Started My Foray into Automotive Journalism...

daedalus

Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2005
Messages
50
Location
Omaha, Nebraska
I admit I haven't been an active member on here other than the occasional help in the HTTP Video Offer section of this forum but I recently started in on a venture to start writing and producing car reviews with a new website devoted to Automotive, Entrepreneurship, and Lifestyle Design.

http://www.legitlifestyle.com/

I recently completed my first two car reviews, one of a 2011 G37 IPL, and the second of a 2011 E350. I already learned so much from the first G37 review that I tried to carry over and correct in the E350 review. Its been a hard but rewarding gig so far and I thought to myself - who better to share all this with than a bunch of car and top gear dudes on finalgear.

You guys know car reviews better than most. I'm a hack writer and my punctuation is abysmal but i'm getting better.

Here is the G37 Review:
101.jpg

http://www.legitlifestyle.com/2011-infiniti-g37-ipl-review-blitzkrieg-your-commute/

And the E350 Review:
24.jpg

http://www.legitlifestyle.com/2011-mercedes-e350-german-tour-de-force/

Anyway, its not much, but hopefully you guys enjoy and like the concept for the site as well!

Cheers!
 
Seems like we're collecting car journos now.

When you said "E350 review" I was all "OH COOL FINALLY A PROPER VAN REVIEW" - and then I saw it was a Merc and was hugely disappoint.

Anyway, I took a quick read and the only thing that really sticks out is the overuse of headers. They break things up too much. A review that length merit 3 or 4 max - certainly not one per paragraph, however.
 
Why do the pictures have dealer info-stickers and such in them?

Doing your own photographs is important for a review, but I can't help but think I would've taken it more seriously with stock photos.

But I think overall they are pretty solid reviews.
 
Why do the pictures have dealer info-stickers and such in them?

Doing your own photographs is important for a review, but I can't help but think I would've taken it more seriously with stock photos.

I think that's a bit unfair, I'd rather see photos of the car that was being reviewed instead of stock and in this case the number of pictures with stickers on the dashboard was almost insignificant. However a bit of Photoshop work in future would cure the problem anyway, removing the stickers along with the plastic carpet covers which were distracting.

I agree that the number of headers needs to be cut down, but overall I liked the reviews and site design. Keep up the good work. :)
 
Gent's - I appreciate the feedback and constructive criticism. I agree, I probably went a bit overboard on the headings... its just that on such a long review I try and do whatever I can to visually break up the article into smaller chunks as it seems to keep readers more committed to read the entire article than if its one big mass of text. But perhaps i've taken it all a bit too far.

As far as the stickers - the reason for that is simply that they are dealership cars as i'm still building a portfolio to submit for press fleet inclusion later in the year. Regardless - I think having these photos is much better than press photos because every review online uses the same ones and frankly, I never like that. I think you get a more real sense of what the car actually looks like, and its always nice comparing SPECIFICS of the exact car you are using rather than half-assing the comparison to some stock photo of some feature you may or may not be able to find a picture of.

Anyway, thank you for the feedback - it is greatly appreciated!
 
good job, i like the fact that you used your own photos. i agree with what was said before, less headers. keep going, you will get better over time! +1 for trying
 
Top