Novice on automobiles, this proves to be a best magazine. Their columns of auto glossary, case study on wheels, first ride etc are very new to market.
However as a subscriber of Overdrive from Feb 99, I am extremely dissatisfied on the columns of Overdrive, especially now days & I have written to Adil regarding this.
When Overdrive started, they were extremely good and the reviews were excellent and were true. When Santro and Matiz was introduced, the review which was written in Overdrive was the first step of my dissatisfaction. They rated Santro very badly and Matiz to be wonderful. But over the years Santro has proved well, and if it were according to what Overdrive then Santro would have not been in picture. One thing to observe here is that, Santro’s personnel had written to Overdrive about the bad review and Overdrive’s justification on this. These were published in Overdrive.
Next, Overdrive, having established a good establishment is very much biased. Earlier when CBZ was launched, they played a major role in talking big on that bike, next when Fierro was launched, a big brat on Fierro, next about Rx135 5 speed, they just did a road test. When Pulsar is release, they have a big mouth on Pulsar.
The most irritating factor is that is about the latest comparison on Pulsar 180, CBZ 156, Fierro 140 and Rx 132 CC comparison and rating Rx to be the one with lowest fun factor on riding. Obviously they rated Pulsar 180 CC to be the winner. When I asked the editor about why such a bad comparison is made, they try to confuse by telling track riding is different, we aren’t biased to be on market etc. Everyone knows Pulsar 150 is on market, then why not use that in this testing ? They have insulted Yamaha so much in that particular column(also in the past), so much. Also now Enticer has been released, but no review on Enticer, but when Eliminator was launched, they had a big mouth with that and even before it was released they gave a road testing and gave good ratings.
They compared Eliminator with Thunderbird 500 CC(Bullet), they had to agree that Bullet was a better one, but their columnist was clever enough not to mention that directly, instead they said ’’Bullet is a classic and Eliminator is modern’’.
Anyway, I have lost much hope from Overdrive, which I’m in the process of writing to Adil asking his justification on such biased comparisons, if they continue with such biased testings, I would however withdraw my membership from them even before next year.
Ganesh .R