Car Care Nut's most positive or most negative reviews?
Posted by RabidRomulus@reddit | cars | View on Reddit | 22 comments
This guy is one of my favorite car reviewers and is pretty well known on reddit for his in depth mechanical reviews.
Curious if anyone knows any vehicles he's reviewed that he's extremely positive or extremely negative about?
_galaga_@reddit
Not an answer but I remember his review of the Ranger and he shit hard on Ford’s number pad entry system without understanding what it enables. Situations like going to the beach and not having to worry about losing your keys in the sand or dunking a fob that’s spendy to replace. Or going for a run, etc.
I’m not dragging him for not knowing every use case for every feature but when I see something that looks totally useless like that I remind myself it might be because of my lack of understanding.
So if you want to see him poop on a feature that’s one but it’s a misfire.
Shmokesshweed@reddit
I use that keypad all the time. It's honestly one of my favorite features.
Just as an example, my vehicle key never left the cab this weekend while I was out camping in the woods.
hi_im_bored13@reddit
I do think it has its place but at the same time I am not surprised it is getting phased away with ultra-wideband phone keys, NFC keycards, etc. getting more popular.
E.g. in any recent BMW ('21 & later) you can just use the apple car-key and add that to your watch, which I do feel is more convenient and secure.
_galaga_@reddit
I’d love to have watch-based access. The keypad looks very ‘70s landline phone and not super modern but one advantage is it doesn’t require a device with charge left to open.
hi_im_bored13@reddit
The good news is the carkey functionality does work for a few hours (I believe 5?) after your phone and/or watch are dead, so some buffer there
Bad news is of course that ties you into the apple ecosystem and I'd probably carry around an actual key anyways, at which point its not particularly useful
doomsdaymelody@reddit
I've watched a few of his videos, he's not as bad as Scotty Kilmer, but he really shares feelings he has about specific things without really any justification.
For example, he reviewed a Hyundai Santa Fe Calligraphy which has a DCT, which he claimed was not a "reliable" choice. While it is certainly an odd choice in the current market, the reliability claim largely ignores DCTs and their various designs. It wasn't so weird to have a truck with a manual transmission a few decades ago, so why a DCT would be a bad choice and/or less reliable seems like a groundless claim to me. Now, Hyundai has absolutely had issues with their 7 speed dry DCT in crossovers, so I can sort of see the through line of where he's basing the claim from but the 8 speed is a new design and a wet DCT which, in theory, makes it MUCH more durable.
At the end of the day, he's giving a mechanic's review of often new technologies and designs. Mechanics hate new shit so much, and I think if you go into these videos understanding this context it makes his videos watchable.
peakdecline@reddit
Comparing him even lightly to Scott Kilmer feel very disingenuous and to me suggests he's said something you didn't like which brings me too...
A DCT is a poor choice in any truck, even one like the Santa Fe. Its only there to eek out the absolute smallest bit of MPG gains because its otherwise ill equipped to compete against the Maverick. It being a wet DCT just makes it slightly less really bad than a dry unit. The comparison to a manual also seems to ignore the whole "dual clutch" aspect of a DCT... its not just an automated manual, its two clutches which power is transferred between on gear changes.
I'm not sure whose more qualified to discuss a car. A mechanic? An engineer? An entertainer disguised as a reviewer whose entire business is at risk by pissing off a manufacturer too much or else they're cut off (hell, even without that... most reviewers are disincentivized by the audience about being too negative about cars because people watch less reviews when car sales slow down)? The space is fraught with issues, terrible incentive structures, dubious means of monetization, etc.
Being aware of the potential biases of any of these parties is important though.
doomsdaymelody@reddit
>A DCT is a poor choice in any truck
This is the kind of Scotty Kilmer shit I'm talking about. The operating principles of a DCT are the same as those of a manual transmission and manuals got used on trucks all the time in the past, and still are offered in areas of the world. There is functionally no problem with a properly designed and controlled DCT in virtually any application.
>suggests he's said something you didn't like
I mean of course he did, I don't think it invalidates his channel or the service he brings but making baseless claims and relying on the "trust me bro, I'm a mechanic" angle is exactly what Scotty Kilmer does, and to a lesser degree he shares the same contrived opinions about certain things and calls them unreliable, not because they are unreliable, but rather because he doesn't personally like the design decision.
peakdecline@reddit
AGAIN you ignored that there are in fact operating principle difference. Interesting that you choose to not quote that part. DCTs are NOT automated manuals no matter how much you want to repeat it.
doomsdaymelody@reddit
A DCT feeds power through a clutch, that is externally controlled, into an input shaft and out of an output shaft. Various gear ratios are acheived by meshing gears on the output shaft with gears on the input shaft. The only practical difference is that a DCT has 2 clutches with each feeding different pairs of input and output shafts. The mechanics of how a DCT and conventional manual operate are identical, the only difference is what selects the gear and what controls the clutch when a shift occurs.
peakdecline@reddit
You can watch multiple videos of the Santa Fe and Santa Cruz DCT models overheating their transmissions on basic low slip situations. TFL alone has several videos highlighting it.
Further, you do describe mechanical differences. And then dismiss them as not existing. Just bizarre when people do this.
For whatever reason you have a clear bias, its not the Car Care Nut whose at fault here. You're not even believing your own takes.
doomsdaymelody@reddit
I don't dismiss them as not existing, I just note that it has copies of everything that is inside a manual. They mechanically function the same way and any distinction you are trying to make is purely pedantic.
I don't know what overheating in an off road situation has to do with a car that wasn't designed or intended to go off road, I regret to inform you that if you throw the car in the ocean it will not float either and that doesn't make it unreliable.
peakdecline@reddit
In the same exact video of the Santa Cruz being unable to compete a basic dirt hill and the TFL host being scared to go further due to the DCT overheating... the Maverick does it easily, with no drama. Because its a DIRT HILL.
This same exact issue occurs in other slip situations such as snow.
And the overheating can also be an issue in basic towing situations. Again... ones the Maverick handles without drama.
They do not function mechanically identically. You admitted as much and you want to dismiss this fundamental difference in operating as pedantic because you clearly have a bias.
I don't know if you own a Santa Cruz or Fe or what. But you're being dishonest about whose biased here.
CasioOceanusT200@reddit
Yeah, he argued that you shouldn't put new oil into an oil filter before putting it on a car because "its unfiltered oil".... like the same new oil isn't just going straight into the engine. It was such a weird argument from a guy who's views I generally respect.
Enjoy his videos, but use caution if you're relying on them.
RevvCats@reddit
He’s got a lot of takes on car oil that bug me, especially when he made claims about oil analysis results being useless that he could have easily proven if they were true, which I disagree with, for a whopping $30-40
europeanperson@reddit
I don’t think his point were that they were useless, they just don’t tell the whole story. He was saying they don’t report on the amount of deposits or sludge, an example would be the amount of deposits on the piston rings, which is generally cited as a common reason for high mileage engines beginning to “drink” oil. He was saying that even though your oil reports at higher oil change intervals seem “fine”, you could still be getting these deposits and therefore still recommends 5k mi intervals.
Not sayings he’s right or wrong but just adding context from my memory of his video.
hi_im_bored13@reddit
> while it is certainly an odd choice in the current market
Its not particularly an odd choice considering how tight emissions targets are getting, they are not particularly expensive nowadays and all the marginal improvements add up.
But yeah, you make an excellent point of it being a mechanics review, I have a blanket rule of not trust the opinion of anyone who goes "mechanic here!" "engineer here!" because they are extremely out of touch with what customers expect and prioritize out of a product.
Theres cases of this all over automotive journalism where they wax lyrical on the dynamics of a cx-50 and ignore any issues with packaging, infotainment, etc. – they are extremely qualified no doubt but their advice is useless to the average consumer
gothicserp3nt@reddit
It's good to get different perspectives but all reviewers need to be taken with a grain of salt. I've watched enough of his videos that I can't recall which specific one, but even cars I'm generally favorable torwards (via weekend long rentals), he misses some big negatives. I also agree with the comment that he sometimes points out negatives without justifying why
Initial-D-and-GuP@reddit
He gave a pretty glowing review to the Mazda CX-50 Hybrid, thats for sure.
-TheGoodDoctor-@reddit
Same with the cx5 and mazda3
Nitrothacat@reddit
The 4Runner review was pretty positive minus the ride quality portion. Pointing out the quality differences compared to the Tacoma was interesting.
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