Jeremy Clarkson Good Car Bad Car - Sunday Times 21/3/04
I am amazed how woefully little knowledge this man has when it comes to 4-wheel vehicles. Could anyone imagine relying on a Range Rover at the Australian outback or does he suggest that the majority of the European armies Cyprus and of Turkey's are employing a bunch of idiots to select the 4-wheel vehicle that will take their men and equipment to the battlefield.
Little knowledge is dangerous and in our case expensive , as exclusion of the Ge from the top list deminishes its value.
Unfortunately the public relies on poeple like J.C. so perhaps a note from the chairman could spell some home truths ?
It's been a long time that I gave up on expecting journalists in this country to stop pretending that the G doesn't exist anymore, but they do and will forever do until you, I and the G all cease to exist. But unfortunately, journalists are extremely lazy so they wouldn't even consider a car that it is not delievered in brand new and recently valeted condition to their front door, fully insured and with a tank-full of fuel so that they can enjoy free luxury motoring for a week and then praise the car in the next issue of their publication.
Naturally all those cars are provided by the manufaturer/importer of the car in question and in the case of our beloved G that is Mercedes-Benz UK which has always sneered at the G because it's not posh enough for them and we all know that the typical MB owner in this country is of the posh type (or at least snob enough to pretend that he is).
In view of the attitude of the Mercedes buyer in the UK, DaimlerChrysler decided a few years back that it was not worth to continue making the G Wagen in RHD for just a handful of units sold in the UK. As a consequence, most journalists wouldn't even consider test driving the G because it's not even available in RHD.
An obvious solution to all this would be that the UK would drive in the same side of the road as the rest of the civilised world. I remember putting the question to my neighbour a few years back, when I had freshly moved to the UK from Spain. He candidly replied:... but of course!, We in the UK would be delighted to drive in the same side of the road as the rest of the world... provided that it is on the LEFT side!
Where does jourmalism end and personal opinions take over.
Have you noticed lately that a commentator does more talking that the person he is interviewing? In the USA the airways are full of these "Know Nothing" Journalists trying to impress their values on the viewing public.
Is there a name for this type of Journalism? I wonder! :(
The exacting journalism of Ernest Hemmingway's day is regretfully a thing of the past. There are very few named journalists that I respect today, and, surprise, surprise, they are mostly old farts who have nothing to prove anymore, given a track record of exacting rapportage.
I suscribe to an agricultural ng, and during the foot and mouth outbreak there was a journalist who wrote for the Sunday Times who was advocating vaccination rather than slaughter in the strongest terms.
He talked about a bolus that could be given to animals that cost 20p per administration. Quite apart from the fact that any sort of vaccination was not the solution to the problem, his 20p oral vaccination was a figment of his imagination.
It took two months to extract a retraction from the Sunday Times, but in the meantime, many people who had been misinformed by the journalist started advocating vaccination.
I won't get drawn into this topic now, as I burned myself out over it at the time, but just give it as an example of slack journalism which is now the norm rather than the exception.
There was a very interesting article in Autocar magazine a couple of weeks ago, following an promotional event set up by MB in Switzerland.
Drivers were given a selection of MB cars (E, SL, C, G, S ...) to test with regards to safety and in this particular case, diriving on snow.
The one which the Autocar correspondant liked the most was the G400 CDI and he called it a 4x4 Reference-Point vehicle, meaning that he thought it was the very best 4x4 available, even comparing it to the M-class.
But, yes, I agree that MB UK (and Daimler-Benz in general) did an atraocious job in placing and promoting the G-Wagen in the UK market. It still is a world-class vehicle, especially with the newer range of engines, but very few people know about it.
Now it will be replaced by a unibody M-lookalike built in the USA. The end-of an era, I'm afraid. Get one while you can!
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