This is why we can't have nice things.

Car & Driver shows how irrelevant they've become by panning one of the most exciting cars made by a domestic manufacturer.

I won't even get into how they seem to think that Detroit roads still represent the rest of the nation with it's apocalyptic neglected road conditions. Let's not also speak about how they think that Recaro's need to be widened to fit their staff. Maybe eat less Michigan coney's? They pan drift mode as a gimmic, how about the GT-R launch mode?

Thank goodness there's a good car mag left.

Where’s the Focus RS? Why Ford’s Hottest Hatch, Which Seemed a Shoo-In for 10Best Accolades, Failed Even to Make the Cut

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

Thanks Nick! My tablet was having trouble with pasting the link for some odd reason. I've fixed it in the initial post.

That's not a bad 10 Best

Detroit roads aren't very bad.

Knurled wrote: Detroit roads aren't very bad.

I'd hazard a guess that my local roads are worse than Detroit roads. They are certainly worse than any other place I've lived.

If I was spending that kind of cash on a Ford though it would be a Mustang GT, The RS does nothing for me really.

I stopped reading C&D years ago, even after meeting some of the writers at local events.

This hate on US cars can't be explained, but it goes back years. And it's very tiresome.

The one that got me was a comparison that was supposed to find a good economy car that was fun. The second gen focus finish first or second in every category, but was last just because it had the first gen focus chassis.

Then there is the fast lap crap, where fast but cheap mustangs and vettes are panned even though they are much faster than cars 3-4x more expensive.

Terrible

The same C&D that recommends not warming your engine up anymore because it hurts your car? Yeah, they've been irrelevant in my book for a good while now.

In reply to MattW:

Wait...seriously?

Appleseed wrote: In reply to MattW: Wait...seriously?

Never mind. I got C&D and R&T confused.

But this is pretty much why I don't read mainstream car mags anymore. They're not relevant to your average Joe.

R&T article

MattW wrote: The same C&D that recommends not warming your engine up anymore because it hurts your car? Yeah, they've been irrelevant in my book for a good while now.

That is particularly funny to me, because I JUST finished reading some "Advice for maximum enjoyment of your Miata driving experience" which was written by none other than the chief drivetrain engineer for the North American NA and NB Miata. One of the first things he says is to avoid driving, especially to stay below 4000 rpm, until the temp gauge begins to move.

It's generally bad for your car if you run into something because the windshield ices over because there isn't any heat for the defroster yet.

You can take it too far of course. I did have a customer who would idle his car for 40 minutes before moving it. This being a High Horsepower car with cold plugs, it really did not like that.

And then the friend with a ZX2 who would rev it up and do a burnout down his driveway as soon as the engine caught. (Literally. I think he'd have the throttle down halfway when cranking) Engine sounded horrible when he did that, too. Fortunately for him, Zetecs are complete anvils, you can't really break them.

I've driven a lot of bad Michigan / Detroit / Cleveland roads. New Orleans was by far the worst (and just post Katrina.)

Opinions are just that, opinions.

I don't think the article was too far off the mark, in fact I would have been disappointed if the car had made the list. This car was not built to win any popularity contest. If the "Cool kids" were attracted then I don't want to be in the seat."Ten Best" from C&D requires a Milquetoast certificate and big sales numbers to be a contender.

Many many many many years since I relegated C&D to the "sold-out and no longer relevant to the Auto hobby" bin.

Car & Driver was the same magazine that relegated the C6 Z06 to 3rd place in a comparison after it whomped the tar out of the F430 and 911 Turbo in every subjective test for half the price because the "trunk was too small". Because everyone buying a Corvette, 911 and F430 is concerned about trunk space.

I can't disagree with them though.

I went to the Ford dealer with money in my hand and walked away thinking that the Golf R was soooo much better a car for the same or a little less money. It's not that I didn't think the RS was cool - it's just that they spent all the money on the gross things that produce numbers and skipped the details that could have made it "nice" too. The RS is like a trashy late night pick-up from a local pub that you think is super hot and you can't figure out why she is attainable - until the cold light of morning when you get a good look. And she pisses standing up. And your ass hurts.

In reply to Huckleberry:

That sounds like an incredible night.

In reply to Huckleberry:

But how do you FEEL about the Focus?

dculberson wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: That sounds like an incredible night.

No, that sounds like a confession.

Kreb wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: But how do you FEEL about the Focus?

To sum up... it's engineered for test drives. It's not a keeper. At least for me. Someone loves it and that's OK too. It's all the rage to be accepting of whatever is under that skirt nowadays.

In reply to Huckleberry:

Ole Huck, on many occasions you have proven to be quite the wordsmith and paint some vivid images. Thanks for the yucks.

MattW wrote: The same C&D that recommends not warming your engine up anymore because it hurts your car? Yeah, they've been irrelevant in my book for a good while now.

I'm not defending or denying the article you reference above, but I do know that a small amount of manufacturers recommend NOT warming their engines up and just driving them as normal. I'm almost positive that late model Audi S4's recommend this right in the manual, specifically. So while the article is surely bullcrap, it's not a completely absurd or unfounded notion. Just bad execution on the magazine's part.

As I recall, The RS was completely out of class with the rest of the cars in the group. Should not have been include. The Focus SE would have been more appropriate.

WHY ?

golfduke wrote:

MattW wrote: The same C&D that recommends not warming your engine up anymore because it hurts your car? Yeah, they've been irrelevant in my book for a good while now.

I'm not defending or denying the article you reference above, but I do know that a small amount of manufacturers recommend NOT warming their engines up and just driving them as normal. I'm almost positive that late model Audi S4's recommend this right in the manual, specifically. So while the article is surely bullcrap, it's not a completely absurd or unfounded notion. Just bad execution on the magazine's part.

I see what you're saying there but in this day and age what OEM's recommend might not necessarily be in the best interest of the customer as much as in the interest of political correctness. Keep in mind that once out of warranty it's not the OEM's problem that your cylinder walls are scarred to hell and back.

I grew up on Car & Driver, and the thing I liked best were Brock Yates (may he rest in peace) and the irreverent tone he brought. They also did tests on all kinds of weird vehicles, and got involved in racing and built their own cars sometimes, and did way-out road trips. The magazine was full of true car people and they liked supercars as mush as tuner cars. Today, it seems to be staffed largely by people who wrote for an outdoor magazine last week and will write for a computer magazine next week. It features very little original or engaging content.

I also was a fan of Automobile, mostly for Jean Lindamood/Jennings, but also for Robert Cumberford. I think that they still do a decent job without Jean at the helm, but Georg Kacher is doing most of the work over there and while solid, I don't find him very exciting.

Motor Trend has become Consumer Reports with more pictures.

That leaves Road & Track. Bub Lutz, Marshall Pruitt, Sam Posey, Randy Pobst, Peter Egan...people I actually want to hear from. The articles are better and better all the time and they really seem to care about cars and performance. They don't seem afraid to call a spade a spade and they are producing a lot of video and other content through their media empire. They have become my clear favorite of the mainstream mags. (although GRM can be called mainstream now, can't it? I mean, it has page counts that put the others to shame and is available on newsstands everywhere.)