If you’re an automaker who just read a critical review of your product, you’ve got a few ways you can respond. The boss way to respond is the way a German automaker once replied to one of my colleagues when he wrote a critical review: “Hey, we saw your review and we regret that you didn’t have a great experience. We’d love to send you another vehicle to review.” That’s confidence. Then there’s another strategy you can take: You can get upset at the journalist and question their credibility. That’s how a certain Japanese automaker responded to an article I wrote.
This is a Member’s Only Post, if you’d like to read about who the automaker in question is, if you’d like to read future “Exhaust Leak” stories about the auto journalism industry, please consider becoming a member right here. Regardless, we thank you for being here.
I’ll just say that I’m loving this “Exhaust Note” thing. It’s nice to see the kind of stuff you guys deal with that we normally never hear about.
GM made an awesome factory underbody tray for my old Cruze. Drive through a 5 inch puddle at 40 mph and keep the engine bay dry awesome. Then they hacked most of it off in a recall because oil change mouth breathers were slopping oil down the block and the tray was catching it. Apparently a few fires resulted. Someone who worked at a dealer parts counter figured out the Buick on the same platform had the original tray, now with a different part number. People who wanted the original found ways to make it happen. That new old design tray earned its keep.
I thought it was love that made a Subaru, a Subaru. Hypothetical PR Person has as much love as the skid plate has metal.
I hit a chunk of ice/snow in my car, crumpled the original “skid plate” and replaced with an aftermarket heavier aluminum one.
And colleagues laughed at me for putting a decent skidplate onto a small hatchback. But it’s still flat, smooth, and looks decent when I check the underbody.
Like most replacement parts, always look if there’s an upgrade option.
I guess I’m surprised the Forester gets that flimsy jank. I know the 2015 WRX gets a pretty gnarly heavy duty skid plate thing down under the engine and it’s obviously not an off road thing there.
I added an aluminum skid plate to my Prius v.
Probably not a huge improvement over the thin plastic pieces it came with, but I’ll still feel a hell of a lot better with the proper plate if I ever get stuck running over a shredded truck tire on the highway or something.
My Focus has a plastic one, and it actually fared pretty well when I did run over a tire chuck at 65. Tore the lower parts of the bumper cover at the angles, but the plastic underbody cover did surprisingly well.
Silly boy, that wasn’t a skid plate – that was a S.K.I.D plate. You know, as in Stream (as in air) Kinetic Interference Diverter.
What, you thought they expected that to deal with rock, logs, deep ruts and other off road obstructions? Silly, silly boy.
Seriously, though, my RAV4 has the same kind of plastic tray under a surprising (to me) amount of the area under the car. But then the RAV4 doesn’t have the pretense of being an off roader.
The plastic trays on the RAV4 are there almost purely for aerodynamics. I used to work for the company that made them.
I’m sure the Crosstrek’s are the same, except they think they can technically call it a skid plate because it’s “beefed up” over a regular old lower bumper.
You might be joking, but I absolutely took one of those off a 2013 Explorer earlier today. It blocked the oil filter and drain plug, and had a warning that it had to be reinstalled after service for proper cooling.
The RAV4 has a small removable panel for accessing the oil filter and drain plug. Which the quick change places seem to have problems resecuring properly, based on my experience.
https://www.autonationparts.com/parts/ford-lower-shield-db5z9910494a?origin=pla&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22802133064&gclid=CjwKCAjwisnGBhAXEiwA0zEOR-rU7Y6fKtHwgi8UUZXVtNiLc9IAXDSeqi7DKXCjZS3x0zX-4NqqahoC57YQAvD_BwE
This thing definitely does not have access panels. Zoom in on the first product picture and you’ll see what I’m talking about with “proper” cooling.
If your skid plate can’t stop a 9mm slug fired from close range, don’t call it a skid plate.
Of course, you just know someone(s) caught hell back at Subaru secret HQ and they had to pass on the love. You-know-what rolls downhill.
Do you also propose that body armor manufacturers should test by how well it protects from a low-speed scrap from a jagged rock?
Two points:
Yes, there are some a few bolts holding the plastic shield on, as mentioned in the article (see quote from the YouTuber). And yes, it likely was adequate for the majority of people who buy this product, as I mentioned in this and the original article.
There is an old saying in the newspaper field “never argue with a person who buys ink by the gallon” . Now this was before the internet. Journalists have power, many abuse it, I spent 30 years in newspaper and software and saw it. I never saw our Autopian writers abuse their authority but I have seen it in many major newspapers I instructed.