Pulitzer Prize-winning auto scribe and noted foppish clothing enthusiast Dan Neil recently did the gutsy but rarely-seen-in-this-business move of admitting to all his mistakes and misfires in 2012.
Chief among them: Dan says he went way too easy on the Fisker Karma. Here's what he wrote:
In the review, published in February, I tied myself in knots trying to praise the Karma, even resorting to the "world's most interesting car" banality. But in the end, I see in hindsight, the car is too heavy, too overpromised in terms of performance and efficiency, and it is just too durably weird-looking to love. Put a jar in your Fisker Karma, and put a dollar in the jar every time somebody asks you, "What the hell are you driving, mister?" You could put a kid through college that way.
Dan also says he let the Dodge Dart off the hook, saying "engine-control software economizes too aggressively, leaving the Dart feeling soft and intolerably slow to rouse." Check out his story for some more mishaps in 2012.
I say good for Dan for being honest and admitting to "errors of substance and judgment," as he calls them. We're glad to see one of the mistakes wasn't him complaining about matching the wrong Ferragamo pocket square with the wrong Berluti boots... whatever that means.
Sadly, nothing at Jalopnik could possiblie go wrong. Possibly go wrong. That was the first thing that's ever gone wrong.