Edmunds Fans the Flamers With Brock Yates (Clone?)
As someone who solicited and edited Brock Yates’ rants, and then didn’t, I can identify the former Car and Driver superstar’s style in a single sentence. “Now I tell the truth for a living,” “The Mechanic” declares on Edmunds Straightline, tweaking TTAC. “A good living. I get big checks to write this garbage. Big enough that I can buy any car I want. OK, that’s a stretch. The Mechanic cannot afford a Rolls or a Bugatti, but I’ve got money to spend. And I’ve got good taste. I’m also college-educated. Literate. And I appreciate the best. When I spend my money I spend it on quality goods. And the car I choose to be seen in must be a quality item. The finest of its kind. In other words, I would not buy an American car. It’s hard for me to even type that. Fact is, I’d like to buy an American car, a great American car. It just doesn’t exist.” It’s hard to tell if “The Mechanic” actually is a [heavily re-written] Brock Yates. But this much is for sure: publishing this belligerent throw-down under a pseudonym demonstrates Edmunds’ fear of losing its advertising revenue. In fact, I reckon it’s only a matter of time before those sponsors fix The Mechanic, if you know what I mean. [Thanks to HarveyBirdman for the link]
More by Robert Farago
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But you guys loved him when he was here. What gives?
It seems to me that Edmunds is merely interested in creating some sort of mythical super-hero alter-ego for this feature, regardless of who the writer actually is. Check out the introduction... total ripoff of The Stig.
AKM: Pretty sure it set a record for production sedan at The Ring. And the Viper ACR just set a record for production car (period) at The Ring. But American cars suck, don't you know. Sure, there's plenty of crappy American cars out there. There are also many crappy European and Asian cars, most people just fail to mention them. While America may not have a marque to compete with Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, etc. it does have the capability to build great performing cars. Cadillac has made a great stride with the CTS, but let's hope GM can hang around long enough to finish the job The Corvette, CTS-V, and the Viper all show that when the bean counters stay out, Americans can make excellent vehicles.
Is this Yates? I doubt it. He references a recent conversation with his father. But Yates must be over 70 himself. There's no way his father is alive; or if alive, is lucid. Nor do I think Yates is still drawing big paychecks, esp. on the web. In fact, Car and Driver ostensibly let him go because of those big paychecks. And there are plenty of web auto journalists who are just as good as Yates, yet work for less (namely, RF). Finally, I don't think Yates would give such a blanket condemnation of American iron. The Yates I know would likely buy imported, but he MIGHT buy something domestic. Yates likely has 4-5 cars in his stable. I'm sure at least one is a recent domestic.