One of the common questions I get asked is about press loans aka review vehicles. How does it work? What can you do, not do with them? Are you supposed to say something positive or you'll never get them?
I'll try to clear some of these things up.
First, a press loan comes from the manufacturer through a third-party company we call press loan companies (shocking name!). They facilitate the loan and they work with journalists and automakers. It is like match making getting the journalists the vehicles they need while getting the manufacturer coverage they want.
Automaker order vehicles and build them with the features, styling or whatever they want to showcase for that particular model year. They then have them built and shipped around the country. There's like 7-8 major hubs for vehicles (major cities L.A. Denver, New York, Chicago, etc...). After these vehicles hit over 10,000 miles they ship them to an auction house.
Journalists have no real say in how those vehicles are built and with what features they have. We get assigned vehicles from whatever is available in the press loan fleet in the major city they get vehicles from.
For example, I get vehicles from Denver much like TFL and about 15-20 others.
Here is an example list:
2023 Lexus LX 600 Ultra Luxury
12/15/23 to 12/22/23
2024 Hyundai Kona
12/22/23 to 12/29/23
2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz XRT AWD
12/29/23 to 01/05/24
2024 Mazda CX-90 S Premium Plus
01/05/24 to 01/12/24
2024 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid Max Platinum
01/12/24 to 01/19/24
I get the vehicles for 7 days, as you can see. They bring them up from Denver and do a swap at my house. I don't have to wash them, clean the interior or put fuel in them unless I run it so empty the person picking it up can't make it to a gas station or charging station if its electric.
The rules are typically a mileage limit of 500 miles, no smoking and no dogs. I can do whatever else I'd like albeit if I do something illegal the ticket is on me.
For me, I don't try to go too crazy and I definitely don't try to go so crazy off-road I break something. Why? Most of these vehicles are early production models which means if I break something parts are hard to come by and the other people scheduled in the vehicle miss out. For example, there was once a very early production sedan somebody scuffed a wheel on a parking curb. It sat in the shop for 6 months waiting for a wheel and the automaker had to send another model. That broken sedan just got sent to auction and it was a loss for everyone.
What about the review itself? Do I have to only say nice things? Well, if you know me, you know that's not the case. The fact is I try to be balanced. Every vehicle has its good and bad and people like vehicles for a ton of different reasons.
Besides overly positive or overly negative reviews don't help consumers who may be interested in a vehicle. They want to know the good and bad. So do manufacturers. They want to improve their product and to do so they need feedback.
When I'm done with a press loan, I have to produce a clip. A clip is either a link to a website article or a YouTube video or newspaper if you are still doing a column. Automakers just want something that shows you talked about the vehicle good, bad or otherwise.
For me, the clip is to my benefit as a business. I mean that's a fresh video or website post for you to read and for me to make a few pennies off of for advertising. BTW, I don't have any say over advertising either.
Let me know what questions you have and I'll try to clarify things more.
I'll try to clear some of these things up.
First, a press loan comes from the manufacturer through a third-party company we call press loan companies (shocking name!). They facilitate the loan and they work with journalists and automakers. It is like match making getting the journalists the vehicles they need while getting the manufacturer coverage they want.
Automaker order vehicles and build them with the features, styling or whatever they want to showcase for that particular model year. They then have them built and shipped around the country. There's like 7-8 major hubs for vehicles (major cities L.A. Denver, New York, Chicago, etc...). After these vehicles hit over 10,000 miles they ship them to an auction house.
Journalists have no real say in how those vehicles are built and with what features they have. We get assigned vehicles from whatever is available in the press loan fleet in the major city they get vehicles from.
For example, I get vehicles from Denver much like TFL and about 15-20 others.
Here is an example list:
2023 Lexus LX 600 Ultra Luxury
12/15/23 to 12/22/23
2024 Hyundai Kona
12/22/23 to 12/29/23
2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz XRT AWD
12/29/23 to 01/05/24
2024 Mazda CX-90 S Premium Plus
01/05/24 to 01/12/24
2024 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid Max Platinum
01/12/24 to 01/19/24
I get the vehicles for 7 days, as you can see. They bring them up from Denver and do a swap at my house. I don't have to wash them, clean the interior or put fuel in them unless I run it so empty the person picking it up can't make it to a gas station or charging station if its electric.
The rules are typically a mileage limit of 500 miles, no smoking and no dogs. I can do whatever else I'd like albeit if I do something illegal the ticket is on me.
For me, I don't try to go too crazy and I definitely don't try to go so crazy off-road I break something. Why? Most of these vehicles are early production models which means if I break something parts are hard to come by and the other people scheduled in the vehicle miss out. For example, there was once a very early production sedan somebody scuffed a wheel on a parking curb. It sat in the shop for 6 months waiting for a wheel and the automaker had to send another model. That broken sedan just got sent to auction and it was a loss for everyone.
What about the review itself? Do I have to only say nice things? Well, if you know me, you know that's not the case. The fact is I try to be balanced. Every vehicle has its good and bad and people like vehicles for a ton of different reasons.
Besides overly positive or overly negative reviews don't help consumers who may be interested in a vehicle. They want to know the good and bad. So do manufacturers. They want to improve their product and to do so they need feedback.
When I'm done with a press loan, I have to produce a clip. A clip is either a link to a website article or a YouTube video or newspaper if you are still doing a column. Automakers just want something that shows you talked about the vehicle good, bad or otherwise.
For me, the clip is to my benefit as a business. I mean that's a fresh video or website post for you to read and for me to make a few pennies off of for advertising. BTW, I don't have any say over advertising either.
Let me know what questions you have and I'll try to clarify things more.