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If you’d like to read this fascinating tale of a petty, long-term grudge and other spilled tea of the seedy automotive journalism underbelly, please consider becoming an Autopian member. Thank you!
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I imagine JPH had lots of dreams going into print journalism at its peak only to see his entire industry whither away in lieu of clickbaity content that is freely accessible. Youtube did the same to video. Adapt or die…I see JPH bouncing around a lot, and Torch being a staple with a solid paid audience base. That can trigger a lot of emotions.
It reminds me of when I pivoted into my department as a technical instructor. I’d been a tech on the floor for years and knew my audience.
My “mentor” is younger, and had been at the establishment all of about 3 years, less than a year of that on the shop floor, making him kinda unknown.
This has, to this day 4 years later, left him with a massive chip on his shoulder in where he’s always trying to exude authority over his training classes, to get respect.
I take the “young college teacher” approach and sit on my desk and have a much more informal way of teaching. I seek to remove barriers, not create them.
The end result is he’s making himself so irrelevant to our department that my manager has basically made him the equivalent of 4th line in a Hockey game, whereas myself and the people I’ve trained are on the 1st.
We share a cubicle wall and I don’t think I’ve spoken to him in 6 months, it’s wild how much he dislikes me.
We’re seeing this with AI right now. I run a data consultancy and it’s been a bloodbath for Jr engineers. Those who are winning are learning and building AI now, at the behest of many old school engineers.
Figured out who it was and it all made sense. Guy does the trendy 2010’s bashing like Clarkson made famous but can’t take the criticism and rebuttals that come with it. I avoid him when he’s on the big magazines car shopping videos, he full of “hot takes” that aren’t that hot or clever. I’m not a fan of people who decide to die on every hill they’ve ever walked on.
Twelve years is a long time, but…I read the C/D, NYT, and Torch articles just now and I think Torch missed the mark.
The NYT article, in particular, doesn’t so much say that cheap cars are unacceptable, but that even at this price point they should be better. And that the Fit and Fiesta, specifically, are better, and certain trims are comparably priced.
Maybe JPH says so in an overly bombastic manner, but this is entertainment, after all. And the core notion, that customers
deserve value and care with merit across the price spectrum, is valid.
I’m not logged in and can’t read the NYT article, but…nothing Torch wrote that long ago justifies Jerk Pantywad Huffy’s response. Even the small things Torch quoted are ridiculous.
The base price of the Mitsu was $2000 less than the Fiesta, much less the Fit. That’s a significant amount at that price point and would easily explain why one vehicle’s nicer than the other. Add in leather and gee-gaws, but you’re still going to find it hard to hide the shortcomings that a very low cost vehicle has.
It’s not entertainment, it’s supposed to be journalism. He was supposed to be reviewing a car, not doing some silly April Fools’ R&T comparo or goofy CaD road test.
Finally figured out the article everyone was talking about, and pulled it up on archive.is. As a car review it’s an overlong Usenet rant by someone you were about to plonk anyway*, and the editor should’ve spiked it.
*The 90s called, they don’t need any more edgelords thx.
I had an ex change the locks on me while I was out of town on a similar time frame, and I don’t have this level of vitriol. In fact, she accidentally emailed me a couple years ago and I wished her well.
“A friend to all, is a friend to none.”
You ain’t gonna win ’em all.
Look on the bright side, you now clearly have a nemesis.
I’ve always wanted a nemesis but it seems like a lot of work. Torch gets one and he didn’t even realize it!
It is my experience that you will pick up your true enemies in life without actually trying.
There’s a few people that think I’m Satan incarnate. Nothing on this earth could change their mind.
The best piece of advice I ever got was “It’s none of your business what other people think of you.”
I do my best to remember that.
Decades ago I read a quote from a feud between early 20th century European intellectuals that went something like “I don’t mind that he’s talking behind my back. Imagine what a pain it would be if he did it to my face!” It had the feel of German humor that subtly but conclusively fails to make it out of translation, but it resonated with me.
I appreciated the way it identified gossip as a nuisance that’s better ignored than attacked. One has to give people some credit for occasionally being able to sort out what’s true or even plausible from what’s more a matter of personal politics or ulterior motive.
Sometimes the rumor mill is a fun ride. For about a month in the ‘90s, word had gotten out in my extended circle that I’d croaked. All that month I was treated to the repeated spectacle of people who ran into me startling at my unwitting Lazarus act. Most seemed glad I was alive, which was truly gratifying. Plus telling folks in person that you’re not dead never stops being funny.
Yet a ton of people didn’t understand my amusement and couldn’t fathom that I wasn’t furiously chasing down the origin of that apparently heinous insult. C’mon, guys. Literally no one died.
Heck, WWE and other forms of “entertainment” work so hard on crafting storylines’ nemeses that take years to play out, and Jason just needs to write one piece. Impressive that you can inspire Trumpian levels of resentment so easily! I just shudder to think what the wrestling costumes would look like.
Torch did mention something about an “editor’s thong” the other day…
I was thinking more about the cape and face mask getup, but you do you. 😉
Even Maggie has the baby with one eyebrow
You can’t be a journalist in the environment of the last 20 years and have a thin skin, especially if you’re writing opinion pieces. Anyone who goes by all three names has an inflated sense of self-importance anyhow. He’s probably frustrated about the Autopian’s success and having to hear about constantly over at R&T: “Why can’t you guys write more stories like The Autopian?”
Exactly! In an industry that seems to be contracting, he is still dependent on a staff salary. Torch has parlayed his skills into an EQUITY position, which is well beyond the comprehension of most of his industry peers. The boiling blood of a fellow arrogant journalist probably can’t be fixed.
Evan Rachel Wood has entered the chat…
…I wish.
Perhaps not, but there’s a non-zero chance that Stephen Walter Gossin will.
His grudge game is as half-assed as his writing if he didn’t throw a drink in your face.
A glove across the face and, “Pistols at dawn,” or GTFO.
“My name is (redacted). You killed my story. Prepare to die!”
Or, as Premier League commentators often say, “handbags at dawn” or just “handbags.”
Pistols2014 Mirages at dawnMaybe they weren’t serving white wine with the appetizers?
Rosé rage is real.
That was an era of put-down reviews. The gold standard was the Peter Wells take down of Guy Fieri’s restaurant in Time Square. Now THAT was a savage review.
similar spirit though: Peter Wells’ point was that even at a kitschy Times Square restaurant, people deserve decent service and to get what they paid for. It wasn’t about some snooty NYT critic going off about how “donkey sauce” is beneath him.
Man, if you’ve got donkey sauce beneath you, you’re gonna need a mop and bucket STAT
I consider the gold standard to be Pitchfork’s review of Jet, which was just a video of a chimp pissing into it’s own mouth.
I’m even more proud of rocking a Mirage with an Autopian grille badge now.
Torch: “For me, it was Tuesday.”
Raul Julia deserved an Oscar for that role.
He made that shipwreck watchable.
I miss him so much.
If that’s how this thin-skinned snowflake feels about you now, how does he think Mitsubishi’s PR people felt about him in 2014? He is the one that lit into somebody first.
And to think we could have had the Colt, which was actually quite a good little car, in the US market… The Mirage is an appliance and nothing more, the Colt was actually quite fun to drive and had a legit Ralliart version.
The US market as usual got the worst options because we willingly accept it.
JPH surely burned his bridge with Mitsu after that takedown, I’d bet ya.
I am prepared to show solidarity by sitting down and eating salad in front of Jason Torchinsky without leaving. We should all do the same.
Unless there are sprouts in the salad. If you put a salad in front of me with sprouts in it and I was forced to eat it because of the social situation, I’d let the anger fester in me for a decade or more hoping – praying – for a chance to say, “Fuck you!,” to your face.
Let’s not make this conditional, my friend. We’re standing on principal here. I’ll even take it a step further – if the salad contains spinach, I will still eat the spinach, even though spinach is high in oxalates and my urologist has warned me not to eat high-oxalate food.
Shall we establish February 10 as the Torchian Solidarity Holiday? A semi-religious gathering where only salad is served. And perhaps charcuterie. Especially charcuterie (the non-conductive one). We can then drink sauvignon blanc until we no longer remember what are we doing drunk and salad-filled with some Toyota dude (or dudette) looking in disgust.
It would be a welcome break from Shower Spaghetti and valve cover cake.
Respect.
Ouch! Screams some more…
That’s wild. Given the click-bait, hot take, nonsense that gets published so often it’s hard to believe anyone in that industry would hold a grudge about a rebuttal article. Hell, Torch’s article certainly drew even more attention to it and made it even more popular – no such thing as bad press, after all.
I can’t remember what was going on in my life personally or professionally 12 years ago, much less what bees may have been in my bonnet. Yikes.
Right? I was living in a different country with a different career. I do remember the article in hindsight
As a fellow shitboxen defender, I have always thought it odd that a profession with average pay so aggressively trending toward poverty (or YOU paying to be published in the vanity press…) would so gleefully trash inexpensive cars all the time.
It’s a holdover attitude, but also so so so many of the fellow autowriters I have met are great, friendly, thoughtful people. And then there are those others. Who sometimes leave autowriting and go “inside.”
You can’t tell those guys nothin’ (it’s always guys, usually of a certain age, mostly divorced, definitely arrogant).
Right. It’s kind of a “let them eat cake” attitude. For some people to be able to buy a car that will give them back HOURS of their day vs. taking public transportation, it’s a life-changing improvement.
Really good point. In terms of utility and relative happiness/joy, upgrading from a bus pass to a (reliable) shitbox is a bigger step up than trading in your ride to buy your dream car, whatever it may be.
The best way I can describe this guy’s take on the humble Mirage is to compare it to movie reviews. (background, I used to be a host on a movie review podcast before parenthood ate up all that time bandwidth)
Something that always drove me crazy about most movie reviews was that too many reviewers wanted to bash you over the head with their film studies degrees and “superior taste” by bashing movies meant as nothing more than entertainment while you shovel overprices popcorn into your mouth for 90-110 minutes. A friend (freelance writer/’movie buff) recognized this take and decided to leverage it as an everyman take on movies to counter the actual film critic also on the podcast.
That’s all backstory on the fact that I took it upon myself to strictly rate movies based on how well they delivered on what they advertised. My take was the viewer is capable of watching a trailer and deciding if it looks like something they want to see, my “job” was to let them know how well the movie delivered on that promise.
Back to the Mirage, making comparisons to other sub-20k cars is perfectly reasonable. If, say, a Yaris had significantly better ride quality or fit and finish for a couple hundred dollar bump in MSRP, that is a perfectly reasonable thing to point out. Expecting fit and finish to rival a mid-30k car or higher, that’s just being an elitist prick.
People who are shopping this segment of the market know what they’re shopping, generally something that will reliably get them and some stuff from point A to point B, and deserve to make an informed decision on how to get the most or best for their money. There’s no reason to remind them of how much better a car is that also comes with a price tag some multiple of the Mirage’s, they don’t care and that isn’t the point of the car; just like the newest romcom or superhero movie isn’t meant to be the a serious Oscar contender, sometimes it’s just escapism and that’s OK.
Fit and finish should be the same across the entire lineup for mass-produced cars. I dont think that’s elitist, it’s just good business.
In the 80s, GM and Chrysler thought that lower income buyers deserved a shittier product, while Toyota and Honda thought otherwise.
The rest is history.
I actually agree with you but you have to acknowledge that cutting corners on assembly quality and detail attention that shows in fit and finish can be a tempting cost saving measure. I think a reviewer pointing this out on one car while mentioning an actual market competitor’s superiority is probably one of the most effective ways to counter this. I refer to your example of Honda and Toyota vs. the Big Three as exactly this idea.
Noting that a car with a MSRP in the teens isn’t as nice as a car with an MSRP in the mid 30’s or higher doesn’t serve any real purpose. Nobody is actually cross-shopping those and it just feels like needlessly punching down.
Writer gets torched by Torch. Fire still burning 12 years later.
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning, since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on
Somebody call 911 . . .
Torchie fire burnin’ on the dance floor, whooaaaa
You win. Please come to the front and pick up this lovely basket of mini-muffins and bountiful selection of fruit preserves.
You might say he’s still carrying a Torch for him.
Man just a week ago I was in Australia and had rented a little MG3 – my first experience with (I think) the cheapest new car you can buy. My initial instincts were “shitbox” – but I caught myself – remembered that it was stickered for under $15k USD out the door. For that price you were getting a relatively safe, efficient, “good enough” car with a warranty, aircon, airbags, fricking CarPlay – fast? no. Luxurious? no. Cheap? As all get out.
They’re under $10k on the Chinese domestic market, frankly that seems like a screaming good deal
I donated to his gofundme since he seems to be having a hard time with money. Maybe that’s why he’s carrying a hateful grudge?
But then again that’s what usually happens to pompous people on the internet
Seems like the term “rent free” is apropos here.
I know the article right off the bat, but I can’t remember the writer. It was very fashionable to shit all over the Mirage for a while because of its store brand level of cheapness. Some criticism is valid because even at its bargain price the Mirage has some shortcuts that are hard to accept in something as expensive in a new car regardless of the comparison to something that costs more. Valid, but also kind of missing the point of a car that was designed to undercut the competition.
The one thing I kept reading/hearing though that I couldn’t agree with was the idea that anyone buying a Mirage would be better off buying a used Civic or Corolla for the same price. Sure, that was the case for me when I bought a gently used Mazda3 for the same price as a new Mirage. I knew that I could afford to fix whatever the car would need in the next year or so while making payments. Someone who can’t afford to do that needs a new car warranty. Along with the financial protection it also provides peace of mind, which is something that the Mirage’s target market generally doesn’t get to have. When an unexpected $500 expense is a crisis for your budget a new car with a warranty is at least one damn thing that you don’t have to worry about as much.
I feel bad for this writer. Holding a grudge over valid criticism for that long isn’t normal or healthy. He should use some of his career earnings to go see a therapist.
And that’s the thing so many of the readers on this site so often forget. If you don’t have the skill, tools, or space to deal with those minor used car fixes, the prices go up exponentially. It isn’t always a matter of “wanting to learn” either, we all know people who lack the mechanical skill to correctly operate a screwdriver, they probably shouldn’t be pulling an intake manifold to replace a bad starter…
Literally, my kids do not want me to help them build Legos. They’ll wait for their dad if they really need help. I have no business trying to fix even the most basic issues with an automobile. I lease and I go to the dealership for any little issue. My brain is NOT CAPABLE.
And if someone wants to give me shit about that, I’d invite them to spend one. freaking. day. tap dancing through the corporate legal world. Let’s see how they do.
As a moderate mechanic and an actual software test person, you have my respect. I saw a lady at a cafe studying from a Corporate Tax Law (Spring 2026) textbook and I just, good for her good for her. I still hatefully remember the phrase “de minimis fringe benefits” from the time the call center I worked for wanted us all to become enrolled agents.
So many people forget that. It’s very common on a forum I frequent, people love to bash those who can’t change a tire, re-wire an outlet, etc. Somehow, those skills are considered vastly superior to brain surgery or arguing a case in court.
PS: My wife’s a bankruptcy atty, the amount of stuff she’s required to remember, comprehend, and pull together into making rational and coherent statements makes my head spin.
it’s Neanderthal tribalism:
I am good at and enjoy X.
I like talking to other people who are also good at and enjoy X.
Together we like to judge people who are not good at or do not enjoy X.
My first time at a bankruptcy hearing I walk-in and see a wall of samsonite luggage from the various lawyers who flew in. Not sure if seeing so many bankruptcies made them frugal or if they just didn’t have the money that the deal lawyers had for their Louis Vuitton luggage. I am glad that I rarely have to get near lawyers.
The local ones aren’t fancy – but it’s quite the show when the big city ones show up for major cases. The amount of money spent in those is staggering.
Most cases are either businesses or people who have standard money trouble, but there is the fair share of idiots buying $100k+ trucks. The ones that get me are people with mid-six-figure income who still spend way more than they take in.
Self awareness is an entirely underrated trait in modern society. There’s nothing wrong with knowing and respecting your limits, I’d argue a lot of things would be better if more people actually did this.
Corollas are reliable. Any dealership will sell you warranty on a used Corolla, because they know that it’s very unlikely you’ll need to make a claim.
You buy a used Corolla for the same price as a new Mirage. 5 years later, your career has advanced and you’re ready to step up to a longer and taller car (standard American indicator of status).
You’ll find that your 7 year old Corolla is worth more than double what you can get for the 5 year old Mirage. In fact, the Mirage will be out of warranty and the CVT will have either failed or is about to, so the value could be near $0.
People on a budget don’t need that kind of cost of ownership.
I agree with most of this, but many people on a budget don’t have the luxury of planning 5 years ahead.
It is absolutely essential that those of us on a budget plan ahead.
Not having to plan ahead is a luxury that those born into wealth enjoy.
For someone on a tight budget, the cost of a new Mirage is still a huge amount of money. Being on a budget, that person needs to spend their money in the wisest way possible.
Not to mention folks who have the sort of job where you’d lose pay if you came in late because your car broke down, or had to take an afternoon off to run it to the dealer for repairs, which has a lot of overlap. Even if a used car comes with a warranty, a situation that requires use of said warranty can still create and inconvenience or financial loss, and a lot of people still see a brand new car as a safer bet than even a higher quality used car
Even dealing with replacing old tires can be an issue.
Hey, so do I! Neat 😀
That other person’s last name is a great example of nominative determinism.
He comes from a long line of men that leave dinner tables in a huff.
“That’s an interesting last name. What’s the origin?”
“Fuck you!” (Stands up and storms out)
“Ohhh…”
Worst. Superhero. Ever. 😀
I just joined so I could read this!
I can’t though. I’ll try logging off and on again when I have my laptop. The login emails always turn up blank on my antique iPhone.
I read it! Totally worth joining just for this.
It’s just words on the internet. Who cares that much?
Man, I hope I never write an article about some dipshittery only to get a message from a former colleague who I respect and admire that says “I’m embarrassed for you”.
Only thing missing here is a “Ted 2″-esq tipping point.
So it’s a good time to vandalize my Chrysler, huh?” “Hey, F— your Chrysler!”
Torch – you know that he’s probably going to read this, right?
In all seriousness though, I can’t imagine having skin so thin to be mad at someone for over a decade and then not actually dealing with the ensuing anger. Seems rather unhealthy – but what do I know? I’m just a lowly interdimensional being and not a human.
Torch just extended this entirely one-sided feud for at least another 12 years, didn’t he?
Lol, yes, and it’s delicious.
Something tells me this guy isn’t a subscriber…
I think Torch should gift him a subscription as an olive branch.
I think that would be more like a hickory switch to his ego.
Ok, but nothing higher than Vinyl. If he’s expecting RCL he can pay the difference.
And all the annual birthday cars could be 8-bit Mirages!
He just as likely has been hate-reading everything JT wrote for the last 12 years.
I mean… he should, and he should feel embarassed at his childish and unprofessional behavior. Torch was correct to call him out for acting like a bratty toddler.