Same Photo but 6 Months Apart

Dec 12 2012

(taken at a desk at BHG – they manage fleets of press cars)

In the fall of 2011, when I was getting press car after car, I decided it was full blog steam ahead, in one direction – I chose cars.

When I returned in May, from living in the States, I was right back to driving a different car every week. I took the June photo above, then tucked it away under, ‘future collage’; waiting for when I felt I could back it up.

As of Today:

– auto team member of one of our largest newspapers
– 3 months of my weekly opinion column, ‘Keri on Driving’
– news articles every week
– first proper, detailed car review done
– hit my goal of testing $1 million worth of cars ($1,096,300) by end-of-year
– might hold the nation’s record for ‘longest duration with the same press car’ (4 weeks)
– probably produced, single-handlely, more content for Honda Canada than anyone else, this year
– 1 AJAC ‘Test Fest’
– 5 mini-track days
– 1 huge track day, that turned out to be an airport, COMEon

BOOM.

And that’s that. Now I am an official Auto Journalist.

I removed “New” from my bios, the occasion has been documented with this post, now, on to the next.

Titles mean: work harder

Drive more cars, get faster at writing news pieces; have better consistency; maybe take an engine class; I found my opinion voice, now find my review voice. Then guys, I think where I can really bring it all together, is: car adventure videos. That’s what I’m daydreaming of, these past pensive weeks.

Thanks for cheering me on over the years, please keep doing that.

Understanding ‘Car of the Year’ Testing & Results

Oct 31 2012

AJAC – Auto Journalist Association of Canada – hosts this annual event, ‘Test Fest.’

They bring in 180+ new model vehicles, and auto writers from across Canada, to the Niagara Falls Drive Centre, for a full week of testing and voting to determine ‘Car of the Year‘.

(read my original ‘Test Fest’ post here)

This is the vehicle I’m driving in the video, the all-new Mercedes B250.

Nice car, it is a Mercedes, and note the asterisks:

That’s how you choose drive, park, neutral; different eh.

It’s billed as a “family car”, but I don’t understand where all the stuff goes, the stuff that comes along with a family. This car would work best if your family also had a van, too.

As a new auto journalist, this was my first time at ‘Test Fest’, and was blown away by the logistics, and high level of authenticity of it all.

So I wrote about it for this week’s ‘Keri on Driving’ column.

(read it online here)

Favourite Line:

The last one – “Even I wouldn’t listen to me”

29 years of results are posted http://www.AJAC.ca. Go search your car, see how it fared.

***

Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

AJAC #TestFest 2013 and ‘Car of the Year’

Oct 26 2012

Taken atop the Honda RV.

What is Test Fest?

Test Fest – over seventy of Canada’s top automotive writers meet to evaluate hundreds of new model vehicles over a four-day period.

Their purpose? Based on back-to-back comparative testing, select the “best new” vehicles in several categories as well as an overall Canadian Car of the Year and Truck of the Year. The testing program includes “real world” driving on public roads — where you, the consumer, drives.

Daily updates are provided that include photographs, interviews and editorial.

At the end of ‘TestFest’, the comparative test data generated by the journalist experts is posted to this web site for your use as a resource buying guide. -from the website.

I tested 3 cars.

Subaru BRZ

Dodge Dart

Mercedes-Benz B250

I videod throughout the day, will edit this weekend.

‘Test Fest’ and ‘Car of the Year’ are hosted by AJAC – Auto Journalist Association of Canada. It’s Canada’s best auto journalists gathered together, AJAC is serious. I’m not a member (yet), and was there during ‘Open Media Afternoon’, so I didn’t think I’d be attending the award ceremony. But I lucked out! But I didn’t have a change of clothes.

Here’s me before walking into a sea of cocktail attire. Remember, I’m the new kid.