[c63er]

Originally Posted by stefan

Really though journalism doesn't mean shit. All new cars get rave reviews. Reviewers go from car to car so their reference point is only modern vehicles. Personally I have totally lost sight of who these cars are for and if you really compare the M of old, there has been a huge departure. Don't trust the journalists. Just go for a long drive. And while it's a rocket, try not to let it influence your purchase as you will always 100% of the time get used to and bored of horsepower.

I am glad BMW has re asserted it's position in the "wtf it's a sedan??" realm. But does it have character?

So so true. Current car "journalists" are anything but. Ever wonder why nearly every review for a given car are so similar between the various different news outlets?

It's because the vast majority are simply repeating what the manufacturer has spin fed them. Combine this with a lack of experience (and a lack of confidence that seems innate to a young writer) and most of what they are writing is what the manufacturer wants them to say, and totally detached from reality.

If you don't believe this, just pick any car you want then read the reviews from the major publications and look for the similarities in what they are saying. The unwitting reading may see it as confirmation of some trait of the car, but in actuality it's simply a line which was consciously or subconsciously put out by the manufacturer and then repeated by the writer.

The most egregious I saw was with the release of the amg gt, where at press launch the media specialists put out there that the center console of the gt was designed to mirror the v8 engine, with two opposing banks of 4 buttons. Well goddamn if every single review didn't go off telling us about this as if the individual journalist noticed this on their own.

Always be smart and always use your own judgement. There was a time when journalists brought smarts and experience to the table (road and track comes to mind) to give insightful and trustworthy reviews. More recently the only reviews worth anything come from Chris Harris and Clarkson, but they are entertainers so you have to mentally wade through the made for tv stuff to try to get at the real meaning of what they are saying. When you do get there, they are usually spot on.

C/d has usually been nonsense and that continues here. But this type of stuff is meant for internet "bench racers". Wow it can do 0-60 in 1 second. Great.