Savagegeese.

His longer works are fantastic (LFA, Miata, LC500), and his cinematography is excellent (no smartphone vids here)

He pairs well with Jack.

I deliberately ignore all the ones that clickbait. Not gonna give them clicks.

Consumer Reports car talk is entertaining because they spend time discussing stuff as a group, although focusing on a HUD for 25% of a show that they don't understand well anyway was stupid (then again, savagegeese hated the pretty interesting and useful electronic doors of some new Lexus)

 

These electronic doors?



I'm a big fan of SG as well, and not sure he's wrong on this one....

 

awww...no, sorry, i meant "door handles"

Some Lexus models have electronic inside door handles that you just push to open instead of grabbing and pulling and then pushing (although you can also do that as an emergency measure). For some reason he kept griping about them, even though just pushing something is actually faster, easier and saves you energy.

It does confuse people who first use it though, but I think it's a good idea.

Saying that, I do agree with him many times.

For example, he does not like putting every control into big touchscreens, which seems to happen a lot in some cars. I agree completely. Not only does it make the car inside look like spartan crap, but it's a huge safety issue.

 

Yeah that was the issue there. Electronic door handles weren't working, and the emergency manual pulls weren't obvious enough for either the driver inside or the fire fighters outside. So they cut the window out to extract the driver.

 

Ah ok. I think such handles on the outside are relatively stupid. As an owner though, the guy should have known how to handle himself in an emergency.

The Lexus interior handles look like flushed normal handles. Here's the one in the RX 450h+...you can push the handle on the right to electronically open it, OR slip your finger into the space to the right and pull.

 

Thats the problem when things are poorly designed, people have to get used to them or learn how to use them properly instead of them just being operated the way a user would naturally go to use them…like a door handle.

 

Yes.....Alex is about as good as vehicle-reviews get.


I never did YouTube reviews. I did a lot of reviews and write-ups over the years both on the Car Chat Forum and a few other forums, sometimes by member-request, and for friends and colleagues who were interested in vehicles.

And it is mmarshall, not mmarshal.

 

Mike, I really did enjoy those retro reviews you did when everything was shut down.

As far as my own interest in auto reviewers, I still think Savagegeese and Throttle House are the best but I've noticed I don't care as much anymore. I think I have major "auto review fatigue" lol.

 

Thanks. I respect your views on Savage and Throttle House.

Perhaps the friendliest and most Down-to-Earth reviewer I ever saw was Motorweek's John Davis...out of Owings Mills, MD. I used to see him regularly at the D.C. Auto Show and talk with him....a really nice guy. Unfortunately, while he himself was very competent, the show's tight schedule never gave him enough time to really do a thorough review...only about 5 to 7 minutes on average. Because the show was only a half hour and they often had to fit in more than one review, Pat Goss with Repair/Maintenance, Lisa Barrow with Automotive News, and other features.

(Pat Goss, BTW, passed away a couple of years ago.....may he Rest in Peace. It was very sudden, with no warning)

 

I LOVED watching Motorweek as a kid. From what I remember it came on Saturday mornings around 10am or so.

Back in the 90's it was Motorweek and a copy of Car & Driver at my friends house.

 

My issue with John Davis and Motorweek is they always love everything. There is rarely any criticism in any of their reviews.

 

Motorweek notes criticism when they feel it is due. They just don't make a big deal of it, and shout and rant and wave their arms, like Scotty Kilmer does. And, like I said earlier, the brief length of the Motorweek TV reviews doesn't let them really go into much detail.

Personally, I always thought that John Davis should have his own show to himself (or perhaps a call-in show for questions like Pat Goss had for years)...but, of course, things didn't work out that way.

 

Yeah, if you listen carefully if they don't like something or think something can be improved, they mention it. As you said it's low key which is refreshing these days.

 

I've been watching MotorWeek for my entire life, and I rarely hear them have any negatives about a car. They actually used to point things out more than they do today