It's Time For the Long-winded Press Release to Die

One thousand, six hundred and fifty-three words.

That may not sound like a lot. The reviews and features we publish at TTAC routinely go beyond that. Alex Dykes, when he really sweats the details, can easily reach 3,000 words in his reviews. Jack, when he isn’t even trying, will end up writing 1,600 words on a Matrix — just because. My reviews will easily eclipse the 2,000 word mark, even as I sit here complaining about not knowing what to say.

But 1,653 words equals approximately 8 minutes and 12 seconds of reading time, according to Read-o-Meter. That also may not seem like much, but the latest press release for the “all-new 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS” is a massive time waster, even at its sub-10 minute read time.

Why? Because the only two things I learned from it were: Mercedes-Benz has renamed and slightly updated the GLS, and Mercedes-Benz writes press releases that are at least five times longer than they need to be.

Read more
  • Carson D A friend of mine is currently driving a Grand Wagoneer L Obsidian III, which boldly calls out its US production status twice by the time you're behind the wheel. I wonder what happens when products like that one share a showroom with ones that don't have any mention of production location.
  • Add Lightness The level 1 charger that came with my Toyota becomes a level 2 charger when fed 240v. 5 years now and works perfectly.
  • MaintenanceCosts All you people asking for an ICE version realize you'd need a longer hood and different rear packaging (for a fuel tank) to make it work, right?
  • Jalop1991 ah, the old "engaging!" trope. Isn't it funny how "I have to shift my own gears, it's so engaging" disappears the moment EVs come into play.
  • Kcflyer They should sell these to the kamala administration with a 1 billion dollar markup