Jen Dunnaway, editor of the CarDomain blog writes this week:
“Yesterday in New On The Net, I poked a little fun at TTAC’s whiny diapers, and considering the gentleness of my goading, the results were nothing short of hilarious. Better yet, in the midst of the ensuing brouhaha, TTAC finally got some dealer to take pity on them and hand over the Challenger test car they’d been dreaming of! No need to thank us, guys, just enjoy that car.”
While “gentle goading” seems to be a self-identified strong suit for Ms. Dunnaway, reading is not. Our original story was not whining that a dealer wouldn’t give us a Challenger SRT8 to test drive: it was news that Dodge dealers are probably screwing themselves out of sales by denying actual shoppers a test drive of any Challenger, down to the lowly V6 model. So Ms. Dunnaway was 0 for 1. No big deal, surely she’d get it right on the second try, right? Erm, no. Sajeev drove a friend’s Challenger SRT8 for his review, not a dealership car. Oops, 0 for 2. As it happens, no dealer “took pity” on the fact that TTAC, because our insistence on integrity, is barred from access to Chrysler’s press fleet. Fortunately, Jen needs no pity to drive the Challenger – only a free plane ticket to One Lap of America in South Carolina, and a free hotel stay, free food, and then free time on the racetrack in a new Challenger (with free race gas) and some Dodge engineers. And all she had to do was say that the 4140 lb car “stuck to the track like it was on rails.”
I would bet her web hits are up due to the brouhaha. Look for more mentions of your site in order to increase hits on theirs.
Judging from that site, I’m not sure Jen is worth TTAC’s attention. Unless having beef with CarDomain will up TTAC’s readership. Which is certainly possible given TTAC’s unfair advantage in the substance dept.
To paraphrase the strip Boondocks’ take on the uh, brouhaha between Rappers 50 cent and Game,
TTAC and CarDomain have beef. Someone got a potato stuck up their exhaust pipe.
I read TTAC for car reviews and news about the industry. “News” about “journalists” or journalism (especially automotive journalists and journalism) is less than not interesting. Maybe there should be a second website: thetruthaboutthetruthaboutcars.com TTATTAC where this kind of thing can be posted, and people who are interested in the cars won’t have to sift through it.
Let it go. Cardomain is no competition…
I think there is a French word for articles like these…
I believe it’s pronounced “Pwned!” Or would that be “le Pwned!”
“stuck to the track like it was on rails.”
It’d better be, given that on the pics, it seems as if she’s driving the car with her hands at 11 and 1….
The blogs on cardomain lokk like a bunch of lemmings. I left them a little something to REALLY read. You’re welcome. Rock on, Robert!
So did it?…Did Dodge put down rails on the track to make sure the Dodge stuck to it so that they could claim as such.
4,100 lb cars don’t stick to the road the float over it no matter how wide the tire and how much power is under the hood. We are talking SUVs here with that weight and not the small ones like a CR-V but a Explorer / Trailblazer.
CarBlogDomain has very little insight the several writeups I’ve read there. When MFGRs pay your ticket and coddle you it removes any objective measure and gives the appearance of impropriety that you cannot flush away even if you were just tapping your toes and trying to remove a piece of toilet paper from under your shoe at a MN airport all under the next accompanying stall.
Something about women shutting the hell up when men are talking….
I kid, I kid.
And all she had to do was say that the 4140 lb car “stuck to the track like it was on rails.”
Did Dodge set-up the track with bumpers on the sides like bowling alleys do for a five year olds birthday party?
Ever since this started, I never knew the sight or she existed.
But after the reading, I haven’t even bothered to go seek both out.
I (we) have little time in each day, and seeking out the truth is hard enough without paid mouths feeding information that is not only false, but liable to cause me (and all cars buyers) to do something expensive and regretful.
Shame on her, the sight and anybody else that does this.
Its not about the money, it’s about cars.
Wait, CarDomain has articles? I thought it was just MySpace for people who have both a digital camera and a car.
Guys… Merc has some phenomenal handling cars that weigh more than the Titanic. Take a look at the CLS 63 AMG, for example.
The Dodge Challenger is a descendent of an old Merc. Maybe some of its heritage lives on?
It seems to me that TTAC pretty clearly benefits from the comparison. Unless you go online for “epic fail” pictures of home-made wood bodywork (with a bracing discussion of ethnic stereotypes to follow) anyway. It’s actually something of a service to their readership to expose them to a new perspective on the automotive world.
If any Cardomain loyalists are out there, Jalopnik does better “car-nut goofball” and Autoblog does better (more) “lobotomized press release news” than Cardomain. Y’know, if you’re into that kind of thing. The more blogs the better and all that, but Cardomian’s flavor of mindless bland is why I stopped reading buff books so many years ago.
Actually when she got to drive the car at CMP, they were in between sessions (lunchtime I believe) and the parade laps were nowhere near at full speed. Hence no helmet or other safety gear. Competitors were not allowed to drive the cars on the track as it might give unfair advantage, so it was open to spectators to parade around a bit.
Wait, CarDomain has articles? I thought it was just MySpace for people who have both a digital camera and a car.
LOL, that was my first thought. Apparently a few of those people have word processors too.
Come on, Justin. For heaven’s sake…
As it happens, no dealer “took pity” on the fact that TTAC, because our insistence on integrity, is barred from access to Chrysler’s press fleet.
Just curious what the shady dealings were might have been on Chrysler’s behalf with regard to TTAC’s press fleet access. They provide my organization with access to the fleet, and there is certainly no quid pro quo expectation. Chrysler’s fleet is handled for us the same way everyone else’s is (car delivered clean and with full tank of gas, picked up a week later, then they expect “coverage.”)
Assuming there were some sort of dirty dealings (or offers of such), it would probably be newsworthy.
OK, so she compares the Challenger SRT8 to her ’81 AMC Eagle and says that the car rides as if it’s on rails. What a non-starter. Anything made on this side of the millennium “rides on rails” compared to her Eagle. Is her “review” supposed to be taken seriously?
C’mon, guys. She posted that over a week ago. It’s kinda late to be putting up a response, isn’t it?
I don’t know, I’m strangely attracted to a girl who drives an ’81 Eagle. Quick, someone buy Katie P. an Austin Allegro to even things out!
Just to clarify, the Boxer4Racing team covered Jen’s plane ticket and CarDomain paid for food and lodging. Dodge had nothing to do with it.
@ 66Satellite,
And where was that stated in the blog? And that means Dodge didn’t really give you a test car either… hmm….
Honestly, this is juvenile. This bickering between websites is what will ultimately cause me to drop TTAC from my RSS reader. Who cares what someone on some blog thinks? Ignore that stuff and just do your own thing, you have a fine blog, don’t ruin it with garbage like this.
Again, allow me to reiterate my disdain for these catty little blogsquabbles. This crap is so lame, it makes all of us look like dippy teenagers. Also, are you guys going to try to work us into a high dudgeon every time some 15 year old posts “OMG TTAC is so sucky i cant belive it!” on their MySpace? This stuff is nonsense. You’re better than this.
Those of you who think THIS is petty and juvenile really need to spend some time on the tC boards over at ScionLife.
It’s hard to get worked up over this when I see comments like “no YOUR gay!!!111” on a daily basis.