Car related cringe

[mik]

I had to iron something this morning, and made the mistake of popping the telly box on. Daytime TV. Eww.

So it was “Steph’s Packed Lunch”. I encourage you to take a look - on C4 you can watch it on the player thingy - there was an item approx 7mins in that was “Everything You Need To Know Before Buying A Used Car” with a lady called Abigail Andre who is a car TikTok star personality person apparently. She made me actually shout at the telly

The most important thing is to check for dents and scratches. Next most important is to check the lights. Make sure you have someone with you who can check that the brake lights are coming on.

In relation to tyres, her advice was to take along a 20p piece and put it into the tread - “you shouldn’t be able to see the border”. They tried to show this on camera for ages and failed. Didn’t mention the treadwear indicators - presumably because not awares - before advising that the rear (tyres) will always wear more than the fronts. Erm.

I get that she is an influencer yada yada, but don’t understand how anyone can go on national TV and give advice on a topic they clearly know nothing about?? Weird.

[jamcg]

I’d say the most important thing is before you even go- look at hpi stuff and mot records- if there’s any inconsistency in the mileage or a write off shows up that’s not in the ad don’t even bother going

[Gavster]

I get that she is an influencer yada yada, but don’t understand how anyone can go on national TV and give advice on a topic they clearly know nothing about?? Weird.

Because TV's first priority is 'personality' over anything else, as you have researchers and producers who can write any script. I did TV presenter training with the same people as Abigail and they couldn't have cared less about subject matter expertise, the only thing that mattered was how bubbly, over-friendly, chatty, gay or another protected characteristic, unconfrontational, attractive and provincial you are.

For all I know I could have bombed the entire course and they would have told me I was amazing to my face, it was so fake.

I remember hearing a story about when David Coulthard joined the F1 commentary team, apparently at the first team meeting after the show, everyone was doing the usual TV circle-jerk about how fantastic they all were. David butted in with a critical questions, simply asking "what did we do wrong?" so that they could find ways to improve. Everyone was stunned, because apparently being critical about how you can improve is heresy in TV. The egos must be soooooo fragile

[mik]

Fair points Gav.

Adding a link to add context : Monday 08-May show. Approx 7mins in.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/stephs-packed-lunch

[240PP]

Fair points Gav.

Adding a link to add context : Monday 08-May show. Approx 7mins in.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/stephs-packed-lunch

‘Check that the doors open’ FFS


ETA reminds me of this