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Old 29th April 2007, 10:49   #31
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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
I found that very surprising too; one magazine lambasts the Sparks ride quality while the other praises it.
Maybe one test drove the car on the German Autobahn while the other tested it on Bangalore Puttenahalli Roads.

Ought to have some standards while testing, so that all cars are compared equally.
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Old 29th April 2007, 11:01   #32
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...automobile journalism, with them. I join soon, and our work becomes public in a 3-4 months time. I hope this time i m not disappointed and can openly write...
Interesting. All the best on your venture, mate, and hope we readers get something good to spend our time on.

Btw, I read somewhere that BS motoring is more true-to-life and gives out better facts. The T-Drivers are just a buch of enthusiasts and things like that.

What say about that?
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Old 29th April 2007, 11:17   #33
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Originally Posted by CaliAtenza View Post
i trust top gear...more than anyone. But US/Euro mags are better any day of the week.
It is perception. Readers will trust those mags that most closely resemble their own personalities. TG and OD are relatively more slickly laid out and well put together, the language is more engaging, and the pics are much nicer. This is true of the US mags like C&D, R&T, though they tend to think that people only buy their mags to see if they've expertly blasted and put down a fresh launch.

I havent read much of ACI, but I'll hazard a guess that it has poorer quality paper, is slightly cheaper, and the narrative is more functional. Would and should appeal to most conservative car buyers though.

I wonder what methods the mags employ for evaluating FE figures. (I didnt see it in another thread). Do they describe city driving as 'SV road Andheri at 11:30AM' and highway driving as 'Mumbai-pune expressway at 6AM'? The best way of getting real time figures is to use the OBC, or attach another device to the canbus at the ECU/OBC, which calculates and returns accurate real-time values.
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Old 30th April 2007, 10:38   #34
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Originally Posted by rahul_intlad View Post
Did anybody read yesterday's Times drive[mumbai edition],There was a test drive of the logan,guess what the author has to say about the logan,

The tata indigo interiors appears way too cheap in front of the logan.The logan is an asprational car on the grounds of the corolla,fiesta etc however at a much cheaper rate.
Basically the test-drive appeared straight out of the brochure of the mahindra logan.

After sending the journos to those exotic locations,five star hotels,all expenses paid trip etc how would they dare to write anything negative.
Well, the Times of India has built a reputation for providing more "advertorials" than "Editorials". This is especially obvious in their so-called weekly supplements.

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Originally Posted by herculesksp View Post
Btw, I read somewhere that BS motoring is more true-to-life and gives out better facts. The T-Drivers are just a buch of enthusiasts and things like that.

What say about that?
You mean the same BSMotoring that ranked the Chevy UV-A as car of the year!!
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Old 30th April 2007, 11:26   #35
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Thank you

OFF topic: @varun, Lamborghini - i would like to thank you guys for promoting my Magazine lols Man's World a lifestyle magazine for Men that i work for . I should say Magazine for rich men lols.

We do have a section on Wheels called FOB:Wheels, written by an automotive journalist, but its not that hardcore writing as autocar or car india or top gear or overdrive or BS motoring etc etc.
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Old 30th April 2007, 11:37   #36
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You mean the same BSMotoring that ranked the Chevy UV-A as car of the year!!
Well, that might have been a one-off, but today they are the best bunch of writers, are honest with their work and great enthusiasts, unlike other magazines who do write but don't leave you with a warm feeling. Heck, the editor of Automobile Magazine, one of the world's best written auto mags rates BS Motoring very highly, placing it as one of the best in the business.
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Old 30th April 2007, 11:53   #37
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Well ,its just a choice between the devil and the deep sea ..I would rather go by the reviews by the team members here,my friends reports and by my own experiences of the test drives ...but it is a little dificult for newly launched vehicles as the mags provide soo much hype that it can skew a persons viewpoint .

I was pretty disappointed with the Top Gear mag i bought sometime back . For one ,it has started looking like the yellow pages more than an auto mag with ads on every page.

I guess you just have to read and pick up the bits that you can relate to .

Bunny - Hope you guys are able to provide us with more realistic figures and TD's bro . All the best for your venture ...looking fwd to it .
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Old 30th April 2007, 12:04   #38
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Originally Posted by squid View Post
Well, that might have been a one-off, but today they are the best bunch of writers, are honest with their work and great enthusiasts, unlike other magazines who do write but don't leave you with a warm feeling. Heck, the editor of Automobile Magazine, one of the world's best written auto mags rates BS Motoring very highly, placing it as one of the best in the business.

They're very enthusiastic and have a way with words, yes - but I doubt you could call them honest.
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Old 30th April 2007, 12:26   #39
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Whether it is auto-magazine or IT hardware, stereo, camera etc. types of magazines, they always say good things mostly. And they are driven by ad revenues and corporate sponsorships both at individual level (reporters) and organisation level.

Their entire business depends on goodwill with manufacturer or they dont get hot news, test drive chances, timely 'leaks' and other goodies. They will die.

So better to treat these mags as source of industry news, informative ads for products you did not know exist, classifieds, tips on insurance/repairs, road info, safety, price database, model features/specs, etc.
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Old 1st May 2007, 13:06   #40
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Well personally i have always liked overdrive, but cant just go by the figures and stuff. At the same time, I have had my doubts about their opinions. They are a Tata Infomedia publication, so are they biased in their views towards Tata cars? A bit, yes.
And yeah, they need to be in the good books of the manufacturers, otherwise they will never get the long-term test cars, nor will they be given a preference while being given a new car for a test.
All said and done, i still like auto mags. I like the style of writing, especially Top Gear's, its good.
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Old 1st May 2007, 13:40   #41
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Originally Posted by SohailPistawala View Post
We do have a section on Wheels called FOB:Wheels, written by an automotive journalist, but its not that hardcore writing as autocar or car india or top gear or overdrive or BS motoring etc etc.
Don't BS Motoring guys occasionally write for Man's World? Or they have in the past?
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Old 1st May 2007, 13:41   #42
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You mean the same BSMotoring that ranked the Chevy UV-A as car of the year!!
GTO the cheapest car to contest the pagent is always the winner, if you take a sneak peak at the previous winners.
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Old 1st May 2007, 13:44   #43
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Overdrive was part of Tata Infomedia limited from which Tata have sold their stake quite sometime back. Also, they cant and didnt make it look so obvious that they were pro Tata IMO. I agree that some of the figures are not true but atleast they provide them whereas many other mags such as BSMotoring, TG etc do not even provide such a detailed analysis. The views in certain cases may be biased but I agree that thats the reason for us general public to get to know the scoop stories.
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Old 1st May 2007, 15:25   #44
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GTO the cheapest car to contest the pagent is always the winner, if you take a sneak peak at the previous winners.
But wasn't estilo the cheapest car this year?
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Old 1st May 2007, 23:55   #45
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rahul_intlad View Post
Did anybody read yesterday's Times drive[mumbai edition],There was a test drive of the logan,guess what the author has to say about the logan,

The tata indigo interiors appears way too cheap in front of the logan.The logan is an asprational car on the grounds of the corolla,fiesta etc however at a much cheaper rate.
Basically the test-drive appeared straight out of the brochure of the mahindra logan.
Yes....I too was very surprised on reading this review..... Indigo is certainly a much better car than Logan after all the points discussed in the Logan thread.

You are sopt on when you say that it looks like an ad out of M&M Renault's brochure
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