I guess many of you already know this but it seems as though the author of the d a l guide hates cars full stop. 99% of the cars reviewed in his book get a hands down fail with heaps of melodramatic BS on what can go wrong. Who does that guy think he is!
I have owned 5 of the cars he says to run from and they have been fine with zero problems (regularly maintained).
Who is this guy! He gave one of NZ's best selling cars (suzuki swift) the old thumbs down for what seemed to be ultra pedantic reasons. All he is doing is making people fearful of decent cars. NOT HAPPY
As you were
jmma,
Oct 17, 11:48pm
Try a Corolla (o:
bryshaw,
Oct 17, 11:52pm
Can you still buy the book!
freedomaira320,
Oct 17, 11:52pm
It's a bit like those hotel reviews you read before you go on holiday. Because people only like to complain, that's all you read, and if you paid them too much attention you'd never go on holiday.
CMW's book is prone to over-generalization and sensationalism, and that's the reason the book sells so well. It makes it entertaining. While all his comments are based on facts, they are presented in a very black and white way. So if Brand A has a certain type of problem 4% of the time and Brand B has the same problem 3% of the time he will demonize Brand A and hold the other one up and as far superior design because it is effectively 25% better. But he doesn't mention the fact that the chances of that problem happening are statistically small in either brand. That would make a boring book.
But I keep my strongest criticism for the layout of the book. Messy, ugly, derivative, jumbled and appears to not have been looked at by a designer. In a word, unreliable. Like most of his car reviews.
msj23,
Oct 17, 11:53pm
Think you can. Omfg why would the cynical author even bother! He seems to hate life and cars most of all
msj23,
Oct 17, 11:54pm
Totally agree. Its like he ate a bowl of alphabet soup and sh*t the book out one day. Its so jumbled and ad hoc
tlharrex,
Oct 17, 11:57pm
Totally agree. The guy only seems to like the drab overpriced junk Toyota markets so well. It is however a good read in places, take it with a grain of salt!
bryshaw,
Oct 18, 12:07am
The free part of his website and advice on vehicles seems a bit more toned down though.
kazbanz,
Oct 18, 12:10am
The dog and lemon guide is a fantastic way to sell the dog and lemon guide. other than that its useless. Actually could someone maybee create a book about bad quality books !
djrandomguy,
Oct 18, 12:28am
rated the peugeot 205 [entire range] as being no better than a starlet, this being one of the most iconic hatches ever [in GTi form]. never mind the fact that it looked better, handled better, carried more & never rusted. the guy who writes this book is about as qualified as a turnip to recommend a car to anyone.
If you know very little about the range of vehicles you are trying to write a guide for the easy option is just to bag them all. I really wish the AA, Consumer or some such organisation would expose him.
What he is doing is profiteering off people who don't know any better and likely costing them thousands of dollars in the process. I rate him along with Ken Ring, Psychics and other nonsense peddlers.
beno,
Oct 18, 2:26am
you have all clearly missed the point. If the book were to say that a specific car was fantastic then owners of unreliable models would be outraged by the lies and threaten lawsuits. the dog and lemon would fail. However, the book does advise of factory recalls and other bad stuff,so this gives the reader a introspective angle on any car. lucky i didnt buy a rover freelander, check out the blurb on that one .
sparkles_bc,
Oct 18, 2:47am
I don't pay attention to the overall 'rating' of the cars but it is good to see the common faults to look out for with certain models
tgray,
Oct 18, 3:03am
A book like this would have worked great 30 years ago, when they actually built bad cars. Here we are however in the 21st century, and still the only cars he likes are the starlet and corolla. Interesting to read what he thinks of ALL Euro cars - worth it for the chuckle.
gunhand,
Oct 18, 5:10am
Sounds just motoring message board. If you ask about a car you get a huge list of reasons not to buy it. You know, its auto, its gutless, its a (name your brand) its tiptronic, its cvt, it dosnt have 50 air bags, its not as good as xyz model, its not fuel effecient, its to small, it dosnt handle, this will deffinatly break, that might break, its to costly to repair, you cant get parts, parts are to dear and so and so on. I dont think theres a car that anyone thinks is good, or wold admit to being good. So maybe hes just been reading the board lol.
stevo2,
Oct 18, 5:16am
Agreed there Gunhand
cowboy110,
Oct 18, 6:03am
That's almost spot on.I've been hunting for a car for the wife for the last month or so.1998 +, up to $6000.Had heaps of them on the watchlist and picking thru them.I put each of them into the keyword thingy on the left here and all I got was ,That car is a heap of crap cos I owned one and .went wrong with it. Or if you buy one of those you're an idiot cos this is what will go wrong with it"Gave up relying on the Motoring MB "experts" and found her a nice tidy little year 2000 1800cc ******** for 3 grand and she's happy with it.
socram,
Oct 18, 6:24am
And we have bought three and loved them to bits. Number 1 was 2nd hand, numbers 2 & 3 brand new. Fantastic in all respects and 100% reliable - but he says steer clear as they are all rubbish,
His continual bagging of just about every car, reminds me of the Catholic Priest who used to visit our UK prison.We'd get yobbo's returning to the remand prison.We'd recover their old prison record. On checking the RC priest's comments, it would say "He'll be back", We thought he was pretty good - until I instituted a random check on all records of Catholic ex-prisoners. Sure enough, he'd written the exact same note in every single record, so he was always right on those who returned. Bag the Freeelander, Suzuki Swift or Peugeot, and therefore anyone with a problem reads the book and guess what, he was right!
carclan,
Oct 18, 6:27am
The guide it self is a lemon
taipan4,
Oct 18, 6:30am
yes but then you will have the euro lover on here (our own d & Gdirector)
You'd have to be pretty silly to listen to/believe one persons opinion. It's no different to asking a Ford family about Holdens, V8 lovers about rotors etc. Ask people that have owned (or still own) the type of vehicle you may be interested in. Word of mouth is the best advertising.
tractor9,
Oct 19, 8:32am
A fine looking gentleman.
wasser61,
Oct 19, 11:23am
We may not agree on a lot of things but this I do agree on. He is a complete muppet and really does not have any idea of cars, unless it is of course a Toyota.
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