Car journalists wield more power than they might think. People who read car reviews often make buying decisions based on what we write. Depending on the opinions journos deploy to print and pixels, automakers may see a lift in customer interest and sales, or a dip as buyers weigh a writer’s wary words. But the public doesn’t always agree with journalists, and may flock to a car that was reviewed poorly, or leave a model to flounder that journalists loved. When was a time that you disagreed with a car review?
The easiest answer for me is obviously the Smart Fortwo. I have been defending that car’s existence since before I even had a driver’s license. I was always the person who could see the brightness of that car between auto journalists’ complaints of slow shifting, slow acceleration, and a hard suspension. But that one would be too easy. Pretty much all of my Autopian Asks would be centered around Smarts if I focused just on that car.
My love for the unloved Smart had eventually led me to become a defender for everything that’s unloved. I can find something that I like about any car, no matter how much everyone else hates it. I find myself in that place today with the Mitsubishi Mirage, one of the favorite punching bags of the automotive YouTuber.
I won’t describe any review specifically here, and besides, I really don’t need to. Most of them largely follow a similar format of complaining that the Mitsubishi Mirage doesn’t have a lot of power, is filled with hard plastics, and feels like a generation or two behind the pack. Many reviews come to the conclusion that it’s a terrible car. You’ll often find such words as “asthmatic,” “lethargic,” “anemic,” and “tepid” used to describe the Mirage. Some folks might even say that the Mirage is unsuitable for highway use because of its lack of power.
I see the car in a different light. Yes, it’s devoid of many luxuries. Yes, it’s loud, and yes, it’s buzzy. What the reviewers say is not wrong, and the car is very easy to make fun of because of it. But at the same time, this was a car that was only $13,790 in 2014. Logically, you aren’t getting a fast car or one dripping with cutting-edge technology for that price. Want to drive it on the highway? It’ll do that, just put the pedal down further. Yes, you can get a better car by paying more money. The whole point of the Mirage is to be affordable transportation.
So, that’s the car I often find myself disagreeing with reviews on.
How about you? What car did you think reviews got wrong? Is the car worse or better than reviews say?
I disagree with pretty much any review that bitches about a car being “underpowered,” “dangerously slow,” etc. No, it’s not; we can all easily make do with sub 200 hp cars, so stop with the hyperbole.
I concur, drive a 110 hp hyundai, and not once have i felt like inwas going to die trying to merge onto a busy interstate. Granted I’ll manually shift the auto and wring that lil motor out, but it handily will merge with a load full of 250# guys inside.
The newer Euro turbo 3-cyl engines are plenty for US consumption in at least 90% of the country. I’d happily drive a 90-hp Skoda Fabia here…as long as they upgraded the 5-spd to a 6-spd.
Got bored the other day and looked at what the wifes kona wouldve had in the uk, and they had as little iirc, 78 hp, from a turbo 1.0 3 cyl. Hers is the non turbo 4cyl and seem to have have plenty of balls to it. Id imagine a 100hp 3 cyl would be adequate enough.
But as long as the curb weight is under 3500# id likely say they all could get around fine.
The mirage with the 5sp was PLENTY to merge onto highways, just had to not be afraid to wind it out.
IIRC both of the 1.0L turbos had 120 lb-ft of torque, which helped.
The lowest-powered car I’ve driven was a 67 hp Kia Picanto that was a blast. That one had a normally aspirated 1.0L I3 but it didn’t weigh shit.
That was probably a 2600# car id gander, which still, if geared right would be fine.
People anymore are afraid to wring em out once n while, especially merging on a freeway with 4x the horsepower.
Only one very specific aspect of a car, but the manual on the G87 M2 is universally reviewed as pretty mediocre and having a “typical BMW rubbery feel”
I was pleasantly surprised when I first drove the car, maybe because the reviews set me expectations very low. It isn’t Miata or 911 good, but it’s still rather excellent.
A friend of mine named Jody had the best explanation for the Mirage and its reviews.
Think of the cars Doug DeMuro reviews… and likes. They’re *fancy* cars. They’re *fancy people* cars. They’re rare, they’re expensive, sometimes they’re unusual. But they’re pretty universally somewhere in the top half-to-a-third of the spectrum. I don’t think he’s going to go out of his way to review the 1985 (…’84?) almost-no-miles Honda Civic that TFLClassics drove back home to CA with. That’s just not his type of car.
But it *is* the type of car the Mirage is. It’s a small, cheap city car for people who need something that can handle stop-n-go traffic, pick up groceries, get the kids from school, and take Blilly to the doctor coz wait’ll ya hear what he ate THIS time. It’s meant for dogs to leave muddy pawprints on, and kids to puke in (aeugh!), and groceries and basketball and shop class, and maybe when Little Jimmy gets old enough he’ll drive off to college in it with his whole life for the next four years piled in across the remaining three seats and the trunk.
It’s a little car, for people who live their little lives in little cubicles and little coffeeshops and fast food places and retail spots and metro marts in between all the big skyscrapers of the big city… and for people who don’t have big money, specifically, so it only costs a little, too.
But it’s not a luxury vehicle. It’s not even close. In airplane terms, it’s an American Airlines sardine-can 727 that makes the hop over to JFK from RDU or PTI, not the 787 Dreamliner across the Atlantic to London… and it’s sure as an Oldsmobile rolling-sofa’s going to be at Bob Evan’s on Sunday that it’s no Learjet.
I agreed with the review itself, but take issue with the… segue to the next review when Top Gear reviewed the 2004 Mazda RX-8. Jeremy Clarkson said it was absolutely the best car he had seen all year in the film segment. Backed it up with all manner of accolades, grins, giggles, and screeching tires. Then, cut back to the studio, and he tacked on “no it isn’t” for seemingly no reason. Undoubtedly because it had showed up cars that were several times its price and a fraction the practicality, and he didn’t want the manufacturers to stop lending them cars or something like that. On the one hand, the RX-8 really is that good. On the other hand, it would have been a fairly sensational segment had he left it alone without the verbal addendum. Double fail.
Me, seeing Monza-based reviews (even the one y’all just posted lmao)
They’re poorly built but anyone calling them slow probably had the only engine not worth getting. Anyone calling them a PITA to work on got the right engine though
IMHO, CR is not the place to go for enthusiast reviews, although their archival video with your very own Matt Hardigree over the weekend opened my eyes a bit. But I’ve always taken MT’s reviews with a grain (or a salt lick) of salt. I liked reading R&T and C/D a lot better. Automobile was a love-hate subscription. I found DED insufferably pompous, but he managed to gather a good stable of writers and photographers around him.
I think the thing that annoys me the most is the constant parade of reviews of cars that are priced so far out of reach for most of the population. I guess I just don’t get vicarious thrills about the nuances of the latest Porsche, Ferrari, etc., etc., etc.
Consumer Reports once did a comparison of 2-door, 4 cylinder, economy commuter crap-boxes. Somehow they managed to stick a 2-door base-spec Wrangler in there (with the 4-cyl) and then ripped it apart for being a Wrangler and getting shit mileage compared to a Hyundai Accent.
Pissed me off to no end, and now, even decades later, I still am pissed at CR about it. I don’t even disagree with the review, it was spot-on; but the entire concept of comparing a Jeep Wrangler to small eco-boxes is insulting and childish.
NMS VW Passat – the steering wheel supposedly being off-center. My father had one, and I never noticed it. I’m 5’11” with short arms and legs relative to my height, so I tend to sit relatively close to the steering wheel – maybe that’s why?
W205 Mercedes C-Class interior creaks – my mother has one with 120K miles, and apparently it’s the only one in the world without a creaky center console. Zero interior creaks, actually.
I once read a review of my car (second-generation Volvo S60), and had to laugh when the reviewer put in the negatives -“no rear air vents”. There are definitely air vents in the B-pillars; they just didn’t see air vents at the back of the center console and didn’t even bother to look elsewhere!
Somewhere in the comments, a 23-year old mentioned how the pursuit and celebration of “sporty” has decimated ride quality. As a VW enthusiast / apologist, this is apparent in The Atlas and Passat ride quality. The shock tuning is indeed amped and the spring rate is pleasantly soft, but to make both barges corner they put incredibly stiff anti roll bars in there. This works great when you hit an expansion joint square, but one wheel slapping a manhole cover crunches right through the dash. I hate it, and don’t understand why reviewers don’t mention it at all in their reviews
A lot of reviewers panned the location of the gauges in the Scion xB- above the steering wheel and to the right. After owning the car for a while, I learned that it made perfect sense. You don’t have to move your eyes as far off the road. And also it’s further away from your eyes so you don’t have to refocus your eyes as much. Now the Mini, on the other hand, really had a horrible location- the speedo and tach separated into two locations- one in the usual place and the other in the center of the dashboard. But for whatever reasons none of the reviewers said anything bad about that disaster.
The other one is CVT transmission. Lots of people say they hate it. But actually they just don’t know how to drive it. A lot of people might have grown up with carbureted cars. They ease into the throttle. You can’t do that with a CVT. Say you’re coasting along at 10% throttle. You want to go faster and get to 50% throttle. You can’t just ease into it from 10-50%. You will confuse the computer. You need to snap that throttle from 10 to 50% in an instant. The computer will know your intention and instantly optimize the gearing for that 50% throttle. This is also true for a lot of modern cars with 8 and 9 speed auto trans as well.
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the location of the gauge cluster when I bought my Yaris, but I got used to it quickly. My eyes have to travel over instead of down, but you make a good point about focus, especially relative to a newer car with a brighter dashboard. Also, the steering wheel isn’t in the way, and this generation of Yaris’s dash has extra storage where the cluster would otherwise be, so it’s more than a fair tradeoff.
I had a friend with the first gen xB and it was a hoot to drive, for what it was. The gauge placement was a total non-issue.
I rented a ’25 Nissan Sentra a couple of weeks ago and its CVT was totally fine. It felt like it would step ratios for a while and then just settle into the normal CVT thing, but it never felt like it was rubber-banding. It was a terrific rental and my only hesitation about it is I just don’t know how they hold up over the long run these days.
A few years ago, I had a loaner Acura RDX with a 10-speed automatic, and it was almost annoying how often it shifted. It sounded more like an F1 car pulling away from a light.
Yeesh, that’s a long list. Here’s what sticks out to me:
E92 328i – I was terribly underwhelmed.
Any Honda I’ve ever driven. They get rave reviews and honest to I don’t know why.
06-23 Dodge Charger and Durango. Many reviewers didn’t like the Charger relaunch, but I did so much that I owned 3 of them (and a Durango).
What was your issue with the E92 328i?
It was underpowered, I didn’t think it handled particularly well, and the air conditioner couldn’t keep up with the inside of the car.
Having rented and driven a Mitsubishi Mirage from Tulsa to Dallas within the last week, I’m going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there, @Mercedes. Even held up against its stated mission as bare-bones, bottom-dollar transportation, it’s an unmitigated and thoroughly depressing excuse for a modern conveyance.
The one I drove was a 2024 with just under 8k miles on the clock, and shook so badly at idle that I was genuinely concerned that it was going to stall. At highway speeds, the transmission was constantly hunting for the right ratio, causing the RPMs to vacillate wildly. NVH isolation was nonexistent, and I had to essentially shout to use hands-free mobile while driving. And between the abbreviated wheelbase and the rollerskate 13″ wheel/tire combo, lane-change maneuvers in city traffic were a white-knuckle affair.
I totally understand that the Mirage was designed and built to a price point, but that price point had increased to nearly $20k for its final year of production. Inexcusable. Nothing about the Mirage justifies its purchase when there are many, many objectively better lightly used offerings for far less than its MSRP.
Agreed. If you’re that strapped for cash, why would anyone buy a brand new car? That’s exactly why the mirage is a poor choice for anyone
Pretty much anything small and cheap is a great place to start. Don’t know where to stop, after years of reading/watching them I’ve realized there are more bad reviewers than good, and all have a lot of bias (human nature, not their fault), so I prefer reviews from places like this where the reviewer is allowed to have a personality and be human, allows me to see their bias more and understand the review better and whether or not it has much chance of applying to me.
I’m gonna have to fight you on that Smart. I always felt their slushbox transmission robbed them of the chance to be fuel economy champs. They could have been pioneering CVT use instead.
And don’t get me started on CVTs. I used to love manual transmissions until I moved to the Chicago area- too much traffic to stand on a clutch all the time. I think, then, that if you have to have an auto trans, you might as well have the most efficient one possible for daily driving. Once in a while, in certain situations, it can feel a little “rubber bandy”, but certainly not enough to harp on it.
Finally, I’m currently digging my Corolla Cross, and most reviews found that it wasn’t enough of a “driver’s car”. Sorry, I forgot that I was supposed to carve canyons on my way to Aldi in my comfy, reliable, subcompact crossover. I guess I scheduled that to close to the rallycross event. Not to mention that the hybrid has great pickup, which the reviews may mention, as well as independent rear suspension, which they most certainly won’t. Nor will they mention one of my biggest peeves- remote start only works with a subscription.
After having owned one, I have disagreed with many reviewers on the PT Cruiser.
They often say the performance is crap. But of course they only tested it with the base engine with the slushbox. Drive one with the manual and the base engine and it will feel peppy and gets noticeably better fuel economy. And the turbo trims go from ‘better’ to ‘fast’.
They often said the suspension was too firm. I thought it was perfectly fine for an economy car… and the firm suspension made it better for when the car was loaded down with stuff.
They said the seats were terrible. In reality, the seats were fine. Not fabulous, but fine. Of course my back/spine isn’t made of delicate glass the way it seems to be for some reviewers.
People also hate the way the PT looked. Those people are wrong.
Any review when they are trying to show off how good a driver they are by taking an everyday car to a track. Also the hard plastic comments especially on a cheaper car. If it’s supposed to be luxury or premium then maybe you have a reason to be complaining about hard plastic but it gets old when its every single model. Cheap car reviews can be particularly heinous. If they had a value proposition of a different model I guess that’s fine but normally they will take issue with something because they don’t think it’s as good as something twice the price.
Doug Demueros review of the mirage is one of the only one of his Iike because at the end he talked to a what he calls a normal person who basically explains it’s a great value for people who just want a car to get from point a to b because it’s cheap, relatively fuel efficient, and has a 10 year 100k mi warranty.
I often disagree. Worst was the 1st generation Mazda3 that was lauded in the press and a large reason I bought it. It was boring to drive, the exterior plastic was as durable as papier mache, rust protection from the Carter era, and I’m pretty sure the front subframe was attached with bushings made of used condoms. TBF, though, the pickings were slim at the time, so it might have been the better driver’s car by default.
My general complaints are reviewers who review a car based on what they want it to be rather than what it is and who seem to have no conception about the car industry, giving little to no consideration to price and which priorities on a budget car are more important (like proper underlying engineering over BS soft touch plastics that melt after a few years).
Like, now.
I must respectfully disagree with Miss Merc. The Mirage just isn’t good. I don’t mind the lack of power (just have to accelerate long in advance,) but the noise is unbearable. It’s just a constant drone even when putzing along on surface streets.
When a 78bhp 3-banger is noisier than my V8 M3, something’s very wrong.
Pretty much every time a jalopnik writer reviews a car that they have never been around. They are usually reviewing it based off the way it looks or what other people have said. This is not always the case of course but it does happen. This goes for both newer and older cars.
1. I bought a 2017 340i manual partly because of Edmunds had so much great things to say about their long-term 340i. As I drove it, the steering felt more and more unnatural. The dead zone just off-center grew bigger and bigger in my mind. Everything else was actually fantastic.
2. 718 manual is the most over-hyped cars I have ever driven. This is me coming from a 2011 RX8 R3 though. I actually far prefer Porache’s 4-door offerings.
In 2007 I test drove a Porsche Cayman…it was good but not orgasmic. For the same price…I ended up buying a Corvette C6 that was better in almost every way.
I would really really REALLY love to see a shortened Panamera coupe (basically a modern 928) because I’ve come to grips with the fact that (in a commuter car) I’m really more of a luxury GT driver than a true sports car driver.
Lexus LC 500?
Yes, that is what I own right now (just bought a 2017 last year). Fantastic car!
The 1996 Geo Metro holds a special place in my heart for many of the same reasons. Sure, mine looked like a 3-door purple potato, but that was part of it’s charm.
I took that little beast to a frozen pond and danced swan lake with those little tiny 13″ wheels. What fond times those were.
I’ve never even been in a Geo Metro, let alone owned one. But I do applaud the Geo Metro community for somehow always managing to bring a ridiculously clean example to seemingly every car show I’ve ever attended.
I wish I still had mine. And if you look at the spec sheet, that little 1.0 litre 3-cylinder engine had about 60 horsepower and it routinely got above 50mpg in city driving. It was totally tossable, and downright scary passing a semi-truck as the windwash blew the car all over the place. It’s definitely a car that grows on you.
However, my middle son still lives with us and rides in the car with us occasionally (he’s 20 in earth years), but in his human form he is 6’6″ and would maybe fit in the back seat if you removed the front seat. He fits fine in my oldest son’s 2006 Corolla though.
Most of Clarkson’s reviews and the ones who think crossover=bad.
My CRV is much more useful than any hatch, BMW or sedan I had previously. Everyone has different use cases, wild how everyone forgets that. I don’t need my CRV to take corners like I’m racing, I need it to be reliable, comfortable, and haul lots of people/things even when there’s 3 feet of snow on the ground. If you can only afford one vehicle, a crossover like the Rav4 or CRV makes the most sense.
This – if you can only have one car you can do a lot worse than any contemporary CUV.
Appreciate your response, most get angry at such a blasphemous comment and respond to me saying that since they drive their BMW through the snow it is an ideal single vehicle. Neglecting the fact they have 3 other vehicles for each season / task that they trade in every 3 years on lease.
If I could afford a fun car, economical car and a truck for work things, I would. In the meantime, CRV.
“Most of Clarkson’s reviews and the ones who think crossover=bad.”
Not to mention his opinion of the Prius, hybrids and BEVs.
I consider Clarkson more entertainment than useful source of info, but yes.
My current employer got a PIECE OF MY BRAINHOLES about the 1971 Volkswagen 411!!!
NOT AN OUTSTANDING CAR MY SWEET HINDQUARTERS
They did experience the same death wobble at around 50 mph-ish, though, and I need to see if there’s still an old coot around who might’ve fixed it. The guidance was to ask my dealer to install new ball joints, but…uh, does Wester still exist? It’s a bit of a hike to the Monterey Peninsula from here, either way.