Who is John Cadogan?

[Kenfuego]

Funny how car preference arguments come up. in a French Car Forum.

Hah I saw with my own eyes, the VW auto gearboxes that were lined up waiting for a $5,000 component while on this forum people were lauding them, their service friendly, funny much like the skoda stuff that comes up when Al4 problems are mentioned, SH*T happens and some manufacturers rubbish other car marques with a particular bent at putting down French car cars and their problem with DSG boxes are never mentioned. PS don't mention deliberately bypassing emission controls.

Look one lot is as bad as the other, it comes down to the driving experience and the quirky love of cars (and love hate relationships with motoring press and their preferences) that may or may not be influenced by freebies and giveaways.

I kind of love driving my cars in a lifetime of motoring.

Ken

 

[seasink]

He describes himself as a journalist who obtained a Mech Eng degree. I have no idea if he ever practised. I find repeated exposure wears quickly, but despite his saying that Citroen and Peugeot have too few sales and too few dealers, he made a very interesting pro-Citroen YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyBi7KPlsGU (sorry for re-citing the link, but it's worth a look)

My view is that Peugeot Citroen's largest handicap is Sime Darby, a company more interested in palm oil, real estate and construction. Some sidelines include tractors, and somewhere near the bottom of their mental processes and attention, selling cars in meaningful numbers in Australia.

High markup, low effort, small numbers might suit SD's beancounters, but PSA could be better served with volume. They can't keep relying on rusted-on old buyers.

 

[Andrew Watkins]

VW seems to have a gearbox problem and I quite agree that their service ( at least based upon my experience ) is bad.

It seems to be wider than just the DSG - my daughter's manual Golf is about to need its second replacement gearbox

Issue is disintegration of baulk rings on second due to "materials fault" ( when they finally 'fessed up after two years of denial and fighting )

6 months into the new gearbox it was doing the same thing

A tour around the fora suggests that others have the same issues - refusal of second, beginning as notchy engagement. Dealers said to characteristically respond with "it's normal for this model to feel like that ". This normally allows them to delay until total failure supervenes when out of warranty.

Saving grace for Kate is that she is meticulous and tenacious, so had documented it from the start. Probably at least partly 'cos mechanic had said when she complained at first service " you know that it's a manual don't you, you have to use the clutch ", which had annoyed her somewhat.

I would not touch either a manual or a DSG from VW for a good long while and would never trust them to be straight about it all.

ANdrew

 

[robmac]

Hah I saw with my own eyes, the VW auto gearboxes that were lined up waiting for a $5,000 component while on this forum people were lauding them, their service friendly, funny much like the skoda stuff that comes up when Al4 problems are mentioned, SH*T happens and some manufacturers rubbish other car marques with a particular bent at putting down French car cars and their problem with DSG boxes are never mentioned. PS don't mention deliberately bypassing emission controls.

Look one lot is as bad as the other, it comes down to the driving experience and the quirky love of cars (and love hate relationships with motoring press and their preferences) that may or may not be influenced by freebies and giveaways.

I kind of love driving my cars in a lifetime of motoring.

Ken

Enjoy youself Ken, be happy in the knowledge that you spent your own hard earned on repairing one those Al4s. Was it $4.5k 0r $5.5k ?

So it's a pyrrhic victory to spray your poison over others who made decisions different to your own.

 

[MotoPete]

John Cardogan is actually an automotive engineer, so knows what he is talking about.

Cadogan is not an automotive engineer. He has a degree in mechanical engineering, but for all we know he worked on designing refrigeration systems prior to becoming a journalist (interestingly, to my knowledge he's never actually spoken about what he did with his degree upon graduating).

He has gone to town on the Australian motoring press for awarding the latest VW Tiguan COTY (or whatever award it was) despite serious concerns about the viability of the company, future fines, and appalling resale.

And wrongly so, because those factors weren't part of the scoring system for determining the merits of a particular model. Cadogan seems to be preoccupied with the environmental and consumer (ownership) impacts manufacturers have, rather than the quality of the driving experience of the vehicles themselves.

 

[MotoPete]

He hates VW for its diesel emissions scam which I think was overblown...

Vehicle emissions are overblown full stop, as is Cadogan's response to them. Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars does, but that's a story for another time...

His opinion on brands with low market share is that they might be fine cars but they're for enthusiasts (like us) and not for your average driver. No argument there.

As are his "reviews" and car buying service to be honest (they're for the average driver, not enthusiasts).

 

[MotoPete]

And his aggressive and uncouth manner may impress some, but not me.

It's a schtick that seems to be enjoyed by his mostly international audience (according to his YouTube analytics), however as you rightly point out has seemingly alienated him from his fellow countrymen (which probably explains why he appears to have been relegated to generating content from his garage these days).

It's not surprising, the likes of Paul Hogan and Steve Irwin were vastly more popular overseas then they ever were here...

 

[FIVEDOOR]

Cadogan is not an automotive engineer. He has a degree in mechanical engineering, but for all we know he worked on designing refrigeration systems prior to becoming a journalist (interestingly, to my knowledge he's never actually spoken about what he did with his degree upon graduating).

He has spoken about his past on number of his videos, ones that he talks about metal fabrication, which seems to be a hobby of his. As a young man he worked in a tool shop and after graduation in railways engineering shop. Perhaps he considers his early experience is not that relevant to his car related videos.

 

[MotoPete]

He has spoken about his past on number of his videos, ones that he talks about metal fabrication, which seems to be a hobby of his. As a young man he worked in a tool shop and after graduation in railways engineering shop. Perhaps he considers his early experience is not that relevant to his car related videos.

I stand corrected then, and thank you for sharing; I agree with your positing that it isn't relevant to his car related videos, however as he notes on his autoexpert.com.au website, his having this degree, along with being a motoring journalist, is what qualifies him to "tell the truth about cars", which might hold some weight if he weren't so blatantly biased in his offerings.

 

[lowpugV2]

Is his bias based around any financial kick backs from the likes of kia or Hyundai? I don't believe they are, I always thought he just figured they were easy and safe to recommend as they have good warranties, are decent enough for the average consumer and large dealer and service networks. I don't watch much of him, I find his schtick tiring but I do find myself agreeing when I do watch his content. He's definitely said on more than one occasion that he's buying advice doesn't relate to enthusiast nutjobs (like himself).

 

[MotoPete]

Is his bias based around any financial kick backs from the likes of kia or Hyundai?

He maintains that he receives no financial incentives from any manufacturer, which I would be inclined to believe if his bias didn't border on the negligent.

It's inexplicable that he dismisses out of hand of the seriousness of engine compartment fires in Hyundais and Kias, yet labelled Volkswagen's Amarok a "death trap" simply because it doesn't feature side curtain airbags.

He will happily lambast Toyota for selling cars with peeling paint, yet makes no mention of Hyundais that suffer the same.

Volkswagen seems to bear the brunt of his scorn over Dieselgate, but he remains tight lipped over Hyundai and Kai being fined US$100,000,000, forfeiting US$210,000,000 worth of carbon credits, and spending a further US$50,000,000 on independent auditing of its current and future vehicles for understating lifetime C02 emissions and fuel economy on some of its models in the US.

And let's not talk about Hyundai and Kia being ordered to pay US$137,000,000 in fines and undertaking safety improvements because they moved too slowly to recall over 1 million vehicles with engines that can fail.

We also won't mention the current class action law suits these companies face here in Australia over the poor quality of some of their vehicle's components, or the fact Hyundai responded in court documents that it felt customers weren't entitled to any form of compensation for loss of value of their vehicles.

Oh the list the goes on, and I now don't doubt, the money into Cadogan's pocket.

 

[David S]

I'm curious as to why you are engaging in some 'drive-by' posting here. Only 5 posts and all in this thread within a few days of joining. Were you bored on the hols and triggered by some comment from Cadogan and found this via Google?

Do you have any interest in any form of French automotive product, or do we take up the welcome mat? It is a French Car Forum after all.

Among other things, I do have engineering in my background and I can't recall any engineering howler that Cadogan has blurted out, although I've watched his content only selectively over a period of years. Clearly he's very opinionated, the delivery grates at times, borders on being offensive at times, and he is playing to his perceived audience, but the content is generally fairly reasoned. I've no idea what proportion of his income is generated via Youtube, but his main business seems to be be brokering new car sales/leasing (he makes some good points on this) and the Youtube is probably seen partly as a promo for that. He has, of course, to be paid for that brokerage service somehow and you appear to be making some suggestions in that regard without providing any evidence. That's not acceptable and I am inclined to remove those suggestions.

The VW fines and costs are of a different order of magnitude to the others you mention. I would imagine Kia and Hyundai are likely to be on the hook again for their cars being very easily stolen (refer USA experience), rather like Range Rover (refer recent UK experience). I guess Cadogan picks and chooses the topics he wants to discuss to suit his own purposes, but you could simply ask him about the issues that concern you instead of involving this 3rd party website to air some grievances.

 

[chris hartwell]

I'm curious as to why you are engaging in some 'drive-by' posting here. Only 5 posts and all in this thread within a few days of joining. Were you bored on the hols and triggered by some comment from Cadogan and found this via Google?

Do you have any interest in any form of French automotive product, or do we take up the welcome mat? It is a French Car Forum after all.

Among other things, I do have engineering in my background and I can't recall any engineering howler that Cadogan has blurted out, although I've watched his content only selectively over a period of years. Clearly he's very opinionated, the delivery grates at times, borders on being offensive at times, and he is playing to his perceived audience, but the content is generally fairly reasoned. I've no idea what proportion of his income is generated via Youtube, but his main business seems to be be brokering new car sales/leasing (he makes some good points on this) and the Youtube is probably seen partly as a promo for that. He has, of course, to be paid for that brokerage service somehow and you appear to be making some suggestions in that regard without providing any evidence. That's not acceptable and I am inclined to remove those suggestions.

The VW fines and costs are of a different order of magnitude to the others you mention. I would imagine Kia and Hyundai are likely to be on the hook again for their cars being very easily stolen (refer USA experience), rather like Range Rover (refer recent UK experience). I guess Cadogan picks and chooses the topics he wants to discuss to suit his own purposes, but you could simply ask him about the issues that concern you instead of involving this 3rd party website to air some grievances.

Well said Sir, some people don't like to hear any opinion contrary to their own and so assume the person(J.C.) must be on the take from one or two favoured companies. He is doing these YT videos to proffer his opinion and needs to stand out from others who either straddle the fence or don't have a strong opinion one way or the other. He is obviously very successful doing this because we are discussing the merits , or otherwise ' of his show ' what better advertising could he wish for? Sometimes it is good for a broadcaster to actually make a strong statement, which JC clearly does. More power to him and as is often said,' if you don't agree with or like the person' don't watch.