Review or advertisement?
I remember reading Overdrive, an automobile magazine, 10 years ago with such zeal that i would go from start to end without putting it down. Now as i see the magazine and many such other auto magazine, i wonder where is that quality gone? I remember Adil Jal's, editor of overdrive, editorial and columns which were a pleasure to read and brought each and every automobile details in a very crisp and cliche free manner. Niw a days the write-up are full of clichés and repeatative phrases; what is surprising that these magazines sound more of a PR piece than actual review. There are trade compulsions for these magazines, they heavily depend on ad sales for their commercials. But that doesn't make them free of their obligation to readers who is not only going to pay Rs 100 or more but also may depend on the magazine for their automobile buying decision. I beleive that in this scenario, readers should be cautious in taking these magazines as main source of their buying decisions. Here independent forums like teambhp.com are doing a terrific job. These forums are a collaboration of real users, they are independent of any commercial influence. Moreover the quality i see at teamBHP is awesome, with rigorous membership selection process and strict moderation. With commercial magazines and review sites are becoming more of a PR tool for comoanies, we need ourselves to collaborate and come up with more such forums for all sorts of products, till then we need to exercise caution.