bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

this was from 2 years ago but interesting and still relevant...
click on the |> button to play the audio.

https://www.laurasteward.com/165-ale...rganic%20farm.

mmarshall

In general, Alex is probably the best auto reviewer I've seen yet.

Hard to say who's the worst.......Jeremy Clarkson, Brock Yates (who IMO was a moron), and some of the newspaper-auto-reviewers all rank up there.

I was once offered a job doing auto-writing for a small local newspaper....turned it down, for several reasons. I actually prefer writing in forums like this one.

One thing on the pod, though, where Laura seems confused...she assumes that the top-of-the line version of a vehicle's trim will be the most comfortable. In reality, top-line versions often have the firmest suspension, lowest-profile tires, firmest/most-confining seats, and lower ride-comfort. Alex, for some reason, did not seem to address that in his response.

SW17LS

Jeremy Clarkson....$60M net worth. The worst lol

Stroock639

comments like this probably contribute to that lol

mmarshall

Well, I can't really argue otherwise. He makes some of the most inane comments I've ever heard from an auto journalist....although a couple of others are also up there in that field.


His videos, though, on the demise of the British-owned auto industry and the rise of Japanese products were pretty good....but, in those, he was generally not reviewing vehicles so much as the people and culture who designed, produced, and marketed them.

Back to Alex, I had not even heard of him until a few years ago, when my brother sent me a video of one of his reviews, told me he was impressed with Alex, and asked me what I thought. After watching and listening to him, I thought to myself.....hey, this guy is GOOD.

Motorola

I don't consider Clarkson to be a car reviewer, he's an entertainer first and foremost and he is damn good at it.

That being said, his text reviews are a blast to read. Top Gear tones down just how articulate and sharp-witted he is.

https://www.driving.co.uk/contributor/jeremy-clarkson/

mmarshall

Jay Leno, however, proved that one can be both a reviewer and entertainer at the same time. Clarkson, like you noted, is indeed a good entertainer.....but is simply too much of a clown to be an effective auto reviewer.

Motorola

I don't know, nothing about this comes across as being clownish to me:


Leno keeps his talk show entertainer persona and his homely car presenter persona segregated, and comparing him to Clarkson is apples and oranges in their audience and approach.

mmarshall

I won't say that every video he makes is clownish.....I'm talking about my impression of him, over the years, from watching much of what he does in general.

Stroock639

i know too much about jay leno's antics to be able to objectively enjoy content he creates... such as how he snaked letterman out of getting the tonight show while literally (not figuratively) hiding in the closet of an NBC board meeting to see if he'd get chosen or not... and then completely sabotaging conan's attempt to host the tonight show before literally taking it back from him

really the only bad thing clarkson did was punch someone in the face, and subsequently apologized before paying a settlement... and lets be honest getting a single hit in the face (especially from the highly out of shape chain-smoking clarkson) doesn't really affect one's life, not like breaking promises and stealing one's career

what clarkson doesn't do is just read information off a brochure, nor was that what top gear was about... it was what top gear was about and clarkson was way less of a 'clown' on old top gear, and he still does genuine 'reviews' that get published in online magazines like The Sun

mmarshall

Physically assaulting someone is not something unique to Clarkson (or reviewers in general) Anybody can lose their temper. Clarkson, though, does not strike me as someone who is very mature and effective in controlling his emotions.

No honest or competent reviewer does. Alex Dykes, the thread-topic, is probably the best when it comes to a true professional evaluation, though Alex does inject his subjective opinions in, here and there, when it comes to things like styling touches or interior accents.

SW17LS

Clarkson is (IMO) one of the greatest entertainers of our time. And he entertains with cars, which as a car guy I find incredible. I can watch his stuff over and over. He is also an auto journalist, but that’s not the only thing he is.

While I also like Jay Leno’s car content, and find him funny, he clearly loves cars. My issue with him is he’s not a genuine person. He has this aw shucks nice guy persona, but the things he’s done in his life don’t jibe with that. He’s truly a ruthless, cunning self-ist who will destroy anyone to get what he wants....and I would have no issue with that if he would would own it rather than pretend to be someone he clearly is not. Leno has a list of people he’s burned in Hollywood who hate him that is a mile
long.

Clarkson owns who he is. I like authentic people, and I don’t like phony people.

Alex, who is clearly a nice guy and a good car reviewer is not in the same league as these people and I find it funny that he is held up next to them continually here. He has a YouTube channel with 340k subscribers. Even in the world of YouTube he is very small time...which is because while his reviews are very factual and excellent they are not entertaining...and at the end of the day it’s about entertaining an audience.

mmarshall

Not sure what you are getting at with Leno. What more could he want...at least from a secular nature? He's not only swimming in money from the old Tonight Show, but also from his videos, and he has what is arguably the second-largest privately-owned vehicle-collection in the world, exceeded only by the Sultan of Brunei.


Excellence is not always measured in numbers. And, as you note, Alex is not an entertainer.....as far as I'm concerned, the business of auto-reviewing is not necessarily a matter of entertainment. Yes, Clarkson can be interesting to watch and listen to, but IMO you actually learn very little from him....though I'll admit he did a good job in the videos he made on certain aspects of the auto industry itself.


IMO, though somewhat aged, this was probably Clarkson's best video

SW17LS

You should do some research into Jay Leno. Stroock touched on it in his post above. Jay Leno is NOT a nice guy, he stepped on and ruined a lot of people to get where he is. I never once one minute of the Jay Leno Tonight Show after he did what he did to Conan.

As for car reviewing not being entertainment. What else is it supposed to be? If someone isn't immediately in the market to buy a car and yet is still watching car reviews...they are entertainment. You can review a car in an entertaining way, the way Alex does it isn't entertaining, its not designed to be. Its very dry, personality-less, factual. As I've said before, if its a vehicle I have interest in then its great, but I don't watch ALL of his videos like I do several other car reviewers I follow on YouTube, and clearly there's no comparison to Top Gear or The Grand Tour, they're just totally different things.

I don't always need to "learn something".

All you have to do is again look at the success of different people to see which approach more people enjoy. Like I said, Alex's YouTube channel has very slow, limited growth compared to other channels. People find his videos and watch them if they are looking at a specific car but they don't subscribe like they do to other channels. I've watched his S Class and 7 Series and X7 and Range Rover videos multiple times as I try and decide what my next car is going to be, so I see their value they just aren't something I will lay down in the evening and watch for fun. When I started watching Alex he had about 150k subscribers. Now he has about 350k. I started watching several others around the same size and they have 750+, 1M+ subscribers now. Their channels are a lot more entertaining.

I think your issue with Clarkson is you seem to think cars and car reviewing should be this sober sacrosanct thing and I just don't agree. Cars are fun, people having fun with cars is fun to watch for me as a car person.

mmarshall

OK, fine. I'll respect your views if you do in return.