In the now-infamous article on the Scion FR-S and the relentless hype campaign leading up to its launch, I invoked the Chevrolet Camaro as an example of how a new car can be praised as the Second Coming of Christ during its debut, only to have cooler heads prevailed down the line, when the novelty wears off and its flaws become apparent.
Thanks to reader and contributor Jeff Jablansky, I was able to dig up perhaps the most egregious example of this phenomenon.
As if the absurdly hyperbolic headline “The day the world changed” wasn’t enough of a tip-off , the hype machine for the Toyobaru twins has officially reached its zenith, with Wheels magazine’s Peter Robinson declaring the Japanese-spec Toyota 86 to be superior to the Porsche Cayman.
A few weeks ago, I took a Scion FR-S out for a spin. It was an automatic dealer demo, so I decided to withhold judgement until I drove the manual transmission car.
In a former life, I had worked a bit with J.D. Power. I knew them intimately. We had our issues. This is one of the few times I wholeheartedly agree with them. “Future global market demand for hybrid and battery electric vehicles may be over-hyped” is the conclusion of a new J.D.Power study, titled “Drive Green 2020: More Hope than Reality.” (Read More…)
Recent Comments
glwillia - Assuming, of course, you can suck up the annual 4-figure repair/maintenance bills. Keeping the car garaged and washed helps quite a bit too.
markholli - It was not related to an impact. If I recall it was an electrical fire. The news story I read indicated that the driver was not aware of the...
markholli - @Mkirk I can’t tell for sure what’s happening in that avatar pic, but it looks like an 80 series restoration or possibly...
Kyree S. Williams - The 2013 Santa Fe looks like it was built better and has more-compelling styling, but then again, this generation of Sorento was developed and...
Kyree S. Williams - Huh. The Kia and Hyundai dealers where I live are very highly-regarded, and most all of them have excellent reputations. And this was even before...
Kyree S. Williams - We had a 2003 Kia Sorento EX, green with beige cladding and beige interior, fully loaded—and kept it until it died in a tragic rollover...
CJinSD - Looking at the JD Power VDS that you linked to, Buick is the only GM brand above Honda and Acura. Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC are all lower, although two of them...
glwillia - I’ve owned both, my current not-quite-daily driver is a 1994 E420. It feels and drives like a modern car for the most part, is comfortable, safe, smooth...
glwillia - My not-quite-daily driver is a 1994 Mercedes E420, and if you’re going to DD something that old a MB or BMW will work just fine.
Derek Kreindler - Thank you for the compliment and the history lesson.