[amitayu]

This thread is turning out into an FK bashing thread!

I have no support for FK (frankly not bothered about him, never watched his videos) or any of these newly mushroomed 'experts' of FASTER.

But in this entire discussion we are not addressing the elephant in the house: people watch these videos because they do not trust reviews of professional portals, because all these reviews are obviously 'paid' and biased. More often than not, I have heard narrators simply parrot statements issued from the PR agency, which you can read in the brochure of direct PR content distributed by the company.

These influencers draw legitimacy from their supposed 'unbiased' opinions (even though I am pretty skeptical about that as well).

Unless we can address the root cause, we cannot address this problem.


One of the reasons for following Team BHP is the objective reviews we get, which has also set a benchmark/template for how a review should be.

SO, why doesn't Team BHP take things further and posts videos of reviews? We can ofcourse have a detailed written content on the site!

[crdi]

The Safari of the opening post and many other cars in other videos appear to be bearing trade certificate plates and don't look like test drive cars. Those cars will be surely slapped on to some unsuspecting buyers. I hope the manufacturers intervene at least in this aspect.

[amoghchaphalkar]

If only quality sold, India would have been a very different economy.

While we are busy blaming the reviewers, let us not forget the consumer that relishes these videos.

[JohaanTJ]

Another example of rash driving from youtube which exactly shows how one need not be doing insane speeds to be extremely dangerous to other road users.

https://youtu.be/lg4-6on_Lns

As these youtubers also have the right to freedom of speech and expression like us i'm not going to comment on their way of presenting in these videos but at the same time I strongly oppose the reckless driving behavior they exhibit. Most of these videos are not restricted to adults over 18(imo these films shouldn't even be on the net) and are free to watch for 10 year olds who are going to constitute the next generation of drivers on the road.

I also used to watch Faisal's videos yet upon closer inspection i deduced that this guy doesn't focus on what's important for a prospective buyer but instead tries to show off by redlining on every possible gear and launching the car every two minutes.And as someone mentioned Faisal has an imposter in Kerala in the form of Vandipranthan.

[shreevishnu]

I do not think we should condone bad behavior by these "unbiased reviewers" which are made/shared for gain (either via Youtube, Tiktok, etc or the manufacturer (ads?)). I myself had once reported an offence and got it booked/fined by Bangalore City Traffic police when I saw reckless driving of a G63 AMG by a reviewer in person (in Central Bangalore) & later on Youtube.

Close off a portion of a road by getting permissions, use a private road, do something, you cant be a hooligan for gain on public roads. No amount of thuggery while driving and then seamless transition to "paapi pet ke liye" should work. You only live once, but so do others, you cant endanger others wellbeing for your own entertainment.

[v12]

Followers and likes are just numbers which can be bought. Why should a manufacture worry about how many followers a Youtuber has? Shouldn't they be considering how good the Youtuber is at his content ?

Followers, likes and comments can easily be paid for and bought by Youtubers. There was a recent case where a singer managed to get almost 10m likes or views on his music video. Remember, on a digital platform anything and everything is possible.

If you also notice some Youtubers may have millions of Subscribers, but their Instagram account barely crosses 10k followers. I feel if the million Subscribers were genuine, they would also follow them on Instagram, right? Possibly the influencers can only pay enough to buy Subscribers /Followers for one of their digital media platform.

In the end, I do not trust reviewers from any influencer or creator - because there is a hidden intent everywhere. It's either a sponsor, or a clickbait or just trying to get one brand down.

[ron178]

Safety issues aside, a point I fail to comprehend is how irrelevant these reviews are to the average buyer. Look at a Team-BHP review instead. Sure, there is a detailed description of the top-end performance and fun-to-drive factor, but there is equal importance given to practicality, refinement, safety, in-city drivability etc. Most YouTube reviews, on the other hand, are filled with:

• Bias, bias and bias. It might not be paid, but there is evident fanboyism and favour.
• Recommendations solely based on personal opinion. I've seen comments on videos, for instance, "Which C-segment sedan should I buy, the City or the Rapid?" where the poster curtly replies "City" without giving a thought to asking for the person's needs (I think readers will know who I'm talking about). The question a reviewer needs to ask him/herself is: "Would I recommend to this car to friends/family?" but that approach really does not work when the review is solely based on redlining the engine.
• Complaints about under-thigh support in every single car. I'm having second thoughts on whether most reviewers know what under-thigh support is.
• Unusual views on safety. I am really, really tired of seeing videos with thumbnails like '<car xyz> accident proves its build quality' or 'Shocking! See poor build quality of <car abc>'. Come on, it's 2021. We have crash tests. We don't need to see you declare a car unsafe because it deformed in a low-speed crash. Sure, low-speed cost damage matters but don't relate it to safety. Even the IIHS conducts separate tests for both.
• Coming to the most important point and the title of this thread, how could anyone even dare to drive so recklessly? I've seen a reviewer nearly run over a pedestrian in a Kia Seltos Turbo. I've seen reviewers blatantly ignore both the seatbelt and speed alarms at the same time, while complaining that the car doesn't have enough airbags.

[Big Smoke]

Unsafe driving by YouTube car reviewers is absolutely pointless to the end consumer.
And since Faisal Khan has been mentioned so many times in this thread, let me put forward my views.

Driving in a rash + irrelevant manner forms the majority of his reviews. In fact, after watching 3-4 videos of his, you will almost be able to predict what you'll be seeing in the next video.

But what really pisses me off is the sheer lack of research! Boy oh boy! I mean, the guy is a proper noob in terms of knowing stuff about the car in detail! And he doesn't care. For him, knowing the horsepower and torque on offer is enough. Oh, and of course, the "0-100 kmph" timing of EVERY car.

Two recent instances-
(1) Mahindra Bolero Review: I don't usually watch his videos, but really wanted to see him reviewing the Bolero. He pointed towards the B6 badging on the car and said "Don't know what that is for, maybe due to BS6." I mean like, Man! Get your facts right! Even a farmer while buying the Bolero knows that B4 or B6 are the variant badges in a Bolero!

(2) Tata Harrier Automatic: He pointed towards the Urea tank level indicator and said "There we have the fuel tank level display." He also said that the manual Tata Harrier would be his choice because it is 0.5 sec faster from 0-100 kmph (like that is all we need to consider while buying a Tata Harrier).

In fact, that he is a BHPian is actually difficult for me to accept. Hasn't he read all the minutely detailed reviews + unbelievably informative threads on TeamBHP and learnt something? Doesn't the sheer knowledge of TBHPians put him to shame while jabbering and driving like a maniac in his videos?

And coming to the people who support him like crazy: I have actually nothing to say about them. If driving a car hard is the purpose of buying a car, then there must be some misunderstanding between manufacturers and the people.

And guess what? I know the guy who was the first person in the city to get the Mercedes GLE300d. He extensively took inputs from a Faisal Khan video, and in fact recommend the video to the people who asked him about the car!

[100Rabh]

Originally Posted by Nikhil Beke

https://Youtu.be/l0kKCJKEKw0
Can't help reposting this from the great Joke thread!

Gosh, I used to watch Faisal Khan's vlog till he was purely an auto-journalist. I noticed over speeding in his videos and commented on that, but that turned out to be poking a finger in a beehive, but the day he decided to bring his Annabelle in the videos. I decided, I had enough of him and unsubscribed him.

[himanshumor]

Originally Posted by EightSix

Pandabear and vishy76, thanks to you, these rubbish videos got one view each from me!

◘ Even Khan would gladly pay the ₹500 fine and continue to speed. Why? Because speeding = views. As Govardhansupra said, nobody wants to watch a video with slow-driving but knowledge speaking. Atleast, not the 1m people who have subscribed to FK.

Exactly!!
YouTube works on engagement and searches by viewers!
Videos with crazy things easily go viral as more and more people click on those, this inurn improves the search ranking of a YT channel and video(it is basically a chain reaction).So next time that channel uploads a video, YT shows more impressions of his videos and it keeps on increasing. This is not all, YT algorithm depends on a lot of other factors also (not listing everything here for now).

I also happen to be a YouTuber with tiny subscriber base and people do not want to watch my videos as there is no crazy stuff, no over speeding, no catchy thumbnails! While I am aware that my presentation and editing is not great, but I feel the content is right and genuine buyer will find it useful!

One of my recent uploads below:

https://youtu.be/6qJ-XJ_Nb20

Originally Posted by SmartCat

As far as I know, hitting the dislike button helps the Youtuber and the algorithm might start recommending the video more. When you hit like or dislike button, it is considered an 'engaging' video by Youtube's algo.

I feel that dislike button degrades the video's ranking for sure but that will only happen if percentage of dislikes is way more.
Few dislikes won't matter because the huge percentage of likes and mid blowing number of views improves the ranking of a video by big margins!
And once this algorithm is triggered, it leads to more and more YT Video Impressions(Impressions are counted if the thumbnail is shown for more than one second and at least 50% of the thumbnail is visible on the screen).

Simple Calculation:
Someone with 6 lac subscribers, his next video upload will get 6 lac impressions easily(bare minimum) within one day of upload and if the Impression Click-Through Rate is at least 10 percent then the video gets 60K views in just one day!
10 percent click through rate is very less, practically for such videos with eye-catchy thumbnails , the rate is much higher!


Conclusion: People want such videos only and they only make such videos go viral!


Reference: I created below video with the intent of telling about safe car driving practices which everyone knows but most do not follow.
This video did not get views because
1) I had just 2K subscribers, so the impressions were very low
2) Content was on Safe driving and no one comes to YouTube to see a video on "How to Drive Safe" for sure. So no one searches such keywords on YouTube.

I do agree that my video quality/editing/presentation is not good at all, but I feel that the content is useful.
Such videos with useful content work only if posted by a channel with huge subscriber base. For a channel like mine to get working, its a long road ahead when I am not open to follow the shortcut by creating dangerous/crazy videos!

https://youtu.be/QdZhHbthZVY

[sarav100]

While there are YouTube reviewers showcasing dangerous Click-Bait videos like the ones quoted in above posts, nobody actually noticed that the real recklessness is exhibited in Instagram Reels. The stuff present on Instagram Reels is at another level altogether and must be banned in view of public safety.

[Mat095]

If you listen closely you can hear the Safari screaming for its life!

Honestly, these kind of “reviews” do not even make sense to me, they are just made to look cool and since Safari is a cult in its own he thought maybe doing a few “donuts” in the dust would give him and the car some views on Youtube. Also, he almost missed that bike at 80 kms/hr, would’ve been a different kind of video if that bike was 5 inches to the right.

These cars don’t demand attention and neither do we. A simple article on Team-bhp is all the review I need!

[stallmaster]

Originally Posted by JohaanTJ

Another example of rash driving from Youtube which exactly shows how one need not be doing insane speeds to be extremely dangerous to other road users.

https://Youtu.be/lg4-6on_Lns

It's extremely unfortunate that we do not have the law enforcement capabilities/intent to blacklist these drivers off the road, even if the video evidence is out in the open. It just takes a microsecond to snuff the life out of a human being(s) if you lose control at these ungodly speeds on Indian roads.

[JohaanTJ]

Originally Posted by stallmaster

It just takes a microsecond to snuff the life out of a human being(s) if you lose control at these ungodly speeds on Indian roads.

Exactly! Roads are one of the last places where you would want to learn something the hard way. In fact i rechecked his channel and found a recently published video in which he is pushing a magnite turbo to 150+ kmph and bashing it over potholes(it really was disturbing for me as a car lover)

https://youtu.be/X-Ww0gR1yaA

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by JohaanTJ

Another example of rash driving from Youtube which exactly shows how one need not be doing insane speeds to be extremely dangerous to other road users.

https://Youtu.be/lg4-6on_Lns

We should downvote these videos and also leave comments saying his driving is rash and not appropriate.