One of the responsibilities of an automotive journalist that seems like a perk to outsiders is the press drive. Automakers fly you to some remote corner of the world (or, typically, SoCal), put you up in a hotel, and feed you drinks until you’re almost ready to believe that people will care that some random crossover has added 11.7% frame rigidity.
When I was younger, the promise of free track time and a chance to poke around cars was unbeatable, and I didn’t understand the elder journalists who seemed over it. I can comprehend that view a bit more these days. While I’m not entirely jaded, I have a kid and did too many of these trips as either a producer or a journalist, so I can only do a couple of these a year without losing my taste for them.
That is, of course, unless someone does a trip within 300 miles of my house, as Volkswagen did a couple of years ago. I’m all for a launch that I can casually drive to and back from on my own schedule. Dear automakers: More of this, please!
Plus, I have the option of sending Mercedes, and she’s still young and adventurous enough to squeeze every last drop of joy from them. There are a few trips coming up and, in what I think is a first for an automotive publication, I’m going to share with you what the invites are and ask you how much you care, and what you’d like to learn about them.
If you’ve made it this far and want to read more, please consider becoming a member. It’s super important right now.
Go to the Lifan motorcycle showcase. Let me know how it is before I ride one in Vietnam.
A. Poor form not to label member only articles as such. Readers should not have to read to the last sentence then get a membership upsell.
B. You know what you need to do to get my membership dollars again.
Agreed. Poor choices. I went to the Goodwood festival this year, told your sponsor, Xpel how happy I was they were supporting you guys. Plus showed them my 2 cars I had done with their product. We all support in different ways.
And we appreciate it! But we have to offer exclusive content for our members, as well!
Exhaust Leaks is a member-only series.
Also, Jason… I’m all for your metric-only ultimatum. I’ve been pushing for it!
My ask is to logically thread the comments with oldest on top.
Are you working on that?
What is a “metric-only ultimatum”?
Thank you!
Hey *Jason* I’ll see about adding the MEMBERS AREA bug to it. I sort of assumed people knew Exhaust Leaks was members only content.
You assume too much. Especially considering you are trying to grow your views and attract new people. I can’t image a first time visitor to the site would be too happy if that was the first article they clicked.
Go to the Mazda, Kia and Geely events.
Skip Death Valley.
I figure the Geely event will be the least hands-on, but I would enjoy getting your impressions of the build quality and the differences between them and what we Americans are used to.
Consider this another vote for Geely.
K4 wagon/hatch is the most interesting to me, personally. The Tremor least-so.
I’m very interested in the cars in the lower market segments, so I second the request for the K4 event.
Send David Tracy to dissect the Geely products to get us an accurate insight into how they’re actually doing. And send Torch to the Mazda launch to scrutinize their cabin quality and touchscreen UX. “Is Mazda dying or on the rise?”
I am going to be snarky about the comma splice in the headline.
Whatever happened to the good old semicolon?
I wanna know what off-road routes you guys take in death valley!
The CX-5 is the thing I’d be most likely to buy, but a new hatch is intriguing too.
The Ford and Kia for sure.
Wake me up when they finally bring out a new WRX Hatchback w 6MT
And they never saw him again.
None of these interest me much, honestly
I’m gonna second that..I might rather listen to Torch Jack Keroac yammer into a go pro for 300 miles while driving West.
The tremor will be overpriced.. but it’ll be capable and make for cool photos.. I saw go for it.
CX-5 is a chance to see Mazda’s new infotainment up close.. did they nail it or is it garbage? please go.
Kia is a slam dunk yes as one of the last affordable hatches.. and Kia absolutely killing it lately on interiors and styling.
And… Chinese EVs are always interesting and Geely builds some great ones.. I think you have to go to CES and see it.
This post seems as good a place as any to communicate one of the few real pieces of criticism I have for the Autopian; there’s a pretty serious lack of actual car reviews on this car website. Press releases promising the world are a dime a dozen, but driving impressions from journalists that have earned my trust mean a lot.
Also; comparison testing! My favorite print magazine issues from the days of yore were the ones where a publication gathered together the handful of newest/most promising models in a market segment and compare them back-to-back and rank them. Having a major auto dealership in the ownership structure of the site could make that either a lot easier or a lot more difficult to pull off; Beau strikes me as a good guy who believes in the products he sells, so I expect it would be the former.
Hey Mike! We are trying to do more car reviews, and more launches!
Zero interest in the Tremor but Death Valley is gorgeous. Send Griffin for the footage.
Someone also has to go drive the K4 and high-five Kia. They are doing God’s work.
I really wanna see the CX5 and K4. Mostly interested in how the Mazda a new infotainment performs in practice. And K4 Hatch because it’s glorious
Okay, for the Tremor, you really should send two people. Probably Mercedes and DT.
Then one of them should get EXTREMELY blitzed the night before driving day. They need to show up to the driving portion completely unsafe to drive. Category 5 hurling needs to be imminent. This person should probably be David. Then the other person (probably Mercedes) should then do her level best to make David produce said Cat 5 spewing.
Frame it as suspension testing.
If someone on that condition DOESN’T scream groceries, it’s a great success!!
Right? RIGHT?!?
Right.
If you can convince Geely to allow DT to do a deep dive on some of their cars with permission for some minor disassembly, I’d love to hear his thoughts on things like repairability, durability, and what they design differently than what we’re used to.
As an Encinitas resident, I encourage the Mazda event (and maybe an Autopian meetup? Maybe at the local Cars & Coffee in Rancho Santa Fe?).
I encouraged exactly this! While not in Encinitas, I am close by and would definitely attend said meetup at C&C:RSF
Definite yes: CX-5, K4 Hatch. Both have generated lots of member buzz (bad, good, respectively)
Meh: Geely (I think we all know it’s going to have the elements: fanciful CLTC range estimates, massive tablet, bizarre interior, strange highlighted specs like the power of the wireless phone charger, etc). We’re not breaking new ground here.
Meh x2: Explorer Tremor. I have no doubt this will be fun for Mercedes, but I’m unlikely to read it as the offroad stuff just doesn’t interest me. But I could see myself being outvoted here, no problem at all.
Counterpoint:
Geely: absolutely 100%. Give us bizarre interiors and a taste of what we cannot buy or even test drive in the US.
I mean this IS why I’m really here.
Unless there is a Toyota Hilux Champ or a compact Toyota pickup launch in there somewhere, not interested.
I think the Tremor is the vehicle most likely to survive if you actually launch it (probably not still).
That aside, I would love to see the K4, and Geely in particular.
I’d really like to get more details about the trebuchet being constructed for this.
Explorium Tremens is a good contender.
Maybe also a poll of which staffer to send to which launch? Agreed that the Ford Death Valley has “perfect for Mercedes” written all over it. David for the Mazda, maybe Griffin for the Kia? And the thought of Torch loose in Las Vegas for the Geely launch is a very entertaining premise.
This is the perfect lineup
I think Torch should do the Geely review, and present the whole thing as a comparison to the other ideal Chinese electric vehicle, the Changli.
Would be nice if you also included a “Food likely to be served” category. That KIA needs a few hours on a medieval rack to stretch it into a true wagon.
Yeah, I really want to know which of these will have a wheelbarrow of shrimp
?lobster if if becomes a real wagon?
It already looks like they did that to a Soul to get it. Still way better than the K4 sedan, to the point that I wonder if the reason they aren’t offering a base hatchback is so that uggo of a sedan won’t be a complete waste of tooling money.
Good question:
Encintas: Shrimp tacos
North Hollywood: Shrimp cocktail
Vegas: Fried shrimp bucket
Death Valley: Raw shrimp
Pack some Pepto. Sleep with a trashcan at your bedside.
I feel like I’m watching Forrest Gump 😉
Death Valley: Raw brine shrimp
Can Torch be fully unhinged and uncensored Torch at the Geely event?
Feed him after midnight and splash some water on him and let’s see what happens.
Does it have to be shrimp cocktail or will feeding him just anything do the trick?
Autopian Chow (TM) (c) is the sustenance of choice. It comes in convenient 20 lbs bags.
The Meat Bucket, but with an actually appropriate amount of meat?
Wow. That bucket is terrible. If I’m buying meat by the bucket, I want a bucket of meat not a bucket with a couple packs of jerky. It’s like 14 ounces of meat in that bucket. I’ve paid less for a decent steak that weighs more.
Now we need The Autopian Meat Bucket filled with coded salamis, jerkies, exhaust manifold briskets, and various other cured meats. Maybe even offer an exclusive to members as The Autopian Members Meat Bucket
I dunno about the Autopian Members Meat Bucket. A commenter goes silent and they send out a few meat buckets. When we figure out what’s going on, David points out that they have clearly indicated what the meat is, so we are all complicit.
I thought it came in cans labeled “Chef Boyardee Spaghetti” and you had to mix it with 20 gallons of hot water and shampoo to taste.
Man, I don’t think I’ve eating Chef Boyardee since Italy’s economy was bigger than China’s.
I thought we all took a vow of omerta about DT’s shower spaghetti so as not to ruin the good thing he has going with Elise Notherrealname.
Maybe throw some clams in there, too.
Yes to this
Send Matt, instead, to be passive-aggressive on America vs the world.