters]

I personally find the stories a waste of column inches. Get the keys, get in the car, drive it and tell us what it's like. Include tech and development elements to the story for those interested and then move on to group tests. All good.

I think I'm more annoyed about passenger ride stories these days because I used to just ignore the odd one, but they seem to be everywhere in recent months.

There is something worse that has also increased in frequency over the last couple of years - the sodding ice-drive story! Once or maybe twice is interesting but I'm sure Evo managed to get one into nearly every issue last year, and other mags aren't much better. My heart sinks every time I see snow in a mag now, knowing some of my hard earned has been wasted. Apologies for the slight 'off-topic'!

ETA: 'Passenger ride stories' - not 'drive'!