You’re an established motoring journalist. You get invited by Porsche to test the new Porsche Cayenne EV. It’s an all-expenses-paid trip to a sunny destination—flights covered, five-star hotel, all the food and drink you could want.

That’s the life of a motoring journalist.

And then you turn around and criticise your host. That’s the issue. A real issue. But apparently not for Autogefühl, who was treated like royalty by Porsche, only to say the Cayenne is too expensive—which is just another way of saying, “don’t buy it.”

When you attend these press launches, there’s an unspoken expectation to please your host, even if no one explicitly pressures you. Most motoring journalists will, metaphorically speaking, cover a wound with a plaster for the sake of maintaining access.

Here’s an example. At a BMW driving event in Oxfordshire, a few years ago, UK, things followed the usual format: a press briefing to start. My colleague openly said, “The press briefing? You mean a mind-control session,” right in front of BMW staff.

We knew that might mean permanent exclusion, but we didn’t care. We never received another invite again.

Now, Autogefühl is far more diplomatic—and more professional. But to his credit, actually did his job: he exercised critical thinking without fear.

In modern journalism, being part of the tribe often seems more important than practising journalism itself.