Not as sad as the dude who signed up for an anonymous Substack account because he's too much of a pussy to confront a 51-year-old cripple over the Internet. THAT dude is sad! What's HIS deal?
Prompted by a comment here, I've been on a big Who kick lately. Tommy seems a lot darker than when I was a teenager and Pure and Easy just may be a perfect song. Yeah, I know it's on Townshend's "solo" album but the band played it live and it's on the expanded version of Who's Next. Speaking of Who Came First, Sheraton Gibson is also very well done
I recently found out that it was the great Bert Berns (the man behind Twist & Shout) who discovered Van Morrision in the UK and brought him to the U.S. to record.
Anyhow, Astral Weeks sits between Moondance and His Band and Street Choir in my CD collection and there it stays most of the time. It's a bit like Pet Sounds to me in that it's supposed to be the man's great work but it leaves me a bit flat. On the other hand, I'll Be Your Lover Too on HB&SC is one of the most achingly beautiful love songs I've heard.
Rory Gallagher is the best thing to have come out of Ireland.
That would fall under the category of disrespecting the dead, although in which direction? You could make an argument that, adjusted for available time, AiC was the creative equal of The Who.
The alternative was to take a very educated guess on who the commenter is and say something genuinely unpleasant about how sorry I am he can't get his wife pregnant, then offer to do the job like Denzel in Training Day. "You want a son, let me know. I hit every time!"
Thankfully, I'm not that kind of person and I wish him every success in his attempts to become a parent.
Im at the stage of my life where people are struggling to get pregnant. I’m convinced the vax isnt helping but i keep my mouth shut. Im lucky where me and the wife got 3 in 4 years after 35 but that isnt normal
This dude is not at that stage. He's at the stage where most men can get women pregnant by pulling out and shooting onto the pillow they'll sleep on two days from now.
The response of someone when they read an article dissecting a circle jerk of a profession and the analogies contained therein hit a little too close to home.
Exactly why I started the truth about cars - I was fed up with the BS masquerading as legit crit. And why I quit writing for them when I sold it (my first review was pulled at the behest of Ford PR, willing acquiesced by the editor what’s his name).
The only truth about cars you’ll find these days is in the forums. And here of course. And let me say for the record that I’m proud that Jack wrote for us and embarrassed that I launched Lieberman).
I would love to hear about the process and economics of how it all started, especially with TTAG, followed by why companies run them into the ground. Especially with TTAG it isn't like the immediate ruined everything, but it obviously cost them money and then they got rid of the things that made it distinguished from everything else.
I'm the child of an automotive journalist. Well, an adult child now. My father - who is 82 and still writes about cars every damn day from the comfort of his stair-free patio home in a quiet beach community - began his career in journalism back in the 60s and got in to automotive by the 80s. It was a natural passion of his, along with watches, cycling, women, and many other "Baruthian" hobbies. By the end of the 80s he had a national TV show, several regular feature columns, and enjoyed many, many of these said press trips right through until the early 2000s when he retired from travelling (due, in part, to seeing the travel-miles-odds-game closing in on him when a bird strike caused a partial windshield failure and emergency landing on his CityLine ATR 42 over Hamburg.) These were the perks for him - the stuff that made working for less money than your average sanitation worker worth while. Sure, we sometimes couldn't make the mortgage payment but... pointing out your Casino de Monte-Carlo hotel room in an establishing shot from the latest Bond film? Priceless.
I remember many times where he'd be gone for three, maybe four days at a time to Europe, for weeks on end. The Star Alliance points racked up. The Samsonites wore out. Certainly, the 90s and early 00s was the golden age for this kind of travel, and it's a shame you weren't around just a decade earlier to experience it. PR people were still old school enough to play 'the game,' the flood gates of clueless-but-bubbly communications chicks hadn't yet been opened, and writers knew where their meals came from. It was a more civilized time, like a gentlemen's club of sorts as you say. "Don't shit talk our cars TOO much, and we'll make sure you're on the next one."
Of course, I only got to experience a few press trips myself - rarely did they want the family along for the ride, unless it was something special or the PR guy was a drinking buddy or former journalist who was doing him a favour. I did manage to tag along to Detroit at age 15, and vividly remember sitting with my old man at cigar-bar hospitality suites, rubbing elbows with various execs, eating hand rolled sushi, and witnessing American automotive splendour in all its pre-'08 SUV-fed glory, all before I even had a learner's. Perhaps if I'd been a bit older this would've been a bonding experience, but it was what it was.
He's probably glad he quit taking the trips when he did, and I'm equally glad I wasn't destined to follow precisely in his footsteps - by the time I was old enough to do my own thing, the shine had worn off, and the internet had taken its toll on the entire printed world. Bloggers rushed in. YouTubers rushed in. Realtor wags rushed in. They all saw what was up for grabs, especially the better funded ones who didn't need to run their pens dry trying to make a decent living. The free cars and free trips were no longer "special" to me and the people handing them out weren't so special either. I found a better career, but still manage to dabble in writing and the occasional week in a new car. It's a shame, really, because I very much enjoy writing and I am passionate about the automotive world. I just can't play the insipid Insta-game hard enough to make it look like I Am An Automotive Journalist.
Hagerty really had a chance to turn all of this around, and I think you're right in predicting that nobody ever will. I really love reading your posts because just about every one feels very personal to me, and I'll be sure to share this one with my dad.
We had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the business, and all the people necessary to do it, but there was too much cowardice, simping, and wanting to be liked.
It kills me how a company that insures *classic cars* is all in on EVs, like they’re the insurance subsidiary of the WEF. At least a company like Hemmings knows who pays their bills.
I never understood the need to be liked by people who don’t give a shit about you.
They may know who pays their bills but when I was slandered as a racist for the temerity of quoting the name of a Lenny Bruce routine in a discussion of slurs over at TTAC, Hemmings acted cravenly before the mob. I was made persona non grata at a publication that solicited me to apply for an editor's position before they posted it publicly and described my work as awesome. I considered it an honor to be writing for the publication but they didn't act very honorably in my regard.
You can't tell the truth. There is too much money at stake. This situation will continue until some sore of black swan implosion event resets the game, so it can start again.
I find myself wondering how much difference a sudden shift to honest car reviews would actually make to the car buying public. In my experience, as a person who is known to be into cars, when anyone asks advice about buying a car, they have exactly zero actual interest in what your opinion is. They know what they want, and they want your affirmation/praise for that choice. I suspect that's why the automaker PR scheme has gone on for so long, so successfully. People LIKE reading positive reviews about the cars they are planning on buying. I wonder how many years of sustained bad reviews it would take to make a noticeable dent in say, Camry or CRV sales. When it comes to higher end vehicles too, forget it. Most of those are either emotionally-driven or clout chasing purchases - very few actually care that the 3 series in 2022 doesn't hold a candle to an E46 in driving dynamics, they have a _BMW_. Ultimately, it seems like those of us in the enthusiast community may see this as a bigger deal than it actually turns out to be; the reviews are bought and paid for, but it's been going on for so long that it's calcified notions about brands and models in people's minds. I doubt most people go and drive two dozen different cars when trying to decide what to get, like I do, but I was never the target for the 2022 Accord review in Motortrend anyway. I suppose what this has been an extremely long-winded way of saying is that the auto industry has fostered so much cultural inertia with their PR over the decades that even if everyone started being honest, most of the public would probably find a way to justify the purchase anyway.
Well ... I can say that I bought my first two cars (back in the '90s) based on the Consumer Reports reliability reviews. And they served me well, one of them being an excellent drive to boot.
I bought my next two cars based on the years of reading Car and Driver. That did not work out so well.
Perhaps I'm too old and cynical, but I do not think that honest car reviews today would make much (any?) difference, because in my experience the vast majority of affordable cars today are just crap.
Given the same amount of money, I'd rather buy something made 15+ years ago that is still in decent shape, and spend the difference rejuvenating it the way Jack did with that Milan.
Shit I missed that, was it in one of the articles? I have been looking at purchasing a new GR86 and would want to occasionally do local club days with it. I have also heard that a couple of the last body style had popped motors at HPDEs at Lime Rock, so I was already a little nervous even though that was second-hand info.
I have to say, when I came across Jack's review of the first-gen CX-5, I felt pretty good about myself for finding one and buying it a couple of years ago.
One of my sisters asked me which Diesel powered American made 3/4 ton truck to buy to tow her two axle horse trailer .
As I didn't know and find them all mostly the same I suggested she rent one of each for two weeks then choose the one she liked best, in the end she bought a GM product and loved it until her hips and knees gave out ending her ability to ride .
She kept it for several more years until the brake pipes rusted out (?!! WTF GM ?!) , apparently this is a thing, I found her a retrofit repair kit but she sold the truck on dirt cheap and still misses it .
So, there are some who listen .
This same sister bought herself a spiffy BMW convertible as a lifetime treat to have survived, everyone else told her not to, she's keeping it garaged and loves driving it top down whenever the weather (Richmond, Virginia) permits .
I have a few family members who asked , not sure if they listed or not though .
I'd be willing to bet that Kaylan and Volman contributed to the lyrics. I saw that band at Meadowbrook. Great show. Has anyone written a song about incest as thoughtful as Magdalena? Speaking of Flo & Eddie, I saw that the Turtles are part the Happy Together Tour 2022, headlining an all-star lineup that includes Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, The Association, The Classics IV, The Vogues, and The Cowsills. Shirley Jones, Susan Dey, and Donny Boneduce are still around but I don't think you could do the Partridge Family without David Cassidy. I mean that would be like "The Who" touring without Keith Moon or John Entwhistle.
Totally off-topic, but The Association is certainly on my Spotify most-played list this year. I have an almost year old daughter named Whitney, so naturally every time we are in the car we are singing 'Whitney' to the tune of 'Windy'.
"In my experience, as a person who is known to be into cars, when anyone asks advice about buying a car, they have exactly zero actual interest in what your opinion is."
Maybe it's just the kind of people who ask my opinion, but I've pretty much had the exact opposite experience. When I get asked it really is one of two scenarios. The first is the person who knows pretty well what they want and is just looking for confirmation from their friend the car guy that they are not making a horrible mistake. The second is the completely non-car person who has to buy a replacement car. For me these are the fun conversations. Their question is really just what are the options out there in the price range. I almost never recommend a single option, but will generally come up with a list of 5 or so vehicles to try out. They almost always end up buying something off my list.
Anything publicly owned is run on fraud, graft and corruption in this country. It's con men all the way down and they want to own everything. And they will, because they've bought and paid for every politician. This isn't partisan, I really do mean every one. This guy will figuratively blow the VP of marketing for 8k in bad vacations and booze. Booze is cheap! Buy a bottle of titos for 30 bucks. Politicians get a lot more than that. Capitalism is broken. I'm in a particularly bad mood today. On the bright side, at least we got this place out of it. I don't even remember what I paid, but you should charge more.
"It's a big club...AND YOU AIN'T IN IT!" - George Carlin
And it is indeed a bipartisan club. Even the orange "anti-establishment" guy who's gearing up for another interminable run for office is a shameless grifter. Who's surrounded by even more shameless grifters. And yet we go along pretending that any of it makes a difference. Nothing ever get fixed, but plenty of pockets get lined.
I think he just didnt have the stones to follow through. I’m not voting for him again but the entire establishment changed voting laws to get him out. He had a chance and failed. The next guy is going to be so much worse
This article is fascinating to me on so many levels, but what is most amazing about today' digital world is how quickly one can put together an accurate narrative of a person's world view and motivations from their online history. I am sure they are close to solving the AI to predict such behavior. You were able to put together Andrew's public work, his private (public) posts of his life during his said work, and his historical and contradictory (maybe true) opinions. From those three sources you have been able to demonstrate the absolute shallowness that he openly displayed, and the absolute and total worthlessness of his work.
I always felt to have any opinion worthy of print, or even worthy of speaking, a man must have a solid sense of self understanding and stand for something without the risk of personal benefit. Otherwise what you have to say is worthless and paid for by someone else. We live in a world where that critical quality is in desperate short supply. When I was a teen, I loved DED's Car and Driver, but respected CAR Magazine (I lived in England at the time) even more. Their journalism was responsible for my love of cars. When I started driving, my first car was an '86 GTI, with a driving experience easy to connect to the reviews I read at the time because it was so different from the standard cars people were driving. My own experience vindicated them, and as long as this was easily demonstrated by experience they maintained their authority and allure.
Today, a Car and Driver takes 20 minutes to read from cover to cover before it goes in the trash. It's not even worth the 80c you pay for it with a subscription, and none of it really connects with the reality behind the wheel, it's just a long press release selling the dreams of a lifestyle unobtainable to many, or to be pushed on us by our betters. You know I have had the chance to drive a lot of expensive cars, and most of them are just made for the poseurs, there's nothing special in the way they drive. Poseurs always existed, and they always were the main market in any age. It's us - the 10% - who are cheated - the true lovers of driving have been replaced by people excited about their EVs and SUVs. That's where the money is, and we are lost to the wind, left to figure out how much longer we will be able to buy and drive fun cars. Everything changes, we'll mourn the age that will never return - but we can remember that the personality of a DED was partially responsible for that time - perhaps inadvertently.
One thing I was idly curious about, and willing to shell out money to find out, is what Jack actually thinks of cars. You are also hinting at "some cars are better than others"--a bold statement--but not actually name dropping the vehicles you've enjoyed.
All I know is that I'm still enjoying my, ahem, left-hand drive 2005 Nissan Skyline 350GT with 6 speed manual. Especially now that temperatures in Boise have dropped below freezing, turning my summer tires into stiff rubber donuts eager to rotate the car's rear around its nose.
Ah, the revised VQ35HR! I've never driven the 07-08 G35s, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out they have the same weird, spring-assisted on/off clutch pedal that my G35 came with. A nice man in the aftermarket solved it with a linear clutch for the entire Nissan FM range: https://rjmperformance.com/
A search of my email proves I bought it in January 2018, 8 months after I got the car. With the stock pedal, it became nearly undriveable with a Exedy single-mass flywheel and slightly beefier pressure plate and friction disc. The new pedal is wonderful; it's unclear why Nissan used such a strange design for the stock pedal.
I have over my career worked at two organizations that reviewed cars; both of them refused the paid junkets, refused the freebies with the sole exception of dinner, and didn't spring for travel to launch events that weren't an easy driving distance away. It limited the number of reveals they could attend and forced them to rely upon press fleet cars, but they maintained a measure of integrity. (Side note: I do wonder if Consumer Reports follows such a policy - does it attend events on its own dime" The company still pays full retail for cars it reviews, yes?)
I recall attending a Yamaha event in NorCal; my employer sent me, since I could pay my own way and get their on my own bike (great fun rolling up to a Yamaha event on a 1995 Ducati 900 SS/SP, that of the Sausage Creature, having ridden it repeatedly on the very roads Yamaha had mapped out, but I digress). Among other things, Yamaha gave away digital cameras (this was before phones had decent cameras) so everyone could snap pics and post them to Facebook (this was before Instagram was ubiquitous). I politely declined, citing my employer's policy against gratuities. A few other journalists looked askance, like, "Dude - take the camera and be quiet," but stayed silent except for one guy who loudly and repeatedly teased me about it over the course of the entire day.
I couldn't help wondering why he seemed so personally offended that I declined the freebies.
Before I started actually getting paid to write about cars I used to get credentialed to auto show media previews to get press kits and swag to sell on eBay. One year I filled the bed of a Ford Ranger with boxes of stuff from the Chicago show. By the time I started working for TTAC and other publishers, though, I had mostly stopped dealing in swag as the elaborate press kits started getting replaced with slip covered CDs and then bar codes for your phone. I think it was at the Detroit show, I was running late that morning, missed a couple of press conferences and went over to the GM media booth to see if they had CDs or thumb drives. A guy who is a macher at MAMA, the midwest autojourno organization, who rewrites press releases for a living, drives a "long term test" vehicle and hasn't seen this side of 300 lbs in decades said to me, "Why don't you go back and get another Hyundai press kit, parasite?"
"I haven't even been over to Hyundai today, but you're welcome to go check the back seat of my car, well, if you can walk that far without getting a coronary. I write for sites that not only are more respected by car guys than yours, I get more traffic than you do."
I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but about half of the comments to my recent piece on Hagerty about a period original hippie painted Citroen 2CV used words like "great". I'm willing to bet that other than an automaker PR person, nobody has ever called anything Mr. 5X5 MAMA has written "great".
I've never quite understood why guys whose wives are horny (or compliant) enough to screw other guys in front of them aren't fucking their brains out. The weirdest part are the ones who think that kissing is off limits because apparently sticking your tongue in her mouth is more intimate than dipping your wick. Humans are strange. Go figure. If anyone asks how I know this stuff, tell them that I'm well read.
There's a word in Yiddish, nebech, it means an unfortunate person. It's passed into English here in America as nebbish, though that has taken a different meaning, more like nerd than someone with a dark cloud over them. Many years ago my sister lost her 11 year old daughter, Stacy, to Ewing's cell sarcoma. She once told me that she didn't want people to call her a nebech.
By the way, I saw my sister do something that had I not witnessed it with my own eyes I would have a hard time believing someone could do it. We were sitting shiva (the Jewish week of mourning) for Stacy at my sister's place on Staten Island. A bus pulled up with Stacy's classmates making a condolence call. My sister taught science in NYC junior highs for about 40 years, only retiring when the racist leftists running NYC public schools made it "impossible" for her to teach (and she's never voted for a Republican in her life). In the space of a second, I saw my sister switch from being a grieving mother to being a teacher, comforting Stacy's classmates.
Susie's of that last generation of smart American women who became teachers, before feminism convinced them to be doctors and lawyers.
Jack, the way you abuse your body, there won't be a "need" for a cancer. I don't know about pitying looks, but reading about it does make me shake my head...
This is one thing I wondered about because I understood that it's _her_ decision whom she beds, far too few men think they're in charge there, I tried hard to make sure she didn't feel the urge to go elsewhere .
Never forget : if _you're_ not getting any, someone else is .
I know zero straight males with STDS. But multiple women with herpes and they all got it from the same dj... I doubt its all but probably higher than kansas
Just recently (on my trip stateside as it happened) listened to The Intercooler podcast about this very subject. The general gist of it was that Frankel and Prosser would rather spend more time in the cars and less time freeloading, and that for working freelancers being away for three or four days on a press trip for one article was not worth their while - it really only worked for staffers who were getting paid anyway.
My problem with all this is that what kind of person enjoys living the life of a high roller without actually being, you know, a high roller? Isn't this like wearing an expensive rented suit or watch and knowing you have to give it back?
I remember Jamie Kitman calling this out years ago when he had a column in Car magazine. He owned, I think at the time a Lotus Cortina and mentioned to someone in Lotus that he was having trouble with hard to find parts. A few weeks later a parcel arrived unsolicited containing said parts. He sent it straight back.
As the owner of an old Lotus (in pieces) and someone who like McLarens I'll admit I'd have a hard time turning either of those things down.
For the record, I paid my own way and arranged lodging at my cousin's place in LA for that McLaren 675LT review. For the little bit that TTAC paid me, I ended up losing more than $500 on the review, particularly because Avis dinged me for smoking in my rental Jeep Patriot. Then I had to fight with the editor to get the piece published because he wouldn't edit it and 'Camry reviews get more clicks than exoticars'. The only way I got paid was because Jack graciously agreed to edit the piece, which was something like 4,000 words. Still, I would have been a schmuck not to do it. It was cheaper than a track day in a far more pedestrian supercar (a mixed metaphor but I like it) would have cost me. I got to drive what is something like McLaren's 3rd fastest car in the canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains, impress the folks at Peter Mullin's Bugatti-filled museum, and style down Rodeo Drive (okay, so it was at 6 AM, but I'm sure the mannequins at Bvlgari were impressed).
Jamie is a weird case to me, because despite being one of the more well-off journos in the biz, he isn’t afraid to cash in. He’s a decent enough writer and is interesting enough he could’ve done his own thing, but lately it seems he’s relegated himself to being first class on the gravy train and hanging out with noted doofus Brett Berk.
Have some compassion. As focused as at least some gay men are on aesthetics and hairless Greek god bodies, it must be tough out there for old queens. I mean, how has Harvey Fierstein ever gotten laid? Must be his sense of humor.
I follow him on FB. I'm not sure how much auto stuff he's doing these days - mainly shares articles that I don't think most posters on this site would agree with.
Sometimes I wonder if I would kiss my dignity goodbye from the first-class seat of a jet and wave at it as it stands forlornly in the terminal window as I set off for some luxurious hotel in some exotic locale where I'll pretend I'm good at driving a car, and then hobnobbing with the other writers at the expensive restaurant later.
Actually, you know what? I probably would not, there's nothing worse than small talk, and small talk is always made worse by entitled nobodies. There's a guy in my office who loves nothing more than small talk, and I'm glad he's here because I will do just about anything to get out of it. There's a strong case to be made that my refusal to "network" has cost me a lot in moneymaking opportunities throughout the years...
All small talk is like that. My first date with my wife was quiet. It was wierd after 3 months of dating i had a routine and she didnt talk at all. Tried for an end of the night kiss and didnt get the cheek i was expecting. 5 years lates. Lots of kids
My first date with my wife was made up of small talk while we both tried to figure out if we were really on a date or were just two acquaintances from high school getting to know each other again prior to the reunion. Turns out it was a date.
I was at a high-dollar banquet once, down in DC. It was put on by the mutual aid association for electric utilities as a way of celebrating the restoration of power after Hurricane Katrina.
The congressional delegations of Louisiana and Mississippi were there as were a few hundred utility executives and lobbyists.
Several of us linemen were invited, after the fashion of Pocahontas being invited to court.
A great meal and plenty of booze, but definitely one of the most boring nights of my life.
Until we escaped into the wilds of the Capitol district.
The only time I've ever experienced anything like that was a Toyota ride & drive for the Highlander I believe, in Charleston, SC. The airfare was coach but the hotel was a 5 star boutique place right in the middle of Charleston's tourist stuff. We had paid admissions to all sorts of tourist attractions around Charleston. I ended up taking a tour of Drayton Hall, the oldest surviving plantation home in America. The docent was very PC, using the term "enslaved persons" instead of "slaves". Back at the hotel, the bed sat about a foot higher than mine at home and there was a Jacuzzi big enough for at least two. I don't have the social skills of our host so I had to bathe alone, but it was a very nice bath. I keep a kosher diet and having found out that there was a local caterer who could provide kosher meals, Toyota arranged for them to be served at the very nice restaurant where they were feeding us dinner. There was an ice storm that night that prevented us from going home, so Toyota put us up for a 2nd night and when I got to dinner they had gotten me my own bottle of a nice (kosher) cabernet. To be a polite guest I drank most of it as the restaurant was walking distance to the hotel. I'm pretty sure none of that affected my review but it certainly made me think nicely about the Toyota PR folks who went out of their way to accommodate me.
I’m so tired of the disclosures by auto writers that piously say “they offered me a branded hat, but I didn’t take it,” as though that makes the rest of the junket ok …
I have a small machine embroidery shop and I was standing in line at a Scion booth during a media preview so I could get a free logo hat. I thought to myself, "Self, this is stupid. You can get the same hat wholesale for less than $3 and put whatever you want on it." Since I like to do silly things it started being a thing with me and I now have piles of baseball hats with various logos on them.
You might be able to buy me with access to a cool car, but a baseball cap?
“Most people spend the whole time either forgetting which way the track goes or trying desperately to stay in sight of a pace car running at NASA HPDE 1 pace.“
You just described my single experience on a track that wasn’t a quarter mile straight line, when I was called upon to bed in some new pads on Day 2 of a press event. Though to be fair, I’m pretty sure the lead driver hasn’t gone as slow as HPDE 1 pace since he was a young engineer-in-waiting working on the 1987 Dodge Charger Hellcat…
Speaking of that piece, my son and I have decided to model our new Shelby Charger after AA's rendering of the "Hellcat" version. I really liked the blue color scheme, and it needs bodywork and new paint anyways.
My plans don't extend to a 2.5 swap, at least not until I blow up the 2.2.
Oh, for sure. But it’s going to be on a time scale measured in years unless I get another promotion at work, get T-boned by a Swift truck, or otherwise fall backwards into some kind of windfall.
Job #1 is getting it safe and reliable enough for a day of coaching…cooling, brakes, leaks, and (hopefully just) shift linkage.
This piece is roughly 35 years too late. As a young man, I talked my mother into trying a 1986 Taurus - thanks, Csaba Csere! - which eventually led to three transaxle replacements in three different 1st gen Taurus/Sable cars.
I still shake my head when I remember that my Sable's electric deicing windshield outlasted 3rd gear.
These stories...and some my own experiences as of late um...learning about what an auto mfr thinks of my "enthusiasm" for the tech and security in their cars... Automobile corps just seem to have the most insular culture. Gov't regulates cars. journalists review cars and dealers buy cars. Once in a while they might deliver something the customer wants
I have passed on nearly all of the trip I have been offered in the last year or so, mainly because the ROI just doesn't make sense for me anymore. As a independent website/magazine car reviews don't get any views, they don't get any search traffic, because you are never going to out rank the big outlets for "2023 Honda Civic Review" in search. Since I run an actual business and don't have some venture capital backed investment group paying me a salary, I can't be gone for four or five days to produce a story that is embargoed to come out at the same time as every other publication and will produce zero dollars. I mean I can't lose $100 million dollars and hope that Telemundo will buy me out just because.
Plus, I would much rather make money and pay to go on a vacation that I am not required to have someone else schedule. Looking at my site, over the last, 30 days, 90, days and even going back six months, zero stories in the top ten have been new car reviews for more than one day.
The stories that have done very well on the site featuring news cars were all lifestyle focused; road trips, history, motorsports, editorial shoots etc... but for some reason the only metric in the Automotive PR world is how many new car reviews they can say were published. Sorry but I need stories that are more unique to get views, but oddly enough the views don't matter, all the PR departments have boxes they need to check and one of those boxes is legacy media.
A few years ago, I was at a motorsports event as the guest of one of the brands and there was also a writer from Forbes as part of the group being wrangled by the PR team. You would have thought Forbes had sent Jesus himself with the way the PR staff was acting. I was confused as I didn't really understand who was turning to Forbes to read about race car events and cars in general, but it all boiled down to the PR team being able to say "we are in Forbes which has 105 million UMV" even if that story itself might get a few hundred views.
I enjoyed watching an "automotive journalist" who hadn't written about cars in years, they somehow were still on "the list" for a solid two years flying to Europe and Asia for launches that never got more coverage than a few Instagram posts sent out to their 1,035 Instagram followers, which were all mostly other automotive media and PR people. There is no follow up and no auditing for those on the list, because they are in the club. Membership requires you to play the game, post the correct political opinions on social media, work for free for the right people, preferably be from NY or Los Angeles... because you can't trust people in flyover country...
And it's true that you can't trust us out here in flyover country -- we have an unpleasant habit of asking why the cars cost what they do and why they are specced out the way they are!
you're a sad, sad man.
Not as sad as the dude who signed up for an anonymous Substack account because he's too much of a pussy to confront a 51-year-old cripple over the Internet. THAT dude is sad! What's HIS deal?
Now he's a subscriber. Thanks for the shirt.
Wear it in health!
We get shirts??
This was a warranty replacement for the shirts i sold 8 years ago!
Still proudly wearing my DTTS shirt every time I have a hangover.
He's paying more for this site than AOC doesn't want to pay Elon.
I suspect AOC pays in other ways ...
Technically, I'm paying more for this site than AOC doesn't want to pay Elon. You can gift subscriptions!
No one knows what it's like to be the bad man. To be the sad man.
BEHIND BLUE EYES.
- Fred Durst
I thought it was Harry Styles, personally.
What's funny is that no talent assclown has more space devoted to him on my local bookstore's newsstand than the auto rags do.
Prompted by a comment here, I've been on a big Who kick lately. Tommy seems a lot darker than when I was a teenager and Pure and Easy just may be a perfect song. Yeah, I know it's on Townshend's "solo" album but the band played it live and it's on the expanded version of Who's Next. Speaking of Who Came First, Sheraton Gibson is also very well done
I agree with Pure and Easy - a top-notch song for sure!
As the great Katt Williams once said about silk pillows... "I don't need that shit, but bitches do, so I got it."
I recently found out that it was the great Bert Berns (the man behind Twist & Shout) who discovered Van Morrision in the UK and brought him to the U.S. to record.
Anyhow, Astral Weeks sits between Moondance and His Band and Street Choir in my CD collection and there it stays most of the time. It's a bit like Pet Sounds to me in that it's supposed to be the man's great work but it leaves me a bit flat. On the other hand, I'll Be Your Lover Too on HB&SC is one of the most achingly beautiful love songs I've heard.
Rory Gallagher is the best thing to have come out of Ireland.
If he'd attributed it to Layne Staley there'd have been a stiff letter, let me tell you.
That would fall under the category of disrespecting the dead, although in which direction? You could make an argument that, adjusted for available time, AiC was the creative equal of The Who.
I'll say choosing him over another band was purposeful, yes.
Yes but who* did you skip?
* the whom
Would you write that crap for a night at the Motel 6 and a half a Popeye's chicken sandwich?
Strawman Johathan "What kind of an autojournalist do you think I am?!?"
We've already established what you are, now we are just negotiating.
'Pinned'
.
.
*Chef kiss noise*
The alternative was to take a very educated guess on who the commenter is and say something genuinely unpleasant about how sorry I am he can't get his wife pregnant, then offer to do the job like Denzel in Training Day. "You want a son, let me know. I hit every time!"
Thankfully, I'm not that kind of person and I wish him every success in his attempts to become a parent.
Im at the stage of my life where people are struggling to get pregnant. I’m convinced the vax isnt helping but i keep my mouth shut. Im lucky where me and the wife got 3 in 4 years after 35 but that isnt normal
This dude is not at that stage. He's at the stage where most men can get women pregnant by pulling out and shooting onto the pillow they'll sleep on two days from now.
I dated a girl five years my junior. Pulling out works! Birth control, not so much. If he wants a girl im 3/3 i only shoot x’s
The long term negative effects of hormonal birth control and myriad and society puts untold masses of teenaged women on them.
Honk honk.
The response of someone when they read an article dissecting a circle jerk of a profession and the analogies contained therein hit a little too close to home.
What a load of Krok
Jack Murphy is that you?
Jonathan Lieberman I presume?
Exactly why I started the truth about cars - I was fed up with the BS masquerading as legit crit. And why I quit writing for them when I sold it (my first review was pulled at the behest of Ford PR, willing acquiesced by the editor what’s his name).
The only truth about cars you’ll find these days is in the forums. And here of course. And let me say for the record that I’m proud that Jack wrote for us and embarrassed that I launched Lieberman).
I'm happy to see signs of life at the truth about watches.
I get it but I wish you didn’t sell it
I would love to hear about the process and economics of how it all started, especially with TTAG, followed by why companies run them into the ground. Especially with TTAG it isn't like the immediate ruined everything, but it obviously cost them money and then they got rid of the things that made it distinguished from everything else.
Pre-Canadian TTAC was the best. Damn foreigners, ruining everything.
I'm the child of an automotive journalist. Well, an adult child now. My father - who is 82 and still writes about cars every damn day from the comfort of his stair-free patio home in a quiet beach community - began his career in journalism back in the 60s and got in to automotive by the 80s. It was a natural passion of his, along with watches, cycling, women, and many other "Baruthian" hobbies. By the end of the 80s he had a national TV show, several regular feature columns, and enjoyed many, many of these said press trips right through until the early 2000s when he retired from travelling (due, in part, to seeing the travel-miles-odds-game closing in on him when a bird strike caused a partial windshield failure and emergency landing on his CityLine ATR 42 over Hamburg.) These were the perks for him - the stuff that made working for less money than your average sanitation worker worth while. Sure, we sometimes couldn't make the mortgage payment but... pointing out your Casino de Monte-Carlo hotel room in an establishing shot from the latest Bond film? Priceless.
I remember many times where he'd be gone for three, maybe four days at a time to Europe, for weeks on end. The Star Alliance points racked up. The Samsonites wore out. Certainly, the 90s and early 00s was the golden age for this kind of travel, and it's a shame you weren't around just a decade earlier to experience it. PR people were still old school enough to play 'the game,' the flood gates of clueless-but-bubbly communications chicks hadn't yet been opened, and writers knew where their meals came from. It was a more civilized time, like a gentlemen's club of sorts as you say. "Don't shit talk our cars TOO much, and we'll make sure you're on the next one."
Of course, I only got to experience a few press trips myself - rarely did they want the family along for the ride, unless it was something special or the PR guy was a drinking buddy or former journalist who was doing him a favour. I did manage to tag along to Detroit at age 15, and vividly remember sitting with my old man at cigar-bar hospitality suites, rubbing elbows with various execs, eating hand rolled sushi, and witnessing American automotive splendour in all its pre-'08 SUV-fed glory, all before I even had a learner's. Perhaps if I'd been a bit older this would've been a bonding experience, but it was what it was.
He's probably glad he quit taking the trips when he did, and I'm equally glad I wasn't destined to follow precisely in his footsteps - by the time I was old enough to do my own thing, the shine had worn off, and the internet had taken its toll on the entire printed world. Bloggers rushed in. YouTubers rushed in. Realtor wags rushed in. They all saw what was up for grabs, especially the better funded ones who didn't need to run their pens dry trying to make a decent living. The free cars and free trips were no longer "special" to me and the people handing them out weren't so special either. I found a better career, but still manage to dabble in writing and the occasional week in a new car. It's a shame, really, because I very much enjoy writing and I am passionate about the automotive world. I just can't play the insipid Insta-game hard enough to make it look like I Am An Automotive Journalist.
Hagerty really had a chance to turn all of this around, and I think you're right in predicting that nobody ever will. I really love reading your posts because just about every one feels very personal to me, and I'll be sure to share this one with my dad.
We had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the business, and all the people necessary to do it, but there was too much cowardice, simping, and wanting to be liked.
It kills me how a company that insures *classic cars* is all in on EVs, like they’re the insurance subsidiary of the WEF. At least a company like Hemmings knows who pays their bills.
I never understood the need to be liked by people who don’t give a shit about you.
"I never understood the need to be liked by people who don’t give a shit about you."
Because you're a grown man.
What's my excuse ? .
-Nate
You're an old softie!
You say the sweetest things Jack =8-) .
-Nate
They may know who pays their bills but when I was slandered as a racist for the temerity of quoting the name of a Lenny Bruce routine in a discussion of slurs over at TTAC, Hemmings acted cravenly before the mob. I was made persona non grata at a publication that solicited me to apply for an editor's position before they posted it publicly and described my work as awesome. I considered it an honor to be writing for the publication but they didn't act very honorably in my regard.
Occam's Razor Take: Taking cars off of the road means less in payouts for collision damage.
A bonus is that it means fewer proles mucking up the scenic getaways.
I'm sure it has something to do with synergies and a 10 syllable word for plan
Agree 100%. The hagerty EV propaganda just went berserk and it makes me ill.
You can't tell the truth. There is too much money at stake. This situation will continue until some sore of black swan implosion event resets the game, so it can start again.
You could take that statement and carry it directly over to a description of the Federal Government.
Not the first time, won't be the last. If it sounds too good to be true...
I find myself wondering how much difference a sudden shift to honest car reviews would actually make to the car buying public. In my experience, as a person who is known to be into cars, when anyone asks advice about buying a car, they have exactly zero actual interest in what your opinion is. They know what they want, and they want your affirmation/praise for that choice. I suspect that's why the automaker PR scheme has gone on for so long, so successfully. People LIKE reading positive reviews about the cars they are planning on buying. I wonder how many years of sustained bad reviews it would take to make a noticeable dent in say, Camry or CRV sales. When it comes to higher end vehicles too, forget it. Most of those are either emotionally-driven or clout chasing purchases - very few actually care that the 3 series in 2022 doesn't hold a candle to an E46 in driving dynamics, they have a _BMW_. Ultimately, it seems like those of us in the enthusiast community may see this as a bigger deal than it actually turns out to be; the reviews are bought and paid for, but it's been going on for so long that it's calcified notions about brands and models in people's minds. I doubt most people go and drive two dozen different cars when trying to decide what to get, like I do, but I was never the target for the 2022 Accord review in Motortrend anyway. I suppose what this has been an extremely long-winded way of saying is that the auto industry has fostered so much cultural inertia with their PR over the decades that even if everyone started being honest, most of the public would probably find a way to justify the purchase anyway.
It needs to be a Project Farm typa dude in order to make any difference.
Damn big words Jack .
-Nate
"We're going to test that!" PF's latest video is vices. Harbor Freight did surprisingly well
I'm shocked a channel as virtuous as Project Farm would have a video all about vices!
Silent, booooo
U R WELCOME
You've also inadvertently hit upon the original handle behind the concatenation.
Well ... I can say that I bought my first two cars (back in the '90s) based on the Consumer Reports reliability reviews. And they served me well, one of them being an excellent drive to boot.
I bought my next two cars based on the years of reading Car and Driver. That did not work out so well.
Perhaps I'm too old and cynical, but I do not think that honest car reviews today would make much (any?) difference, because in my experience the vast majority of affordable cars today are just crap.
Given the same amount of money, I'd rather buy something made 15+ years ago that is still in decent shape, and spend the difference rejuvenating it the way Jack did with that Milan.
"if everyone started being honest, most of the public would probably find a way to justify the purchase anyway."
I can tell you that your recent comments on the reliability of the F86 platform drained any interest I had in acquiring one for a track toy.
Shit I missed that, was it in one of the articles? I have been looking at purchasing a new GR86 and would want to occasionally do local club days with it. I have also heard that a couple of the last body style had popped motors at HPDEs at Lime Rock, so I was already a little nervous even though that was second-hand info.
I have to say, when I came across Jack's review of the first-gen CX-5, I felt pretty good about myself for finding one and buying it a couple of years ago.
One never knows, Steve ;
One of my sisters asked me which Diesel powered American made 3/4 ton truck to buy to tow her two axle horse trailer .
As I didn't know and find them all mostly the same I suggested she rent one of each for two weeks then choose the one she liked best, in the end she bought a GM product and loved it until her hips and knees gave out ending her ability to ride .
She kept it for several more years until the brake pipes rusted out (?!! WTF GM ?!) , apparently this is a thing, I found her a retrofit repair kit but she sold the truck on dirt cheap and still misses it .
So, there are some who listen .
This same sister bought herself a spiffy BMW convertible as a lifetime treat to have survived, everyone else told her not to, she's keeping it garaged and loves driving it top down whenever the weather (Richmond, Virginia) permits .
I have a few family members who asked , not sure if they listed or not though .
-Nate
Do you like my new car?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTqb8ndLe0k
The master at work.
I'd be willing to bet that Kaylan and Volman contributed to the lyrics. I saw that band at Meadowbrook. Great show. Has anyone written a song about incest as thoughtful as Magdalena? Speaking of Flo & Eddie, I saw that the Turtles are part the Happy Together Tour 2022, headlining an all-star lineup that includes Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, The Association, The Classics IV, The Vogues, and The Cowsills. Shirley Jones, Susan Dey, and Donny Boneduce are still around but I don't think you could do the Partridge Family without David Cassidy. I mean that would be like "The Who" touring without Keith Moon or John Entwhistle.
Totally off-topic, but The Association is certainly on my Spotify most-played list this year. I have an almost year old daughter named Whitney, so naturally every time we are in the car we are singing 'Whitney' to the tune of 'Windy'.
"In my experience, as a person who is known to be into cars, when anyone asks advice about buying a car, they have exactly zero actual interest in what your opinion is."
Maybe it's just the kind of people who ask my opinion, but I've pretty much had the exact opposite experience. When I get asked it really is one of two scenarios. The first is the person who knows pretty well what they want and is just looking for confirmation from their friend the car guy that they are not making a horrible mistake. The second is the completely non-car person who has to buy a replacement car. For me these are the fun conversations. Their question is really just what are the options out there in the price range. I almost never recommend a single option, but will generally come up with a list of 5 or so vehicles to try out. They almost always end up buying something off my list.
Anything publicly owned is run on fraud, graft and corruption in this country. It's con men all the way down and they want to own everything. And they will, because they've bought and paid for every politician. This isn't partisan, I really do mean every one. This guy will figuratively blow the VP of marketing for 8k in bad vacations and booze. Booze is cheap! Buy a bottle of titos for 30 bucks. Politicians get a lot more than that. Capitalism is broken. I'm in a particularly bad mood today. On the bright side, at least we got this place out of it. I don't even remember what I paid, but you should charge more.
This article was free!
Sucker!
"It's a big club...AND YOU AIN'T IN IT!" - George Carlin
And it is indeed a bipartisan club. Even the orange "anti-establishment" guy who's gearing up for another interminable run for office is a shameless grifter. Who's surrounded by even more shameless grifters. And yet we go along pretending that any of it makes a difference. Nothing ever get fixed, but plenty of pockets get lined.
The FTX dude gave $45m to McConnell and the other dude even as he was paying off Biden for protection.
I think he just didnt have the stones to follow through. I’m not voting for him again but the entire establishment changed voting laws to get him out. He had a chance and failed. The next guy is going to be so much worse
You, sir, are my brother from another mother.
This article is fascinating to me on so many levels, but what is most amazing about today' digital world is how quickly one can put together an accurate narrative of a person's world view and motivations from their online history. I am sure they are close to solving the AI to predict such behavior. You were able to put together Andrew's public work, his private (public) posts of his life during his said work, and his historical and contradictory (maybe true) opinions. From those three sources you have been able to demonstrate the absolute shallowness that he openly displayed, and the absolute and total worthlessness of his work.
I always felt to have any opinion worthy of print, or even worthy of speaking, a man must have a solid sense of self understanding and stand for something without the risk of personal benefit. Otherwise what you have to say is worthless and paid for by someone else. We live in a world where that critical quality is in desperate short supply. When I was a teen, I loved DED's Car and Driver, but respected CAR Magazine (I lived in England at the time) even more. Their journalism was responsible for my love of cars. When I started driving, my first car was an '86 GTI, with a driving experience easy to connect to the reviews I read at the time because it was so different from the standard cars people were driving. My own experience vindicated them, and as long as this was easily demonstrated by experience they maintained their authority and allure.
Today, a Car and Driver takes 20 minutes to read from cover to cover before it goes in the trash. It's not even worth the 80c you pay for it with a subscription, and none of it really connects with the reality behind the wheel, it's just a long press release selling the dreams of a lifestyle unobtainable to many, or to be pushed on us by our betters. You know I have had the chance to drive a lot of expensive cars, and most of them are just made for the poseurs, there's nothing special in the way they drive. Poseurs always existed, and they always were the main market in any age. It's us - the 10% - who are cheated - the true lovers of driving have been replaced by people excited about their EVs and SUVs. That's where the money is, and we are lost to the wind, left to figure out how much longer we will be able to buy and drive fun cars. Everything changes, we'll mourn the age that will never return - but we can remember that the personality of a DED was partially responsible for that time - perhaps inadvertently.
As always, you have a thoughtful, durable, and moral perspective. Quit it, you're making me look sloppy by contrast!
One thing I was idly curious about, and willing to shell out money to find out, is what Jack actually thinks of cars. You are also hinting at "some cars are better than others"--a bold statement--but not actually name dropping the vehicles you've enjoyed.
All I know is that I'm still enjoying my, ahem, left-hand drive 2005 Nissan Skyline 350GT with 6 speed manual. Especially now that temperatures in Boise have dropped below freezing, turning my summer tires into stiff rubber donuts eager to rotate the car's rear around its nose.
I'll cover that ASAP. I appreciate the reminder.
I really don't even care if you cover the brand new cars. I buy 90% of my cars used anyway.
I had an '08 sedan that I still regret selling. Great car, but I could never get a smooth launch with that clutch.
Ah, the revised VQ35HR! I've never driven the 07-08 G35s, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out they have the same weird, spring-assisted on/off clutch pedal that my G35 came with. A nice man in the aftermarket solved it with a linear clutch for the entire Nissan FM range: https://rjmperformance.com/
A search of my email proves I bought it in January 2018, 8 months after I got the car. With the stock pedal, it became nearly undriveable with a Exedy single-mass flywheel and slightly beefier pressure plate and friction disc. The new pedal is wonderful; it's unclear why Nissan used such a strange design for the stock pedal.
Nissan in a nutshell. Get so much right but step on their own dick with the little details.
I have over my career worked at two organizations that reviewed cars; both of them refused the paid junkets, refused the freebies with the sole exception of dinner, and didn't spring for travel to launch events that weren't an easy driving distance away. It limited the number of reveals they could attend and forced them to rely upon press fleet cars, but they maintained a measure of integrity. (Side note: I do wonder if Consumer Reports follows such a policy - does it attend events on its own dime" The company still pays full retail for cars it reviews, yes?)
I recall attending a Yamaha event in NorCal; my employer sent me, since I could pay my own way and get their on my own bike (great fun rolling up to a Yamaha event on a 1995 Ducati 900 SS/SP, that of the Sausage Creature, having ridden it repeatedly on the very roads Yamaha had mapped out, but I digress). Among other things, Yamaha gave away digital cameras (this was before phones had decent cameras) so everyone could snap pics and post them to Facebook (this was before Instagram was ubiquitous). I politely declined, citing my employer's policy against gratuities. A few other journalists looked askance, like, "Dude - take the camera and be quiet," but stayed silent except for one guy who loudly and repeatedly teased me about it over the course of the entire day.
I couldn't help wondering why he seemed so personally offended that I declined the freebies.
A few other journalists looked askance, like, "Dude - take the camera and be quiet,".
It's exactly like the clean cop in movies/novels/comics who won't tale a bribe. He's spoiling it for the guys who do.
"You see it's like this, Jake. You gotta have a little dirt on you so people can trust you!" -- Detective Alonzo
I went old-school with Serpico. You went mid-school with Training Day. nice.
that was me - the Frank Serpico of reviewers. lol
Before I started actually getting paid to write about cars I used to get credentialed to auto show media previews to get press kits and swag to sell on eBay. One year I filled the bed of a Ford Ranger with boxes of stuff from the Chicago show. By the time I started working for TTAC and other publishers, though, I had mostly stopped dealing in swag as the elaborate press kits started getting replaced with slip covered CDs and then bar codes for your phone. I think it was at the Detroit show, I was running late that morning, missed a couple of press conferences and went over to the GM media booth to see if they had CDs or thumb drives. A guy who is a macher at MAMA, the midwest autojourno organization, who rewrites press releases for a living, drives a "long term test" vehicle and hasn't seen this side of 300 lbs in decades said to me, "Why don't you go back and get another Hyundai press kit, parasite?"
"I haven't even been over to Hyundai today, but you're welcome to go check the back seat of my car, well, if you can walk that far without getting a coronary. I write for sites that not only are more respected by car guys than yours, I get more traffic than you do."
I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but about half of the comments to my recent piece on Hagerty about a period original hippie painted Citroen 2CV used words like "great". I'm willing to bet that other than an automaker PR person, nobody has ever called anything Mr. 5X5 MAMA has written "great".
"Apparently he owns a VW Jetta wagon, shared with his wife."
What else does he share his wife with? BA-DUM-TSHH
"...rich scent of “Hoppe’s Number Nine” wafting from our freshly revealed undercarriage..."
This is why I use WeaponShield: smells great, and nothing gets a lady going like an olfactory mystery.
Wife? there's a wife?
No points for guessing who runs that household.
This guy (and too many others in the industry) does give off a vibe of "My wife's Bumble profile says Ethically Non-Monogamous."
Half of the dudes in this business would let someone fuck their wives. At least one of them made a business out of it.
I've never quite understood why guys whose wives are horny (or compliant) enough to screw other guys in front of them aren't fucking their brains out. The weirdest part are the ones who think that kissing is off limits because apparently sticking your tongue in her mouth is more intimate than dipping your wick. Humans are strange. Go figure. If anyone asks how I know this stuff, tell them that I'm well read.
Dude, a lot of the time the guys are asking their wives to do it. that, i do not get.
I went down a reddit rabbit hole i should not have gone down
As a paying subscriber I feel I can demand that we hear this story!
I think Rodney should investigate and guest post.
I'm saving the nastiest stuff for when I get diagnosed with cancer, just to make sure I avoid those pitying looks.
Speaking of cancer and pitying looks...
There's a word in Yiddish, nebech, it means an unfortunate person. It's passed into English here in America as nebbish, though that has taken a different meaning, more like nerd than someone with a dark cloud over them. Many years ago my sister lost her 11 year old daughter, Stacy, to Ewing's cell sarcoma. She once told me that she didn't want people to call her a nebech.
By the way, I saw my sister do something that had I not witnessed it with my own eyes I would have a hard time believing someone could do it. We were sitting shiva (the Jewish week of mourning) for Stacy at my sister's place on Staten Island. A bus pulled up with Stacy's classmates making a condolence call. My sister taught science in NYC junior highs for about 40 years, only retiring when the racist leftists running NYC public schools made it "impossible" for her to teach (and she's never voted for a Republican in her life). In the space of a second, I saw my sister switch from being a grieving mother to being a teacher, comforting Stacy's classmates.
Susie's of that last generation of smart American women who became teachers, before feminism convinced them to be doctors and lawyers.
Jack, the way you abuse your body, there won't be a "need" for a cancer. I don't know about pitying looks, but reading about it does make me shake my head...
! YIKES ! .
This is one thing I wondered about because I understood that it's _her_ decision whom she beds, far too few men think they're in charge there, I tried hard to make sure she didn't feel the urge to go elsewhere .
Never forget : if _you're_ not getting any, someone else is .
-Nate
Why?
Because brewing craft beer one glass a time didn't pay the bills?
Hoppes isn’t supposed to be used for cleaning that kind of a gun.
Explains the rash
I think that's from the 19 year old
An astounding number of the young guys at work have had an STD. Old ones, like gonorrhea or syphilis.
I didn’t know anyone who’d had either one in my youth.
I've heard that every woman in NYC has herpes nowadays because the bed-hopping rate is so intense. Who knows?
I know zero straight males with STDS. But multiple women with herpes and they all got it from the same dj... I doubt its all but probably higher than kansas
Just recently (on my trip stateside as it happened) listened to The Intercooler podcast about this very subject. The general gist of it was that Frankel and Prosser would rather spend more time in the cars and less time freeloading, and that for working freelancers being away for three or four days on a press trip for one article was not worth their while - it really only worked for staffers who were getting paid anyway.
My problem with all this is that what kind of person enjoys living the life of a high roller without actually being, you know, a high roller? Isn't this like wearing an expensive rented suit or watch and knowing you have to give it back?
I remember Jamie Kitman calling this out years ago when he had a column in Car magazine. He owned, I think at the time a Lotus Cortina and mentioned to someone in Lotus that he was having trouble with hard to find parts. A few weeks later a parcel arrived unsolicited containing said parts. He sent it straight back.
And yet he cheerfully accepted a McLaren to drive cross-country on a vacation.
"They drove a dump truck full of money up to my house! I'm not made of stone!"
"Let's just say it moved me...TO A BIGGER HOUSE!"
My Insulin!
So long dental plan!
Lisa needs braces.
"He hasn't been seen since he promised to clean up the union."
As the owner of an old Lotus (in pieces) and someone who like McLarens I'll admit I'd have a hard time turning either of those things down.
For the record, I paid my own way and arranged lodging at my cousin's place in LA for that McLaren 675LT review. For the little bit that TTAC paid me, I ended up losing more than $500 on the review, particularly because Avis dinged me for smoking in my rental Jeep Patriot. Then I had to fight with the editor to get the piece published because he wouldn't edit it and 'Camry reviews get more clicks than exoticars'. The only way I got paid was because Jack graciously agreed to edit the piece, which was something like 4,000 words. Still, I would have been a schmuck not to do it. It was cheaper than a track day in a far more pedestrian supercar (a mixed metaphor but I like it) would have cost me. I got to drive what is something like McLaren's 3rd fastest car in the canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains, impress the folks at Peter Mullin's Bugatti-filled museum, and style down Rodeo Drive (okay, so it was at 6 AM, but I'm sure the mannequins at Bvlgari were impressed).
Jamie is a weird case to me, because despite being one of the more well-off journos in the biz, he isn’t afraid to cash in. He’s a decent enough writer and is interesting enough he could’ve done his own thing, but lately it seems he’s relegated himself to being first class on the gravy train and hanging out with noted doofus Brett Berk.
Turkey Berk, the chickenhawk with wattles who loves to take photographs with young boys and $199 sportcoats!
Have some compassion. As focused as at least some gay men are on aesthetics and hairless Greek god bodies, it must be tough out there for old queens. I mean, how has Harvey Fierstein ever gotten laid? Must be his sense of humor.
I used to enjoy his columns what happened to him? I'm not a curious guy, haven't read a thing by Kitman since Automobile mag days.
I follow him on FB. I'm not sure how much auto stuff he's doing these days - mainly shares articles that I don't think most posters on this site would agree with.
True case of TDR with him.
inverted morality. keep the stuff and tell everybody how nice lotus is to you. jeepers!
Love articles like this. A look into a world I could never understand.
Sometimes I wonder if I would kiss my dignity goodbye from the first-class seat of a jet and wave at it as it stands forlornly in the terminal window as I set off for some luxurious hotel in some exotic locale where I'll pretend I'm good at driving a car, and then hobnobbing with the other writers at the expensive restaurant later.
Actually, you know what? I probably would not, there's nothing worse than small talk, and small talk is always made worse by entitled nobodies. There's a guy in my office who loves nothing more than small talk, and I'm glad he's here because I will do just about anything to get out of it. There's a strong case to be made that my refusal to "network" has cost me a lot in moneymaking opportunities throughout the years...
Autowriter small talk is 75% about free shit they've gotten in the past and 25% about netflix.
All small talk is like that. My first date with my wife was quiet. It was wierd after 3 months of dating i had a routine and she didnt talk at all. Tried for an end of the night kiss and didnt get the cheek i was expecting. 5 years lates. Lots of kids
My first date with my wife was 8 hours long and it was incredibly clear she wanted me to at least kiss her from her body language.
I didn't and I have a running gag about this to today because I am a cold hearted bastard.
My first date with my wife was made up of small talk while we both tried to figure out if we were really on a date or were just two acquaintances from high school getting to know each other again prior to the reunion. Turns out it was a date.
That seems to happen more often than not!
Aw damn. I hate netflix, too.
I was at a high-dollar banquet once, down in DC. It was put on by the mutual aid association for electric utilities as a way of celebrating the restoration of power after Hurricane Katrina.
The congressional delegations of Louisiana and Mississippi were there as were a few hundred utility executives and lobbyists.
Several of us linemen were invited, after the fashion of Pocahontas being invited to court.
A great meal and plenty of booze, but definitely one of the most boring nights of my life.
Until we escaped into the wilds of the Capitol district.
The only time I've ever experienced anything like that was a Toyota ride & drive for the Highlander I believe, in Charleston, SC. The airfare was coach but the hotel was a 5 star boutique place right in the middle of Charleston's tourist stuff. We had paid admissions to all sorts of tourist attractions around Charleston. I ended up taking a tour of Drayton Hall, the oldest surviving plantation home in America. The docent was very PC, using the term "enslaved persons" instead of "slaves". Back at the hotel, the bed sat about a foot higher than mine at home and there was a Jacuzzi big enough for at least two. I don't have the social skills of our host so I had to bathe alone, but it was a very nice bath. I keep a kosher diet and having found out that there was a local caterer who could provide kosher meals, Toyota arranged for them to be served at the very nice restaurant where they were feeding us dinner. There was an ice storm that night that prevented us from going home, so Toyota put us up for a 2nd night and when I got to dinner they had gotten me my own bottle of a nice (kosher) cabernet. To be a polite guest I drank most of it as the restaurant was walking distance to the hotel. I'm pretty sure none of that affected my review but it certainly made me think nicely about the Toyota PR folks who went out of their way to accommodate me.
I’m so tired of the disclosures by auto writers that piously say “they offered me a branded hat, but I didn’t take it,” as though that makes the rest of the junket ok …
I take those disclaimers to be a flex. Now that they've been outed, they don't feel the need to hide it anymore.
I don't think you're wrong, particularly with Jalopnik et al.
I have a small machine embroidery shop and I was standing in line at a Scion booth during a media preview so I could get a free logo hat. I thought to myself, "Self, this is stupid. You can get the same hat wholesale for less than $3 and put whatever you want on it." Since I like to do silly things it started being a thing with me and I now have piles of baseball hats with various logos on them.
You might be able to buy me with access to a cool car, but a baseball cap?
“Most people spend the whole time either forgetting which way the track goes or trying desperately to stay in sight of a pace car running at NASA HPDE 1 pace.“
You just described my single experience on a track that wasn’t a quarter mile straight line, when I was called upon to bed in some new pads on Day 2 of a press event. Though to be fair, I’m pretty sure the lead driver hasn’t gone as slow as HPDE 1 pace since he was a young engineer-in-waiting working on the 1987 Dodge Charger Hellcat…
That guy is a piece of shit who builds cheater Neons such as the one we raced together in ChampCar!
I'm completely lost. Someone please clue me in.
Erich Heuschele, the fellow who engineered big parts of every SRT car. I put him in a 1987 "what if" as a joke.
Speaking of that piece, my son and I have decided to model our new Shelby Charger after AA's rendering of the "Hellcat" version. I really liked the blue color scheme, and it needs bodywork and new paint anyways.
My plans don't extend to a 2.5 swap, at least not until I blow up the 2.2.
Send me photos when you're done so I can share them with Abimelec!
Oh, for sure. But it’s going to be on a time scale measured in years unless I get another promotion at work, get T-boned by a Swift truck, or otherwise fall backwards into some kind of windfall.
Job #1 is getting it safe and reliable enough for a day of coaching…cooling, brakes, leaks, and (hopefully just) shift linkage.
This piece is roughly 35 years too late. As a young man, I talked my mother into trying a 1986 Taurus - thanks, Csaba Csere! - which eventually led to three transaxle replacements in three different 1st gen Taurus/Sable cars.
I still shake my head when I remember that my Sable's electric deicing windshield outlasted 3rd gear.
My dad had an '87 Taurus with the 4-cyl and that car was so unreliable it cost us a summer vacation. He never bought another Ford.
These stories...and some my own experiences as of late um...learning about what an auto mfr thinks of my "enthusiasm" for the tech and security in their cars... Automobile corps just seem to have the most insular culture. Gov't regulates cars. journalists review cars and dealers buy cars. Once in a while they might deliver something the customer wants
I have passed on nearly all of the trip I have been offered in the last year or so, mainly because the ROI just doesn't make sense for me anymore. As a independent website/magazine car reviews don't get any views, they don't get any search traffic, because you are never going to out rank the big outlets for "2023 Honda Civic Review" in search. Since I run an actual business and don't have some venture capital backed investment group paying me a salary, I can't be gone for four or five days to produce a story that is embargoed to come out at the same time as every other publication and will produce zero dollars. I mean I can't lose $100 million dollars and hope that Telemundo will buy me out just because.
Plus, I would much rather make money and pay to go on a vacation that I am not required to have someone else schedule. Looking at my site, over the last, 30 days, 90, days and even going back six months, zero stories in the top ten have been new car reviews for more than one day.
The stories that have done very well on the site featuring news cars were all lifestyle focused; road trips, history, motorsports, editorial shoots etc... but for some reason the only metric in the Automotive PR world is how many new car reviews they can say were published. Sorry but I need stories that are more unique to get views, but oddly enough the views don't matter, all the PR departments have boxes they need to check and one of those boxes is legacy media.
A few years ago, I was at a motorsports event as the guest of one of the brands and there was also a writer from Forbes as part of the group being wrangled by the PR team. You would have thought Forbes had sent Jesus himself with the way the PR staff was acting. I was confused as I didn't really understand who was turning to Forbes to read about race car events and cars in general, but it all boiled down to the PR team being able to say "we are in Forbes which has 105 million UMV" even if that story itself might get a few hundred views.
I enjoyed watching an "automotive journalist" who hadn't written about cars in years, they somehow were still on "the list" for a solid two years flying to Europe and Asia for launches that never got more coverage than a few Instagram posts sent out to their 1,035 Instagram followers, which were all mostly other automotive media and PR people. There is no follow up and no auditing for those on the list, because they are in the club. Membership requires you to play the game, post the correct political opinions on social media, work for free for the right people, preferably be from NY or Los Angeles... because you can't trust people in flyover country...
This is well said, thank you for sharing.
And it's true that you can't trust us out here in flyover country -- we have an unpleasant habit of asking why the cars cost what they do and why they are specced out the way they are!
I mean other than a few resort towns they might visit to go skiing, does anyone even live between Los Angeles and New York?
Okay, am I reading you in Bernard Lee's voice or Judi Dench's? I can't make up my mind. Good post in either voice, by the way.
Whichever you like...