irish motoring jurno's

peasant

E92 wrote: »

I
Is there anywhere I might possibly be able to see that on the internet?

You'd think it wouldn't be that hard considering TG is the most pirated show in the world apparently.

You do know that linking to copyrighted material is a bannable offence? Please dont' ask others to do so.

mike65

ROFL! If linking youtube is now bannable you better tell the music mods, Anyway I looked an its not there but there is a 6 min review of the previous model by William Wollard which feels like another world.

Mike.

peasant

Did I mention youtube?

There's a whole other world of illegal stuff out there ...

Panda Moanium

Interesting to read the opinions here.

Undoubtedly Irish car reviews tend on the whole to be fairly bland compared to some of the better UK offerings, however I would suggest that anyone here that thinks its as simple as that should try to submit a critical review (or indeed an overtly colour piece in the Clarkson vein) to an Irish magazine or newspaper and see how far you get. Almost certainly no further than the sub-editor's waste paper basket.

The fact of the matter is that virtually every Irish motoring magazine or newspaper supplement exists because of advertising revenue, and the powers that be within these publications are not going to risk that with controversial copy.

Also, perhaps because there has never been a tradition of it here, but most publications are reluctant to use colour pieces that deviate from the standard car review. Try waxing lyrical about taking an M3 for an early morning spin on a Tuscan mountain road, and your copy will probably make it to print edited down to something like 'The BMW handles well on twisty roads". I know....I've tried!

Having said all that, there's no doubt that there are too many Irish motoring hacks putting out unimaginative and regurgitated press releases. For sure there are a number of genuine and knowledgeable petrol heads, but at least as many are in it for the perks. They happily attend events and lap up the freebies but as regards trying to explore the finer handling capabilities of a new car....forget it!.

Just a couple of examples which I've observed....On your typical new car launch, given a choice of a testing mountain road, or a direct route, three quarters of Irish driven cars will probably make a bee-line straight for the hotel. And its always amazing to see how many will opt out of driving on race tracks when the opportunity arises.

mcwhirter

RobAMerc wrote: »

Does anyone else read almost anything written by Irish motoring jurno's and think - Christ thats rubbish.

Compared to the UK guy's from mags particularly I find that most of the Irish ones come across as Jurno's who were told to go write about cars as opposed to petrol heads who are writing about what they love.

is it just me ?

Eddie Cunningham-irish independent:eek:

Is it possible that the reason why the motor journalists are poor here, is because there has never been cars designed and manufactured here and it is therefore not in their blood

RobAMerc

mcwhirter wrote: »

Is it possible that the reason why the motor journalists are poor here, is because there has never been cars designed and manufactured here and it is therefore not in their blood

Ok - I will admit having an indigenous car manufacturer may have an effect on the quantity of motoring nuts in the general public, but there are a good few enthusiasts here in Ireland - did we all come in from another country ?

BTW -Fords were made here at one point remember

pburns

Panda Moanium wrote: »

Having said all that, there's no doubt that there are too many Irish motoring hacks putting out unimaginative and regurgitated press releases. For sure there are a number of genuine and knowledgeable petrol heads, but at least as many are in it for the perks. They happily attend events and lap up the freebies but as regards trying to explore the finer handling capabilities of a new car....forget it!.

Just a couple of examples which I've observed....On your typical new car launch, given a choice of a testing mountain road, or a direct route, three quarters of Irish driven cars will probably make a bee-line straight for the hotel. And its always amazing to see how many will opt out of driving on race tracks when the opportunity arises.

That just pisses me off! I dare say there are a few people on here who would hack off a part of their anatomy for this kind of job...

Regarding current journos, my favorite is probably CAR's Gavin Green. He seems to have a passion for everything from a 2CV to a Ferrari GTO and has the perspective of having worked in the industry for a few years also. He was editor of CAR duriing it's late '80s zenith and is now kinda the elder statesman over there.

At one point in the early 90s CAR had Setright, Phil Llyellen, Russell Bulgin and George Bishop as columnists. Bishop was a WWII vetern who had been at Dunkirk and wrote mostly about the gastronomic delights and gossip of launches. It was actually fascinating! All were completely different and all are now passed away (amazingly), Llyellen and Bulgin before their times.

Richard Porter (Sniff Petrol) is good. He writes for EVO and contributes to a podcast called 'Gareth Jones on Speed' (http://www.garethjones.tv/speedrss.xml). If you can ignore the cringe-worthy impersonations and songs it can be pretty good.

Terrontress

And Rovers too?

Jason Dawe is a successful motoring journalist from Northern Ireland and the only manufacturing that has gone on up there was De Lorean.

piaget

Hi All, I used to work for Car Driver/Drive magazine in the 90's and worked with Karl Tsigdinos and the reason why the editorial was so bad was because it was completely driven by advertising revenue even to the point where if there was'nt enough money in the ad book then the magazine would not be published that month, that's why you had so many bi-monthly issues or issues coming out on the very last day of the month. They were terrified of slating a car in case the distributor turned against them. Editorials were written for car radios, tyres etc mentioning only brands that had advertised that issue, lazy press releases published verbatim to fill out pages. The idea of long term tests (Rover 214, Subaru Legacy) was used so the missus could have a free car. Even FSO's, Lada would be given the thumbs up if they took out an ad. It was an embarrasment even comparing it side by side with the english mags and they even justified it by saying they used better quality paper.
Car Buyers Guide is probably the only semi-decent irish mag around and a long way behind the UK.

mike65

Thaks for the insight and confirmation of all that was suspected. Magazine publishing is expensive, the market is tiny and the advertising clients rule the roost.

It should be noted a negative review has damn all impact on sales, as Clarkson proved for years (and which he noted himself).

Mike.

L-M

How about we export to England lol

Darsad

All Irish Motoring corrospondents are NUJ card holders and it is a perk of the job or paper they write for so none of them would know a laughing shaft from a giggling pin. They collect the cars from distributors with a full tank and its not uncommon for them to present bills for fuel if the tank didnt quite get them through the week. In my opinion they are second only to restaurant critics.

cyclopath2001

mcwhirter wrote: »

Is it possible that the reason why the motor journalists are poor here, is because there has never been cars designed and manufactured here and it is therefore not in their blood

Except, maybe this one, I remember reading about it in the papers long before we had the InterWeb



From Wikipedia

The Shamrock was a car produced in Ireland for a brief period during the 1950's.

The business was established by an American businessman, William K Curtis in Tralee, Co. Kerry, but was moved to Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan, before production began. The aim was to produce a large luxury car model for export to the US market.

Seth Brundle

I think one point regarding Irish motoring articles is that thy are often written about cars that have been on sale for some time or that have received abundant coverage by the UK mags and also on the internet.
It indicates that they are written for those not interested in motors. My wife gets the AA mag and its the biggest piece of crap but thankfully its not why she is a member. Ignoring the obvious AA advertising etc. the car reviews are for cars that have been on the roads for months. Whats the point? 'er indoors doesn't read them (too busy cooking and cleaning) and I couldn't be arsed reading an article about the 'latest' Corsa which I have seen every day for ages!

Oilrig

Guys, Panda has it in one.

piaget, we must have met... I used to deal with Karl (nice guy) and Colm in the nineties, would have been a regular visitor...

Advertising revenue rules...

unkel

E92 wrote: »

Karl Tsigdinos was a legend of a man

E92 wrote: »

He actually was a very good journalist

E92 wrote: »

he was a true petrolhead and knew cars inside out

That's some admiration there :eek:

Maybe me memory is failing me in my old age, but he just used to annoy me. Can't remember why

Terrontress wrote: »

Jason Dawe is a successful motoring journalist from Northern Ireland

Didn't know he was from the North. I like him. WYSIWYG

Seth Brundle

unkel wrote: »

That's some admiration there :eek:

Maybe me memory is failing me in my old age, but he just used to annoy me. Can't remember why

I thought I was in a silent minority here - I never warmed to him at all.