Automotive journalist aka kiss ass

Hey, it's Tim Esterdahl. I got tagged by another member for an issue on this forum, so I thought I'd hop on. Also got called a kiss ass, so I had to make an account and reply. LOL.

 

Welcome from OKC! Enjoy your stay!

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Welcome! But is it the real Tim…….

 

Welcome to the forum. As a public figure of sorts I'm sure you're used to and ready for the barbs and prods that will be thrown your way. Brace yourself. LOL

Regardless of loving or hating your content, I'm glad to see someone who has access to Toyota who can relay concerns and questions popping up on the forum. True, this forum is just a small subsection of Tundra owners, but it's a solid representation of those customers that fall outside the generic family wagon/weekend homeowner truck buyers that Toyota primarily targets. I'm hoping that you can amplify some of the enthusiast concerns (and wants) because the heavily citified versions Toyota offers are much less capable of the enthusiast tasks than a more enthusiast oriented truck would be capable of the citified tasks.

I'd also suggest you pop over to the Chat with Staff section to see if you'd be given a green light to have a duplicate account. You may get more honest info and opinions, or just get to hang out like the average owners on here, more so than if you are known as "that yootoob guy" and such.




TLDR: Welcome! Hope you can convince Toyota that enthusiast interests matter too! More importantly, I hope you enjoy your time here in the best Toyota community around!

 

I enjoy your YouTube channel. Thanks for the content there.

 

Welcome to the site Tim. I’m a fan of your content especially when it involves Tundras. Appreciate that you tell it like is good and bad!!!

 

Oh, I think I recognize this guy...

 

No idea who you are and I’m too lazy to look it up. Welcome aboard regardless, you’ll find all kinds here. If you can take a joke I’m sure you’ll fit right in.

 

I have no idea who you are….and frankly don’t care as long as you contribute to the forum. Good or bad; positive or negative. Not sure why you would be considered a kiss ass but whatever - have fun, post content and I look forward to your participation

 

I think the general feeling is that journalists have to be kiss asses to be able to review manufacturers new cars. God forbid they say something the manufacturer doesn’t like and get black balled. Ferrari is famous for this btw.

 

Because that's what many journalists do to make money... kiss whatever and whoever, wherever, to make a buck. Not saying Tim is, just that such an opinion about automotive journalists is not uncommon. Tim is a tundra fan, so I suppose he gets called a fanboy for it, just as anybody who decides they like a particular brand or vehicle gets called a shill for promoting such.

 

Welcome. Who's ass did you kiss?

 

I think the vast majority of us on here could be called fanboys so he should fit right in

 

Welcome from LA (Lower Alabama)!

 

#nailedit

 

Engineer. I didn't ask the common forum questions I guess.

 

Ok, you got me curious. Why the opinion on automotive journalists?

 

WElcome from another subscriber. I wouldn't call you a kiss ass and can't even say for sure whose ass you've been accused of kissing. I have a few content related critiques and items I disagree with you on which is going to be the same with any youtuber but have always found you to be honest and blunt and worth watching overall. Good to have you. Your comparisons of the Gen3 Tundra to the newest F150 based on long term wheel time were particularly relevant and helpful to me as I was in a Gen2 waiting for the Gen3 then ended up defecting to a Powerboost.

 

Always open to constructive feedback. I tend to be my harshest critic and always trying to find things to improve on.

 

Again, not saying this is the opinion I hold of your particular journalistic endeavors or accusing you of an of the following conduct, but the way marketing has changed with the introduction of social media and influencers makes it easy for companies to push sub-par products and promote and tout them as superior fruits while circumventing traditional product proving methods. As an influencer or journalist that uses social media like YouTube, popularity and quick dopamine hits reign supreme, so in order to grow a channel or a person's clout in such a community, the easy path to money is to say things that are popular, trendy, hip, cool, or exciting. So it is easy to present the flash and sizzle and ignore the nuts and bolts, especially if there is an issue with a product. If a person is being paid or compensated to promote a product, they are much less likely to criticize or lambast it. Such behavior would dissuade other companies from contracting with those journalists or promoters to review their products, thereby putting the journalists livelihood in jeopardy. Jeopardizing one's livelihood for speaking truth or at least honest opinion is detrimental to the core values of a society.

Ya, that got kinda deep, but I guess to simplify it: the lines between journalists and influencers is often very blurry, so trust is harder to earn when the impetus for such promotion is suspect.

That said, it is hard to eliminate bias in any form, anywhere. You appear to like Toyota's. I do, as well. That's why I drive a tundra and doubled down with a sequoia for my wife. That's just food for the trolls that live under the virtual bridges of the inter webs who refuse to acknowledge their own biases and faults while pointing out the perceived faults of others. I also acknowledge that these are problems are not new, and that they have existed ever since the words 'marketing' and 'advertising' were invented. I also realize that some of statements above are presented with opinion and without exhaustive reams of 'proof' to validate my statements. But I am just some random guy on the internet.

Keep doing your thing.

 

Greetings from the Black Hills, good to have you Tim. Even if you do choose to live in the terrible featureless void that is Nebraska.

Haters are gonna hate.

They see you rollin’ they hate’n.

 

Welcome from Texas!

 

Back in the day before influencing was a thing, I installed home theaters for fun. I often had conversations with friends and family about the pros and cons of certain products, then came the evolution of the sound bars and all in one systems and now there is 13.2 systems……blah blah blah. I routinely tried to talk them all out of Bose products because it was my opinion that they were exponentially overpriced pieces of garbage that had a marketing campaign that was tough to counter. COULD a Bose system good? Sure. But could you get more for less? Absolutely!!!!

anyway I say all this to say that influencers who aren’t fanboys won’t make any money. There is a difference between blind loyalty in spite of the facts vs truth telling and honest assessments. Toyota isn’t paying anyone to bash their product, just as Bose would have never paid me to represent their product. But if you are fair, honest and provide productive criticism you will gain people’s respect even if you don’t make as much money as a kiss ass. I say keep doing your thing - and understand that honesty is the best policy in whatever review you’re giving!!!! lol

 

FWIW, most journalists despise influencers. There’s actually been such an uproar over influencers that manufacturers have separate “waves” or days that influencers can be there on their own. Influencers and journalists are like oil and water.

Myself? I don’t mind. Influencers are there to make a living and I am too. My work is simply different than their work. I call a dog a dog and they put lipstick on the dog. Different things.

Good on you to see that and call it for what it is.

 

LOL. I’m 3 hours south of you and it isn’t exactly a “terrible featureless void.” My family vacations up in Rapid and I make it to the Southern Hills Golf course a few times a year.

 

“Joke ‘em if they can’t take a f***”

 

I’d offer to play golf next time you’re in town (I’m in Hot Springs) but I don’t play golf. Instead I scream obscenities, shank golf balls everywhere, and throw clubs in fits of rage.

I’ll stick with using my play money to make steel targets ring. That is getting expensive enough…

 

Nah his review was quite fair. Probably a bit generous in my estimation.

Tim’s criticisms were, and remain valid and accurate. The fact the new Tacoma appears to be so good whereas the 3rd Gen Tundra not so much just shows where Toyota’s R&D $$$ is going.

They play in the 1/2 ton pickup truck market to humor Toyota North America, but the real money and talent is used for global vehicles like the Hi-Lux which is so closely related to the Tacoma.