Jalopnik's Reign over the Everyday Enthusiast

I posted yesterday about an article on the car blog Jalopnik and thought I'd share some of the similarities and differences between our 2 blogs. I've been following Jalopnik since about 2009 and have seen the site grow from more of a niche blog to one that competes directly with the established automotive publications such as Motor Trend and Car and Driver. Despite its best efforts, Jalopnik has went from a site with a few loyal followers to one that appeals to the "mass" automotive community. While I still enjoy the content on Jalopnik, I feel that they have traded some of their boldness of content for writing that appeals to a much bigger audience. This is not to say that I wouldn't do the same thing, the ability to gain thousands more followers and build a larger community is almost always worthwhile. I, however, miss the days of Jalopnik writers telling it like it is regardless of what car companies or others felt. This is the niche that EverydayAutoEnthusiast will try to fill. One of the first things readers will notice is my advocacy of manual transmissions. If a car is not offered with a stick, I am not interested in it. This was something I noticed with "old" Jalopnik that I rarely see in their more recent blog posts. While dual-clutch automatics and torque converters have certainly gotten better and may have turned former manual-lovers to the dark side, I believe that writers are afraid to offend those enthusiasts who like autos. Also missing in newer material are the inside jokes that only loyal followers will understand. One specifically that comes to mind is the "pretty sure that's a lambo, dude" quote from the bugatti crashing into a lake video. This became a sort of inside joke within the Jalopnik community and the blog began to use the phrase to describe any new super car. While the joke ran a bit too long in the comments section, its one of the things I miss from the "old" Jalopnik.