We’re overdue for another automotive thread.

denverpilot

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Car reviews and channels ... who do you like the most?

I’ve got a number in the subscription list, but if I only had to watch one, SavageGeese wins, hands down.

His annual list of silly trends for your enjoyment, if you haven’t seen his stuff.


And his utter dismay at the disaster of multiple screens and the steering wheel controls for three separate systems that aren’t integrated at all... in the Subaru Forester... is just awesome.

 
I like SG though some of his rants are getting old. Throttle house is my hands down favorite. Redline reviews is good and of course Doug demuro.
 

I don't know, does this count? There are cars in this series, but the big thing is that these guys are restoring a Norinco type 90 tank (cheap Chinese copy of a Russian T54/55).
 
Watched a portion of SGs latest livestream after the fact, and he’s losing his helper and sidekick so he says he has significant format changes coming in 2020.

As they put it, one person is doing all the editing and writing and the other all the camera work, and falling behind. So he has to drop back to solo this year since the other guy is continuing on into an engineering career.

They also touched briefly into the problem of getting loaner cars as a small YouTuber since Doug Demuro also did a video lately on why he hasn’t reviewed the new Corvette yet. Manufacturers still want to deal with the mostly dead traditional automotive press and not every person who says they have a YouTube channel and then shoots garbage on a cell phone camera. They want to have traditional press that they can control the output more and the traditional relationships with places like MotorTrend and Car and Driver and such.

And sadly they want that as those continue to die. All MotorTrend does anymore is publish “top ten” lists and spam people with them. These YouTubers who put in real effort have much better reviews than any of the mainstream press do, for the most part.

Tough to do it for a living, that’s for sure. Hope he and others can keep it alive.
 
Manufacturers still want to deal with the mostly dead traditional automotive press and not every person who says they have a YouTube channel and then shoots garbage on a cell phone camera. They want to have traditional press that they can control the output more and the traditional relationships with places like MotorTrend and Car and Driver and such.

And sadly they want that as those continue to die. All MotorTrend does anymore is publish “top ten” lists and spam people with them. These YouTubers who put in real effort have much better reviews than any of the mainstream press do, for the most part.

I gave up on Motor Trend and Car and Driver back in the summer of '83 when they gave glowing reviews to the original Fiero. I test drove one a month or two after their initial road tests came out and knew the fix was in. That was a rotten car, despite their very favorable reviews.

R&T was a little better, and Peter Egan kept me buying it for decades.
 
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MT and CD are both garbage. Totally out of touch with what Most of the world values in vehicles.
 
Car reviews and channels ... who do you like the most?

I’ve got a number in the subscription list, but if I only had to watch one, SavageGeese wins, hands down.

His annual list of silly trends for your enjoyment, if you haven’t seen his stuff.


And his utter dismay at the disaster of multiple screens and the steering wheel controls for three separate systems that aren’t integrated at all... in the Subaru Forester... is just awesome.


Eh, I don’t get the hate with some the customization stuff. Having customizable screens in the dash let’s you show the gauges you actually want to see. I also like the ability to change interior lighting (Ford made it popular) so that I can have a soft red color at night instead of some bright blue fixed color that annoys me. I think if I were going to be annoyed with electronics stuff, it’d be the vehicles where installations were non-intuitive or redundant.

Ex: I have recently driven some new Infinity Q50 models where they have 2-stacked screens, but the upper screen can’t do anything but display audio info or a big clock unless you’re using Apple Play/Android Auto. So most of the time, for me, the upper and lower screen were both showing audio info which is absolutely pointless.
 
Eh, I don’t get the hate with some the customization stuff. Having customizable screens in the dash let’s you show the gauges you actually want to see. I also like the ability to change interior lighting (Ford made it popular) so that I can have a soft red color at night instead of some bright blue fixed color that annoys me. I think if I were going to be annoyed with electronics stuff, it’d be the vehicles where installations were non-intuitive or redundant.

Ex: I have recently driven some new Infinity Q50 models where they have 2-stacked screens, but the upper screen can’t do anything but display audio info or a big clock unless you’re using Apple Play/Android Auto. So most of the time, for me, the upper and lower screen were both showing audio info which is absolutely pointless.

I don’t think the hate is on actual driving info. It’s more the “you can’t use your phone while driving, that’s a distraction, so we’ll mount a 21” screen dead center and make sure it has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and we’ll just move the whole distraction to an alternate touchscreen... and we’ll put even your climate controls in a menu or so tiny you can’t easily change them, when a rotary knob really was a much better human interface... and then we’ll offer no security updates for any of it and hook it to the internet through an always on cellular modem...”

Heh.
 
@SoonerAviator not to mention garbage like I mentioned in the video I linked. Subaru had close two twenty individual buttons and two rocker switches on the steering wheel plus an extra side panel with six more plus a center console control because they didn’t properly integrate three separate systems into one cohesive human interface. SGs reaction or classic if you didn’t watch it. LOL.

“What is this crap?! This is a disaster.”

They did jam 85% of it into a monster touch screen for 2020. That thing will be $3000 to replace when it breaks. Or more. LOL.
 
I gave up on Motor Trend and Car and Driver back in the summer of '83 when they gave glowing reviews to the original Fiero. I test drove one a month or two after their initial road tests came out and knew the fix was in. That was a rotten car, despite their very favorable reviews.

R&T was a little better, and Peter Egan kept me buying it for decades.

Oh forgot to mention. If you want to claw your eyeballs out watch the horrid videocast that Consumer Reports auto division puts out. The reports themselves aren’t awful, bland and boring as can be, but the three talking heads and one of them is their boss... cringeworthy.
 
I’ve tried to like some and failed. DeMuro is really irritating. Hoovie’s schtick gets old after a while, but not as bad as Doug. Basically... I subscribe to nothing, and watch slightly more than that. But, I do pop around and watch videos that specifically interest me. There’s a guy in China (or nearby) that makes some good how-to videos covering Mercedes maintenance and repairs.
 
Ford MyTouch in my wife's '13 Edge is the only interface I've used that will have me talking like a sailor in 10 seconds flat ... every time. The voice integration with the Nav sucks eggs, the climate controls interface is horrid x2 (small driver's screen and main screen) ... absolutely horrid.
 
I've driven cars with screens, listen to Dad ***** that Mom broke screen with a suction cup, and then complain it was $800 to fix it. I'll skip the screens. I have too many expensive ones in the plane as it is, don't need any more in the stuff I drive.

These new cars have more built-in planned-obsolescence than a smartphone. (Que the extended warranty commercials)
 
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Vin wiki is cool

Watched some of the others and just wasn’t too into it, didn’t really feel like car guys, some of the car review people meh, there is one popular guy who drives all sorts of cars people loan him, seems like he likes cars but still don’t get the car guy vibe, case and point he drives a C6, factory hopped up one, R or something, he acts unimpressed doesn’t really get on it, says it’s a good value, next click he drives a special addition new Mercedes coupe and is like OMG!!! It’s so fast!, yeah it’s actually a notable slower car compared to the vette, lower skid pad, worse brake times, slower 0-60, less aftermarket support, weighs more etc.


I've driven cars with screens, listen to Dad ***** that Mom broke screen with a suction cup, and then complain it was $800 to fix it. I'll skip the screens. I have too many expensive ones in the plane as it is, don't need any more in the stuff I drive.

These new cars have more built-in planned-obsolescence than a smartphone. (Que the extended warranty commercials)

Screen is cool if it looks thoughtout, displays something cool, and flows with the car, lots of these cars look like they bought a chinese tablet and just stuck it on the center consul half sticking up over the dash pad
 
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I've driven cars with screens, listen to Dad ***** that Mom broke screen with a suction cup, and then complain it was $800 to fix it. I'll skip the screens. I have too many expensive ones in the plane as it is, don't need any more in the stuff I drive.

These new cars have more built-in planned-obsolescence than a smartphone. (Que the extended warranty commercials)

It’s getting very hard to skip the screens now. Mazda at least with their human interface studies and serious thought about it is keeping critical controls like climate out of the touchscreen.

Other companies are slapping two and three screens in everything just to make the thing look like it has tech for the reviewers who spend far more time talking about menus and crap nobody will ever use, than how the thing actually drives.

Finding a review that actually looks UNDER the vehicle is near impossible now, which is a feature of SGs videos that I like. If you’re buying for even mild off road or dirt roads like where I live, you actually want to see what the hell they did. NOBODY does reviews of how the stupid things handle on washboards. Or how long they’re likely to survive driving on them daily.
 
It’s getting very hard to skip the screens now. Mazda at least with their human interface studies and serious thought about it is keeping critical controls like climate out of the touchscreen.

Other companies are slapping two and three screens in everything just to make the thing look like it has tech for the reviewers who spend far more time talking about menus and crap nobody will ever use, than how the thing actually drives.

Finding a review that actually looks UNDER the vehicle is near impossible now, which is a feature of SGs videos that I like. If you’re buying for even mild off road or dirt roads like where I live, you actually want to see what the hell they did. NOBODY does reviews of how the stupid things handle on washboards. Or how long they’re likely to survive driving on them daily.

Buying parts for the crap they are building is outrageous. $300 and up for a tail/headlight assemblies? $800 for a screen?

Not to mention that half or more of these are coming with low ratio sidewall tires and yes there are pictures all over the damn place with split sidewalls and bent wheels because the average road in the Midwest might as well be full of landmines when driving these thing on them.

New cars suck, and just keep getting worse.
 
Buying parts for the crap they are building is outrageous. $300 and up for a tail/headlight assemblies? $800 for a screen?

Not to mention that half or more of these are coming with low ratio sidewall tires and yes there are pictures all over the damn place with split sidewalls and bent wheels because the average road in the Midwest might as well be full of landmines when driving these thing on them.

New cars suck, and just keep getting worse.

Some of the stuff that sucks is mandated by various laws. IIHS supposedly tests headlight performance now. If your headlights fail their weird ass test, you can’t claim your vehicle has a “top safety rating”.

Same thing with ever heightening doors so the windows are too small to see out of. Have to pass those side impact tests. Don’t need to see outside, that’s what the 360 cameras are for. LOL. And the radar.

Fender bender? That’ll be $5000. You need new cameras, radar, and parking sensors.

Which is why they’re teaching the cars to stop on their own now. LOL. Nobody can afford to replace a bumper and all the crush components. Total the vehicle bumping another car in a parking lot. :)
 
Ford MyTouch in my wife's '13 Edge is the only interface I've used that will have me talking like a sailor in 10 seconds flat ... every time. The voice integration with the Nav sucks eggs, the climate controls interface is horrid x2 (small driver's screen and main screen) ... absolutely horrid.
Doesn't hold a candle to the first few iterations of GM's Cue interface. Laggy and non-intuitive to boot. Both Ford's Sync3 (and newer) as well as GM's latest CUE version are pretty well sorted. The Ford and GM products still have physical controls for the HVAC, too, which is great. Recently drove a Cadillac Escalade for a 3-day weekend rental for a quick family trip . . . Main HVAC controls had physical touch controls, fine . . . the rear HVAC controls were only accessible in the CUE interface, which is a pain. The Tahoe/Yukon variants still have the rear controls with physical buttons, maybe they figure Cadillac owners won't actually have people in the back seats, lol.
 
I think we’ve figured out that car makers have no business being in the touch screen user interface business. :)
 
Doesn't hold a candle to the first few iterations of GM's Cue interface. Laggy and non-intuitive to boot. Both Ford's Sync3 (and newer) as well as GM's latest CUE version are pretty well sorted. The Ford and GM products still have physical controls for the HVAC, too, which is great. Recently drove a Cadillac Escalade for a 3-day weekend rental for a quick family trip . . . Main HVAC controls had physical touch controls, fine . . . the rear HVAC controls were only accessible in the CUE interface, which is a pain. The Tahoe/Yukon variants still have the rear controls with physical buttons, maybe they figure Cadillac owners won't actually have people in the back seats, lol.

I’ve really liked the glass like zero buttons on my caddy, temp wise it has two settings as far as I’m concerned, auto at 72f or off, 85% of the time it just lives on auto.

Had the cue replaced and it’s been great, also dig the SD card slot, I have a decent sized card in there with all my music on it, plus the whole center dash looks really nice.

Only draw back for me is GM not using nice leather for everything on their higher end range cars, don’t put DRLs I can’t deactivate easily in my car, and their choice of tires sucks, swapped those run flat continentals for Michelin AS3+s
 
All three of our present cars have touch screens and I really don’t have any issues with any of them.
 
I think we’ve figured out that car makers have no business being in the touch screen user interface business. :)

That’s why Ford outsourced it to Microsoft. Sync is a Microsoft collaboration, which was rough in the early years but got the kinks worked out eventually.
 
Now if they’d just outsource the rest of the vehicle... lol.

Lol, normally I’d agree, but Ford has been on a pretty good run since the late-00’s. Ford trucks still class-leading, ‘05 retro Mustang brought an entire retro-styling renaissance into auto styling, then they were the first of the Big 3 to move away from it. Explorer has been selling like hot cakes for a decade, Fusion was a proven winner, they made the Expedition the SUV to beat in that segment, revived Lincoln, and have a pretty reliable cache of engine options and upcoming EVs.

Hard to hate on ‘em much at the moment!
 
Lol, normally I’d agree, but Ford has been on a pretty good run since the late-00’s. Ford trucks still class-leading, ‘05 retro Mustang brought an entire retro-styling renaissance into auto styling, then they were the first of the Big 3 to move away from it. Explorer has been selling like hot cakes for a decade, Fusion was a proven winner, they made the Expedition the SUV to beat in that segment, revived Lincoln, and have a pretty reliable cache of engine options and upcoming EVs.

Hard to hate on ‘em much at the moment!

They have. They build just the junk the crowd wants. LOL.

For that same list I would say:

Trucks: They haven’t had any real competition for decades. GM never built anything truly new since 00, and Dodge? Meh. Getting better but still a decade behind. Not hard to be “class leading” when nobody else is even on the playing field. LOL. Plus using that marketing term outside of a commercial means you have to take a shot. Automotive commercial drinking game. LOL

Mustang is a disaster all around. Let’s not even go there. Using a classic badge to push junk is pitiful. :)

Explorer is just the cheap version of what people actually wanted in a square SUV... a Toyota... bur couldn’t afford it. Haha.

Fusion was actually good. I’ll give you that. So it’s dead now. Of course haha.

Expedition is the same story as the other full size trucks. Shove some leather inside an 00 era design and call it “new”. Nah. It’s just the last of two massive truck frame based haulers and Suburban is equally old. They’re both still around because some people over-breed and also need to tow things. Hahaha.

Of course this reality isn’t on any car review sites (which would be awesome by the way) because even the mildly snarky ones would never get another new car to review ever again. Hahaha.

SG soft petals it but he’s right. The masses want bubble cars. Stuff you can barely tell apart from the next brand in the Walmart parking lot without a GPS parking reminder app.

Safety is all good and all but you end up with bubble cocoons that look all the same so when your 20” Nav screen “distracts” you even though you used to know how to drive to places without it, and go flipping ass over teakettle in the ditch, they’ll just extract you from a thousand air bags and you’ll be home tonight instead of in the hospital. It’s a find goal, but there’s only a limited number of ways to accomplish it design-wise.

Which is why the door sills are so high the windows look like slits in WWII pillboxes. The cameras and sensors will look. You can’t anymore. And a minor dent in a bumper turns into $3000 to replace the sensors and radar. LOL.

It’s one of the reasons we are looking at Foresters. Might be the last small wagon anybody can actually see out of. It can’t last very long in modern design. It got the sensors but also retained tall windows and those whack it in MPG which CAFE and other standards won’t allow for long.

People put up with it on Forester and Outback for the solid AWD system which is headed well into the over-engineered and software driven fussy and less reliable every model year. Not to mention the terrible CVT and fake shifting.
 
Had to share this. LOL.

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SG is awesome. Another good YT car channel is The Straight Pipes. Two guys from Canada that make entertaining car videos, and they get a pretty good selection of cars to drive.

I bought a CPO 2015 BMW 328i xDrive about two years ago. I absolutely love it. It will be hard to ever change from a non premium European brand. I would never buy one new though. My only concern is that the warranty is now up, and anything that breaks from here out is going to be out of pocket. That could get expensive!
 
They have. They build just the junk the crowd wants. LOL.

For that same list I would say:

Trucks: They haven’t had any real competition for decades. GM never built anything truly new since 00, and Dodge? Meh. Getting better but still a decade behind. Not hard to be “class leading” when nobody else is even on the playing field. LOL. Plus using that marketing term outside of a commercial means you have to take a shot. Automotive commercial drinking game. LOL

Mustang is a disaster all around. Let’s not even go there. Using a classic badge to push junk is pitiful. :)

Explorer is just the cheap version of what people actually wanted in a square SUV... a Toyota... bur couldn’t afford it. Haha.

Fusion was actually good. I’ll give you that. So it’s dead now. Of course haha.

Expedition is the same story as the other full size trucks. Shove some leather inside an 00 era design and call it “new”. Nah. It’s just the last of two massive truck frame based haulers and Suburban is equally old. They’re both still around because some people over-breed and also need to tow things. Hahaha.

Of course this reality isn’t on any car review sites (which would be awesome by the way) because even the mildly snarky ones would never get another new car to review ever again. Hahaha.

SG soft petals it but he’s right. The masses want bubble cars. Stuff you can barely tell apart from the next brand in the Walmart parking lot without a GPS parking reminder app.

Safety is all good and all but you end up with bubble cocoons that look all the same so when your 20” Nav screen “distracts” you even though you used to know how to drive to places without it, and go flipping ass over teakettle in the ditch, they’ll just extract you from a thousand air bags and you’ll be home tonight instead of in the hospital. It’s a find goal, but there’s only a limited number of ways to accomplish it design-wise.

Which is why the door sills are so high the windows look like slits in WWII pillboxes. The cameras and sensors will look. You can’t anymore. And a minor dent in a bumper turns into $3000 to replace the sensors and radar. LOL.

It’s one of the reasons we are looking at Foresters. Might be the last small wagon anybody can actually see out of. It can’t last very long in modern design. It got the sensors but also retained tall windows and those whack it in MPG which CAFE and other standards won’t allow for long.

People put up with it on Forester and Outback for the solid AWD system which is headed well into the over-engineered and software driven fussy and less reliable every model year. Not to mention the terrible CVT and fake shifting.

I was speaking to the true Mustangs, not the Mach E travesty, lol. They moved to IRS and are the daily driver pony car that Camaro couldn’t manage to match, even though the Chebby has better track specs. I’d even take a Challenger over the Camaro, for that matter.

The new Expedition is also IRS and moves surprisingly well for a 6K lbs suv with the 400HP twin turbo V6. The Navigator version is now the one to beat in that luxury segment. Nothing wrong with a full size SUV if you need the space. The 3-day trip we took a few weeks back filled up the rear cargo area of the Escalade (3rd seats folded) up to the headrests. Even the floor boards in the second row were packed with stuff. That was just for 3 days with a 3yr old and 8-month old. Explorer or similar wouldn’t have been able to handle all of that without going to the ceiling or external cargo devices.
 
The new Expedition is also IRS and moves surprisingly well for a 6K lbs suv with the 400HP twin turbo V6. The Navigator version is now the one to beat in that luxury segment. Nothing wrong with a full size SUV if you need the space. The 3-day trip we took a few weeks back filled up the rear cargo area of the Escalade (3rd seats folded) up to the headrests. Even the floor boards in the second row were packed with stuff. That was just for 3 days with a 3yr old and 8-month old. Explorer or similar wouldn’t have been able to handle all of that without going to the ceiling or external cargo devices.

No offense intended but just for a laugh we have always called the full size SUVs “Mormon Assault Vehicles” being so close in proximity to Utah. LOL.

Hahahaha on the Mustang. That thing is a joke. :)
 
I bought a CPO 2015 BMW 328i xDrive about two years ago. I absolutely love it. It will be hard to ever change from a non premium European brand. I would never buy one new though. My only concern is that the warranty is now up, and anything that breaks from here out is going to be out of pocket. That could get expensive!

It seems like most people that make the switch don’t look back, at least when it comes to cars. I think trucks are another matter however. The Americans are still the best at the full size truck segment, likely due to the demand and need for such vehicles in this country. All the manufacturers have butchered the mini truck market beyond the point of recognition.

As far as European cars without warranty goes, I wouldn’t worry too much. There are tons of aftermarket parts out there for them because they cater to the whole world not just the US. I’ve found my Audi’s to be the cheapest cars I’ve owned when it comes to parts and maintenance needs.
 
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