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Comment by stirlo | Hacker News Reader

They did put this to their audience in a poll back in 2017[1] and the results overwhelmingly said to accept the car manufacturers invitation. The fact they asked publicly and run with full disclosure makes them far better than their peers imo.

[1]https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/03/ars-asks-how-do-you-fee...

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They should indicate the nature of the deal in front of every car article, so that people aren't mislead into thinking they are reading a neutral review. Approximately no current reader knows about a six year old article. The way they are currently doing it is deceptive.

> They should indicate the nature of...

Isn't that exactly what they have done? Peeking at yesterday's Ars article about a Mercedes SUV - right at the top of it I see a really, really obvious box with this text:

"Mercedes-Benz provided a flight from DC to San Diego and a return from Los Angeles, plus four nights in hotels so we could drive the AMG EQE SUV as well as see the Vision One-Eleven and drive the AMG S-Class. Ars does not accept paid editorial content."

And their bottom-line conclusion about that car is probably not what Mercedes was hoping for, either:

"I'm not sure this EV makes a particularly compelling case for itself, except for the fact that it will appeal to the kind of person who wants to walk into a Mercedes dealership to buy the most expensive one."

So - where's the deception?

This one looks different:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/06/driving-lotus-new-emira...

Overly positive, all car photos right from the marketing department, no disclaimer that the thing might be sponsored in any way.

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