Motor Trend's Most Disappointing Cars and SUVs We Drove in 2020

[Rocksalt]

This truck works for me... hauls wood... hauls hardware store stuff... hauls landscaping stuff...oh.. is also DD and oh by the way... a fun convertible... hmmm

Sponsored

 

[MrFahrenheit]

I don’t think they said anything that isn’t true of the gladiator. If you wanted only a midsize truck, some other the other options could be better. For instance you could get a nicely optioned Crew cab Colorado with a 6’ bed for around 40K MSRP. That would do as much truck stuff or more than the Gladiator for the same or less money.

And if you do want to Off road a bunch the Wrangler certainly is going to be better at it.

I think the only thing I don’t really agree with in their description is that the Gladiator is a disappointment. @AustinL911 hit the nail on the head saying it’s a Jack of all trades. Of course it’s going to sacrifice some off road capability for utility and vice versa. I feel like they just threw the Gladiator up there as filler. Even the guy writing the article says he didn’t know what he was expecting from the gladiator but he still think it’s a disappointment. If you don’t have an expectation, then how can something meet or not meet it?

 

[DanW]

https://www.motortrend.com/features...pointing-cars-trucks-suvs-we-drove-this-year/

Too long for off roading and too short bed for hauling, that's their big disappointments for the Gladiator to make the list?? I've not been a Jeeper for very long, but that seems really nitpicky.

More BS from the same guys who couldn't drive a JL Rubi manual with 4.10s and the best crawl ratio of any stock Jeep ever made without stalling it.

Too long to offroad. Right.

Those guys are only happy with paddle shifters and autopilot. They enjoy cars, not off-roading. They think the new Land Rover Discovery is great, too. And they'll call the JT too long whild lavishing the Power Wagon with praise for its off-road abillity. These folks are experts at talking and writing, and I think my teenagers can even outperform them in that arena, too.

One of them even admitted that they've forgotten how to use a clutch, so I don't know what makes them experts on the Gladiator or off-roading for that matter. They need to spend alot more time with it before passing judgment. More than going over a curb and through some grass by the parking lot at their office complex. The more time you spend with this truck, the more impressive it is. In fact, I think it maneuvers in tight places as well as my JKUR. The steering on the JT and JL is much tighter than the JK. So I'd call it a draw with the JK that even Motor Trend would admit is a badass off-roader.

The top two pictures are from the Daniel Boone Backroad Byway. Nothing but tight trails, and I mean TIGHT. The second pic is probably the widest trail we saw in two days and all of our Jeeps had pin stripes to show for it. The Gladiator got through everything my JLUR did. Sure it sometimes had to back up, but it never failed to navigate the tightest of trails. Its wheelbase actually was an advantage on the big rock in that picture. I had a much harder time getting over it than he did. Both of us had the same amount of lift and were running 35's. Of 20 Jeeps, only 1 got over it better than that Gladiator. It was a TJ on 37's with a VERY experienced driver.

The next shot was my brother's stock Gladiator at Turkey Bay ORV at Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky. He had one or two spots where he had to back up and turn and one where I had to which his back end over to get through. But overall, I was blown away by what he did and where he went. Stock Rubicon. No lift. No BS. He's crazy, too, so he tried stuff I only did after seeing that he didn't wreck or break anything.

Every 4wd has its limits but sometimes those can be advantages in certain situations. That long wheelbase is a godsend for steep hills, for example.

Motor Trend can go honk themselves. They don't know what they are talking about, especially with off roading. And they've got a long history of picking winners that turned out to be losers and losers that turned out to be winners. Journalists. Nothing more.

 

[FoxForce4]

There was a time when the only way you got a review on something was either from someone you knew who owned it or from one of these mags.

Those days are long gone. There are hundreds of reviews that are more in depth from more knowledgable people available for free on YouTube and other places.

Just like every other type of journalism, once their privileged access to both stories and readers went away it became obvious how little they knew about the subjects they were “authoritatively” covering.

Clickbait is all that’s left. There’s a reason you see media layoffs regularly.

I don’t care that they didn’t like my truck, incidentally. More of a commentary on opinion and expertise generally in the media.

 

[redrider]

My truck does truck things pretty well within design limits. It hauls cargo, tows boats and rides well. Most of the time, it hauls my arse wherever I wish. Not a rally car or a stoplight hero. Just a truck. I knew that going in and did not need a sanctimonious blessing by a bunch of lacey shorts dweebs.

 

[DanW]

Just to further expose the ignorance and lack of experience that the MT writers showed to the entire off road world, check out this video. There is a huge log that a number of vehicles try to cross. All but one had to use a winch. Which didn't? The Gladiator. Why? The long wheelbase enabled the front tires to get enough traction to pull the rear over the log. And it didn't break a sweat, at all, doing it. So in this case, if MT staff had been along, every other vehicle would have been labled "Too short for off-roading."

Every 4wd has advantages, disadvantages, and compromises. The Gladiator Rubicon and Wrangler Rubicon have far fewer than most. I wish I could afford both and choose the one best suited for a particular trip. I can dream, right? Lol! Btw, what's Powerball up to now?

The Gladiator starts at 4:10. But if you want to see the full story, start where the first vehicle gets to the log. The shorter the wheelbase, the greater the struggle, in this case.

 

[Rummie]

Let me just answer them with a few random pictures from an easy google search.


Rubicon Trail:

Hauling plywood:

Carrying motorcycles:

Overlanding:

Pulling a boat:

Modern automotive journalism is in a sad state. Writers and editors are often judged on clicks rather than any traditional measures of good journalism. They are generally poorly paid hacks with a skillset geared towards the ability to get viewers to an article no matter how badly written. They are not paid to write well.

They love forums like this one because we inevitably have a sense of outrage at the unfairness of a posted article and we all click through to read it. I've taken to just ignoring them.

 

[DanW]

Let me just answer them with a few random pictures from an easy google search.


Rubicon Trail:

Hauling plywood:

Carrying motorcycles:

Overlanding:

Pulling a boat:

Modern automotive journalism is in a sad state. Writers and editors are often judged on clicks rather than any traditional measures of good journalism. They are generally poorly paid hacks with a skillset geared towards the ability to get viewers to an article no matter how badly written. They are not paid to write well.

They love forums like this one because we inevitably have a sense of outrage at the unfairness of a posted article and we all click through to read it. I've taken to just ignoring them.

Some of us don't take the click bait. I saw the quotes and that was enough. But you are spot-on.

 

[redrider]

If the 'net has given anything, it is the raw, uncut mentality of the masses exposing the gift of or lack of intelligent discourse. Retired now, I spent the last 12 years as an adjunct instructor and the overall decline of mental processing skills and the inability to think for oneself became so prevalent, my failure rate for most classes hovered around 50%. The sidewalk talk referred to modern education as "Adult Daycare".

 

[Xwelder]

I’ve said this before, but having known some car magazine editors, they are NOT experts on automobiles, but rather just a bunch of journalism majors that happen to like cars. (With the possible exception of the Roadkill guys). I don’t know how those magazines are still in existence with forums like this for real information.

 

[Willys2Gladiator]

Fake News!........

 

[BAT]

This truck works for me... hauls wood... hauls hardware store stuff... hauls landscaping stuff...oh.. is also DD and oh by the way... a fun convertible... hmmm

Exactly it hauls all the stuff I hauled in my Ram with no problems and does a bunch of stuff my Ram couldn't do. I haven't towed with it yet cause I got nothing to tow at this time. Not an off Roader much. But I do like to take the top and doors off when cruising the coast, etc.

 

[Tuggernuts]

To put this stupid article in context, this is the first car they bag on....

 

[Silvertruck]

Simple fix. Lift the gladiator, buy a utility trailer. Take top off. Boom. Most versatile truck on the planet. Motor Trend are a bunch of rubes.

 

[GladiSD]

Are you disappointed in your Gladiator? No? That’s all that matters.
If you are disappointed in your Gladiator, guess what the next step is? Sell it.

Bam. I just simplified your life.

Lemme give you an example of how little this matters. I bought a top-of-the-line 2019 TRD Pro Tacoma in Voodoo Blue last year. I bought it while I was living in Colorado where Tacomas(and subarus) are the holy grail of vehicle-dom. People would actually come up to me and tell me it was their “dream vehicle.” I dunno about you, but I have bigger dreams than that. Everyone in the automotive world praises the Tacoma. Bloggers, journalists, vloggers, and social-media comment boxers. For all intents and purposes I should have loved my Tacoma.

I HATED my Tacoma. Took me one year to “have enough” of its shortcomings and be fed-up with its “diet” truck feeling.

Everyone TOLD ME I should LOVE my Tacoma. People that didn’t even own a Tacoma would get defensive about them when I would would respond to their inquiries as to my satisfaction with the vehicle.

What’s all this ranting about? Moral of the story is....be happy with what you chose, IF you are indeed still happy with it. Don’t give a damn about parking lot warriors or internet thoughts about what makes you happy. You’ll live Longer.

(As an aside: If we all listened to what magazines told us to drive all this time, we’d all be in PT Cruisers right now and that car would be on its third generation at this point. Those the remember certain “Car of the Year” contests know what I’m talking about)

Sponsored