I admit I used to use reviews as a guide, but I steadily realised they're increasingly FoS and just spout the same ol' cliches irrespective of the reality.

My latest beef is the terrible driving positions of coupes that are spun off the same plank as an SUV; it's like taking the seat out of your car & trying to drive sitting on the floor staring at the steering wheel hub and unable to operate the pedals at that angle. The CR-Z and Scirocco are classic examples and it's never ever mentioned.

Mind you, they never mentioned the perfect ergonomics of the old skool Hondas either. Too busy talking about the opinions of their sprogs, Milly-Mandy and Willie-Winky these modern girl-men.

 

I see a car I like and then I go and drive it

There've been plenty of occasions when I've bought/owned a car and then read a reviewer's opinion that I've bought badly for some reason

They seem to state the blindingly obvious (as your RS4 example indicates) or give opinions on things that should really be tested yourself

I have read the odd lawnmower and domestic appliance review though and I do use those as filters

 

You have to remember that back in the 1970s, hydraulic PAS was usually pretty awful; killed the feel & usually turned on far too sharply so the car would dive into a turn. The Rover SD1 was truly bad at that & plod specified manual steering specially. They got better at it as it became more ubiquitous & FWD cars got fatter tyres. A lot of manual FWD cars had horrible, heavy & low-geared steering before. So the journo's cliche is probably bollocks about it feeling anything like a manual would.

Electro-hydraulic ones used by PSA/MINI engined cars are quite nice, because the pump speed is independent of engine speed. There will always be a loss of some feed/kickback due to the hydraulic damping effect, but that may be a good thing anyway in a road car.

EPS suffers from two problems; one is the inertia of the heavy electic motor damping the feedback from the steering and the second is the algorithms separating undesirable movements like kickback from driver inputs isn't perfect and tends to damp out a lot of the feel too. I'm keen to try the Subaru system on the GT 8 6.

The influence of the Playwithyourselfstationgeneration who allegedly don't like driving cars anyway, stupidly gyroscopic fashion wheels and the shave the world brigade mean it's easier just not to bother with finely-tuned steering and whack on EPS that plays different tunes as you drive it. That may just be an industry excuse...

 

Thanks Nick,

Talking of magazine reviews, Car is celebrating it's 50th anniversary and has some old LKJS stuff online: http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Communi...ive-June-1994/

 

Thanks for that, Simon!

Setright is right, of course - Nick Graves

 

I see the point. But Civic (FN2) v Golf is another example, the Golf MKV is widely heralded whereas the hot Honda is widely critiscised for a crashy ride, all or nothing power delivery and bad steering. All 3 criticisms are spot on imo and the Golf is a superior car in those aspects and others beside (i'll tell you how reliable in due course). I'm sure the previous civic is as good as that one is bad but ultimately anyone choosing the Civic has either not driven the Golf or is a Honda nut at any price.

I agree on driving being the ultimate test, i drove the civic and hated it for example

Evo has really dropped imo, nick trott seems obsessed to expand the stuff on daft watches, lightly 'talked about' rather than reviewed peices on coilovers etc.. Poor

 

Avid reader of Evo here, but I've gotta say; when eventually I do get behind the wheel of any GT3/RS or even any 911 from the last 7 years or so it had better be the most mind altering experience I have ever had! Those Evo boys rant about it with such tenacity that you could be forgiven for thinking that any 911 is like a four wheeled equivalent of Jesus, bringing health and life to all the little children sleeping in the houses it passes.

Of course, some think that it's just a squashed beetle wearing the 'pride' of an engineering mistake that the Germans fail to own up to!

There's no denying that their efforts have worked, on road and track, but my god it had better be bloody good!

 

This boxter looks fabulous however!

 

Good one!

 

They also have a nice article on Gordon Murray and the McLaren F1.

Amazing that the Macca has a smaller footprint than the Boxster!

He also sights the NSX as the superior handling/ride car that the Macca was aiming for, but didn't quite achieve...