There’s been a bit of a debate lately among a group of auto writers (which you totally don’t care about but bear with me for a second) about just how negative a car review should be—or if they should be negative at all. I say hell yes, the review should be negative, if it’s deserved.
More importantly it should be honest. We aim for our reviews to be funny and compelling, but above all sincere. If something sucks, and your years of car payments (or cold, hard cash) are better spent on something else, we’re going to tell you. If something is abysmal to drive, has dreadful fit-and-finish, and will more than likely ruin your entire life, I say you need to know that.
I gave the Chevrolet Trax pretty low marks once. Travis curbstomped the Mini Paceman John Cooper Works a couple years back. (Mini didn’t talk to us for a while after that one.) And Jason didn’t have much love for the old Chevrolet Malibu, but then again, nobody else did either.
We’ve blasted plenty of other cars on Jalopnik. These are just the ones I can think of right now.
Tell us, what’s the most negative car review you’ve ever read on any publication? Please include a link to the review, a video or a photo of a physical clipping if you can find one.
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.