They don`t meed my needs at all. Problem is that I can remember reading mag`s decades back where there was great technical detail, such as clutch plate diameters - gearing and so on.
(and so avoid that HA van with its 6" clutch while competitors had 7".. (maybe. memory)
That said, I found the latest Car Mechanics a breath of fresh air under it`s new Editor - introducing engine management systems - in the last issue. In a way that is actually about DIY that is and not seemingly endlessly about `old Rovers`
But most other mag`s are just what I call `lightweight reviews` - might as well not bother.
So, I was in Smiths yesterday surveying and eclectically browsing - as you do, like a cow in an alpine meadow - a bit of this a bit of that. Nothing worth the money and still waiting for next months Car Mechanics.
Then I came across `Tornado` .. had to buy it despite the £7.99 (Yorkshire moths escaping from wallet) because of the glorious technical detail on this new steam engine..
If only car mag`s were like that.. OK only six of us would buy it, but...
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I used to read AutoExpress, but got sick and tired of the tabloid style journalism, their easy way of letting their story get in the way of the hard facts and their stupid photoshopped pictures which profess to show what so-and-so car will look like, without anyone having seen it, including them. Much like the photoshopping of actresses presented as a reality in those terrible lifestyle magazines, rather than the fantasy will all know it is...
Now AutoWeek, there's a magazine, good in-depth reviews with lots of technical data. Shame it doesn't have much in the way of a wow factor.
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My pal went to the UK last week and, as a well-meant present, brought me back, among others, a copy of what used to be called Classic Cars and now seems to call itself classiccars.
It was hugely disappointing to someone like me, who remembers the magazine under the great Tony Dron, being full of factual errors and evidence that sub-editing is a thing of the past.
Then, on page 97, I found this under the by-line of one Ross Alkureishi:
?The windscreen wipers flap wildly, like dual metronomes, reassuring in their predictability but no match for the torrent. I give up trying to squint through the glass and instead turn my attention to my newly discovered targetting devices and continue to build speed. The Rover propels through this vegetative tunnel like an Olympic bobsleigh: faster and faster, the engine?s 226lb of torque effortlessly pushing me forward, and faster and faster goes my heart in time to the beat of the wipers. As the P5B fires through the last of the trees, the clouds part and a ray of sunshine illuminates everything in our path. It?s a moment of deep joy mixed with deja-vu and an unsettling urge to cry. I think I?ve just experienced re-birth in a Rover P5B.?
I have never, ever, read such 'Pseuds' Corner' drivel in a car magazine. And this guy's contributions throughout the magazine are along the same lines.
Troy Queef (of the apparently moribund SniffPetrol) would have been proud of it.
I do, however, know what he means by 'an unsettling urge to cry' - it's enough to make you weep...
Edited by mike hannon on 18/08/2009 at 10:30
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I've never found anything totally satisfactory in the car world since I stopped buying "Bike" magazine many years ago! I might pick up the odd mag here and there if it is featuring a car I'm interested in but that's it
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Car has improved a bit recently - I like the "Insider" section, and some of the feature pieces are quite interesting. Still a bit obsessed with supercars though.
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On the whole, they are all rubbish and I no longer read any of them.
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I've taken to reading old magazines instead; when I was trying to find out information about my next moneypit I found some great magazine articles from the late '50s. You have to read between the lines a bit for a car's bad points - if there's a one line mention about "the ride is a little harsher than normal" you can bet it feels like going down the stairs on your bottom.
Despite that, they're usually well researched and with useful data in there. There are a few websites that have scanned copies of old magazine articles (surely naughty for copyright, but isn't reselling magazines the same?) and they're a great read.
Current car magazines seem to be four quid for something that's half full of adverts and half of the remainder I'll only skim through anyway. How can they make such a fascinating subject so unappealing?
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AGree 100% with AE : but Car Mechanics is good if you are selective.
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I avoid anything that`s linked with their adverts - too much of that stuff and I leave it on the shelf.
That water injection article seemed far from satisfactory.
Edited by oilrag on 18/08/2009 at 14:14
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>>I've taken to reading old magazines instead;
Have you ever seen "Car Design & Technology"?
It was published for a couple of years in the early 1990s - publication was abruptly ended after a helicopter crash killed the chap who was the driving force behind the mag.
It was the only magazine that has come close to being satisfactory - in fact, it was rather good.
OR - I agree completely about the lamentable water injection feature. A magazine reduced to the status of a comic in one shrt article!
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I thought it seemed better under the new editor last week. They need to start looking at DIY on contemporary cars and systems IMHO. New cars too, not waiting three years due to them being under warranty.
I wasn`t happy with a lot of the servicing articles too....... In fact I thought I could write some of them better myself. It`s hopeless as a reader, when you get to that stage though Isn`t it?
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Like AE I stopped buying them years ago. The last one I enjoyed was Cars and Car Conversions which was informative and had the right spirit.
Really I liked Motor Sport in the fifties. Rough and ready prose styles, bucketloads of heart, sound attitudes (anyway on cars)...
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Have you ever seen "Car Design & Technology"? It was published for a couple of years in the early 1990s - publication was abruptly ended after a helicopter crash killed the chap who was the driving force behind the mag.
Yes, I read a few and it was quite good, but very expensive and difficult to find if I remember correctly. And there were other things for a recently graduated Engineer to spend his new-found wages on, like an Alfasud Sprint and 2 reels of MIG wire, Golden Lodge spark plugs at £20 a set.....
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Motor Sport (and its former stable mate Motorcycle Sport) the last bastion of proper English. CAR has gone downhill, Autocar s a good read though.
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>>but very expensive and difficult to find if I remember correctly.
Yes, it was a bit difficult to find - I stumbled upon the first copy I saw largely by accident. It wasn't hugely expensive, most copies were £2.50, and the last two issues before the magazine stopped in late 1992 were £2.75.
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I found some of the US magazines, car and driver and another about european cars that was quite interesting. It tested the cars and often looked at the differences and why car manufacturers wouldn't bring them to the states or if they did they would have differences often in kit. I remember one of the cars was a Golf GTI and quite a bit of the stuff under the bonnet had been removed or changed for one of a lower quality. All in all they were quite good and a nice change, if you can hold of one do so.
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i found an ancient copy of 'practical mechanics' at the dentist the other day. is it still about? i've only got a tesco, our 'propper' newsagents went years ago.
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I think Aurocar is still pretty good and not unlike what it's always been.
Auto Express seems to rely too much on computer graphics of what they think a new model might look like.
Car Magazine I went off ages ago as it is rather sniffy and the writers brag nonchalently about breaking speed limits as though it's their right to do so.
Top Gear magazine - I've never even bothered to look at!
As a Land Rover Enthusiast I used to have Land Rover Owner magazine but when I gave up the Landie I stopped having the mag. The problem is there is only so much you can say about Land Rovers without repeating yourself - but amazingly there are still 4 competing Land Rover mags, I think.
The lorry magazines are less interesting than they used to be because the content is largely: Scania, Volvo, Scania, Volvo, Scania, Volvo, Scania, Volvo, Iveco, Volvo....!
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don't forget the odd daf.
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Don't think these magazines have any relevancy in today's internet era.
Off topic: Readers' Digest filed for bankruptcy protection.
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I notice the Daily Telegraph's Saturday motoring section has become decidedly thin.... getting a little tired I would say.
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I guess it depends on whether you are looking for the more technical mags or the car-review-general mags. I used to be a regular reader of "Car" back in its golden age of the 1970/80s. If the names mean anything, the editor was Mel Nichols and writers included LJK Setright, Ian Fraser, Ronald Barker. Setright was the man who came across like he had a degreee in advanced mechanical engineering (maybe he actually did) but you felt here was someone who really knew what he was talking about when he commented on a car. Some of his pieces were like a PhD thesis, but I learned stuff I still remember to this day.
The standard of writing in that mag stood out from all the others at the time. It looked different, and it was written in a different way. For its day, it was really classy.
I've actually still got a dozen or so examples of "Car" from that era. Just taking a random glance through a few, and I'm seeing full-page adverts for a Vauxhall Chevette, or for a Chrysler Alpine. A half page advert for new Ladas at £1665. A giant test between a Renault 14, Mazda 323, and a Mk 1 Golf. And in those days alot of the adverts and photos were still only in black and white.
They used to do a feature called The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly where they summarised every car available at that time. Brutally honest. Sample entry for the Morris Marina reads....For - Performance, room...Against - Everything else utterly appalling.... Sum up - Embarrassment.
Some of the manufacturers (especially British Leyland) didn't like them at all.
I had "Car" regularly from the late 1970s to the early 90s when it became a glossy boy-racer mag looking like all the others. I still buy an occasional car mag, but I've never been a regular subscriber again to anything
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They used to do a feature called The Good The Bad and The Ugly where they summarised every car available at that time. Brutally honest. Sample entry for the Morris Marina reads....For - Performance room...Against - Everything else utterly appalling.... Sum up - Embarrassment.
Yes, they still have the GBU, and they're still just as scathing!
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pathetic is the word you were looking for ff
and motorbikes to the front
guess they are trying to clutch at some new readers that scan the paper in a newsagents eh
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Agree broadly with the general 'they're carp' sentiments expressed. I find & sieve most of the interesting/informative stuff googling or on here - the estimable NC being a good source here, for example, of techy stuff.
I buy car mags out of idle curiosity mostly & the odd glee that shiny pictures of shiny cars in print can still bring. The writing, testing & descriptions (even for a layman like me..) appear peppered with inconsistency, error & cliche.
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>Off topic: Readers' Digest filed for bankruptcy protection.
Oh heck!
Does that mean I won't be able to brag in the pub that I'm one of only ten houses in my postcode given the chance to win £100K if I return their offer in the "YES" envelope?
Kevin...
PS. Wasn't it Motor Sport that used to have detailed cutaway drawings of engine internals? I can remember a review from my youth that had some excellent drawings of the 512BB engine.
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I never look at the modern mags now. I occasionally get Practical Classics...had them from the start but gave up some years ago. It's quite good for looking at abandoned
' finds ', classified spare parts and tool comparisons.
The Automobile is good if you're into pre-war. I find all the rest just a big ego trip for contributors and page designers. I complained to one of the bike mags when they printed the second page of an interesting article over a full page colour photo of a biker out in the country with his knee down. They actually apologised in the next issue.
Two mags from 30 odd years ago were the excellent Old Motor and Vintage Commercial.......both ceased with the death of their owner, Prince Marshall, who was instrumental in saving one of the famous Paris single deckers.
IMO, the best magazine I get is the Railway Magazine, informative from start to finish with good pictures and no fancy graphics......a lesson for many car mags !
Ted
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Does that mean I won't be able to brag in the pub that I'm one of only ten houses in my postcode given the chance to win £100K if I return their offer in the "YES" envelope
Not only returning the 'YES' envelope, but returning it to the 'YES!!!' Dept. in
YESSSSS!!town, YESSSSSSS!!!hire, postcode: IW1 N10M
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I was in a large independent supermarket up on the welsh borders last week (Harry Tuffins).
They had ten different publications for tractors!!!!
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I used to be into tractors, but not any more...now I'm an ' extractor fan '
I'll get me coat
Ted
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