Mid-Engine Comparison Test on Total Car Score (my new website)

[ENZO BTR]

First, I want to say I've confirmed with my good friend, Mr. Bannister, that it's okay to tell you all about my new website on the Ford GT Forum. I know how annoying promotional posts can be, so I'll try to make this quick and just hope this site genuinely serves you in your future automotive research.

As many of you know I've been a member of the this amazing forum since shortly after I purchased my Midnight Blue Ford GT on August 23rd, 2005. At the time I was the Editor in Chief of Edmunds.com and the car was featured in many stories on Edmunds and its performance site (Inside Line). I'm still quite thrilled with the Ford GT Factory Tour video I put together showing every major step of the car's build process (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE06_-Hp84M). The Ford GT versus GT4 (Gran Turismo 4) story was pretty fun too. http://www.insideline.com/ford/gt/2006/ford-gt-vs-gt4-introduction.html

For those who care, my GT has crossed 23,000 miles and is still going strong. It made a great ride from Los Angeles to Denver and back for my 20-year high school reunion. LOVE THESE CARS!!!

Anyway, I left Edmunds over a year ago and built a new site called Total Car Score (www.totalcarscore.com). A simple description of the site would be: Rotten Tomatoes for Cars. You can see a full description of the site here: http://www.totalcarscore.com/what-is-totalcarscore

Basically, I've combined the ratings from all the authoritative automotive resources into a single Total Car Score to give people an instant "industry assessment" of a car. This means you can pull up any vehicle (back to model year 2000) and find out what the rating was for the car from all the major automotive review and ratings sources. I only used sites that had meaningful ratings systems, meaning not-so-good cars get not-so-good ratings and really good cars get really good ratings. As you probably know, plenty of publications out there give almost every car a "B" grade, so those "authorities" aren't part of the scoring system. The site also has one of the best photo players you'll see online, plus links back to every source site and even non-scoring sites that have road tests, owner's manuals and other items related to a specific year/make/model vehicle.

Total Car Score will also being doing original road tests and comparison tests, and we recently posted an Audi R8 V10 versus Ferrari 458 Italia comparison test (photos above). http://www.totalcarscore.com/car-reviews/comparison-tests/audi-r8-versus-ferrari-458-italia

We've got another comparison test coming up with a Porsche 911 Carrera S taking on the C63 AMG Black Series and a CTS-V Coupe.

Thanks for your time guys, and sorry if this feels overtly self-promotional. I hope both the scoring system and the original content at Total Car Score might be of interest to you, whether you're shopping for your next car or just curious about how your current fleet measures up. Happy to answer any questions you have.

Karl

 

[Superfly]

Cool looking website Karl. I'm sure I'd have found it eventually, but as you've been given DBK's blessing to promote it here, I'm glad you did. Looking forward to reading some good information, and I wish you the best of luck in your internet (ad)venture.

 

[STORMCAT]

Good Luck with the new site Karl. I'm going to check it out now.... ld:

 

[skyrex]

Best of luck with the new venture. :thumbsup:thumbsup I am sure it will turn out great and look forward to checking in regularly.

I know I have told you this before, but your long term test was a big factor in my decision to buy my first FGT. (I also enjoyed the long term test on the 550 you guys had) Through two GT's and more fun than I could ever imagine having in a car it is the one car decision I never regretted. :cheers

 

[JJayB]

Good luck with the venture, but really a 77.10 for an FGT! Glad I passed on the Mclaren MP4 as it only got a 79. Heading to my Ford dealer to grab a Escape hybrid and a killer rating of 83!

 

[ENZO BTR]

Yes, the scores for exotics can be a bit iffy simply because there are so few ratings available for them. The 2005 Ford GT only has two ratings available, and the system requires at least five to have a validated Total Car Score (though three or four ratings count as a preliminary Total Car Score).

Thanks for the supportive words and well wishes guys. It was a bit daunting to walk away from a 13-year career at Edmunds to try something totally new, but risk/reward, you only live once, better to try and fail than to never try at all, blah-blah-blah. Personally I like Steve Jobs' advice: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

We've only been live since March 1st, but traffic has doubled every month. To quote a couple dozen 1970s TV shows, "I've got an idea. It's a crazy plan...but it just might work..."

 

[MartynL]

Best of luck, Karl. I had waited to chat with you (along with your pal Scott Oldham) at the NY Auto Show while you were being interviewed on a radio show, but got pulled way before you finished. Glad to hear you still have your FGT. I got mine last November and am still in lust with it!
Marty

 

[gtinmyblood]

Best of luck in your new venture! I wish you great success!

 

[JAYGT]

Cool stuff