While I understand the need for sponsorship I too believe there are way too many ads in all forms of modern media. In the good old days magazines seemed to be a reasonable source of unbiased(ish) information. Currently most product reviews seem to be more cash for comment.
I sometimes think there should be a few name changes, for example:
4wd Adtion and 4x4 Adstralia
BTW, I think all reviews should state the financial interests of the reviewer, something along the lines of what Choice do:
"We buy all the products we test – we don’t accept industry freebies and we don’t take ads. We're non-profit and our work is funded by people like you."