It never rains but it pours.

After not testing any new cars for a while, this week is the fourth in a row in which I have had new Honda vehicles. The Hondas – Accord, Jazz and two Accord Euros of different specs – have all been interesting cars.

They’ve been interesting because each of the designs has had some major positives – and some major negatives.

The 3.5 litre V6 in the Accord is simply a magic engine – powerful, free-revving, fuel-efficient with its cylinder shut-down technology, and with a glorious sound as it heads for high revs.

But the steering of the car is amongst the worse I have ever experienced in a new car, and the dry road grip is simply terrible.

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I am writing this sitting in the Maryborough (Queensland) caravan park’s camp kitchen. My wife, Georgina, and our little boy and I are camping here, having driven up from the Gold Coast, a distance of about 350 kilometres.

I have stayed on and off in caravan parks since about the age of 16; camping in tents or staying in cabins or on-site vans.

Over that time, the biggest change has been in the nature of typical caravan park guests. Once, the people staying in caravan parks comprised almost entirely families with young children. But now, especially in non-holiday periods, caravan parks are dominated by ‘grey nomads’, older, retired people who have hit the road.

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One of the most strongly expressed negative comments in the new Feedback facility is a dislike of repeated material. As you’d expect, it’s a comment made primarily by longstanding readers.

Each week in AutoSpeed we run three repeat articles, highlighting those that were first published between 4 and 10 years ago. These are usually technical articles and are picked on the basis that their content still has a lot to offer current readers – that is, their age is of little hindrance to their worth.

Here is a comment typical of those that express dislike of repeated material:

Recycled articles are unwanted in the extreme. Your time would be better spent on an article teaching readers how to use the search function so that they can read any number of previously published articles. Recycled articles have reduced your credibility for me.

So why do we do it?

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Perception of any crisis in world affairs has always followed much the same pattern.

Those who say it isn’t happening and never will happen; those cautious but observant who say it might happen; those early adopters who say it is happening well before a majority agree; and those who like to see it unambiguously demonstrated before acknowledging it is actually happening.

Or – and this is really important – not happening.

Trouble is, at the ‘it might happen’ stage it’s difficult to decide on the right course of action. Do nothing and any action might be too late.

Or, conversely, do nothing and in fact the action might later prove to have been correct.

Think CFCs in aerosols and the ozone layer for the first; think Y2000 bug in computer software for the second.

And the eminence of the ‘early adopters’ counts for little: remember the 1970s predictions of a world overpopulation crisis, and how widespread famine would result in a catastrophic reduction in the population by the year 2000? Despite some very highly credentialed experts arguing vehemently – and with apparent logic – that we were doomed, it didn’t happen.

And now to global warming. 

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Our new AutoSpeed feedback facility keeps operating – and the feedback keeps rolling in. For a bit of a giggle, I’ve decided to run here some of the, er, more ‘interesting’ feedback we’ve received.

About You > The car you drive – ADASDASDLAS DJLAKA

Nope, dunno that car.

Our Content > Content we should have – More titties

How can we have more when we have never had any?

Our Content > Performance cars – Where is the cheese

Hmm, dunno.

Our Content > Performance cars – I think there should be some reversal of the latest autospeed changes to include high perfornance cars, show cars, drag cars, DB drag cars. etc The used to make some fantastic reading. I also think that new car tests need to be an important feature, regardless on how difficult it is to obtain press cars

Rather interestingly, the only respondent so far to ask for more of the old-style feature cars…

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I’ve never been on a fast train. Despite being interested in trains for longer than I’ve had any interest in cars, all my train trips have been pedestrian – at least in terms of pace.

The other day I travelled from Melbourne’s Southern Cross station to country Wangaratta, a train journey I immensely enjoyed. But – and here’s the pity of it – I actually thought it was reasonably quick, cos it was keeping up with cars doing 100 and 110 km/h.

In Europe, where my parents have extensively travelled, my father talks of cars on freeways being left behind so rapidly that they look like they’re going backwards. That happens when you’re in train that’s doing 300 km/h…

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If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to spend the 60 seconds (or less) it takes to fill in the feedback facility (top-right corner) that we’ve currently enabled on every page of AutoSpeed.

The feedback option has been running for (as I write this) a few days and, as would be expected when one of the categories is ‘content you hate’, a host of major negatives is coming in.

Let me take a look at some, and perhaps in part reply to them.

Why do you re run so much OLD stuff…have you run out of content ? or Run out of time …not fair to FILL UP your monthly leter with old stuff…people are capable of searching your files to find it if they wajnt it DONT REUSE OLD STUFF…it makes it look like you have run out of ideas or time…or both

Well, it’s very simple. Our ‘old stuff’ rates very well in terms of reader numbers and reader ratings. In other words, most of our readers have not seen the ‘old stuff’ before.

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If you are building your own car, the cheapest source of automotive parts will be found at the wrecker. That statement applies to all components – everything from suspension to engine to instruments.

But if you don’t want your car to look like other cars – not even in the tiniest bits – there are other sources of components you can look at.

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The role of a magazine editor is a funny one. Rather like teaching or nursing, I guess it’s one of the few jobs where the loyalty of the person lies not with those who pay the salary, but with others.

In the case of the editor, it’s the readers to whom the editor feels greatest loyalty.

An editor genuinely believes they have an obligation to produce the very best magazine possible for readers. So editors spend many dozens of hours per working week doing it for nothing – attending events, working overtime to get issues finished, waking up in the night to come up with story ideas.

In enthusiast car magazines, few editors get a salary anywhere near commensurate with the hours worked, and the effort that is made in those hours.

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