When car manufacturers react sensitively
05/26/2020
Even a magazine like Automobil Revue, highly respected, famous and feared for its own opinions and the independent test results it produced itself in test reports, had to be reprimanded by car manufacturers from time to time. For example, the masters of the famous car brands did not like it at all when it was mentioned in an article that the rear light had already been used by cars from other manufacturers.
And even Peter Monterverdi could become quite rude if he was reproached for the mundane technical basis of his luxury cars.
It was also undesirable when performance figures fell short of the expectations communicated by the factory. In such cases, the chief developer would come all the way to prove to the obviously incompetent test drivers that it could be done faster. And if it didn't work after all, they would argue and insist on corrections because the measurement conditions did not correspond to the "norm". And word must also have gotten around that the test cars were often tweaked a little at the time so that the performance scattered upwards rather than downwards.
Perhaps this also explains a little why car brands in their own country (or in the neighborhood) often performed better in comparisons than abroad, after all, the production was closer and you could take the right car off the assembly line, which showed particularly good facilities.
