MotorTrend+
reviews and complaints

Content amazing problem I’m having right now is I paid for my one year subscription ($50) nov 3 2018 and here we are Jan 30 2019 and for some reason i can’t watch subscribers content and I tried using the customer support and they keep telling me the same thing over and over and I keep doing it over and over and nothing is changing they need to have a customer support phone number and let us talk directly to someone who knows how to fix our issues I’ve been 24 hrs with out my subscription and this is what I have instead of cable and it’s my 2 days off work and I just wanted to relax and watch my car shows with my son and have some family time and now I can’t even do that give me a real person to talk to and fix my account please! Other than this one issue the app has been amazing I have been working my way through the originals and never had an issue can’t wait for the issue to be resolved so I can continue to get great ideas for projects for me and my son!

In my personal opinion the MotorTrend on demand app is amazing especially for a service that is still being refined. That being said I wouldn't mind a few additions to the app in the upcoming updates. Being able to look at the iPhone utility bar up too showing the time and charge of my device would be rather nice when a video isn't full screen. Minimizing videos while watching them similar to what YouTube does would also be an added bonus giving me the ability to search through the catalog to find my next automotive video fix before finishing the current. Other than those two things possibly being able to go back to your last point of watching during a video would be also appreciated since I can't remember how many times I've accidentally closed the app out or just the video and had to manually go back my old watching point. I love the app and everything you have done creating it so far and I hope to see some of these features in a later update. Thank you as always for being awesome content creators.

They have made failure after failure preventing me from using the app. Thinking about disputing the charges because they have multiple times failed to deliver. First time was when they got my log in wrong. How do I know it's correct when I put it in, because I let apple automatically fill it out for me. They managed to charge me properly but failed to give me access for several days without fixing it on my bill or subscription time. That took 7 emails just to get them to fix it properly. Now I'm emailing them because it won't let me sign in on the computer, even though I can verify all the info is correct they still won't let me. The service is supposed to be for all devices but apparently it only works in the phone. Even if you have a smart TV hooked up to wifi and the motor trend app you still have to play it from your phone, which also doesn't actually work because it never gives you the code you need to sign in. It should just be a catalog of showed and it can't even do that properly. Worst video app I've ever used!

This app is not built very well. The video portion of a video often doesn’t start when I click play — just the audio, and the video is “stuck” until I jump around manually with the seek bar. The way the ads come in is AWFUL. I don’t mind watching ads while I’m not a paying subscriber, but they don’t insert the ads elegantly at appropriate points in the video — they justAND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORSappear right in the middle of someone’s sentence. Also, why the heck would you sort episodes in ascending chronological order? Why do I have to scroll all the way to the bottom of a list in order to see the most recent three episodes? All these issues do not make it likely that I’ll subscribe.

Also, frankly...I don’t check the app very often, partly because it’s such a bad experience compared to what we’ve grown used to with excellent apps like YouTube. As such, since they’ve removed their new content from YouTube, I rarely watch MT anymore. I don’t want to have to go to their special (terrible) walled garden. Bad decision, MT.

Update*** left a review on the Amazon site too. Not sure I can delete this review here. Thanks to the developer for reaching out. Proves someone is listening! Looking forward to improvements. It’s already worth the cost easily. Thanks.

I bought the 1 year subscription without ads for $24! What a deal love the content, especially old Top Gear. I’m steaming on a fire stick to tv and the app does a weird thing when you stop an episode before it’s ended. There’s like a stuttering sound delay and trying to pause or fast forward/rewind causes the app to do nothing or crash. Also hate that it doesn’t recognize what I’ve been watching very often. I’m stuck searching “TOP” for each episode of Top Gear and then shuttling through the episodes. Also, doesn’t remember what I’m watching from device to device, so my human brain computer has to remember. The menu options aren’t very easy to add content to a watchlist. As far as I can see it only adds episodes and sometimes won’t add them. Could be great, but seriously lacking refinement now.

This app freezes on every video during the Adds. Only way to fix is to close the video and start over from the beginning and hope it does not freeze again. Or maybe buy the premium service? Hmm? The videos will not play in full screen mode on an iPhone 10 and now that the videos are not available on YouTube there is no way to fix this issue or even complain about it. Lastly and most annoying by far is the repetition of the same three Adds playing over and over again on every video until you can’t take it anymore and finally just give up and stop watching the content you use to love out of pure frustration. It’s truly a sad day and I know this change has to be bad business for the content creatures we use to love on YouTube. You could make 5 times the profit showing the videos for free and marketing shirts - mugs - cool kit for each series and make a real brand name. Now they will all fall off quietly locked away in the walls of a poorly built app that I’m not going to pay for after trialing and experiencing the same freezing bugs and constant repeat adds.

!Downloader Beware!
You know, I saw an advertisement for this app. It looked like something I’d be interested in since I use my cable providers on demand service on a regular basis. I just don’t like the darn commercials. I thought this was the answer but it’s not. I was immediately greeted with a subscribe screen when I opened the app. Now I get that y’all have a licensing deal with discovery inc to provide their content but it would be nice to have a “provider login” so I can sign in with my spectrum login info and get access like every other “GO” app which is essentially what this is.

You are not different, you are not edgy, you are not good businessmen. Rather than greet people with a subscription before they even get into your app. Why not hook their phones unique UUID and give them like 14 plays of shows before cutting off access to a sub screen. Alternatively you could hook into peoples provider info and get your 99cents a month from them.

These are 2 simple options that could make the experience better. But as of now I am uninstalling and never looking back. This is a poorly implemented app.

I never write reviews but feel I have to for this one to effect change.

Biggest complaint is the lack of landscape mode. When I'm in bed trying to watch content, the last thing I want to do is to be constantly rotating my iPad to select new content because unlike any video app platform I've ever used, landscape is a great gem reserved for making things full screen. Please see the YouTube app for reference of a video app that has it 85% right. This is straight up infuriating.

VERY, close second is not enough content. I watch YouTube for free with much more diversity of content. Most of the MotorTrend content is still being updated on YouTube. The fact I'm paying for this service means I'm either dumb or have too much money; I'm not going to dwell on it. You gotta have more than roadkill garage once a month and a handful of 2-10 min YouTube wax "behind the scenes" roadkill/dirt everyday extras. Do what you did with hot rod garage and add another host and/or expand into something else.

Third, biggest complaint is clicking a video from the featured section of the homepage and not having the whole channel video selection available below.

Fourth, the desktop app I have to constantly re-sign into. No "remember me" feature?

The app doesn’t cast from my iPhone XS Max to my Samsung TV. It plays for a second, then cuts out. I tried requesting a refund, as I’d shelled out the $24 for the annual subscription, and Motortrend Support refused to issue a refund, insisting I spend the time to video the issue on my phone and the TV after already providing a detailed step-by-step walkthrough of the behavior in my support request (the ask to video the issue, I’m afraid, would take some time to understand how to video both screens simultaneously, and I barely have time to write this review let alone compile videos for them). After the support ticket was constantly being put back on me and Support REFUSED after multiple clear requests to issue a refund, I ended up giving up. So now, I’m stuck with an app that DOES NOT WORK from a company who REFUSES to refund after clear documentation of my issue. Had they simply issued a refund, I would have been happy to pick this back up and resubscribe to a working app, but now, I’m paying them and they’re stalling by requesting time and effort from me before they will give me my money back for an app that I CANNOT USE . I would love for you to fix the app, but I don’t have time to help you beyond the documentation I’ve already provided! So terribly disappointed.

I’m revising my previous 3 star review. I LOVE the content. But the management in charge of the app and the scheduling is doing EVERYTHING they can to lose subscribers.

First off the app is an absolute disaster. This was the main complaint of my last review and they’ve done absolutely nothing to try and fix it. They put out an update saying you can now stream, still can’t stream. You search specific shows like Roadkill Garage, it doesn’t show up. It’s genuinely so bad you have to laugh.

Honestly though, the content was so good I just dealt with it. But now, they’ve totally changed how the content is published. Before every major show was published monthly. This meant every week I had some new episode of my favorite shows I could watch.

Now they are trying to be clever and only publish one show at a time in specific batches... then it’s gone for 40 WEEKS! It’s infuriating. I’m done paying a premium for the silly games these guys play. They’re clearly amateurs in the world of running a streaming app and it shows. Every good thing they had going seemed to be a failure.

Myself and many other subscribers (just check reddit and other online forums) are cancelling and plan to just binge watch when our favorite shows get published. Before I had to stay subscribed year round. Now I get to choose when I pay them money. So I guess I should thank them for saving me some cash.

Edit 2 (1/4)
The reliability crash-wise has improved. No more crashing when you rotate the phone.

NOW I am having an issue where the video just flat out won’t play. “Player failed to play item” it will say in small red font.

Beforehand, the video will be playing *usuallyand then it’ll freeze. Subtitles continue as if the video is playing then either it shows the error message or it’ll skip minutes upon minutes of footage and start farther ahead before eventually crashing.

Pretty much unusable at this point. Ready to cancel my subscription now sadly.

*EDIT: Every single update makes this app crash more on my Xs Max. Almost every time I turn the phone sideways to watch whatever show, it freezes up for a second and just crashes. I get to watch the video about 1 out of every 5-6 tries. The last 2 updates have mentioned “updates for the iPhone X/Xs Max etc” and have only made it worse.

Original review:
I’ve been using MTOD since Roadkill stopped putting new episodes up on YouTube. No biggie. I’m not gonna cry over $4.99 a month when I watch 80% of the shows on MTOD.

My huge complaint is the video size! On both my iPhone X and now Xs Max, there’s a huge amount of wasted space around the whole video. On my big Xs Max, the video is probably 4”, if that. 5.5” screen but only 4” of video. It’s extremely frustrating. Makes it seem like you’re using an app that was designed for an iPhone 6, and hasn’t been updated.

On YouTube I can watch the video with a mode to fill the screen, but keep it out of the “notch” or I can pinch to zoom and fill the whole screen. It’s a night and day difference having that option. MTOD doesn’t even fill the screen to the notch. It’s got an inch gap.

I am revising my review from three stars to one. None of my initial problems were addressed so the app hasn’t gotten any better. In fact it has gotten much worse. The new scheduling is an idea brought about by an errant ape. I get one show a week for 12 weeks then 40 weeks to forget it ever existed. I mainly watch Engine Masters. I also watch Roadkill, RK Garage, Junkyard Gold, and Hot Rod Garage. The rest? Don’t care. Now that EM is done for the year, I intend to cancel and sign back up this winter. Please find the buffoon responsible for this idiocy and neuter prior to sexual reproduction. This needs to stop somewhere and, the sooner, the better.

The MTOD content is awesome. I cancelled my cable as everything I watch is right here.

About the App...

I cannot comment in videos... There is no way. When this was on YouTube, I could comment on what I would like to see next. Or what I liked and did not like about the episodes. Many times I would get responses. I personally take credit for many episodes of Engine Masters. They were based on my ideas.

The suggested shows to watch on the right hand side of the screen have absolutely nothing in common with what you are watching. Watching Engine Masters? How about 32 episodes of Dirt Every Day? Watching Hot Rod Garage? How about Top Gear? You would think it would offer other episodes of what you are watching followed by other stuff that might be related. It doesn’t.

Furthermore, this is a mobile app. How about asking if you want to change the video instead of immediately jumping to another show when I inadvertently touch my screen? I spend much of my time on this app trying to get back to where I was because the iPad fell over or I accidentally touched the screen while holding my phone.

Like I said, great content. Meh app...

I have to use this app to stream to my TV because the XBOX app is always broken - currently I can't play any videos on it without them skipping horribly every 3 seconds.

Now when I open this app there are full page ads for programming where you must find the "hidden" X to close out so you can get to the content you opened the app to see.

What is wrong with you people? I'm paying for this - you don't need to advertise inside the app for me to know there is new content. Like as if there is a confusing amount of content to begin with, it's all just the automotive stuff I want. Its not 200,000 movies/shows like Netflix. Why do you think I'm too dumb to find content?

I can't. I just can't

Just like some others have pointed out that and you have responded that with a cable subscription you can go to the website or Motor Trend Go app. The problem is you don’t get the full library like Top Gear and Overhaulin for example. There are only like 4 shows available and not even complete. I know when Discovery rebranded and partnered with motor trend a lot of things went away. You guys should change this if you haven’t started working on it or if you have and it just hasn’t been implemented yet. Especially when you have people paying cable/satellite companies it’s only fair and proper to include all content and those who want to cut the cord and buy everything separately can do so.

I understand why Motor Trend made the move they did and the reason why I pay $50 for the content. But I don’t understand why the app consistently has to be so terrible to use. Nothing about the experience seems well put together except the actual content(which the app generators do not create, they just post). Even when I was not a paying customer, the free version was garbage. The ads didn’t run correctly and made me frequent the app less. Also, on another note: please add back comments and likes.

I absolutely love the cast of characters I watch and I just want a smooth operating app to go along with it(that I paid $50 for and the app is locking me out saying I’m not a paying member, again!).

Thanks

I got my subscription through my apple account on my iPhone. I can only watch Motor trend on demand on my phone now I can’t log on to the website on the computer. I went through the help section of the website and it informed me there is no way to add my email to my account so I can’t log in. They suggested I cancel my subscription and re subscribe on my computer. And I’m out the money I already paid. This is a very unfortunate thing for me because I paid for the whole year. I am unable to log on to Motor trend on demand from anywhere other then my phone. Not my computer not my amazon box not my Xbox nowhere. I wouldn’t mind getting my money back to be honest. I don’t think that is possible though.

I used to love this app! You used to be able to watch MT originals, although not the newest releases, even though you didn’t have the over priced upgrade to premium! Every time it has updates it has taken away shows! Typical bait and switchery here! The way they get you is you have to pay for the premium package to see any shows now because they don’t even show the new ones on the MT channel now! Definitely don’t recommend since they are going the direction of over charging for these shows! Update it is now july 25 and now they made it to where you have to buy a subscription to watch anything! Definitely deleting this app! You have to pay to watch the same reruns on here you can see for free on tv! TERRIBLE!

This app is garbage. Videos are always skipping around and buffering then stop playing completely. A message will pop up that says “Player item failed to play”. What? Not to mention when I was signing up it gave me an error that said “Email address is already being used.” I have never signed up for this app before but I clicked Forgot password to send me a password reset link, it then said “No account with that email address”. Motor Trend, is this really the best you can do? My iPad is 2 months old and fully updated, app is a fresh install and fully updated. No excuse for this when I’m paying for a subscription. Issues are even worse on Android. I will be canceling my subscription before it renews if this is not fixed.

The app is so intermittent for me. I would happily be a paid subscriber to MTOD but have way too many issues with their apps. The Xbox app simply wont work unless you have a premium membership and the phone app seems to play commercials with absolutely no problem. When it comes to the shows, they play seamlessly about 1/2 the time. I know that there are no ads when you upgrade to premium and that the new Nissan Altima has automatic braking but I don’t know anything about the new Roadkill Garage episode... They need to make more of an effort to provide seamless distribution, especially if they expect us to pay for “Premium” access. I suppose this is what happens when a magazine company tries technology for the first time...

I loved Roadkill, Dirt Every Day, and those OG shows when they were free on YouTube. There was a steady supply of new content coming out almost weekly. Then motor trend got greedy. But hey I really liked certain shows so I downloaded the app and got a paid subscription. IT IS NOT WORTH IT!

The app is terribly clunky, the streaming and picture quality is sub par at best, and you have to wait months for new content from the creators you genuinely like.

The app is nothing but fake drama “reality shows” from cable. If I wanted cable tv programming I’d have a satellite tv provider.

If you’re downloading this for any of the shows that were awesome on YouTube you will be sadly disappointed, because that era is over.

Do better motor trend.

I’m a fan of Roadkill and their spin off shows. I’m a fan of all the hosts. I follow most of them on social media.

That said, I was excited for the new Faster With Finnegan show. I’m subscribed to motortrend through Amazon Prime and haven’t had any issue for years.

The first 2 episodes of FWF were available through Prime. However the day Episode 3 should be available, digging through social media it would appear I have to download this app just to continue watching?!?

I haven’t been able to figure out how to log in to the stupid app having my subscription through Amazon Prime. So, dead end.

Correct me if I’m wrong and there just technical difficulty with Amazon Prime.

Also, in my opinion the new scheduling format for all these shows is stupid.

The Xbox app is how I usually watch and they could never get it to work right so now you have to download the phone app and the Xbox one to screen cast from your phone in order to watch anything, the Xbox app literally just pulls up a screen that says, use your phone. And then when you pause the video on the Xbox screen it continues to play the video frame by frame really slowly and if you hit play it just continues from whatever the frames on. So you CANNOT pause it. The only reasons I keep this app is for roadkill, roadkill garage, engine masters, and roadworthy rescues. If it wasn’t for those channels i would stop paying for this load of garbage. Fix your app and your Xbox app and bring our episodes faster i pay a monthly fee to use your service for an hour.

I’ve been a long time user and subscriber to Motortrend+ since they came out. Unfortunately recently this system has been nothing but disappointing. Every time I try to watch a show I have to choose a subscription as if I haven’t already paid. 50% of the time it just sits there and tries to load and the other 50% of the time I can watch shows. Ever since I renewed my subscription this year ive been having this issue. It to mention the difficulty signing in on other devices. This app used to be fantastic but recently I feel it’s gone down the drain. Not to mention their customer support is not exactly easy to get a hold of with the support messages “failing” every time I attempt to reach out for help. Unfortunate to say but I might now renew my subscription when the time comes.

Not great. I signed up when they were offering the first month for 99 cents. Some time late in January an update occurred and signed me out of the app, and when I signed back in it said I didn’t have a subscription. All this despite getting billed $4.99 on 1/19.

Reached out to support and they shifted the blame to Apple because I purchased the subscription through the App Store. Seems like a sketchy assertion after I had given them my full name, the email used to activate the subscription, and the last 4 digits of the card used to make the purchase. Yet the folks at MT support “couldn’t find” my subscription.

Again, this hardly seems like an App Store issue, I have subscriptions for other services that were purchased through the App Store and they work just fine.

Will be canceling.

Can not scroll down, makes the noise like it’s doing something but can only go left and right. - Update, still doesn’t work. I have gotten emails from MT suggesting some workarounds like using my phone as a remote (didn’t work) and today’s, and this is the best yet. Changing my AppleTV 4K and TV settings to 1080 as suggested by other users, and apparently MotorTrend thought they’d pass that info along. Yep, downgrade the quality when watching MT. Of course I’d have to go back and redo everything when watching streaming apps that actually work. Basically if MT was Chevy, they would take your perfectly running Camaro, change some stuff for like no reason, give you your Camaro back.. and when you find out it no longer goes into gear, they will suggest you just push it down a hill. Absolutely ridiculous.

Just recently Motortrend removed all Roadkill episodes save for a few off of YouTube. So I was watching some of the free episodes of various shows on the app as I have no interest in paying for the subscription. Now, however in an act once again showing they don’t care about their fans, they made it so you can’t even use the app without a subscription. The screen makes me sign up or sign in before using the app. So I can’t even watch any of the free episodes anymore. Why have free episodes if you have to pay for a subscription to see them? It seems like Motortrend no longer cares about their fans and they have let greed take over just like every other company does. To be honest I was considering paying for a subscription but now after they just ruined this I will not be giving Motortrend my money and encouraging this garbage.

What the actual (*&%^ have you done to the AppleTV version of this app?!?!?! The last update completely hosed everything. It is slow as molasses. And When the show you want to watch finally does load the seasons are in random order and if you were watching them in order you have to figure out which season you were on, find it in the scrambled order of seasons at the top, then scroll thru episodes trying to find where you were (Extras are a prime example where you 40ish seasons for Roadkill or DED - it’s impossible to find where you were in the watching order so you can see the latest episode) Bottom line you need to fix this now or I may walk and take my money back.

editI tried the suggested fix and it’s like whomever wrote that has never seen an AppleTV. I will try to uninstall/reinstall, but I’m not hopeful

Edit again*** nope still ^*^&%ed up.

Seriously I can’t even use it anymore. I’ll get five minutes in to a show and an add will freeze so I have to restart the app and then, because it doesn’t remember where you were, try to find where I was only to have an ad play, freeze, and then I have to restart the app and because it doesn’t remember where I was I have to try and find it again only to watch an ad that freezes and so then I have to restart the app and because it doesn’t remember where I was I have to try to find it only to watch an ad that freezes and then restart the app. Hey developers, reading this review is what it’s like trying to watch content on the Motor Trend app.

I’ve been a long time fan of Roadkill from some of the very first episodes they put on YouTube. I would love to subscribe because I love their content. But, I can’t justify spending a cent on something that has no way of getting to me.