Reviewing the magazines
There are n number of automobile magazines out today which carry out reviews of automobiles (cars n bikes) in India and at times abroad (leveraging their internations content tie-ups). They are all similarly priced and you'll find reviews of more or less same vehicals in them in any given month. So, what differenciates these magazines? Lets take a look.
First up, like all the cars are not reviewed by magazines, we will not review all the magazines. I am taking up AUTOCAR INDIA, TOP GEAR, AUTO INDIA, OVERDRIVE and BS MOTORING. While the first two are international mags that have come out with Indain editions, the last three are indigenous efforts. Autocar India launched itself by luring the star author/journo of Auto India and appointing him as the editor.
Auto journalists the world over are (more often than not) those who wanted to be automobile racers/designers/engineers, but couldnt. Thus the gut instinct leads them to have a bias towards looking for all things performance in a car designed for urban crawl. Keeping these facts in mind, let us take a look at what these magazines dish out.
Top Gear magazine has the advantage of drawing upon archives and talent of its well known parent. Their reviews are good where apart from the car's 0 to 100 times they also talk about drivability (3rd and 4th gear roll-on etc.). Another positive is that the performance figures that they give are obtained by them independantly with the manufacturer provided figures being discarded. The content is presented in a humorous way, and there are some genuinely funny artivles (e.g. how to jump out of a moving car).
On the flip side, they simply cannot live without bashing french cars and prainsing Aston Martin (british). Its to the extent that in a head to head comparison they will say that a Ferrari is way better in every department, but when it comes to a package, Astons are better!
Next up is AUTOCAR INDIA. This magazine comes up with the best scoops. You will find news about upcoming models in their pages about one issue before the others. Their reviews are reasonable, with due emphasis being laid on performance, drivability as well as the air-con's performance. Though they have a penchant for 'mega tests'.
BS motoring is another good magazine, but does nothing exceptionally well. The print quality, though is not great. They are politically correct and will find something good to say about an HM ambassador too, if they had to review one.
Auto India is at best a 'has been' of the list. Something went wrong, and they still can't figure out what. I personally think that the transitio npoint was Sorabjee's departure for Autocar India.
Now we come to OVerdrive magazine. Well, what can I say about this bunch. Lets take a look at their algorithm of writing:
1. Get a test car.
2. Give it a severe punishment by driving it like nuts. (It doesnt matter if it is a small city car meant for utilitarian urban commute)
3. Talk about 0-100 time.
4. Return the car, write a biased article about it.
A fact to be noted is that once a car has come back from an overdrive review, its battered to an equivalent of being violently raped by an American football team. Twice.
Their journos try and make performance cars out of swifts (well.. okay.. u can try that) by getting a free flow exhaust fitted! Thats it! No chip, header upgrades. Just a loud exhaust. LOL
Then when they review cars, they dole out utter crap without getting their facst write. Recent example: A road test involving the Skoda, Cedia, Corolla among others. They claimed that the skoda has a better ride than the others!!!! Plus the stereo in Cedia is 'some local make'. Man, I bet they couldnt figure out how to operate it.
Another common problem is the road tests. 0 to 100 is not the ONLY criteria. Especially for cars that are not Lamborghinis. There are more relevant things like 3rd gear 40-60 4th gear 50-70 etc. Also a review of Aircon performance. If you thrash a car around and then quote the fuel efficiency, that information is of no use to the end reader.
First up, like all the cars are not reviewed by magazines, we will not review all the magazines. I am taking up AUTOCAR INDIA, TOP GEAR, AUTO INDIA, OVERDRIVE and BS MOTORING. While the first two are international mags that have come out with Indain editions, the last three are indigenous efforts. Autocar India launched itself by luring the star author/journo of Auto India and appointing him as the editor.
Auto journalists the world over are (more often than not) those who wanted to be automobile racers/designers/engineers, but couldnt. Thus the gut instinct leads them to have a bias towards looking for all things performance in a car designed for urban crawl. Keeping these facts in mind, let us take a look at what these magazines dish out.
Top Gear magazine has the advantage of drawing upon archives and talent of its well known parent. Their reviews are good where apart from the car's 0 to 100 times they also talk about drivability (3rd and 4th gear roll-on etc.). Another positive is that the performance figures that they give are obtained by them independantly with the manufacturer provided figures being discarded. The content is presented in a humorous way, and there are some genuinely funny artivles (e.g. how to jump out of a moving car).
On the flip side, they simply cannot live without bashing french cars and prainsing Aston Martin (british). Its to the extent that in a head to head comparison they will say that a Ferrari is way better in every department, but when it comes to a package, Astons are better!
Next up is AUTOCAR INDIA. This magazine comes up with the best scoops. You will find news about upcoming models in their pages about one issue before the others. Their reviews are reasonable, with due emphasis being laid on performance, drivability as well as the air-con's performance. Though they have a penchant for 'mega tests'.
BS motoring is another good magazine, but does nothing exceptionally well. The print quality, though is not great. They are politically correct and will find something good to say about an HM ambassador too, if they had to review one.
Auto India is at best a 'has been' of the list. Something went wrong, and they still can't figure out what. I personally think that the transitio npoint was Sorabjee's departure for Autocar India.
Now we come to OVerdrive magazine. Well, what can I say about this bunch. Lets take a look at their algorithm of writing:
1. Get a test car.
2. Give it a severe punishment by driving it like nuts. (It doesnt matter if it is a small city car meant for utilitarian urban commute)
3. Talk about 0-100 time.
4. Return the car, write a biased article about it.
A fact to be noted is that once a car has come back from an overdrive review, its battered to an equivalent of being violently raped by an American football team. Twice.
Their journos try and make performance cars out of swifts (well.. okay.. u can try that) by getting a free flow exhaust fitted! Thats it! No chip, header upgrades. Just a loud exhaust. LOL
Then when they review cars, they dole out utter crap without getting their facst write. Recent example: A road test involving the Skoda, Cedia, Corolla among others. They claimed that the skoda has a better ride than the others!!!! Plus the stereo in Cedia is 'some local make'. Man, I bet they couldnt figure out how to operate it.
Another common problem is the road tests. 0 to 100 is not the ONLY criteria. Especially for cars that are not Lamborghinis. There are more relevant things like 3rd gear 40-60 4th gear 50-70 etc. Also a review of Aircon performance. If you thrash a car around and then quote the fuel efficiency, that information is of no use to the end reader.
posted by Abhimanyu Singh Rana at 11:53 PM
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