One low-cost way for an auto media outlet to post a 24/7 flow of content is to draw upon old car ads. This is business as usual for the The Daily Drive and its sibling, the Collectible Automobile Facebook page.
Their formula is simple: Find an old car ad. Then write a story with a few quick factoids mixed with conventional wisdom. Season to taste with a personal story.
Don Sikora thinks Marlins are ‘darn handsome’
An example of this approach is a story by Don Sikora II (2012) about the 1965 Rambler Marlin. He appears to offer accurate information – which is not always the case in the Internet Age (go here for further discussion). However, his storyline is rather basic. Nothing is added to the historical record. No fresh analytical insight is offered. Just some rah-rah, Marlins are “pretty darn handsome.”
Each to his own, but I gravitate more toward Paul Niedermeyer’s take. He dismissed the Marlin as a Rambler Classic with an “expensive bad wig” (2016). I don’t go quite that far but would suggest that the Marlin suffered from some beginner’s mistakes.
Give us your bored and your listless
Certainly it makes economic sense for a website to save its best content for paying customers. In this case, those are subscribers to Collectible Automobile magazine. And there’s also nothing wrong with publishing auto history for readers new to the subject.
Indeed, the Consumer Guide‘s constellation of media outlets may long outlive others that have offered more sophisticated content. Automotive Quarterly’s demise is but one cautionary tale.
Even so, striving for the lowest common denominator can dumb down the field of auto history. This is all the more likely when these kind of stories are reposted repeatedly in place of new content.
Apparently the current auto editors of Consumer Guide love lite infotainment. This is unfortunate given how much serious automotive history they have published over the years.
NOTES:
This is an expanded version of a story that was originally posted May 30, 2014.
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RE:SOURCES
- Niedermeyer, Paul; 2014. “Curbside Classic: 1965 Rambler Marlin — The Rambler Classic Dons A Bad Wig.” Curbside Classic. Posted Jan. 25; accessed Oct. 4, 2015.
- Sikora II, Don; 2012. “Classic Car Ad: 1965 Rambler Marlin.” The Daily Drive. Originally posted July 9.
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