One of the most amazing elements of TTAC is the utter consistency in the popularity of certain car reviews. While many other enthusiast outlets tout the latest and greatest hypercars and plutocrat barges, the B&B are consistent in their love of transportation for the common man and woman. This year was no different.
After parsing through our own analytics, we came up with a list of the 10 most popular car reviews we conducted in 2014. Here they are, in order of popularity.
- 2014 Chevrolet Captiva
- Elio Motors P4 Prototype
- 2015 Volkswagen GTI
- 2015 Honda Fit
- 2014 Ford Focus ST
- 2014 Jeep Cherokee
- 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid
- 2015 Volvo V60
- 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
- 2014 Toyota Highlander
None of these cars, save for the Hellcat, breaches the $50k mark. All are fairly modest vehicles that the average person could realistically hope to afford in their lifetime (yes, even a Hellcat, with some scrimping and saving and raiding for a 401k plan). Our most popular reader review wasn’t a 997 GT3 or an Alfa 4C or a Chevrolet SS, but a stick shift Mazda6.
Because these are the cars that we drive or are looking to buy. Say what you want about the B&B we’re realistic in what we buy and drive, even fantasize about and we’re honest about our choices and recognize the real world compromises we have to make when selecting our vehicles
Here’s where I point out that 8 of 10 reviews on this list are written by people who don’t work here no more.
here’s where I say: only loss is Baruth. F Dykes. Alex was a windbag on youtube (his articles were thorough but full of BS positivity). He can keep his hits exclusivity and stop double dipping his profits from TTAC and youtube ads. Thats likely what happened, Verticalscope told him to slow his roll on his contract.
If all new cars are great, work at a dealership and push used PT Cruisers onto people.
Preach it, Tres.
I agree with all you said 100%.
Whenever I pointed out Alex’s nearly uniformly, consistently, syrupy positive reviews of nearly every vehicle he tested (grading on a B+ curve, as I’ve referred to it as, or him not meeting a vehicle he didn’t grade as at least good), I got nothing but sh!t from most of the B&B.
I’d love to read Alex’s review of a Toyota Yaris just for sh!ts & giggles.
At least Dykes didn’t like the ATS guages:
“Caddy’s highs include perfect dashboard stitching, comfortable seats and an excellent tiller. Sadly the gauge cluster didn’t get the memo. Instead of the SRX’s funky new three circle gauge cluster, buyers get the frumpy base gauges from the ‘this is your Grandfather’s Cadillac’ XTS.”
Your review would have included, “F this Pontiac Bonneville guage cluster from 1996, on a $50K! Caddy in 2014, right in the A.”
I would love to see a DW review.
There really are no truly BAD new cars, just new cars that are not to ones own taste. Even the old Chrysler 200 is not a bad set of wheels if you just need to get from point A to point B, assume the discount is epic enough. The Camry, a car I absolutely utterly despise beyond all rationality, is still a great car for anyone who cares nothing at all about cars. And/or is lacking the will to live. So I have nothing bad to say about Alex’s positive style.
I agree to an extent. I think most new cars when viewed in a vacuum, are pretty decent. It is only with comparisons that you can really pan a car for its flaws. Car A, while totally adequate and seemingly reasonably priced, is utter $hit when driven back to back with car B which can be had for the same money, etc. I really do prefer comparison reviews, they add a lot of needed context. Point out flaws and dispel hype.
I do truly believe there really is no such thing as a terrible car anymore. However, if the bar on cars themselves has been raised, then the bar on reviews must also be raised. If the only difference between great car A and not-so-great car B is nitpicks, then reviews must pick the nits. This is how the industry improves.
There are so many automotive reviewers, it’s hard to stand out. Therefore, there’s a ripe market for a snob, preferably one who owns a Rolls Royce or Bentley, rip apart plebeian luxury cars.
“The back of this seat is vinyl, not leather. And why is this supposedly air cooled seat not connected to the air conditioning ducts and its dehumidified air? Oh the humanity!”
There are bad cars. The Fiat 500. The first 90 days of the MkZ. Anything with the Ford 1.6L Ecoboost. The Malibu. Nissan Versa. Toyota Yaris. Honda Civic. Captiva.
When you look at what you get for the money, a new car is a hard sell. When you take 20% depreciation on the above piles of junk or experience NVH dynamics from the mid nineties, it isn’t worth the entry cost. It’s all perspective and when the market is as competitive and diverse as it currently is, a super positive reviewer who is paid to help navigate you is useless. I wonder if I have contributed more as a commenter than he has in terms of educating the buyer.
His in depth feature review was refreshing. If he only had a back bone…
“only loss is Baruth”
So I had hoped but he keeps coming back. However I once had a carpeted basement with a tricky leak so I know all about that. You can shampoo till you’re blue in the face….
Sorry, bro. We Baruths are hard to kill.
Heh… Fit way above Hellcat. I love TTAC!
Patting myself on the back for my Mazda6 review. A lot of the comments were off topic….but I’ll take it :)
Personally, I am usually only interested in cars that I could actually own/afford, so I like the focus on volume vehicles rather than supercars.
Its still 2014, you could post my reader ride review of my 2014 Enclave that seems to have made its way to the circular file. My time writing it was obviously well spent :( I suppose its the cross I bear for TTAC.
+1 I’d enjoy your review on the Enclave
Me too. I’m considering (though I think it is too big) its sister car the Acadia (since I have a Y chromosome and I am not yet 85). A nice 4Runner Limited review would be helpful as well.
What? No Panther love? Y U DIS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME?
My review of the VAZ Lada 2103 is not in the top ten. I has disappoint.
I enjoyed the hell out of that review, but the car was so far out of my realm of experience that I didn’t have anything useful to say in the comments section.
Thanks!
Well, I think the Captiva review was number one not from interest, but from a chorus of the B&B who have had to suffer through having one as a rental.
YECK!
Alright I’ll say it: I think the Captiva got a raw deal. I’ve rented several in aught fourteen, and all have been an absolute pleasure to drive. They provide great visibility, good storage, good features, and acceptable performance.
Further, despite everything I know and have learned, I think I might want one. Maybe it’s the echo of the Saturn brand, and all of its original ‘Aww shucks’-‘We’re a different kind of car company’- Jim Gaffigan as the hippie every man – COMPLETE lack of pretension that draws me into craning my neck around the CarMax corner for one.
They have the best looking wheels of any fleet queen out there. Not the ones in the picture the polished alloys
I suspect much of the popularity was due to piling on the hate, like I did with the Elio review. That thing won’t succeed.
But seriously, I truly appreciate the bias here toward reviewing mostly ‘regular’ cars, with a touch of the exotic.
Road and Track’s home page has EIGHT references to “Porsche” right now (sorry Jack), FOUR for Jaguar, and so on. They’ve never really been for the everyman.
Any chance of a follow up on the accord hybrid? I would love to hear more driver impressions and feel reporting. Alex had his fans, I was always left wondering why a week with a car resulted in so much listing if information I could find at the mfg website. You know, just in case u can manage to forget the whole AWD fake out thing and consider a Honda.
This is a everymans car guy site. I am sure that if you did 50 reviews of Ferrari’s and Camry’s none would break the top ten. But review the slightly different, cars that offer a deal or good value and we are all over it. If on the other hand you are convinced you are holding the jackpot lottery ticket you are best off reading R&T.
I just don’t give a crap about supercars. I’m never going to be able to afford one, I don’t think I’d enjoy driving one outside of a track, and even if I magically got one I have no where to park it. I gave up on Top Gear because it was a weird fantasy show about things no one will ever afford while being patronized by Clarkson and his often incorrect assumptions.
This is fun. Crappy and cheap cars are fun. Now only if video game designers would get that when choosing car lists… though I guess Gran Turismo sort of does.
Individual personalities aside, TTAC offers some of the most “real” car reviews anywhere.
That said, as with most car publications there’s a wide gap between TTAC’s new-car reviews and its shadetree mechanic/junkyard stuff. What about the middle ground; reviews of what makes a good late-model used car for average people?
When I recently searched for a late-model premium car, most reviews criticized the Hyundai Genesis, Chrysler 300C and Volvo S80 as being inferior to Audi/BMW in terms of performance, or Lexus/Acura for reliability. It took a lot of reading between the lines to conclude that these three models are actually some of the better “depreciation queens”, which is what buying used is all about.
Given the popularity of CPO cars these days, you’d think more reviews would be written from this perspective.