Team-BHP - Mail Today promotes lawless driving. Ford contributes.

A travel article, titled "@ 140 kmph+" by Abhay Desai in the Mail Today newspaper on 25 February 2010 (Mail Today - News for the New Indian# - page 28) is extremely tasteless, because the reporter enjoys breaking a number of traffic rules without qualms, and the paper publishes the same so proudly.

First, the reporter indulges in breaking the speed limit just because he is driving a powerful car (the Ford Endeavour Automatic). The route taken, along NH1 up to Ambala, has a speed limit of 90 kmph, and Abhay Desai reports "effortlessly speeding up to 140+ kmph". Even the title of the article glorifies this fact.

Second, the paper promotes the fact that they are drinking and driving. "We surrender and stop at Captains Inn for a cold beer..."

Also, the car has a temporary registration (TN19TC 0050), which probably means that a Ford dealer will sell the car to an unsuspecting customer after the joyride and misuse are over - I hope Ford would pay attention to the same as well.

I sincerely hope Mail Today will promote safe driving habits in future, and Ford would do well not to lend them another car to play around with.

Would like your collective opinion here too.

Doc, the TN cars are normally used here for TD purposes, not for selling to unsuspecting customers.

Secondly, driving at 140 kmph on NH1 when the speed limit is 90 kmph - is he the only one guilty & why is Ford responsible? Are all vehicle manufacturers responsible when people break speed limits during Test Drives?

About publicising the drinking & driving - I agree, it is pretty stupid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by suman (Post 1754747)

...driving at 140 kmph on NH1 when the speed limit is 90 kmph - is he the only one guilty...?

No, but he's the rare one guilty of publicising and promoting it in a respected newspaper. That can be considered irresponsible journalism.

Quote:

Originally Posted by suman (Post 1754747)

...why is Ford responsible?

They're not responsible. They contributed the car. That's what I meant.

Our irresponsible media organizations cannot get worse than this. Can anyone take a PDF copy of this article and upload as an attachment?

Corresponding authorities should register civic(?) or criminal(?) case against this newspaper editors and the reporter for violating local laws. Then such newspapers can put one more article with same excitement about how they being punished for violating rules and getting fined, at least that will promote law and educate readers that no individual/organization/newspaper is above law.

Today i saw an advt on tv, a sedan was engaged in a street race with SUV
i think the ad was of chevvy cruze, i am not sure.

There are thousands of Test Drive & Initial ownership threads and travelogues in this very forum where owners have proudly taken photogrpahs of their highest peak speed (160-190 KMPH) on a national highway and have displayed/posted in a open forum which is viewed by every one including kids.

there are several teens in the forum as members, they will also try and do the same i.e. try to break speed limits when they grow up.

Almost every auto rag overspeeds on public roads. It's wrong but that's what is happening. If these guys are going to be pulled up, so should every auto rag in India that indulges in performance testing on public roads with real traffic. What about the records the rags try to set every now and then? That's wrong isn't it? The only thing that is pitiable is the old monk statement adding fuel to the drive, but that still doesn't mean that the said tester did actually drink and drive. And the cold beer could be for the other people in the car.

Cheers,

Jay

this is very disgusting article totally low on quality and then this stupid stuff highlighting 140+ speeds and drinks etc.

I dont know why Ford paid to such a monkey to TD their car and write this worthless article.

Show the Test Drive Reviews GTO and Tanveer has posted to this guy and he would jump off from the Hatu Peak.

I dont think there is a problem with the top speed mentioned in the article. I believe everyone [atleast 80% of people who drive] breaks the speed barrier at one time or the other. As long as its safe, I dont find a reason why we cant drive at those speeds or mention top speeds. But the beer part could be avoided!

I saw this same cruze ad today and felt that it should never have been aired.

Regarding the forum - I have seen scores of proud speeders here everything from m800s to M3s. Could we have infractions put in place for people who promote / brag on speeding? High time we act responsibly. please remember that team-bhp is the fist hit in google for most search queries i have tried on indian cars. we would be doing a great service by moderating / not promoting such unlawful practices.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarVegabond (Post 1754911)

Well the article should have been written in better taste. Such articles tend to influence the new teenage drivers who try to replicate the "macho" feeling that is put forward by such articles. Something need to be done since the number of road accidents involving youngsters is on the rise. Somewhere or the other people need to show restrain while publishing such articles.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arunsasi (Post 1757281)

I get the feeling that car advertising in India is fairly immature. There are several instances of unacceptable behavior being shown in ads. The SX4 ad with the guy starting to drive irresponsibly after being courteous when he gets into his car, the Swift ad with a guy having to look left and right with binoculars before nearly getting run over by a swift, and now this Cruze ad, which is entirely ridiculous. Advertisers seem to be taking the easy route to trying to sell a car by selling the speed aspect. Surely there is more to a car than just speed - you are alienating so many people who just want a safe, reliable mode of transportation, people with families to take around. Autoheads don't need ads to tell them which is the fastest car, we can figure that out for ourselves.