Can someone who knows cars tell me how valuable Doug Demuro's analysis is? I appreciate him as an entertainer but have no way to determine if what he's saying about the cars he reviews is accurate and/or useful.
His analyses are generally pretty good for things you notice and interact with everyday (like another user mentioned, the quirks and features). He knows when he sees bad quality, mistakes, and oversights in a car's UI/UX and design.
However, his opinion is usually based on a few days of driving and using the car, and does not reflect how ownership of the car will actually pan out. He attempts to take this into account with his "daily doug score". But by no means is this entirely accurate, and is more so a reasonable estimate based on the manufacturers history, that model, and consumer reviews.
I generally take his analyses as "This is what I thought after driving the car for a few days" and is based on his opinion, his preferences, and his thoughts. I would take his opinion into account for a rental car, but not so much when it comes to owning a car for its lifetime.
He generally owns luxury cars or sports cars that are out of reach for most people, and I'm sure he has spent a lot of money on them (although it may be worth it if they appreciate in value). He has a different need in cars than I, and probably than most people.
His videos are more about the "quirks and features" as he describes, rather than an in-depth analysis of the model history, its driving dynamics, and the overall engineering. He's not a race or performance driver and doesn't have the same track experience, and only spends a short time with the car (often just a day or two) so doesn't really have a long-term perspective on it.
The videos are a great and fun overview of all the little details that you might not know unless you're an owner, but it serves better as an addon to a more thorough review elsewhere of the actual driving technology and experience. SavageGeese, Remove Before Race, Carfection are good channels to follow.
In some ways sure, but I think that depends entirely on the car, and I think driving experience is definitely still important to consider, especially for sports cars or electric vehicles.
It's more to say he doesn't spend a month living with a car so it's usually surface level details like a weird UI rather than explaining how the transmission affects the fuel and comfort in daily commutes.
Doug Demuro is a car guy. He's not an idiot and he does know what he's talking about. Of course he tries to make it entertaining, but he's not pulling anything out of his ass.
I would be more interested in Randy Pobst's opinion on handling and performance, but Doug is certainly equal to any other bog-standard auto journalist.
Not really much value. You don't have to be an expert, he's not definitely from the field and his analysis are not really much deep. That doesn't mean that he's a cool entertainer and his info is also useful.
