First I've heard of this site. Hmm ars technica? If it was April 1 I'd say it was a joke. But it's not, so ass tech it is. Looks to be a left leaning site for everything.
Having worked for two car magazines, and having gone on many "junkets," I can tell you it is not a quid pro quo relationship. At least, it wasn't for me, or the magazines I worked for.
My magazine's "policy" was not to do negative reviews. If we didn't like a car, we just didn't put it in the magazine. We told the manufacturers of cars we didn't publish the truth -- we are not putting that car in the magazine, because we don't like it. Some people may think that we were being "stooges" for the car companies, but we never saw any point in trashing a car in print. We did point out negatives on cars, along with the positives. We just didn't waste pages trashing a car we didn't like.
Did I like flying first class to posh resorts to drive new cars and eat Michelin starred food, well of course I did. Did it affect the way I felt about the cars, no. One big three car company flew me to Detroit, first class, and gave me the red carpet treatment for a new product launch. I didn't like the car, so we didn't put it in the magazine. That particular car wasn't in our "niche" anyway. I'm not sure why they invited us.
You can have integrity, without being an a$$hat. I had a second gen Viper for a week, and wrote about it. I told the truth, "this is a very fast car, and a bat$hit crazy car." Basically, I said that if you have a death-wish, this is your car. Chrysler was fine with that opinion. They flew me first class to NYC for the debut of the Challenger, and sent me a Challenger SRT8 for a week six months before the car was released to the public. BTW, I couldn't park that thing anywhere without drawing a crowd.
It is really all about balance. Tell the truth, but don't rant. You want to maintain a good relationship with the car companies, but you really don't have to kiss any a$$ to do that. Just be fair.
When the Jaguar XJS coupe came out in the '70's, it's styling was a big departure from previous Jaguars. Road & Track magazine said that it looked like it was designed by a committee and everyone got their way.
I thought that it was a little unusual for a car magazine to take a shot like that at a new model.
