[kadanaJ]

Speeding on public roads is indeed dangerous, and these Youtubers should be penalized.

But here's a counterpoint:
Journo's in developed countries have access to professional race-tracks where they can speed and do all sorts of shenanigans.

What options are there for a Mumbai based car vlogger/journalist (or whatever term we want to call them)?

Again, making it extremely clear that these guys who speed should be punished. I'm not advocating for them in any way.

But I do advocate for more race facilities / tracks to be built in India.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by kadanaJ

But here's a counterpoint:
Journo's in developed countries have access to professional race-tracks where they can speed and do all sorts of shenanigans.

What options are there for a Mumbai based car vlogger/journalist (or whatever term we want to call them)?

There is one track which journalists from OverDrive, Auto Car India & maybe others access to http://www.labgo.in/lab/national-cen...blishment-vrde

Ideally, manufacturers should design a route / hire a track where a vehicle's capability to almost its limit can be tested.

Secondly, how many vehicles in India are manufactured which are track spec and what is with testing their upper range, 120 kmph is all you can go, so reviewers should stick to it and focus on other [so many] aspects of the vehicle.

[kadanaJ]

Originally Posted by Sheel

There is one track which journalists from OverDrive, Auto Car India & maybe others access to http://www.labgo.in/lab/national-cen...blishment-vrde

Only the big guys have access to this, and from what I've seen, it's only used for certain special videos (drag race special, etc.). What options are there for a smaller Youtuber?

Originally Posted by Sheel

Ideally, manufacturers should design a route / hire a track where a vehicle's capability to almost its limit can be tested.

Agreed 100%.

Originally Posted by Sheel

Secondly, how many vehicles in India are manufactured which are track spec and what is with testing their upper range, 120 kmph is all you can go, so reviewers should stick to it and focus on other [so many] aspects of the vehicle.

Firstly: Speed and pushing the car to it's limits brings views on YT.

Second: We may not push our cars beyond 120kmph in real life, but when spending tens of lakhs on a car, it's good to know the extent of it's capabilities. If I see a video of a car handling well at 160-180, I know for sure that vehicle will be extremely safe at 100kmph.

[Babruvahanaaaaa]

Here is a meme that I made which was hosted by a famous malayalam/English automotive meme page.










PS: I've grown to appreciate Gagan Chowdhury, feel free to imagine any other rash reviewer in his place.
For those who aren't up to date with meme trends, it's a sarcastic dig at the quality of audience of team bhp reviews versus self proclaimed experts on youtube.

[Aiel]

A Youtuber in the US got charged with 18 different charges based on one or more of his videos on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr11...StreetSpeed717

A welcome move and now only, if more Indian authorities would follow this example.

[vidyanand]

Off-Topic but related to YouTube videos. Just now came across a video of a Youtuber reviewing the Thar Convertible in Mahindra Stockyard with Mileage of just 4km on a brand new unregistered Thar. It was being driven in the stockyard (did not see the full video so not sure if driven outside) and walked around.

How can an unregistered car be given for review in a Dealer yard? And how does a regular customer be safe from such cars (assuming it was tested on road as well)?

[chaosengine]

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

I took a liking to FK initially but later fizzed out. Dangerous driving aside, I don't see much of daily drive cars reviewed by him. Nowadays I watch V3 Cars - no ear busting BG music & to the point reviews.

Absolutely! V3 Cars is unique - plus Jagdev does a thorough job of adding the right details, has comparisons, and more than anything else, updates his car videos as and when a new car/variant is released. But I think most of his reviews remain around quantitative details and act as a buyer's guide - which we need too.

FK grabbed a lot of attention along with MotorBeam initially, but beyond the hype, the entire "giving beans" got extremely annoying with time. Not only is it absolutely unnecessary, it makes it look somehow okay, and also encourages youngsters in picking up these really unhealthy habits. I eventually unsubscribed from this because I stopped feeling like this channel has anything useful or informative, plus I did not want to fuel the already excessive enthusiasm he exhibits - not that 1 follower would change much, but still.

Apart from that, like people have mentioned previously, I follow Gagan Choudhary. The nature of his Nissan Kicks series made me grow a LOT of respect for the guy and despite him not being flashy, I feel he puts in hard work and I constantly watch out for his videos. I am also keen on seeing how Aayush SSM grows. I also love the fairly mellow style of Ashish Masih's reviews of late. And some videos of Bunny Punia of 91wheels. But that's pretty much it for me.

I used to previously follow Dino's Vault, but for some reason the channel did not keep me glued to it.

[sierrabravo98]

Originally Posted by vidyanand

Off-Topic but related to YouTube videos. Just now came across a video of a Youtuber reviewing the Thar Convertible in Mahindra Stockyard with Mileage of just 4km on a brand new unregistered Thar. It was being driven in the stockyard (did not see the full video so not sure if driven outside) and walked around.

How can an unregistered car be given for review in a Dealer yard? And how does a regular customer be safe from such cars (assuming it was tested on road as well)?

You would be surprised as to how common this practice is in Indian dealerships. I will tell you an anecdote to give you some context.

Back in Nov-Dec 2019, when we were car shopping, we were interested in the Safari Storme. So I called up several dealerships in New Delhi for a TD. Not one dealership had a test drive vehicle available. All of them told us that we may have a chance in UP (as the Storme is really popular there). Anyways, long story short, we found a dealership (will not name it as Bhpians possess a really good opinion of that particular dealership). The SA took us straightaway to the yard and pointed to a brand new unregistered (still had factory PDI markings and whatnot) white Varicor 400. He told us that there are apparently no "legal" issues in driving it on the service roads (which would put off-road tracks to shame) around the dealership yard. And no, the speedo was not disconnected (odometer read 17/20 km). I immediately refused to do that and we left the place. What is more worrying that the SA said that this is a common practice in almost all dealerships and we should not be so moralistic . My father immediately grew cold feet towards the Safari Storme. We did indeed find a proper TD vehicle but then we received intimation from Tata that they had stopped production of the Storme.

And no, beyond religiously adhering to the T-Bhp PDI checklist, there is not much any normal customer can do to avoid these vehicles.

[asm3899_CHD]

Originally Posted by sierrabravo98

You would be surprised as to how common this practice is in Indian dealerships. I will tell you an anecdote to give you some context.


And no, beyond religiously adhering to the T-Bhp PDI checklist, there is not much any normal customer can do to avoid these vehicles.

On a similar note, Globe Toyota, Mohali is giving test drives to potential Fortuner customers on the cars which are to be delivered the next day. Very wrongful practise by the dealership.

[svsantosh]

Originally Posted by pandabear

...It’s like giving a gun to a monkey

Give this guy the gun, he will shoot him dead and come out of retirement pronto!



Pic credit - youtube
Shooting the monkey - JC

[vjbox]

Originally Posted by Nikhil Beke

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

Man! I laughed so hard on this!

FK has always come across as a Wannabe boy racer to me. But hey that's why he also gets his views too! There is hardly any take away from his videos and they dont really count as reviews. Call them speedruns like how they are refereed to in Video games!

[DevilzzzzOwn]

Did my part and reported the video to YT.

Hope atleast they take some action on spreading this nonsense over the internet.

[livetodrive]

I was watching this and wondering if we need to show the true prowess of these mean machines and earn money through YouTube why not spend some and take it to a race track. Putting people's life in stake to earn 'likes' (or dislikes) is simply not done :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh72Tz14q1w

It becomes shocking when you see people who talk in senses and making such nice videos doing this stuff.

[Astraholic]

Originally Posted by DicKy

.
He stated the truth. Manufacturers want the maximum publicity for their products. Remember the Thar launch. Except for the top journalists, all others in the first phase of media drive were just vague influencers. In Kerala a travel vlogger got his hands on the Thar before any of the auto journalists. All he could say was, "superb, mass, wow, adipoli, kidilam, heavy". But then, he could reach millions of viewers, whereas the auto vloggers may reach a few thousand. Mahindra prioritised more eyeballs than who reviewed it. Business.

On a related note, I was surprised not to find the controversy surrounding the same Vlogger and MG Motors in this thread. This issue encapsulates all the problems related to the YouTube Vlogger turned half baked part time auto journo brigade. The kind of arm twisting these influencers do, showing their follower base and how manufacturers suck up to these people for promotion. And ultimately how badly it can backfire in this case!

Someone had written a detailed account of this incident in Quora so copying from that thread and posting here. This was written by a person justifying the vlogger and this is not my opinion. I have highlighted some areas which I felt was important and also added emojis is situations where irony died a slow death! This incident is a classic case study for marketing and branding.

I have seen the video(now removed) posted by the vlogger. It was very clear from the beginning of the video that their sole intention was to damage the reputation of the car. Funny thing is that, since they were non car guys, they had to act a lot and just kept saying, 'there is something wrong with the car/there is no power', nothing they could pinpoint as an error. as usual their fan army took the issue to next level and made the social media smear campaign a massive success. This single event completely killed the market for Gloster in Kerala, a market which is normally very receptive to big SUVs. Now Gloster has an image of a lemon in Kerala. Thanks to our I-don't know-much-about-cars-but-I-will-anyway-review-cars and-post-it-online vlogger

The Quora post:

What is the truth behind controversy surrounding vlogger Sujith Bhakthan and the automotive company MG?

Truth is never single faced. Truth always have many faces. It depends upon which side you wish for in your perspective as fair. Thats what Bhagavat Gita taught me. And I am a firm believer in that.

Okay, for non Malayalees, this is a huge social media issue prevailing in Kerala, which outsiders may not be much aware of.


Sujith Bhaktan is one of Kerala’s most celebrated Social media influencer who runs his own Youtube channel- Tech Travel Eat (which has pages in Instagram, FB etc). He focus mostly on quick lifestyle travels, technology products and eateries primarily. However off recently he used to do user experience review of vehicles too, though he always claims he is not an automobile journalist and not an automobile expert. But as a person who is passionate in travel and always enjoys driving, he used to make user reviews occasionally in past.

He has a close associate/friend- Emil George who is an automobile enthusiast and has extreme craze in driving. Ever since they started doing joint videos, often user reviews of vehicles started coming up in Sujith’s channel, though Emil also claims that he is not an automobile journalist and not a professional auto reviewer. But he often does off-roading stuff like that along with Sujith.

Last year, ie in 2019, Sujith and Emil did an All India tour for his channel called INB Series (India-Nepal-Bhutan Expedition) in his vehicle- Ford Ecospot. When they reached Punjab, they saw MG Hector for the first time. MG Hector was just released a few weeks back then and only available in NCR region then. They did a test drive there and became a fan of MG Hector. It was thro’ that episode, Malayalees in Kerala also got first hand experience of MG brand and its first vehicle - MG Hector.

This episode was a paid promotion from MG side (which he aptly mentioned as disclaimer in the episode). But he became a fan of the vehicle that he announced he will soon buy this vehicle when it will be available in Kerala in that episode.

They returned back to Kerala by August 2019 and in this time, MG Showroom got opened in Kochi. The MG dealer in Kerala- EVM group contacted Sujith and he agreed to be the launch customer in Kerala. Thus the first Hector was sold to Sujith and due to his popularity, MG Hector got a strong brand advertising in the state.

Hector being a new brand, it wasn’t that common in the streets. But because Sujith had Hector and he regularly showed his car in his videos, there was a strong brand familiarity. This improved the sales of Hector in Kerala rapidly. And personally he always used to highlight how the car was great.

MG Motors regularly used to contact Sujith whenever their new cars are released in market and Sujith used to do promotion for them by making user review which were mostly positives.

In same manner, when MG released its SUV- Gloster, Sujith was called to make an User review experience. But because Gloster was released very late in Kerala and there was only one test piece reached in Kochi, the company had to give to many automobile journalists and affluent people for test drives etc. To avoid staggered reviews coming out, the company imposed an embargo for all automobile journalists and social media influencers from releasing the review until Oct 31st 2020, though they did their test drives and shot videos earlier.

Sujith and Emil got this vehicle in second week of Oct and they took the vehicle to Wayanad forest area for a drive and planned to do a small off-roading there. They did that and the video was shot, but didn’t release then, due to the embargo. The video came out in Oct 31st 2020. But unlike other MG vehicles, Sujith made a negative review. This was because the vehicle failed in off-loading even in very small hilly terrain. The system started showing as faulty gear and switched off in between. And it was struggling with power issues even at a very small hilly terrain (the surface was very much rocky by the way)

And then the issue broke out.

According to MG, Sujith Bhaktan did a purposeful negative review because the company refused to upgrade his Hector to Gloster at its showroom price. The company officials claimed, Sujith Bhaktan demanded having a Gloster for Rs 35 Lakh (ex-showroom price) as final on-road price instead of Rs 40 Lakh (On-road price). That means a discount of 5 Lakh, which the company rejected. So he made purposeful negative video as per company’s version. Further many officials made rumours that Sujith made unfaithful review only to help Ford Endeavour which has lavishly sponsored his current trip (Leh-Ladakh Expedition).

According to Sujith Bhaktan, he said he always does ethical reviews, even if paid. He won’t make false statements or exaggerated reports on products he endorses. He said, he was always happy with MG Motors and their vehicles and in all his reviews he has highlighted their positives and ignored some minor negatives which isn’t that big.

But in Gloster, he said, its key feature was its off-road capabilities and that failed miserably. He said, even in the episode he said clearly it might be a specific problem of that vehicle, not common to all and he said he will request MG to provide another test vehicle to try offloading.

As per Sujith’s statement, this episode series was shot in first and second week of Oct 2020, but when it was failed, he promptly informed the company and asked for a replacement vehicle to do a test drive and offroading, so that he can make positive review. The company didn’t have one such, so that was not approved. Since there was an embargo, he couldn’t release the video in Oct second week. So he sent the unlisted video to the company to check and give their opinion. The company choose not to respond and since there was no instruction of not to publish, he published the video once the embargo was over. He also refuted the company’s charges that he demanded a discount of 5 lakh. He said, he indeed asked as he was not in mood of buying a luxury vehicle. But when the company officials asked whether he has interest or not, he jokingly asked for a discount knowing well, they will not accept. He said, he was perfectly happy with his Hector brought a year back and no mood for an immediate upgrade to premium segment.

He also challenged MG Motors to provide him a replacement vehicle and he said he will take that vehicle along with competitor vehicles like Endeavour, Fortuner etc in a similar terrain road and does a competitive off-roading session with experts and have a comparison video. But for that, MG Motors choose not respond.

Instead of that, the dealer used a cyber lynching using its employees and their friends circle to discredit Sujith in social media. But the worst came when Malayala Manorama did an article defaming Sujith to the worst with very worst form of description and shaming without naming him personally, rather just as vloggers with a cartoon that looks similar to him. Anyone who read that article know well, that its a paid article sponsored by MG Motors as part of shaming Sujith Bhaktan.


The degrading article aimed to shame and discredit Sujith Bhaktan without naming him as such

After that incident, Sujith announced that he sold his own car- MG Hector while in his trip in Ladakh without even waiting for his return back as he no more wishes to associate with MG Motors. That was a huge blow to MG Motors in Kerala as Sujith was the first customer and he played a key role in promoting their products.

This became a huge social media controversy with many people supporting and opposing Sujith as well as MG Motors.

The outcome of this controversy- only time will tell

Now to the question- which side has the truth

I can’t answer that as we are not in privy of what happened between Sujith and MG Motors.

Its very clear, Sujith loved MG Motors very much and his personal hector. Only few weeks before the controversy, he spent money to revamp his Hector with new looks thro’ a series of modifications etc. So naturally that shows his personal affection with that car. Yet if he has to sell that car within weeks after spending so much for customization, it shows he was heavily traumatized by MG Motors through their indirect cyber lynching and shaming.

But yes, he was into paid promotion business which he always tells. His income is thro’ endorsing products and he is a social media influencer with 1.4 Million subscribers. But Sujith always know in the industry for his ethics. He rarely used to do any negative videos and he rarely does competitor promotion videos. If he endorses one product, he rarely endorses similar product of same range which is in direct competition.

But in this case, Sujith was promoting Ford Endeavour for a long time. Infact prior to MG Gloster launch, Ford company has given their new 2020 Endeavor to Sujith for test drive and give user review experience for which he made many positive reviews. Its only after that, Gloster came and a negative review came from his side, which can make people think he did purposefully. And when this review came in Oct 31st 2020, he was already in Leh Ladakh expedition sponsored by Ford using the same Ford Endeavor. Naturally it helped MG Motors to claim that he was working at behest of their competitor.

However its equally surprisingly, how Sujith able to hack the onboard systems of MG Gloster which constantly showed faulty gear indicators while climbing a small hill. Thats not possible for an ordinary vlogger like Sujith. So as the car was struggling in climbing which was visible to all. And Sujith clearly said in that video, it might be specific to that particular vehicle and will redo the episode again once MG provides new vehicle. He also showed the whatsapp communication between him and MG officials where he said that he was not pleased with performance and need a replacement. And MG didn’t bother for it.

So as MG also didn’t provide a second chance to Sujith to use another vehicle and do a test session again. Its perfectly okay if one vehicle in test drive might be a damaged piece. They even choose not to respond to Sujith’s message eariler about unlisted video sent to them. Rather they used cyber lynchings and defaming option once the video is published instead of countering with facts, which is truly unprofessional. And remember, MG Motors once used Sujith Bhaktan’s media reach to get this brand in Kerala market and all of sudden they disowned him


MG’s promotion in 2019 using Sujith Bhaktan to endorse their Hector brand.

MG Motors generally donot have huge repute primarily because its a Chinese brand and the ongoing conflict with China has affected their brand status (that they even started highlighted their British Legacy for Gloster to disassociate with China). Since Kerala market is not too much bothered with pseudo-nationalist cries as one sees in many other parts of India, MG Motors sales weren’t affected much. But there was another worrisome factor. MG Motors failed miserably in Middle East and lot of Malayalee NRIs often review their negative experience about MG Dubai and MG Saudi etc. This was often countered with Sujith’s positive experience with Hector. Now the negative review against Gloster re-affirmed many NRKs opinions about MG. And Gloster being a premium brand, its customer base would be more of NRKs. Their negative experience in Middle East and current negative video in Kerala, will complicate things for MG Company.

So I believe, MG Motors should have dealt this simply issue with more tactically manner rather trying to attack a popular vlogger thro’ cheap indirect means. If they believe, Sujith was manipulating, they should have come in public and expose Sujith’s wrongs or accept his challenge. But instead they choose silence and used indirectly cyber lynching options which everyone could understand it is fuelled by the company directly. Its bit shocking to see, their own Regional Manager- Feni has joined in this cyber lynching manner thro’ commenting against Sujith personally in Youtube and FB. Such behaviour is unprofessional to the core.

Sujith might lost his favorite car, but eventually he is buying a new car. As an individual that chapter is over. But for MG, they lost a public trust factor. Thats something big.

[PraNeel]

Well the real reason IMO behind these videos being so popular is that people tend to enjoy the over speeding and taking the machine to it's limit from the comfort of their home without any fear of getting fined.
Also, these guys tend to put out their ride reviews as soon as possible. So even if people don't approve their recklessness, but they do watch to have as much as information and different views possible.
Youtube, FB, Twitter, Instagram comment section has become a war section where people freely abuse and vent out their frustration.
Reporting is of no use - I have tried on YouTube and FB.
One of the most disgusting thing that I have heard and seen is sultry videos coming in people's video feed on FB. Those guys are tired of reporting, hiding those accounts, but somehow the videos still come. Some of them have stopped logging in to FB. And before you ask / think - No those guys never watched or are interested in those videos.
So net social media platforms are slowly dictating their terms and they don't care about safety, frauds, inappropriate content. First they made people habitual and now they are dictating the terms.
YouTube has become so frustrating due to so many ads before, after and between. Even ad blockers are having a hard time. Due to ads I don't watch YouTube on mobile, only laptop with adblocker.
***End of the Rant***