Who has seen the sports car group test in this month's (Feb's) edition. 'In depth' isn't a phrase that springs to mind. Par for the course for most things 'Car' has done for the last couple of years though. Any views?

 

tell us more...

 

What are they Group testing

 

Havnt seen this yet, but if they are comparing the s2k it won't do well.

They have never given it a good review.




Their automotive love affair is the boxster...

 

the bulk of the test is boxster vs slk 350 which would be fine - 2 great cars - but why not just test those two rather than having a token attempt at testing a bunch of cars with them. the test includes the z4, which doesn't seem to come out as well as it did when it was launched and the s2000 - they criticise the dated interior, lack of punch below 3,000 revs and numb steering...and that's about all they say. told you it wasn't much.

 

oh yes and the elise 111r - great car but made out of cornflake packets i think is their view. still think these mags have a distorted view of the market. who, in the market for an s2000 would think 'hang on i'll spend another 10k on a boxster or slk'? used boxster maybe but deciding between used and new is a different ball game completely.

 

Car magazines generatlly just don't get it... it's all poncy numbers based driving with nonsense phrases like "mid range punch" and "lacks feedback"

Sure some of these cars are quicker, but few offer the "driving thrills" ( that's another phrase)

I wouldn't buy a boxster or SLK or Z4... an image issue for me.

 

Yep, the presence of the SLKs in all the group test is a bit of a joke at the moment, most of them esp the 350 with Air Scarf etc spec up to about 40k. The direct rival for the s2k price-wise is the 200 model which is 27.5k without extras and puts out just 163 horses, and 0-60 in 8secs.

Though talking of annoying s2k reviews, my dad gets What Car? magazine and there's one comment that always bugs me in the S2000 review. It states "26k? That's almost Boxster money".

Err, no it isn't. Since when was 26k almost 32k (the price of the entry level Boxster)??

How can a saving of 6k be viewed a negative

 

I wonder if it's because these journos never actually spend much money buying their own cars as they get to thrash someone else's car for a living most of the time. Perhaps they are the sort of people for whom money isn't much of an issue so they don't really understand the significance of a

 

And the S would pi$$ all over the 32K box aswell.