Motor Trend is a joke

[chunter415]

The real "Best Drivers Car" is decided by the driver him/her self, as each driver has their own style, likes and dislikes. They talk about how the 2018 GT PP2 has a loose front end and likes to oversteer or understeer but yet to me I'm okay with that as I wanted a good old American naturally aspirated V8 that I can slide around if I want to, so something like the ZR1 or Porsche, Aston Martin, while those are all great cars, to me they aren't MY Best Drivers Car.

At the end of the day those judges are people who get to drive and experience cars we can only see at car shows or on video so unless it meets that ultra high bar, it can't measure up. One aspect they fail to take into account is how well the cars sell and if the public is buying them I mean after all if it truly is a best drivers car, shouldn't people be able to actually buy it and drive it?

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[Norm Peterson]

Most of you guys seem to be missing the point here. "Best Driver's Car" is only about the driving. Not about feature content, or utility, or availability, or price, or the number sold. Near as I can tell, it doesn't even concern itself with excellence under all weather conditions.

On the Z/28, if its base-trim lack of A/C and any sort of sound system was too bare-bones for anybody, they could have either opted to add those items or come to the conclusion that they really weren't that serious about getting the kind of driving experience the Z/28 was built to be good at. Actually, it's a pretty easy car to drive, even slowly.

Magazines don't need batteries . . . and streaming the same or similar content to a computer/phone/tablet doesn't make it any more accurate, any less opinionated . . . or any less of a joke.


Norm

 

[EcoVert]

Most of you guys seem to be missing the point here. "Best Driver's Car" is only about the driving. Not about feature content, or utility, or availability, or price, or the number sold. Near as I can tell, it doesn't even concern itself with excellence under all weather conditions.

On the Z/28, if its base-trim lack of A/C and any sort of sound system was too bare-bones for anybody, they could have either opted to add those items or come to the conclusion that they really weren't that serious about getting the kind of driving experience the Z/28 was built to be good at. Actually, it's a pretty easy car to drive, even slowly.

Magazines don't need batteries . . . and streaming the same or similar content to a computer/phone/tablet doesn't make it any more accurate, any less opinionated . . . or any less of a joke.


Norm

I get what your saying but the real point of this thread is general Motors Trend is a POS magazine

 

[Lionorion]

Best American car magazine was C&D from the 80’s with Brock Yates and PJ O’Rourke. I miss those days.

Magazines in general suck now a days...Boring content with un-innovative writing. Oh well.

 

[Norm Peterson]

I get what your saying but the real point of this thread is general Motors Trend is a POS magazine

That may be where people are trying to drag this thread, and where it may end up going even if MT is a joke it's not because of any GM content. Post #1 specifically questioned the legitimacy of one of their BDC winners on the basis of things not part of what makes the driving itself any good. One does have to read such articles with respect to what they're trying to measure and nothing else.


None of the mainstream car magazines are what they used to be, and I also think that despite adding features like BDC and LL, and having real race driver commentary, that it's an overall decline at least from the standpoint of a traditional car enthusiast. I can feel it, I don't read cover to cover any more (any of them) like I used to, and too much of the content simply doesn't interest me.


Norm

 

[Flare65]

Not sure if anyone is read this back in the day, but when I was a kid I used to read CARtoons comics back in the 80s. For those of you who don't know what this is, its basically comics for muscle car enthusiast and gear heads. They recently brought the magazine back as a bi-monthly publication. George Trosley is my favorite cartoonist of all time and he has a sketch called Duce & Pinstripe in it. I think he still does his Krass & Bernie sketch in Car Craft.

Anyway, be sure to check it out...
https://cartoonsmag.com/

 

[Trackaholic]

A few years ago I thought Motor Trend was one of the better car websites, due to their great videos. They also had a decent commenting section, which honestly is about 75% of the value of any website. However, over the past few years they really screwed things up. First by opening the comments up to Facebook, which increased trolls by 1000% but added minimal useful insight from enthusiasts. That action slowed the comments down so much that they eliminated them altogether. Then they put their videos behind a paywall, with a terrible player that stutters and pauses. I’ve tried their occasional free content but would not pay for their stuff because it is basicsally unwatchable. Finally, they redid their website making it difficult to use. So much is ads, links to subscription only content, or slow. It’s sad, but I barely even visit that website anymore. BDC was one of my favorite articles each year, but it’s been so difficult to read about it this year that I just don’t care much anymore. I know they have to make money somehow, but I think it is tough to ask individuals to pay for content when everyone else is trying to do the same or when there is a decent amount of free content available.

-T

 

[Shifting_Gears]

We have reached the end of an era with automotive magazines. Their downfall was all content being available online and everyone and their brother is now an automotive enthusiast/journalist/brand influencer. I have a BAD ASS issue of Motor Trend where they tested two mule cars that preceded 03/04 Cobra production. One of the best articles I’ve read and it is awesome to have seen the Terminator be born from one of the test cars in that article.

As a young enthusiast I used to scan C&D for when they’d publish a column of the 0-60 and the 1/4 mile times for basically every car on the road. I could’ve told you specs on anything from an Explorer, to any Mustang, to a Grand Prix. Those were the days.

 

[EcoVert]

A few years ago I thought Motor Trend was one of the better car websites, due to their great videos. They also had a decent commenting section, which honestly is about 75% of the value of any website. However, over the past few years they really screwed things up. First by opening the comments up to Facebook, which increased trolls by 1000% but added minimal useful insight from enthusiasts. That action slowed the comments down so much that they eliminated them altogether. Then they put their videos behind a paywall, with a terrible player that stutters and pauses. I’ve tried their occasional free content but would not pay for their stuff because it is basicsally unwatchable. Finally, they redid their website making it difficult to use. So much is ads, links to subscription only content, or slow. It’s sad, but I barely even visit that website anymore. BDC was one of my favorite articles each year, but it’s been so difficult to read about it this year that I just don’t care much anymore. I know they have to make money somehow, but I think it is tough to ask individuals to pay for content when everyone else is trying to do the same or when there is a decent amount of free content available.

-T

We have reached the end of an era with automotive magazines. Their downfall was all content being available online and everyone and their brother is now an automotive enthusiast/journalist/brand influencer. I have a BAD ASS issue of Motor Trend where they tested two mule cars that preceded 03/04 Cobra production. One of the best articles I’ve read and it is awesome to have seen the Terminator be born from one of the test cars in that article.

As a young enthusiast I used to scan C&D for when they’d publish a column of the 0-60 and the 1/4 mile times for basically every car on the road. I could’ve told you specs on anything from an Explorer, to any Mustang, to a Grand Prix. Those were the days.

All content is just filler for the ads. Quit buying the magazines and let them go away. Unless you buy and expensive subscription the there online content it's nothing but ads everyone should stop buy there online crap and let that go away.

 

[stangman638]

I found there 2018 drag race recently funny.. They used the manual version instead of the auto when about 1 second slower in the QM.

 

[traxiii]

I used to LOVE "On Track" magazine back in the '90's as it had the most coverage of road racing and other stuff I was interested in. That however, was before the internet and websites like sportscar365.com, mustang6g, planetF1, race-dezert and such. Paper mags are expensive out of date relics, just like most newspapers. At least the newspapers are only a day late, and they work great if you have a birdcage to line.

 

[Furiousone]

I actually like MT video content. As a matter of fact, it helped sell me on buying a GT350 vs the alternatives. Note- the 2016 Best Drivers Car runner up was the GT350R, and if you watch the video, it was a very close second...it was close to winning.

Edit: everyone also needs to keep in mind that they run what they are given. So if they run a drag race in a manual (or auto) its because that is what they are provided by the manufacturer.

 

[Loki-GT]

Most of you guys seem to be missing the point here. "Best Driver's Car" is only about the driving. Not about feature content, or utility, or availability, or price, or the number sold. Near as I can tell, it doesn't even concern itself with excellence under all weather conditions.

On the Z/28, if its base-trim lack of A/C and any sort of sound system was too bare-bones for anybody, they could have either opted to add those items or come to the conclusion that they really weren't that serious about getting the kind of driving experience the Z/28 was built to be good at. Actually, it's a pretty easy car to drive, even slowly.

Magazines don't need batteries . . . and streaming the same or similar content to a computer/phone/tablet doesn't make it any more accurate, any less opinionated . . . or any less of a joke.


Norm

I had no idea GM made AC an option, holy crap welcome back 1978...

 

[Loki-GT]

I found there 2018 drag race recently funny.. They used the manual version instead of the auto when about 1 second slower in the QM.

I don't understand their pick either, plus they substituted 2 cars for the half mile. I just take them as comedy and enjoy the video.

 

[Norm Peterson]

I had no idea GM made AC an option, holy crap welcome back 1978...

Heh . . . I didn't get A/C in the car I had built to order in early 1979. Kept that car 33 years and never did add it.


Norm

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