I just spent three hours deducing that a car completely covered in loose fitting vinyl was in fact a Suzuki Kizashi and not a Volkswagen Jetta. Or refreshed Subaru WRX. And we auto scribes do not get paid by the hour. OK, some of us do, but three hours is an insanely long time. Especially if no one cares. You there, sir, do you care about a Suzuki Kizashi? What if I told you it was a 300 hp, AWD Camry competitor? Still not interested in looking at photos of it all wrapped up in line-blurring leather? I'm not shocked. However, I am shocked at the news from last week that a French journalist was hauled off to jail for industrial espionage because he got a hold of photographs of the new Renault Megane. How nutso is that? I say pretty nutso. But I'm being serious — do you really care about spy shots? And if so, why? Or why not?
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I like them–it kinda makes me feel like we’re beating the auto makers at their secrecy game.
John
Not really – seems every day there’s some spy shots of something or other. Now if they were of Jessica Alba sun bathing nude – that’s a different story.
Spy shots are not important. I don’t care _too_ much about how a car looks unless it looks completely ridiculous.
I’m not shocked about the French journalist, because I’m aware that in France, journalists and photographers have fewer rights than they do here, but I agree with you, it’s nuts. (In France, you can’t photograph someone in a public place without permission. Here, you absolutely can; in fact, you can photograph them FROM a public place, even if they are in their house.) But I find it hard to get excited over a Suzuki, and I’m not exactly holding my breathe for the spy shots–because I know I’ll see the new machinery when it comes out, and frankly, most of it isn’t very exciting or different as far as looks. Now, in the early ’60s, I felt very differently. And it wasn’t just because I was ~10.
Heck yeah…especially if we can deduce that the car underneath all the camouflage is one that was highly anticipated.
I mean look at the upcoming Camaro and just released Dodge Challenger for reference.
Not really…if manufacturers were really concerned with secrecy, there are a lot of places in the world they could go. The whole thing just seems sort of like a big circular joke (“Hey, don’t take pictures of this secret car! Get away! You can’t shoot pictures of our new sub-$20k 300hp RWD midsize sedan, that’s against the rules! Available October 1st!”)
Almost all spy shots are useless. They rarely show anything about the car except that it’s currently being tested on the roads. There’s also too much camo to reveal the general theme of a car. Spy videos can be cool, since you can hear the engine (Pagani and Lexus got caught on great videos lately). Otherwise, I’ll stick to auto shows. Concepts and production car releases are a lot better than blurry photos of covered up engineering prototypes.
Basically, does anyone even care about the Panamera anymore? Spy shots killed that car.
Just one big yawn! I’m happy to wait for the object naked.
We are constantly deluged with spy shots, spy videos, spy information.
Prior to the official release there is the official spy release….its all a game with spy photographers and cooperating manufaturers to disseminate information on a spy basis.
Unless you can actually discern something from the shot, or it accompanies news (as in something actually new) on the upcoming vehicle, then no, I don’t care.
Yes, the spy shots are part of the lead up to the launch.
No, I don’t care about spy shots. I’m happy to wait till they want to show me what the car looks like.
In some instances they’re actively detrimental, like when a car looks better with the body masked than when the actual style is revealed. Or, when you hope that the body is masked in the spy shot and it’s not. (original Honda Element spy shots come to mind.)
I’m iffy on this one. I think spy shots for the Genesis coupe were VERY interesting, because my fiance and I LOVED the orange concept car. We were a little disappointed with the production model, but will still give it a test drive.
…But, I could give a care less for spy shots on the Honda Ridgeline update, Chevy Cruze/Cobalt/Cavalier Part 3, and any SUV.
Not far from where I live, just about all the companies that sell cars in North America and many vendors do real world testing for radio frequency interference, so seeing camo’d cars around here is not uncommon.
There are a bunch of broadcast towers within a mile or so and they often end up on a side street next to the shortest tower. Sometimes they’ll swap out radio units or other electronic components from the trunk or a chase vehicle. Once, while Denso was testing something on the now current STS (they were almost all Asians and I saw at least one Denso name tag), something failed and they had to call for a flatbed. I got a great series of shots of one of them trying to put his hand up in front of my camera as they tried to get a car cover on it while they waited for the truck. I don’t know why they covered it since it was pretty camo’d out.
Sometimes, I’ll just tap on a window while they’re sitting there and ask, “testing for RFI?”. The Volvo guys completely freaked out like I discovered some kind of secret. Chrysler engineers have been the friendliest.
Spy shots are the auto industry’s equivalent of Paris and friends getting out of a car legs akimbo after “accidentally” forgetting their underwear.
It’s all P.R. at this point — they only show you what they want you to see.
Prior to the official release there is the official spy release
The 2010 Mustang showed up at Road America and Ford released photos of it… in camo? Why? Are Ford ready to to show it off or not?
No.
depends on what they’re shootin’
I’m interested because I like websites that update every 5 minutes with something new to read.
But if it takes 3 hours to identify a car, I don’t think it’s worth it from your point of view. And we’re not that desperate… you can always write up some drivel in that 3 hours that’ll keep us even more entertained, anyway. At some point some Suzuki fan site will post the information, and then you can post it. (I really liked the Kizashi concept, so I’m interested this time.)
My stable consists of 3 20 yr old cars. What was your question?
I second Jaje’s motion.
I find them interesting but I think that most people (borderline motorherads included) don’t really pay attention. Not sure why I do, but there is something addictive about knowing what is happening next…
Only for exotics or special models.
But I can definitely live happily never seeing another Mustang Limited Edition variation or Veyron paint-scheme-o’the-day photo leak.
Only if they are real spy shots and not some second rate Photoshop hack or rendering.
I Have always liked them, being brought up on spy photos from the notorious Hans G Lehman. It is actually quite interesting to see a design years ahead of its launch. Gets you some time to get used to the design. Also, the wtf-factor has to be taken into consideration. Like “WTF were they thinking of?” Like recent spy photos of the up-comming Porsche Panamera. It doesn’t look good even as a prototype. I have a bad feeling about this…
Spy shots of cars? Not really. As mentioned by others, certain spy shots would interest me, but not cars.
My first reaction was “no, I don’t care”, but then I got honest with myself, and realized that I do care, esp. as I plan my future vehicle(s).
I remember loving my ’04 TSX, and as the lease-end approached, I was searching high and low, near and far for any inkling of what the next TSX would look like.
Initial spy shots of said 2nd-gen TSX were a bit worrying, even considering the messy camouflage used by automakers. I wasn’t holding my breath, and started evaluating other backup alternatives.
Needless to say, when the new TSX did show up, not only did the spy shots do their job to let me know not to wait around for it, but, I think — for the first time — the messed up, vinyl-wrapped prototypes may have looked better than the eventual production car.
[Segue] Good *god* the new TSX is ugly. It didn’t just get beaten with the ugly stick, it had that stick shoved right up its A…cura.
But I’m being serious — do you really care about spy shots? And if so, why? Or why not?
No. Not at all. I could care less about “Spy Shots”.
I see them for what they are: part of the PR machine used to stir up interest on upcoming models. How come you never see “spy shots” of minivans or rental-fleet quality sedans? Because there is no need to stir up the audience beforehand. Spy shots to the auto industry are a form of FUD. To scare the competition, or to prevent buyers of the competition’s product to pause and wonder if they should wait. I refuse to participate in this practice, so I don’t even bother looking at “spy shots.”
I also find the little “cult of personality” that surrounds some of the photographers really bizarre.
Finally, please don’t even think about turning TTAC into Yet Another Spy Shot Site. =P
–chuck
complete waste of time; you can’t see enough detail to make any conclusions so why bother. same goes for the photoshopped creations that represent what somebody thinks a new generation will look like. just idle blather. i don’t pay any attention until good car show photos accurately depict where the manufacturer is going.
Spy shots? Concept cars?
…yawn…huh?…zzzzzzzz
Hmm: next year’s ordinary, everyday cars wrapped in car-sized vinyl hernia trusses? Reasonable minds may differ, but I couldn’t care less about whether next year’s Focus has Porsche-esque hips, or Mustang-y eyebrows, or a Nitro chin, or whatever.
I’m sometimes more curious about the future shapes of true supercars, however. I’m also a little more interested in hard specs and stats about upcoming cars, but these tend to be complete fiction anyway.
They’re like an Elvis sighting. They can create a small buzz, but you know not to trust them. Or care.
Ohmanohman.
I like the shots of the psychedelic BMW camouflage, especially when they used it on the 7er. It reminded me of John Lennon’s Rolls-Royce.
no, I don’t care about spy shots of anything less significant than a car that could single handedly rescue one of the 2.8 from bankruptcy.
In other words don’t bother unless it’s better than a once in a decade kind of vehicle.
It’s a lot like certain video’s from Japan. If it’s all blurred out, I don’t want to see it(what’s the point?).
If the car is wrapped in a giant car bra, I’ll pass.
I only like to see non wrapped spy shots.
Spy shots of cars that are coming are great. I don’t care about concepts because it’s a waste of time since manufacturers could care less to bring it to market.
No, I couldn’t care less and have never understood the whole spy shot thing. If you have a clean, clear shot of an as-yet-unseen ready for production model, then its something worth seeing. Usually though its a grainy image of what may or may not be the final production version of a car that may or may not be built, covered in what appears to be trash bags, duct tape, and spray paint. Awesome, now show me some pictures of big foot.
Yeah. I like the NSX info and GTR and just knowing something is in the works.
I love it… it is great fun trying to figure out what is going on beneath the disguise!
Mostly spy shots are boring to me. I spent way too much time on those Honda-Prius pics, and I’ll never get that time back as long as I live…
I have never understood the fascination with spy shots and speculation about what the next XYZ might look like. For me they are the automotive equivalent of paparazzi stalker photos in those horrible celebrity magazines. Who really cares?
Not at all, and Im big into car styling. The spy shots tell you less than nothing and are usually accompanied by a ‘story’ that is full of speculation: ‘this car will have 90+ horsepower and will likely have 4 wheels.’
Tho what is even worse IMHO is ‘photochopping’. When you pass off a photoshopped pic as a real photo without indicating it you are journalistically lying.
I don’t mind spy shots personally…..gives me a rough idea of a model that I might be interested in whether it be a current model mid cycle ‘refresh’ or a glimpse to what the redesigned model will look like (AKA do I buy the current one or wait for the all new model).
not really. they’re a nice distraction if there is nothing else worth reading, but for that exciting sneak preview of your every day boring “crossover” wrapped up in mysterious black clothing– hey, that’s what autoblog is for!
no.
Bottom line:
no