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Lets "Teach" the Magazine writers how to write a proper review

Kelpie

By Kelpie,
in General Car Discussion

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Zcold

Zcold

2nd Gear

bro.. if u able to do say 90% of wad was mentioned... tell me yr magazine name... i go buy ... [thumbsup]

 

guess in local context... space (roads) and budget (nt enff buyers?) its the main constrain... i see yr difficulities... nice of u to accept recomendations... [thumbsup]

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Zxcvb

Zxcvb

Turbocharged

Good thread! About time someone should lambast the local automotive magazines. They are nothing short of merely advertorial writeups laced with crafted words and pictures of the latest car models that are available in local showrooms. Else, borrow a couple of shots or article from overseas counterparts copy and paste. [thumbsdown]

 

I'll cite one fine example of a Taiwan car magazine I read some years back during my reservist stint there. There was a feature writeup about the services of showroom sales staffs. The writer went undercover with hidden camera and all sorts making rounds at distributors showrooms for comparisons. Then the results were reported on the article in details with undercover pictures, sales person's name, experiences and so on.

 

With so many discussions on local car forums about bad services rendered by local distributors, still, no feature of such were ever picked up by writers. The reason I presume is pretty obvious. Their bottomline are at the mercy of car distributors, rather than the other way.

 

And I haven't bought any local car magazines for many years now. Last car mag bought was Taiwan's SpecR with free VCD in JB Popular Bookstore. [drivingcar]

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Picanto

Picanto

3rd Gear

the local car mags need car ADs such as KM, BM, PM to survive. that's why i find that the reviews are very biased. wondering got any kopi $$ given to the reviwer, or even the editor?

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Watwheels

Watwheels

Supersonic
(edited)

I think the chances of them getting into legal turmoil is most likely. I dun think they wanna get blacklisted. Why not look to PIs instead since the write up is not on distributors?

 

Locally done reviews therefore lack guts to write what is no good about the car. Almost mostly praises about the car. The no good stuff will usually be written to "look" subtle. Which is really sad cos car buyers will have to find out the hard way.

 

Pointing out the cons about the car IMO will help imrpove on QC on the next model. Not pointing it out will only be carried over.

Edited by Watwheels
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Nikolaiski69

Nikolaiski69

Neutral Newbie

well, i hope this helps...what bro watwheels says is quite true, but i try to push that frontier to get ADs and PIs to be more open to criticism about their cars. Do take for example our chery A1 article.

 

http://www.sgcarmart.com/news/review.php?AID=26

 

What do you think, or rather, which areas do you think, could be more honest? In my opinion this review was one of the MOST honest and unbiased that we've done. More to come and improve on, hopefully...haha

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Azarael

Azarael

Clutched
(edited)

i am very impressed with the write up which was from the taiwan magaine. [thumbsup]

 

agreed that u are aright in demanding this kind of standard from our local car magazines...instead of improving reading content, one local publication thinks that by putting a picture of a foreign model next to the car, it will improve the quality of the magazine articles. [hur][lipsrsealed]

 

long term tests like interviewing owners who have owned the car for one year or after 20K mileage to see how good/bad their ownership is would be helpful [flowerface]

 

imagine a owner of a new conti sports car complaining/praising about FC, dealer service, problems with parking the car and getting repairs done after accident or faults....all this make great journalism...if i wanted to see how the car looks like and wanted it's technical specs....i can just go to the showroom.....no need to buy a magazine... [gossip]

Edited by Azarael
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Headshok

Headshok

1st Gear

side track abit

 

i once read a copy of h**St**, one of the ICE articles about some car that was done up in malaysia.

 

it claimed the car could do " 206dB" of music.

 

biggest joke of the year.

 

scanned and showed it to my US community,we all had a good laugh.

 

but yeah, goes to show the quality of some of the magazines.

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Application9999

Application9999

Clutched

bro..it looks like AD will not take bad remark about their cars....so what is the use of a review..may be our local car mag should just become an advertisment space for cars and parts.....well.which in my opinion..it already is..

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Nikolaiski69

Nikolaiski69

Neutral Newbie
(edited)

hahaha

 

well, all of you are right lah. In a way, dissent is not tolerated, ESPECIALLY if the related media writing the review receive advertisement money for that particular brand.

 

However, it must be said that they are opening up but VERY gradually, but i aim to make this happen in my lifetime, not the next...lol..after all, i wont be writing about cars all my life

 

And again, all your suggestions are very valuable and i promise that i will try to implement them sooner or later, these coming months.

 

BTW, about that "glorified car catalogue" that has 206db written in it..all their articles are because advertisers pay money for them. Alot of us used to work there at some point of our career

 

Keep the faith! hehe

Edited by Nikolaiski69
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