MXM said:
NO thank you! I'd rather read original reviews than something wrote by local guys. Or do they actually translate it? I've read a russian version, and apparently they make up their own material (partly anyway).
And it's not like whole scandinavia speaks the same language
And every scandinavian country by itself is probably too small market.
If you look at the website for the
Romanian Top Gear, a lot of the features / "named" articles are simply translated, as opposed to being original content. The Peter Grunert "Big tractor into London" was front-page Romanian news translated for example.
I can't comment on the "Drives" or "Reviews" part as my Romanian is slightly rusty
They do have slightly different cars from us - they get the Dacia Logan, a budget Renault, for ?3,000 for example, that we don't get, so I'm assuming there'd be local reviews. Plus the road situation'd be completely different [much as the UK roads are different to other countries'].
edit - Looking at the Drives section, there're more Romanian names than UK - though Tom Ford does show up, for example - so I'm assuming some localised testing is done.
If anyone knows the URL of the Russian Top Gear website, if there is one, I'd love to look, as I'm learning the language at university, and original content sounds good. I couldn't find it after a Google though.
edit - I can't comment on launching into new markets, as I'm already in the UK. I agree with a previous comment about France though - I always buy native motoring magazines when I'm over there, and they're very dry and factual, like Germany's. Top Gear is a nice change from that here [why I buy it over alternatives like What Car? and Test Drive] and France may well appreciate it too.