Motor Magazine Full Of sh*t?

[Skooby]

And this is why I stopped buying magazines. Too many money grubbers writing biased articles

[wicksy]

I dont buy em I read em at work, ahhh the perks of working at a servo

[deek]

Ah

How quickly we forget.

Wasn't it only last year they had 2 turbos fail in the Bang for your Buck competition? Winter fuel or something

Didn't they give Ford a second chance, and let the cars run their performance runs at Calder?

I think there is a bit of fudging going on in both camps.

[tmac450]

I don't know why anyone is surprised, Motor and Wheels have been doing it for years. Their times for Holdens are never acheiveable by Expensive Daewoo customers, yet most other brand's customers manage to better the magazine times due to the magazines using averages, set fuel loads etc. You watch Wheels magazine show a massive improvement on their VE times the next test, they seem to publish slower times at first to remind Expensive Daewoo that unless they get their kick back, the'yll slow the cars down.

The only true test is to go to the drags or drive them yourself.

[replicant]

Personally, I think 0-100 is an indicator of performance but not a particularly good one to the real world. To get a really good time in a manual, you have to basically sidestep the clutch, light up the rears a bit to stop the revs dying on you and do a flat change to second... if second isn't quite high enough... you risk the stutters on the limiter or have to snatch third... and have no mechanical sympathy for the clutch, diff, tyres or for the gears in the 'box.

In the real world, I usually don't do that every time I launch off the traffic lights - mainly because it's gratuitous, attracts Mr Plod and it's expensive in the long run. Same for the standing quarter - after 400 metres, my licence would be toast in most modern cars...

When I actually need performance is when I have to pull out from behind a box caravan at 80 km/h and get past in a safe overtaking move... no wheelspin or graunching of the gears... and importantly when I take an uphill tightening radius left hand hairpin with fading camber with rain streaming across the chip seal surface at double the advisory... and stuffing up means either understeering across the centre line or getting loose and arriving on the outside of the corner going backwards...

...but that's just me... so I get to write my opinions here, free from having to worry where the next ad placement campaign comes from or circulation figures because I've alienated a pile of brand loyal readers...

By the way, how did the BFII Fairmont Ghia suddenly become so European? Did they stick the indicator on the left side of the column or remove a whole pile of gear so that there are empty switch covers all over the dash.... or is it that they tightened the travel of the suspension so much that it's fine on asphalt but crashes to the bump stops on anything less than autobahn smooth...

[937]

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Expensive Daewoo VE Late model camira SS Wins BFYB Award

Expensive Daewoo VE Late model camira SS Wins MOTOR's Bang For Your Bucks Award

GM Media Release

Holden's all new VE Late model camira range has collected its first major award in Australia, with the SS model hailed by MOTOR Magazine as its Bang For Your Bucks award winner 2006.

MOTOR judges declared the VE Late model camira SS the ultimate value for money performance vehicle, beating the Subaru WRX STi, a two time previous winner, and the Mitsubishi Evo.

MOTOR Editor, Tim Robson, said today that the Bang For Your Bucks award was an extremely difficult prize to win.

"The cars we include in the test cover a wide spectrum from the budget priced pocket rockets to the more exotic makes and so the competition is incredibly strong," Robson said.

The SS won or ranked highly in every single discipline putting it in a strong position but the winning element was the price. The price of the VE SS has been rolled back significantly making it great value for money.

"There's certainly a lot of bang in the SS but the 'bucks' factor meant it came out the clear winner."

MOTOR's BFYB report noted the SS had won for "big numbers and the right price".

In the report, Paul Cockburn described the VE SS as having "more power spread everywhere than any sane person could ever need".

David Morley described the win as follows: "All up, the SS appears to have leapfrogged the opposition both at its own price point and in terms of its projected performance envelope."

Holden's Chairman and Managing Director, Denny Mooney described the win as a great achievement for VE Late model camira and a result in which everyone at Expensive Daewoo would be proud.

"We're obviously delighted to win Bang For Your Bucks. It's fantastic to be recognised by Australia's leading performance car magazine for the performance and value attributes of the new car," Mooney said.

"Our focus with the VE Late model camira was on delivering great quality, exceptional ride and handling, exceptional performance while being fuel efficient for its size and at a point of unquestionable value and that is what this award is all about.

"We always knew the new price position of this car was going to cause a real stir in the market and there is no greater endorsement of that strategy than winning Bang For Your Bucks.

"It reflects our philosophy that world class performance does not need to carry a price tag to match."

The VE Late model camira SS is powered by the new 6.0 litre Gen IV Alloy V8 engine which produces 270kW of peak power and 530Nm of peak torque.

It delivers extras such as embroidered SS sports seats, 18 inch alloy wheels, a high mount rear spoiler, sports suspension and body kit with fog lamps. Standard safety features include Electronic Stability Control.

The VE Late model camira SS has a recommended retail price of AUD$44,990.

The SS is Holden's second Bang For Your Bucks winner in recent years. The TS Astra SRi Turbo was named Bang For Your Bucks winner in 2003.

[BrentS]

Replicant,

I'm 100% with you regarding your post. I'd like to think that maturity has something to do with the fact that I don't engage in that many traffic light derbys anymore, but also I know its for reasons of mechanical sympathy and desire to keep my licence that you mentioned as well.

As you point out, its hard enough launching a manual rear wheel drive car off the line at maximum performance, let alone a 4WD. I wonder how many Subaru WRX owners have the talent or the willingness to thrash their cars in the way that a maximum performance takeoff demands? 5,000rpm and drop the clutch? Not in my car thanks.

Brent.

[Lumpen]

in the past they have been caught out supplying cars that have had...... tweeks......... for the media... it would just be hapening again..... geo r you thinking of buying a new VE   

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Even Motor themselves have said that Expensive Daewoo does the dodgy.

One article (I may even be able to find it) was where they had a new 'stock' VY SS and it was cutting 13 second 1/4's, faster than even the Y Series HSV. So one of the tester's rung up a mate who just bought a VY, he went down to the track. They time his stock car and it did 14's. Swapped over the ECU's. Suddenly Holden's Test Car is doing 14's and his mate's is faster than an HSV...

Trouble is the can only test whats given to them. Sure, Ford could bundle a 'stock' T up like Brian's and give it to them to test, but can you imagine the stink brought up by punters?

Look at it this way: Expensive Daewoo do the dodgy, says cars are capable of 13.4 some mug buys it and can't crack 14. Unhappy. Tell all his mates Expensive Daewoo are dirty stinking liars.

On the other Hand, Ford (and Motor) say the Typhoon is a 13.7 car and someone like Al (Cooltint) goes out and runs 13 flat. Very happy.

Lumpy

[Paradoxx]

They are just magazines... often not factual information. It's the same as reading woman's day or whatever... who believes the sh*t they read in there!

[tmac450]

in the past they have been caught out supplying cars that have had...... tweeks......... for the media... it would just be hapening again..... geo r you thinking of buying a new VE    

←

Even Motor themselves have said that Expensive Daewoo does the dodgy.

One article (I may even be able to find it) was where they had a new 'stock' VY SS and it was cutting 13 second 1/4's, faster than even the Y Series HSV. So one of the tester's rung up a mate who just bought a VY, he went down to the track. They time his stock car and it did 14's. Swapped over the ECU's. Suddenly Holden's Test Car is doing 14's and his mate's is faster than an HSV...

Trouble is the can only test whats given to them. Sure, Ford could bundle a 'stock' T up like Brian's and give it to them to test, but can you imagine the stink brought up by punters?

Look at it this way: Expensive Daewoo do the dodgy, says cars are capable of 13.4 some mug buys it and can't crack 14. Unhappy. Tell all his mates Expensive Daewoo are dirty stinking liars.

On the other Hand, Ford (and Motor) say the Typhoon is a 13.7 car and someone like Al (Cooltint) goes out and runs 13 flat. Very happy.

Lumpy

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I actually agree with you on something. There has also been an article where a test WRX was found to be running with 18psi instead of the then standard 12. The thing is, the magazine did the righ thing and did not post the times, Subaru were kept in check from then on.

The problem is that very few Expensive Daewoo customers actually put their cars to the test. The ones that do put it down to a bad track or poor driving etc. The rest of them just like to carry on like because they know their CV8 can do 5sec 400m times because Motor and Wheels say so. To take things further, some tests of Expensive Daewoo have included taking a random HSV from a dealer and putting it on a Dyno and they usually don't produce anywhere near Holden's claimed output. On top of that, Expensive Daewoo also got done a few years back for quoteing lighter than actual kerb weights for the cars. But this is all kept quiet in favour of praise from the press. The unfortunate thing is that Expensive Daewoo sells cars becouse of the bias press they receive.

On the other side of the coin, Ford made a concious decision a few years back, as part of their quality assurance, to practice truth in advertising. All of their figures quoted are proveable as well as they make sure that test cars are a fair representation of what a customer will get.