Brilliant topic. Let me share a few snippets
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Originally Posted by GTO • Travel & accommodation expenses are borne by the car manufacturer. These include air tickets, hotel stay for a night and meals. Additionally, some manufacturers offer airport pickup & drop-off.
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The airport pick up and drop from home is the scary part - I always like to control this so that I am sure I get to the airport. Have had quite a few skin of the teeth moments when the taxi does not arrive!
At the destination, I am in the manufacturers hands, some times, the wrong timings are given, other times, you get to go in style. At one time, poor me had to slum it in a chauffeured XJ-L as the others were being collected on a bus as they were arriving at a different terminal
Normally, international flights are usually business class for two reasons, the schedule is hectic and brand image
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• For 3 out of 4 drives, a photographer is allowed to accompany the reviewer. This greatly improves the review quality. The work is split up and there's an additional pair of eyes to make observations on the new car.
• Some unfortunately don't; after spending 2 days at their events, we've gotten barely 4 - 6 hours with the actual product. I hate these kind of trips. Prefer to do things at my own pace, and don't like being hurried up on something as important as a car review.
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Believe me, there is a lot of pressure! The toughest time was driving two different cars in a day. The initial location to take pictures was poor and the sun was really strong that day.!
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The slideshow is broken up into 3 parts, each presented by a different member. These briefings can be informative and if you listen closely, you'll pick up some fabulous cues & titbits for your review.
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Another aspect that us mods in Team-BHP bring is that we come from other professions and some of us hold senior positions. This enables us to probe and ask the odd difficult question which gets the odd interesting answer
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Originally Posted by GTO The Cars
• The route is predetermined and explained (ironically) via powerpoint. The longest 10 minutes of my life! Would you remember the route within an unfamiliar town from 30 slides & pictures? I never do. Guess manufacturers have to warm up to the idea of Google Maps.................... I always wonder, if there was an award for the ' worst job in the world', these dudes holding the big placards under the hot sun would get it. |
I must take my hat off for the Range Rover drive. Each car had the route embedded in the GPS system, The cars had a GPS and also a local mobile in the car. You just could not get lost
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• Who your co-driver is depends on your luck. While most people drive alright, a small % drive like maniacs. If you get uneasy, just request and the person will drive safer. Of course, you can't do anything about those who are inherently bad drivers, even when they aren't speeding.
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I sometimes get interesting insights about how forgiving the car is under such conditions. However, driving in mountainous places can get scary, there was a situation where the company driver forced a journalist out at the behest of the PR head.
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• As mentioned earlier, the real challenge is time. This is especially the case for comprehensive Team-BHP Official Reviews, where we cover every detail of the car (have seen some other reviewers being done well before the time allotted!). There's not a moment free and, if you're not physically fit, it can get very exhausting. Once, I bought tickets for a later flight (at my own cost) so that I'd get a couple of extra hours with the review car.
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Time is never enough, I recommend you also wear old clothes!
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Originally Posted by GTO • Because of the unique nature of Team-BHP, manufacturers are often . We get a lot of questions about Team-BHP on media events. Why we don't accept advertising for new car models, how Team-BHP is a Forum ( NOT a blog), that Team-BHP Moderators have other full-time professional / entrepreneurial interests, why we don't see any value in launching a Team-BHP magazine...the list goes on.
• For massive international media drives (e.g. S-Class, Range Rover), manufacturers have the event running over several weeks, with journalists flying in from all over the world. For one of the drives, they had shipped 37 test-drive cars from one country to another! |
I once created confusion landing in same same hotel on business during another car launch where another mod was present. I did tag along for the final part of the shoot but avoided the evening hospitality for obvious reasons.
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Originally Posted by Indicruz
A curious question though - how do Mods rotate the review responsibility? Do you guys fight with each other when you get an opportunity to review a high end performance car? |
Ideally it is strictly by rotation but then considerations like location, mods availability, mods speciality are also considered. Competence is another key aspect - I am not detail oriented which is a requirement for more popular cars. It is pretty fair and transparent
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Originally Posted by rrsteer No Statement pleased me more than this. |
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We sleep well at night , actually, am lying, squeezing your brain out for the last detail keeps us awake. The toughest review was a cars with no features, it was agonising but luckily I had the car for 4 days (the manufacturer would not collect it) and I found more snippets.