Motormouth: Carless whisper, there’s no comfort in the truth

There's no comfort in the truth - some carless motoring writers are in it for the new cars they get to “own” temporarily.

When I started as a motoring writer in 1995 with a storied Singapore motoring magazine called, uh, Motoring, I didn't have a motorcar of my own.

I was neither paid enough nor privileged enough to have a personal vehicle, other than the numerous scale models to my name, parked in my humble HDB bedroom.

I still believe, rightly or wrongly, that any self-respecting motoring journo should have his own motorised vehicle (four wheels or two) to be more credible. Even occasional usage of a family-shared runabout would be respectable, in my ancient opinion. 

Putting my motoring money where my motormouth is would hopefully boost my credibility as an automotive expert of some kind, not only among the readers who care about writers’ qualifications beyond road-testing and word-processing, but also among the car company executives who engage the local motoring media folks for content, communications and public relations, plus their professional/confessional opinions about cars, cars, cars.  

The creative equivalent on a lower scale would be a cycling website staffer who happily rates nice new bicycles for a living, but has never bought any out of his own pocket because he receives them FOC for testing/marketing purposes and has enough units lined up for his biking lifestyle. 

The creative equivalent on a higher scale would be a self-professed property guru who has never cut any real estate deal for his own home.

Of course, it’s hard for the average motoring writer in Singapore to have his own (costly) car, especially if he just started out - fresh from school education or previous random employment, which would probably be far less interesting than the proverbial dream job of “SG car reviewer”.

Said occupation tends to pay greasy peanuts for the poor petrolheads who love cars, like driving/describing them and dislike doing corporatey work which is less fun, even if it pays better. 

Maybe the dream work in question pays its own way by indulging the underpaid worker’s dream of assessing a great variety of cars he cannot otherwise access and sharing his thoughts about them.  

Full-timers powered by strong passion could survive on their weak salaries, supplemented by the catered food at car launches/showrooms and the complimentary Milo at office pantries. 

Most importantly, their personal transport needs/costs/wants would at least be partially covered by the media test-drive cars they review. 

Freelancers, however, would struggle a little, because the rates they get today from the automotive platforms which rarely need external editorial assistance and actually pay for it are a sad matrix of “freelunch” basis, fellowship and two-way favours. 

The survivable stringer days of earning 50 cents per published word in the car review plus another $150 or so for the useable photos he shot to accompany the article are over; replaced by low or sometimes no payments, ego-boosting bylines and plain gratitude. 

In a way, the carless motoring writer worth his salt should be thankful for the many new cars he is allowed to “own” temporarily for content creation.  

After all, his buddies working in other business sectors do not have such privileged access to shiny new automobiles. Capable valets who can handle all types of cars and chat about them are not counted in this case. 

This guy just quit/lost his job as a motoring writer and became carless again.

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