Is Car Lust's Opinion For Sale?
Thanks to all involved for the great conversation in the comments thread of my Car Lust post on the Honda Odyssey--a post that wound up being more about the minivan's place in society than about the Odyssey itself. Thanks also to Instapundit and Fark for directing so much traffic our way; though even with that avalanche of traffic, it's hard to imagine a post about minivans could drive 89 comments.
I wanted to pull some interesting topics out of the comments and into their own post; but I wanted to handle this one separately because it's an important question that strikes to the very heart of whatever small shreds of credibility this blog might have.
Is Car Lust's Opinion For Sale?
Guy Montag wrote:
"So, how much are you paid to write this? It's well written, but it rings of corporate product placement. Phrases like "It comes with a smooth and torquey 244-horsepower VTEC V-6, is as silky smooth to drive..." stick out. Outside of advertisements, people don't tend to write like that. I don't particularly mind advertising, but I appreciate it when it's honest about what it is. Or maybe I'm making a mistake, and you're a well-meaning blogger who loves vehicles and just happens to use a bit more advertising argot than most.
Honesty is the most valuable coin on the internet and product placement and people who shill for companies without being up front about it tend to degrade one's faith in humanity. So when you hear certain phases crop up that sound like PR or Corporate Drone speak, you tend to question the honesty of what you're reading.
And I have to admit, "Car Lust by Amazon" tends to make one wonder. It's not too often that a company attaches their name to someone's personal blog, even if they do work there."
It's a totally fair question, and one I want to respond to. This blog doesn't have a lot going for it--certainly not newsworthiness or expertise--but one thing it does have is lots and lots of baseless and wildly formed opinion. Impugn that, and you impugn the only arguably worthwhile part of this blog!
To take each question on its own:
So, how much are you paid to write this?
Well, I'm an Amazon.com employee, and (happily enough) I draw a salary for my work. But my job actually has nothing to do with blogging, and only tangentially to do with cars. I work on the back-end Year/Make/Model lookup functionality in the Amazon.com Auto Parts & Accessories store. In that role, I'm a data hound, and I make no extra money by doing this blog.
To tackle the larger implication, Amazon doesn't get any sort of promotional consideration from automakers or anybody else for this blog. I don't get test cars; heck, I don't even get any cool car swag. I'd be surprised if any of the automakers even knew that this blog exists. Amazon doesn't even sell cars, so it's not as if I'd have any particular incentive to try to shill a specific car to drive sales. And if I did, this blog as it's constructed would be a spectacularly ineffective way to do so--the vast majority of cars written about here are long out of production.
So, why do I do it? Well, for one thing, in the past I have been an automotive writer by trade and this helps keep my oar in. For another, it's a good excuse to surf the web looking at cool old cars for at least a couple of minutes a day. To be a little more serious, I'm pretty passionate about our Auto Parts store. Anything that might help people start to associate Amazon and cars in the same thought seems pretty worthwhile.
It rings of corporate product placement. Phrases like "It comes with a smooth and torquey 244-horsepower VTEC V-6, is as silky smooth to drive..." stick out.
Well, I wrote that because that's how I feel. I love that Honda V-6--it is smooth and torquey. It doesn't have the sledgehammer power push the Nissan VQ V-6 provides, but it feels a little more sophisticated. And virtually all of Honda's V-6 cars feel remarkably silky when you drive them. The engine, steering, and suspension all feel of a piece; well-engineered, smooth, and, well, silky. It's as true of the Acura MDX as it is of the Honda Accord. This does not apply to the four-cylinder cars, however, most of which feel dramatically lighter and less ingot-like.
I have to admit to being a little nettled by this. Have we as a blogosphere become so cynical that proper, polished language actually works against credibility? I could have paraphrased Darrell Waltrip and said the Odyssey is "all ate up with motor," but that didn't seem quite as accurate. And I'm sure had I said "lol the oddysey moter is teh r0xx0r!!!1!!!111!!" nobody would be calling me a marketing shill.
So, why do I write like that? When other kids read Hardy Boys books, I read car magazines. Other kids grew up idolizing Michael Jordan; I idolized Nigel Roebuck. My vocabulary was shaped by Pat Bedard, Brock Yates, Satch Carlson, and David E. Davis. To this day, I'm sadly ignorant of fine literature, but my most valued possession is my many bookcases full of many years' worth of car magazines. I couldn't write a poem or short story with a gun to my head, so I'm no great shakes as a writer. But when it comes to road tests (and the language of road tests) I'm like Neo in the Matrix--I see the whole world in terms of road test source code.
And I have to admit, "Car Lust by Amazon" tends to make one wonder. It's not too often that a company attaches their name to someone's personal blog.
This is actually part of a big Amazon initiative. Amazon Daily is a repository for a bunch of various Amazon blogs. Car Lust is one of three at this point that also exist outside Amazon; our older, more polished siblings are Omnivoracious for books and Al Dente for culinary curiosities.
--Chris H.
Becky Weber on March 05, 2008 at 09:15 AM
Chris!
This is wonderful because you wrote it. I'm really not a big car fan but as you can tell I am a big fan of you and your family!! Love you tons! Becky
SCOTT H on April 02, 2008 at 12:00 PM
I just discovered your blog and I am loving it! I have been obsessed with cars since childhood. As a kid, my family and friends were in awe when driving on the freeways and streets of Southern California, I could name almost every car we passed, including the year and model. At the ripe old age of 47, I have owned 24 cars/trucks. I am going to submit a story on my 03 Tbird today as I am probably (regrettably) going to trade it this weekend for a new Acura! Keep up the good work!!! BTW, are you hiring? You have my dreamjob!!!!
smitty on April 04, 2009 at 02:54 PM
Oh give me an effing break, this is the LEAST corporate-correct car discussion going! Of all the dumb reactions . . . that was just wierd!!