Should we expect the Cybertruck to get terrible reviews?

[charliemagpie]

When the CT is released, great eulogies will soon follow.

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[DMC-81]

Will brands like Motortrend, Car & Driver, Consumer Reports, Edmunds etc. be unbiased in their coverage?

Where's the first source you'll turn to for an honest review of the Cybertruck?

In my early adulthood, I used to think Consumer Reports was the non-biased source that consumers could trust. Then I found out about the Suzuki Samurai scandal. I never cracked a cover on a Consumer Reports issue or read any of their "content" again.

I quickly learned to be skeptical of everything until MY research proved otherwise. Now, I treat any media as biased infotainment. I read many sources on a topic that interests me and form my own opinion.

So, no I don't expect the Cybertruck to get unbiased coverage, and I don't care.

 

[BayouCityBob]

Curious. From many things, I see Ford, GM, and RAM, are positioning their vehicles as work trucks in several ways. That is their long standing mantra that they will lean into. They talk about functionality, affordability, and have fleet targeted trims. They just also have modernized the inside of them because people use them as traveling offices.

It does not seem like Tesla is targeting the CT as a full featured work+office truck to me.

Well, part of the art of positioning your own product is to re-position your competitor's product. Elon can have great fun with "Ford Tough" by showing how fragile the F150 is vs the CT.

If I were Tesla I would poke fun at the idea that "they call themselves work trucks" but they are the really rolling lounges.

Yeah, I know it is stupid, but image matters a lot to people. If you can position the American/Dutch pick-up leaders as vehicles for the over-indulged working man wannabe and the CT as the truck for "people who need a truck not a masseuse" then I think you could really destroy the primary conceit that fuels the pickup market (ie "real men drive pickups"). Heck, you might even get pickups back into the hands of people who, you know, actually use pickups instead of the urban cowboy crowd.

Jus' sayin' there is some fun mischief to be had here.

 

[cvalue13]

You are missing the point here.

Respectfully disagree. I think I understand the point just fine, I just don’t agree with the point to the same degree as you.

And that’s fine, differences of opinion are relevant to the point. I admit to having more Tesla skepticism than you (it’s a professional hazard of mine). So, when I look at some articles the valence of their critiques isn’t as great for me as when you read the same article. And in return, surely you’d admit to being less skeptical of Tesla than the average consumer - and in kind the valence of criticisms registers that much greater to you.

That’s not to discount, as I said in the last post, that there’s not shoddy, clickbait, etc., articles that can be found. But I suppose neither of us care to do the actual meta analysis of all articles from and agreed class of sources for both Tesla and a competitor. (If that’s out there, cool to see it.)

So we’re left each with our biases and separate datasets, rather than any objective grasp on a “truth.”

So from there, to your release day headlines about the CT being a “joke,” from what to me are obviously biased (muscle car mag?) or clickbaity (Mashable?) stories, when I search for release day articles the first three google come up with:

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/11/21/tesla-cybertruck-unveiled.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/23/cars/cybertruck-tesla-preorders/index.html

All pretty balanced reporting to me. (I mean, you can’t not mention the window breaking at least.)

And so maybe the response is “that was then this now” and “how about the Ford battery fire” which, according to your prior post, no one mentions - but when I google it I get dozens of articles, still updating for the production hood extension - including the main article/original article from CNBC in which I was a cited source (not by name).

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/02/17/ford-f-150-lightning-ev-issues-battery-fire.html

And btw, when I google about the fire, it incidentally gives me articles about how Ford is the #1 in recalls, is poisoning people in the Amazon, it’s use of “cheap” batteries, etc.

So while fully “understanding” your contrary opinion, I nonetheless don’t share it. I think the media broadly speaking is generally click-baity, and I think that wildly pro-Tesla people have no less optical distortion than wildly pro-Ford people.

For every moment I spend on this forum *feeling* I’m injection some rational input towards the former, I’m conversely on the Lightning forum injecting the same (intended) contrary input towards that group.

The two groups have a lot more in common than dissimilar.

 

[RVAC]

I'm sure there will be some critical things to write about. But I don't think it will be all critical.

Motortrend was given exclusive pre-access before the reveal (which could be considered a reason for pro/bias). They wrote several good articles in November 2019. Here's the main article with lots of photos and links to their other articles.

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/tesla-cybertruck-electric-pickup-photos-info/

Motortrend appears to be the exception, they are a stone throw away from Tesla's design studio so there likely is some kind of personal relationship there.

The same people who will be reviewing this truck were calling it an elaborate joke not long ago. Many of them have said fairly recently they think it won’t be released.

Exactly, when have we ever seen legacy media actually back pedal and admit they were wrong? Chances are they'll double down.

But I can’t say that I see it disproportionately directed at Tesla or the CT

I don't think you're looking very carefully.

 

[Ogre]

Quit buying into their narrative.

 

[firsttruck]

Here is a good example of mainstream media's biased reporting against Teslas vs legacy brands.

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Tesla fire VS Chevy Bolt fire: news breakdown The media cover's Elon Musk's Tesla in an entirely different light than they cover the rest of legacy auto, why is that? lets talk about it.
Feb 28, 2023
Sam Alexander

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Media lies about crash, NOT a Tesla
Sam Alexander
Jan 24, 2023

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Tesla driver road rage attack: The Real Story

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[tidmutt]

The idea that Tesla and Musk are beleaguered by massive amounts of unfair criticism is ridiculous. Musk has earned both the praise and criticism he receives.

No argument that Musk has earned praise and criticism. However, it's not ridiculous to claim that there has been massive amounts of unfair criticism of Tesla. If you think that then you haven't been paying attention. There has been a suspiciously large amount of very biased reporting against Tesla. Even now, look at the Wendover Productions video "How Tesla Fumbled" which is so poorly researched, so clearly biased that you wonder how the guy can retain any credibility. Is he biased? Was the criticism unfair? Given that it was cherry picked, factually incorrect and left out gobs of context, I'd say yes, very unfair. That's just one recent example.

It's sad because there are plenty of legitimate things to criticize, things that when discussed could move the narrative forward. Instead, there is junk journalism, cynical grabs for clicks, political statements, virtue signalling and so on.

 

[firsttruck]

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New York Times best selling author is WRONG about EVs
New York Times Best selling author Peter Zeihan made a video about EVs dirty little secret(s) and it's full of what I would call EV FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) and straight up misinformation. This is NOT a personal attack on Peter, I'm just trying to criticize some of the points he made in the video.
Jan 23, 2023
Sam Alexander

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[Big Duke 6]

As we've all been watching firsthand, the mainstream media's coverage of Elon Musk/Tesla has completely flipped in the past year or so.

He's gone from Person of the Year saving the world with a Midas touch, to a "controversial" figure that is slammed in the press just about every day.

Should we expect the mainstream car reviewers to continue this trend with the Cybertruck?

Will brands like Motortrend, Car & Driver, Consumer Reports, Edmunds etc. be unbiased in their coverage?

Where's the first source you'll turn to for an honest review of the Cybertruck?

Elon’s products speak for themselves. Who cares what the fake news media says about Elon. Sandy Munro will be an excellent source for the review. There will be other reviews that will be funded by the auto unions like customer reports will be fake. Check out this engineer’s opinion.


I have owned Chevy Ford Ram trucks. I have 6000 shares of Tesla and I am extremely bullish on the company. The only product of Elon’s I currently own is Starlink. It has been a game changer. I was able to dump Direct TV, and Viasat service. Now I have 20X the download speed and have cut my media bill by 80%…..never bet against Elon

 

[Big Duke 6]

In my early adulthood, I used to think Consumer Reports was the non-biased source that consumers could trust. Then I found out about the Suzuki Samurai scandal. I never cracked a cover on a Consumer Reports issue or read any of their "content" again.

I quickly learned to be skeptical of everything until MY research proved otherwise. Now, I treat any media as biased infotainment. I read many sources on a topic that interests me and form my own opinion.

So, no I don't expect the Cybertruck to get unbiased coverage, and I don't care.

Here’s a educational video on Consumer Reports

 

[Mini2nut]

I can already see two;
-huge blind spots due to solid sail shaped rear quarter panels
-front end is hard to judge distance when parking due to hood sloping down

 

[Ogre]

-front end is hard to judge distance when parking due to hood sloping down

As opposed to every other truck where you just can’t see the ground for anything 12 feet in front of the vehicle?

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