Drive Section was founded in June 2019 with the aim of delivering high-quality automotive and travel content that is produced completely independently and is totally unbiased.
From in-depth written and video reviews of both the newest cars to hit the market and past classics, the latest news in the automotive world that matters to enthusiasts and casual car fans alike, and features on the best driving roads Australia and the rest of the world have to offer – all delivered with a side-serving of creative photography and videography that showcases the beautiful vistas we encounter on our travels – producing creative content is our greatest passion.
Started by Patrick Jackson, an Adelaide-based motoring journalist with over six years of extensive experience producing content for a variety of radio, print, and online publications, what is currently a very small operation is something we hope to grow into a go-to reliable source of automotive knowledge. We also aim for it to be a companion – not a competitor – to the variety of other automotive publications out there, because as we see it, the more top-notch motoring content the better.
Currently, Drive Section operates primarily out of Adelaide, South Australia, but, where possible, we like to explore, gain insight into, and celebrate as many other parts of Australia and the rest of the world as we can, as cars and travel go hand-in-hand.
We are proud to be 100 percent independently owned and operated as independence is crucial to providing truly unbiased journalism. We will never accept any form of payment from a car manufacturer in return for writing a positive review of its vehicles.
To further ensure you are aware of anything that is provided to us, we will be sure to make a note of it wherever it’s relevant – from acknowledging who has lent us a car for the purpose of testing and for how long; any expenses such as tolls or fuel that have been paid for; any services that may have been provided by other businesses to assist with the production of our content; and even if we find ourselves being flown to and catered for at the launch event for a new vehicle, which would be financially unviable to regularly do otherwise. We’ll happily disclose that information so that you are aware of it and have the knowledge that it has not affected our evaluation of a vehicle in any way.
We hope you’ll accompany us as this site continues to grow and produce more content that builds up enthusiasm for the world of cars and travel, and inspires and informs our readers. We hope you enjoy and learn from all the great content we have all across this website so far and what we have in the pipeline, and thank you for your support across social media, too – on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at drivesectionquestions@gmail.com or via any of our social media channels.
Additionally, we encourage you to familiarise yourself with the website’s Privacy Policy – which you can view by clicking here – so you are aware how we and third-party vendors may use your information where relevant.
How we test, score, and compare cars in our reviews
Here at Drive Section we aim to test cars as comprehensively as we possibly can, pitting everything we get sent our way against all the sorts of environments they’re likely to face here in Australia – from urban streets and twisty tree-lined backroads to high-speed country roads and loose gravel tracks, we do our best to pit cars against the specific environments they were designed to operate in, along with seeing if they can hack it outside of their comfort zone, too.
Due to the expenses associated with gaining access to racetracks, this is the one environment we are unfortunately not able to test relevant performance cars on a regular basis, although we welcome any opportunity we may be fortunate enough to be offered to gain access to a track to really put cars to the test. We do, however, try to visit 4×4 parks when we are able to so that we can really put off-road-focused machines through their paces.
When it comes to the way we score cars, we have tried to design our scoring system to be simple but effective in giving cars across all classes and at all price points a fair score against both its class’ standards and the wider market in general, with our five-category scoring system equally balancing the measure of a car’s performance, practicality, technology, and value.
However, on occasion, we’re also able to stage some head-to-head comparison tests of cars, and for these we do things a little bit differently. We stage the battle across five different rounds – interior and exterior design; technology and features; performance and handling; comfort and practicality; and pricing and running costs – awarding a winner for each round which allows people who favour one specific aspect of a car to find out which is the better of the two in that particular regard.
Establishing an overall winner for these tests is then a simple case of tallying up the points across these five rounds, and the car with the most is given the victory. If a car you were hoping to win in one of these comparisons doesn’t, rest assured that we will certainly give it its credit where it’s due and clarify how we arrived at the completely independently-determined verdict that we did.
If you ever have any questions about our testing methods, feel free to reach out to us and we’ll aim to answer your queries as best we can.
