Jalopnik has gone down the toilet ver. 3.0

Cellos88GT

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Messages
4,033
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
Car(s)
2 Fox Mustangs and a '00 VFR
Looks like they've completely embraced the Gawker model with informative articles, such as:

Jalopnik: Italian engineering versus Swedish engineering - An article that tries to weigh the differences between Swedish and Italian engineering with a Fiat 600 crashing into a Volvo XC70.

The Maserati parts bin trickles the wrong way - An article that tries to claim the Maserati is a cheap piece of garbage because it uses the same headlight switch as a Ram Truck *GASP* never mind the Toyota switches that end up in Lexus vehicles or how Audi always raids the VW bins.

Or the incessant Tesla articles to please their Dear Leader, Elon Musk.

Seriously, they're becoming the automotive equivalent of the National Enquirer, the SNR over there, as of late, is quite low. :?
 
I've said it before on here, but figure I'll repeat it here anyways - Haven't been to Jalopnik in 4ish months and haven't looked back. You're welcome to join the club.

I've replaced them with AutoNews for mainstream/serious news, CarScoops for more obscure news/spyshots, and a very infrequent visit to CarThrottle for the occasional bit of trivia or listicle. My buddy keeps telling me to start reading The Truth About Cars, but I just haven't got around to it.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'm going to retire from there as well, the articles become more inane with each passing day and with the recent firing of Sean MacDonald, there is no reason for me to visit.
 
Yeah, letting go of Sean MacDonald was the final nail in the coffin for me. I'll miss lanesplitter!
 
I've said it before on here, but figure I'll repeat it here anyways - Haven't been to Jalopnik in 4ish months and haven't looked back. You're welcome to join the club.

I've replaced them with AutoNews for mainstream/serious news, CarScoops for more obscure news/spyshots, and a very infrequent visit to CarThrottle for the occasional bit of trivia or listicle. My buddy keeps telling me to start reading The Truth About Cars, but I just haven't got around to it.

A great site for interesting/quirky car stuff is Hooniverse. Curbside Classic is also quite enjoyable, if you're into older cars (with older being anything from the 30s to 10 years ago).
 
When I was in my early twenties, I liked automotive journalism, and that's when I got into watching Top Gear. Over the years, I've become desensitized to it. Once you read three or four reviews of a contemporary car (even if it's an exotic like a Ferrari), you can already anticipate what the review of next year's model will read like. Automotive journalism is, in fact, quite boring.

Even Top Gear's car review segments on the test track become boring after a while. Sliding in a fast and loud RWD sports car sure is fun to watch...the first 50 times. Then it becomes it a routine.

I do like Matt Farah's "The Smoking Tire" because it doesn't pretend to be objective, it's about how Matt feels about driving a particular car, and he drives a lot of them. I take it was a cubic meter of salt, but I enjoy it nonetheless. On the other hand, Doug DeMuro is an absolute attrocity and embodies what is wrong with Jalopnik. He tries to be funny, and do the same thing Farah does - show/tell us how it feels to drive a particular car. But he doesn't drive different cars, he drives his cars and produces 20 videos per month (at least it feels like it). One video about an Aston Martin is quite enough, alright? I don't need a detailed word-vomit about his commute to the DMV even if it was in an Aston Martin.

Worst of all, Jalopnik has gone the auto-ethnographic route. Most of the articles are regular guys with regular cars who came across a YouTube video, but instead of just sharing it with the rest of the world, they go on to tell us about their experience watching the damn video. As if I am incapable of understanding it myself.

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I much prefer the message-board format, as it invites *gasp* actual discussion, even if it's still based around an original post. None of us really take ourselves that seriously, and it's based around these discussions within the community.
 
My biggest issue with automotive journalism is that they don't actually know how the auto industry works. I see a lot of articles written in a very authoritative tone that have statements like "this is why Ford did X" or "this is how GM did Y" that are just pure bullshit. I don't think I'd have a problem if they assumed this or that, but the general tone is 'we know, you don't, so you need to take our word as gold.'

The other issue I had with Jalopnik was how a lot of their reviews stopped being about the car and started being more about the press launch trip. I go there to read about the car, but instead get "BMW flew me out, put me up in a awesome hotel, fed me awesome food, showed me awesome things..... oh and I drove a car too." Fuck that shit.

I do miss the totally obscure historical write ups they did though. Like the history of the first driving simulator or history of the turn signal. Those were quite good, very well researched and well written. But not good enough to bring me back.
 
Last edited:
Torch's stuff is brilliant. And that "flew me out to do this and that" is just something they like to insert there so they sort of acknowledge that the manufacturer pampered them and paid for a lot of stuff, but *of course* that doesn't affect their judgement.
 
What I meant was that on a lot of reviews, it seemed like 90% about the stuff they did on the manufacturer's dime and a quick 10% about the car. Not a good ratio really.
 
My biggest issue with automotive journalism is that they don't actually know how the auto industry works. I see a lot of articles written in a very authoritative tone that have statements like "this is why Ford did X" or "this is how GM did Y" that are just pure bullshit. I don't think I'd have a problem if they assumed this or that, but the general tone is 'we know, you don't, so you need to take our word as gold.'

This. Granted I haven't been in the industry as long as you have (3 years) but I've found that those type of articles make my blood boil. Along with the inaccurate explanation of certain automotive technologies.
 
This. Granted I haven't been in the industry as long as you have (3 years) but I've found that those type of articles make my blood boil. Along with the inaccurate explanation of certain automotive technologies.

This is why Chris Hayes on the smoking tire podcast irritates me. He's got this " I know what I'm talking about" attitude and he has no idea what he's talking about. Yet, Matt seems to take his advice on things like its the bible or something.
 
This is why Chris Hayes on the smoking tire podcast irritates me. He's got this " I know what I'm talking about" attitude and he has no idea what he's talking about. Yet, Matt seems to take his advice on things like its the bible or something.

He's the one thats also on the Hooniverse podcast right? That had a manual Element and a C5Z? If yes, then I totally agree. When BlaRo left the regular cast, he's why I stopped listening.
 
Last edited:
He's the one thats also on the Hooniverse podcast right? That had a manual Element and a C5Z? If yes, then I totally agree. When BlaRo left the regular cast, he's why I stopped listening.

I stopped listening to hooniverse because whatever his name is that's in charge of it has nothing to talk about besides fucking up his old truck.

When Matt had the exhaust header problem and he eventually went with long tubes over shorties, the comment Chris had "oh you're so better, you'll pickup so much power" is ignorant. If he had listened at all to the manga flow guy they had on there he'd know that any fuel injected car adjusts the tune when it senses changes in how the engine is performing. That's why you have MAP sensors, O2 sensors, mass air meters....
 
Last edited:
I actually don't mind Jalopnik a lot of the time (i'll click on a few articles here and there to pass time but it's not a must visit each day site like TTAC is for me) but navigating the comment section is a absolute shit show (thanks kinja!) and if you're not in the boys club or snarky enough to get "starred" then expect your comments to never get seen or replied to. Ever.

I can't say I've gone to them for reviews though - I'll hit up Autoblog, TTAC, C&D or Edmunds before Jalopnik....dunno why they aren't the first that comes to mind for that.

I've said it before on here, but figure I'll repeat it here anyways - Haven't been to Jalopnik in 4ish months and haven't looked back. You're welcome to join the club.

I've replaced them with AutoNews for mainstream/serious news, CarScoops for more obscure news/spyshots, and a very infrequent visit to CarThrottle for the occasional bit of trivia or listicle. My buddy keeps telling me to start reading The Truth About Cars, but I just haven't got around to it.

The Truth About Cars has one of the best comment sections on a car site. Period. The demo overall likely isn't as young as say....Jalopnik but they also aren't as shitty and spam filled as Autoblog's (i don't even bother reading AB comments anymore). Commenters span from all walks of car life...from industry insiders to average joes. There's a reason why the commenters there are referred to as the "Best and Brightest." There are 2 notable trolls like every comment section but even they manage to have some excellent points sometimes.

The writing on the site itself is also excellent. Jack Baruth is well...Jack. Ditto his brother. Alex Dykes has the most detailed reviews I've seen (his YouTube side project, Alex on Autos, is simply excellent), and Tim Cain's (from Good Car Bad Car) market analysis is fascinating.

I wish I could comment there more, but my job has me busy and away from my desk 70% of the time.

This is why Chris Hayes on the smoking tire podcast irritates me. He's got this " I know what I'm talking about" attitude and he has no idea what he's talking about. Yet, Matt seems to take his advice on things like its the bible or something.

He's the one that's also on the Hooniverse podcast right? That had a manual Element and a C5Z? If yes, then I totally agree. When BlaRo left the regular cast, he's why I stopped listening.

I've noticed that attitude, for sure...I don't mind it 99% of the time but I can see how it could be a turn off.

For anyone looking for additional car podcasts, I've always loved The Autoblog Podcast, Autoline After Hours, and Lehto's Law. Everyday Driver Car Debates and (don't laugh...) Consumer Reports "Talking Cars" are also good.
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
For anyone looking for additional car podcasts, I've always loved The Autoblog Podcast, Autoline After Hours, and Lehto's Law. Everyday Driver Car Debates and (don't laugh...) Consumer Reports "Talking Cars" are also good.

You missed the best one. http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510208/car-talk.

I really need to get on Lehto's Law. He's another Jalopnik author I actually do miss. I have a few of his books laying around too that I probably should get around to reading at some point.

Also, I think we should stop before this thread becomes a "Jalopnik sucks" circle jerk (and I admit I am one of the bigger offenders). Maybe we can have a positive spin on this with offering up replacements, as some of us already have.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I didn't mean for it to be a circle jerk, so my bad with the bait-y title. I was fresh off reading some shit that pissed me off and thus I was seeing red.
 
On positive news, Jalopnik is looking for writers now. Perhaps they want to consider someone that doesn't completely suck. I would apply of course but the combination of a job and not being in new york rather puts a damper on it. Still, I'm sure someone on FG could apply ;)

On a less positive note, shouldn't Gawker be forking over all of its money because of that Hogan brouhaha?
 
Last edited:
The only thing i visit Jalopnik for is the general headlines. "Manufacturer X announced a new version of Car Y", "Car Z was cancelled", "Company N fucked up". It's the same reason I still visit Kotaku. The writers are some of the most delusional people ever given an audience (Stef excluded. I actually like her articles) but the headlines give me the basic info I want.
 
Top