This week, Steve does some soul-searching regarding the purpose and morality of his trade: automotive journalism. He also ponders a glut of Land Rovers and enjoys a spin in an Audi R8.
Sunday
Does car journalism matter, or is it really a tiny coterie of lucky enthusiasts indulging themselves for the benefit of a slightly larger minority? In bad moments, I sometimes think the latter might be true – but a forward peep today at my activities planned for the next two days (I always leave things late) makes me think we have our uses…
Through lockdown, you might recall, car news hardly flowed. Hope you didn’t notice it too much, but filling pages wasn’t always straightforward. The trouble for car makers was that they still had urgent news to spread – via car conferences and launch events – because tough new clean air regs are coming and nearly every company has revised models to sell. So when things opened up, Covidwise, most of them rushed to hold launch events for people like us, knowing that social distancing would dramatically cut the number of reporters they could invite. It’s been tough, but some have found ways to prosper. And Land Rover has done it best (see below).
Monday
To Heathrow’s Terminal 5 Sofitel hotel early on, with half a dozen selected hacks, to pick up my very own short-wheelbase Land Rover Defender 90 P400 – a model they want to start selling from the year-end. The route pre-installed in the excellent new nav system takes us (via a distanced lunch) to Gaydon, the Jaguar Land Rover proving ground, where a large auditorium and a short presentation await.
Outside, our Defenders have been magically replaced by a sanitised line of Evoque plug-in hybrids, one per hack, and there’s a new route in the sat-nav. We do 60 miles in 90 minutes, driving our second new model that day. Soon we’re back at Gaydon, directed to one of its back blocks, where a stunt coordinator-cum-madman called Leigh lets us drive crazily about in an authentic Bond movie stunt Defender 110 (yep, chassis No 007), proving again what a tough creation it is. Back at the Gaydon meeting space, the Evoques have been replaced by Discovery Sport PHEVs and away we go on another circuitous route to a sanitised hotel in nearby Stratford, where we’ll spend the night. That’s three cars and four experiences. My head spins and my notebook bulges. Early night.
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I was taught not to have my windows open, for just this eventuality.
There is not a vehicle in the JLR lineup I am willing to spend my own money on; too expensive and too unreliable,
What is a car journalist
Honestly, it'd be ineresting to get your thoughts on what a modern motoring journalist is. If it's to be a conduit between car manufacturers and the buying public, an extension of the firm's marketing department, then you clearly are successful in that role. If it's to be a critical and challenging scrutineer, working on behalf of the public to cut through the manufacturer's hype and get to the truth, then I'm afraid you're a little way off.From what you've written in this article, it's clear you see yourself in the former category - JLR had "urgent news to spread", and you see it as your role to help them do that. I get it, you have magazine pages to fill and you need to be in that select group of journalists who manufacturers choose to invite to these launch events. They don't choose you because of any high level journalistic skills, they choose you because you have a reach into their marketplace and they trust you to get their message out. As another commenter says, don't question it too much, just go with it.
I don't think many readers really believe Autocar is the home of the hard-hitting journos who will uncover the next dieselgate scandal, after all it managed to completely miss that one last time round. No, it's probably best if Autocar continues in its role of supping on the teet of high-end manufacturers, allowing it to gain access to glossy photo ops and to line your pages (and driveways) with the latest exotic machinery. Don't fight it, don't question it, just lie back and enjoy it.
And of course
Didn't Matt Bishop leave this once erstwhile publication to work as their head of PR?
I have absolutely no idea who
I have absolutely no idea who LR have in mind as the buyer of the new Defender. But is sure as hell isn't anyone who would ever have bought an original Defender.
Farmer? No
Army? No
Utility company? No
Kenyan game warden? No
It may be technically able, but it is ludicrously misguided unless they can properly answer the quesiton. It is also a pig to behold.