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MKBHD - Do Bad Reviews Kill Companies?
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this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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It's a reviewers job to be honest; if the product is bad I appreciate them calling it out, no matter how small an issue is.
I'm not going to defend YouTubers that don't know I exist, and honestly I don't watch Doug that often anymore. But from what I can see even the new vehicles he reviews are niche and/or expensive as hell. The VW ID4 starts at $40k for only ~200 miles of range. Compared to iqoniq, mach-e, or the new Chevy EVs it's just a bad value all around. Also, I genuinely think a snappy infotainment system is a necessity. I won't even consider a Tesla since it doesn't support carplay or android auto. Do the majority of people hold that same opinion? Hell no, but I still think it's absolutely relevant to a review. Now, I could totally see your point of a review killing a company/product if the reviewer has a larger reach than the company. An example would be LTT's "review" of a super niche waterblock from billet labs. But if you think one review tanked the sales of a car from one of largest conglomerate of car manufacturers then you're woefully overestimating the reach of YouTube videos and online media.
Now humane is a bit of a different story, and the negative reviews are certainly not helping sales. But MKBHD's video is a very honest explanation of his experience, and it shows how many things were promised but not delivered. If they didn't want bad reviews, they should have delayed the product until it was ready.
You have a valid point that clickbait articles do more harm than the actual reviews, but again, I don't think it's the reviewer's fault or problem. Most of these sites are full of other clickbait nonsense, and just like NYpost I'm not going to them for factual information. If the general public are being swayed by these articles, I don't think they were seriously in the market for whatever product is being dragged through the mud. Most of what MKBHD and Doug reviews are premium products with premium prices, in my opinion they should scrutinized accordingly.
I think bad products fail on their own and the reviews and media accelerate that failure. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but blaming the media for a company's bad decisions solves nothing.
FYI, Id.4 gets much closer to 300 miles of range. VW has always underestimated their efficiency, even on gas/diesel cars imo.
The reason I don’t think I’m overestimating Doug’s reach is that I was constantly seeing people parroting and citing his review after it came out. All anyone seemed to talk about was how bad the infotainment system was. While the infotainment system was kinda a dog until you make some settings changes, it was in no sense bad enough to warrant the kind of hysterics that people were having over it. I’ve definitely seen worse systems in other cars I’ve driven - especially considering CarPlay and android auto function perfectly fine and speedy. The car is not above criticism, but it seemed a lot of people were taking his word as gospel and/or becoming obsessed with a fairly minor detail.
I’ve never heard of humane before this and I wasn’t talking about that review specifically, but I’ve seen reviews before (I believe they were phone reviews, but it’s been a while) from MKBHD where I felt some minor thing was being blown out of proportion or where he didn’t seem to understand that some people may appreciate something being done a different way than he expected and therefore I quit watching his videos because they didn’t appeal to me.
In my opinion, both reviewers I’ve mentioned here tend to have some hot takes that garner way too much traction, and I can understand that frustration if you’ve created a product that they then trash. I’m not saying that it’s their intention to do so, but I do think it can be irresponsible to present things the way they do - especially since these reviews remain live much longer than a software cycle might.
Maybe they underestimate the MPG rating but did you forget the massive diesel scandal? They lied about the efficiency of their engine and exhaust system to the point where they had software counteracting testing procedures.
Do you own an id4 or something? Like why do you care about the public perception of a company? People who actually are in the market for a new car are bound to test drive it first, and they can decide if the infotainment system is good enough for themselves. My point is: lots of talk from people who are nowhere near buying any car let alone a $40k+ id4. If I purely listened to the internet's opinion I wouldn't own half the shit I enjoy on a daily basis.
MKBHD and his team are by no means perfect, watch their podcast and you'll quickly see the gaps in their knowledge. If you haven't watched him in awhile I can understand you position a lot better. He's come a long way in the past few years, and while I never found his reviews to be bad, his current work is top quality. For instance: a lot of his smartphone reviews revolve around the camera performance. At the end of the year he does a big comparison between a bunch of phones. Between that and the yearly smartphone awards, I think he does a fine job at summarizing the software improvements over the first year of ownership.
Of course every big content creator has a legion of annoying fans, again LTT almost killed a 2 man company from a single botched video. I'm not here to defend any community, just that these two reviewers that you seem to have a gripe with do better work than 90% of others.
I’ve owned several VW’s including diesels and yes, currently an id.4. I am a fan of VW cars, but I don’t really care about the perception of the company - I like the cars but it’s really more that I like my local dealership and find their cars superior to others at the same price point.
The reason I brought this specific incident up was because it’s easier to remember, but I find Doug fairly frequently was misinformed about things. It was fine when he was just showing off stuff he thought was interesting, but once he started reviewing cars currently for sale, it really jumped out to me that he’d just be ranting about stuff he just didn’t understand and was not a reliable reviewer. The only reason I kept tolerating him for a while was that he has access to interesting old cars I wouldn’t be able to see otherwise, but as far as the new stuff, he was unqualified imo.
I do agree with your point that most people would do test drives, etc, but this came at a time when these cars were not available on lots and many people began canceling their orders based on the perception of the car which seemed to be widely based on Doug’s review. I just happened to luck into one being at my dealer, and was able to test drive it, but at the time they were very hard to find and most peoples orders had not yet been delivered. It definitely hindered sales and was totally blown out of proportion.
That said, VW should have handled the response to it better - they basically just ignored it, and that’s on them.
I also remember the diesel scandal quite well because I was just about to sell my diesel beetle when the story broke and the price plummeted.
Thankfully between my dealer and VWoA they made it right, so it didn’t turn me off from them completely. What became known the following year was that it was not just VW, but almost the entire automotive industry engaging in similar tactics, but that was not nearly as widely reported.
As far as MKBHD, that makes sense, and it could be just an outdated opinion I have of them based on much older reviews.
This is straight up false. Yes most, if not all diesel engines were found to be out of regulation especially at idle. It's a bad regulation and needs to updated, but of course lobbists have put a stop to that.
The major difference was that VW group was using arrestor devices to skirt the testing even on the highway. It's why they paid the heftiest fine over all the other manufacturers. It was very purposeful, not saying the others are saints but there is a difference between neglecting to adhear and intentional deceit.
Do you think that maybe, possibly, that it could be a variety of factors that led to id4 orders being cancelled? And also, if it was a commercial failure I can almost guarantee the model would have been killed off rather than being updated into a 4th year. Not being able to test drive a car I'm spending a significant chunk of cash on is a way bigger turn off than a YT video and some stupid articles.
Like seriously, if you didn't have the luxury of a very nice VW dealership, would you still have ended up with an id4? How do rekon availability and crappy dealerships didn't play a bigger role than Doug? Idk what to fucking tell you bro, people don't treat reviews as gospel, and if they do then they are most likely children and/or completely unable to afford the thing being reviewed.