KFeedbackButton

Home > Authors > Automotive > Cars > Dan Neil

Avg. rating

10

based on
2 ratings

Dan Neil

Los Angeles Times

#3 in Cars

Description:   Dan Neil is an automotive columnist for the Los Angeles Times, noted for his reviews of automobiles. Neil won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2004 for his column Rumble Seat. In 1999 Neil was named senior contributing editor for Expedia Travels, a glossy travel magazine. In September 2003 he took on the role of full-time columnist for the Los Angeles Times and quickly gained a following for his unique approach to automotive writing, which routinely incorporated criticism of Detroit automakers and U.S. government policies regarding emissions and safety regulation.

Neil began writing "800 Words," a column about pop culture, in February 2005 for the Los Angeles Times Magazine.

Context Ratings™

Target Audience

Novices
Car aficionados

Content

News
Reviews

Focus

Unrated
Pragmatic automobiles
High performance cars

What Scribnia users think:

Avg. rating

10

Cars, Politis, Policy

April 09, 2009

Neil is as good as they come in the business of
reviewing cars, and he has much material on many
specific models and brands, but then he is one of those
rare breeds that are as comfortable talking up politics
and policy as they are cars. But he does that without
diluting his original calling, the auto reviews.

By Webber

Avg. rating

10

All Cylinders

April 07, 2009

Dude, if you can find a better automotive writer than
Dan Neil, I'll eat that (quite nice-looking) hat I'm
wearing in my profile pic. Any lugnut can be a
motorhead. Throw that crankshaft into a college class,
you might get a crackerjack stylist. But to shift into
6th gear, and drive that lean beast of a review into
sociopolitical commentary on technology, style and car
culture in America? Give that guy a checker-flag and a
trophy. (He has several.)

Seriously. What can you say about an auto review that
begins like this --

"Utility is not luxurious. Luxury is nonfunctional.
Jimmy Choo stiletto sandals are, strictly speaking,
shoes, but their functionality is all but surrendered
to sex and gorgeousness. I for one am delighted. The
toughest, most versatile, hard-core watch in the world
is a Timex Ironman, but wearing one of these ugly
timepieces makes you look like a substitute gym
teacher..."

Dude calls the BMW X6 "About as useful as a laminated
pizza," a "Bavarian beef-alo, this callipygian
caribou." I mean, seriously, wow. This man takes the
English language off-road, and his tire-tracks look
like Michelangelo sculptures. His insightful
perspectives on automotive utility, economy, beauty and
performance are consistently situated within the
present era of peak oil and the evolution of the
internal-combustion engine, but he writes it all with
tremendous joy. Whatever he's writing, you're in the
driver's seat with him.

1 / 1 found this review helpful:

Reviews 1 - 2 out of 2

Similar Authors

Users who liked this author tended to like the following:

Browse categories

Click on the arrows in order to expand subcategories.

Community activity

Techsmurf - Scribnia.com
Critic - Level 1
Techsmurf - Scribnia.com
Explorer - Level 1
symboldreamer - Scribnia.com
Explorer - Level 1
ADD