Do You Think The Major Car Magazine Reviews Are "Anti-smart"?

[RussBarnes]

One other thing to consider. I spent over 30 years in the boating industry. The majority of the magazines that covered and reviewed products either only reviewed products that advertized with the mag. or only the advertizers received glowing reviews. Perhaps this was a discussion in a staff meeting: "Here comes smart, it doesn't advertize, it doesn't play our game, it obviously isn't supporting us - zing it!"

[MercuryX100]

I have subscribed to Road & Track, Car and Driver, Motor Trend, Automobile, Car, Autoweek and others for decades. I am amazed how they can decry the lack of originality and banality of the "average" car, that many have called for more efficient and smaller vehicles for years, and all have spent significant time overseas driving cars never seen here.
Then the USA actually gets an interesting car that car enthusiasts may love (it's not all about acceleration and going around corners fast) - and the smart is too small, too slow, not good enough fuel economy, ugly, whatever.
It isn't hard to see why vehicles are becoming more and more alike and, well, boring in the process.

[MinnySmart]

Originally Posted by BandSofC

If you use a checklist to compare automobiles the smart would not do well. There are few quantitative virtues of the smart that beat other cars on the market. There are other appealing aspects of the smart which are less measurable. We value these aspects, but analytical comparisons will not extol these areas.

Perfectly said. I have the analytical mind of an engineer which tells me this is not the best car for the money. It's good, just not best. Then there's the car loving side of me that likes new and different. This is why I've struggled so much with this decision. However, as the car gets closer and closer to my dealership in Bloomington I get closer and closer to saying "Write it up!"

[Arizona Smarty]

We took our Smarts to a show on Saturday. The Ferrari owner commented on how we got more attention than the Vipers, Prowlers and Vettes. People loved it and asked lots of questions including "where can I buy one". Those magazines need to get out and see what people really think.

[BandSofC]

The bulk of the reviews are meant to be objective, not subjective. The smart does not measure up under that limitation.

[Carnut]

Perception IS reality. The relatively few smartophiles that inhabit this forum are no match for the general car buying public.

The Canadian purists just love their 45hp diesels, but the car never "caught" on with the general public.

As I stated before the car has a limited niche, and the business model will work due to low marketing/floor planning/inventory costs. Expect parts and service to be truly Mercedes in nature.

Owners just loved their Skodas, Yugos, DKWs, DeLoreons, Bricklins, etc. when they were new.

[andywert]

Regarding smart acceptance my wife and I have grouped folks (friends, family, etc.) into 2 categories: (1) those that "get it" ** maybe folks on the fringe with previous experience with unusual cars; and (2) those who "don't get it" ** folks who value above almost all else the objective value-for-the-money, quality and reliability of their Toyota.*

The vast majority of the car buying public is well served by the reviews in the major magazines because they are in category 2, and the very shortcomings that those publications have highlighted (and have been observed here on the forum) would be deal breakers for those used to a longer-lower-wider-imperceptible-shifting-high-power vehicle.

Let them get their Camry or Lexus and leave the smart for me.

* not that there is anything wrong with a Toyota

[SmartAzz]

Originally Posted by BandSofC

The bulk of the reviews are meant to be objective, not subjective. The smart does not measure up under that limitation.

It is really the reviewers that don't measure up, they are ever so humanly biased by their own point of view, past experiences, information they already gather beforehand, and then finally limited by the limited time with a new car and their own ability to try doing things in a new way if it calls for it. To me it is clear that no matter how professional they think they are, generally speaking, reviewers, like anyone else, have a comfort zone and judge anything with prejudice that falls out of that - in this case the transmission is different and has a learning curve (the driver needs to adapt as does the software) yet many just write it off because it is not what they are used to and it requires a change in their behavior to operate at its best. Judging luxury or speed is easy, adjusting for nuances and a new way of doing something second nature like driving is another type of challenge.

The same preconceptions go along with any car and to me biases come out in reviews as a result all of the time. Perhaps if they went in not knowing any specs, zero to sixty, mpgs, etc, even brand, and could actually commit to living with and learning to get accustomed to/optimize the vehicle to form an opinion that could apply to rear world ownership their judgements might have more merit. Bias, expectation and preconceptions are powerful - tell someone you are going to feed him crab ice cream and you can be certain they will be judging it differently then a blind taste, or have a different reaction then if you told them it was chocolate.

Some reviewers are not even good at what purport to do, really assess cars. You can often see just how hard they are trying to be clever or cool, sometimes transparently biased as revealed by their language. The review ends up really just being about the writer not the car in any way that can honestly aid a potential buyer in a useful way.

The Smart asks a lot of a reviewer, the specs are like nothing else on the road here and it falls far out of their comfort zone in appearance, size, materials, as well as use - learning a new way of driving and not having any other car for sale you can legitimately compare it to is a challenge that apparently defeats most. Luckily there are actual consumers that are more flexible and open enough to recognize what the Smart has to offer, bought them and now know how enjoyable the car it is

[MinnySmart]

I can't wait to see who is first to get a smart for a 1 year test... If anyone will do it at all... But I think someone will.

[BandSofC]

Smartazz,

I agree with most of what you say. The reviewers ARE human - just as we are, and come into the review process with pre-judgments (prejudices) just as we do. We want to love our smarts, they wanted to test drive a Ferrari.

The reviewers fall back on the quantitative merits of the cars. They purposely word their reviews to show their biases, and sometimes come to conclusions that they are surprised by.

The smart is a hard car to love if you start with a negative attitude, and it does little during a test to sway the preconceptions. Unfortunately the short evaluation time is the standard for car reviews. Nothing the smart can do is impressive enough to turn the tide of a negative review. Small is about the only measurable attribute it has going for it. And that only goes so far to an automobile enthusiast.

Also - I would wager a bet that the transmission computer does not "learn" and adapt to an individual's driving style. Have you read that somewhere?