I got top gear for a quid at the motor show.
Its appaling. I cant read it. The choices of colours both background and foreground (varying from page to page), a mismash of page styles and layout, changing font sizes, its like a bad acid trip.
It went in the bin mostly unread
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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That's why it was only a quid!
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TVM. I hoped you re-cycled - if only to spite JC !
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Its appaling. I cant read it. The choices of colours both background and foreground (varying from page to page), a mismash of page styles and layout, changing font sizes, its like a bad acid trip.
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i have the same problem reading maxpower magazine ,the pictures are nice mind ;o
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Practical Classics since Issue 1.
I've got a subscription to PC, have done for 2 years, and bought for a few years before that, when I was about 15.
As has been mentioned, current car mags are just too interested in cars which average Joe can't afford. They could have still made it interesting if it was written in a better style. Still, it wouldn't be on the shelf if no-one bought it, therefore I assumed it was just me that didn't like them. I think the time when aforementioned average Joe read a magazine for information may be long gone, they now read them for entertainment.
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I buy the four main classic car mags all of which have a slightly different take on things, plus Top Gear as it has varied articles related to motoring but usually with humour and some original subjects.
If I was buying a car, id buy What Car? as it still does the old group test thing, but I for one, dont care what the legroom measurement is on a Kia Rio.
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Car Mechanics is the only car I buy every month. I bought a Fast Car last month during an holiday, what a pointless publication, it's effectively a chavs bible/soft pron/etc. Even the adverts are rubbish, mainly wheels and bodykits. Still I guess I'm a little to old to be reading it now that the only other mag I read is Focus.
Steve.
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Xantia HDi.
Buy a Citroen and get to know the local GSF staff better...
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I remember motoring mags doing thorough and meaningful tests of the sort of car I could afford to buy, with lots of details I found interesting like mpg per 1000 rpm in each gear . They even had cutaway drawings for goodness sake!
It was a very long time ago though.
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I meant MPH per 1000 rpm - Doh!
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Always buy American Classics if ever I can get my hands on one. Dreaming about that Torino, or maybe even a Day Van. Can't be bothered with any of the others. Expensive in the UK, twice the price over here.
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Dreaming about that Torino,
Saw an absolutely mint Starsky and Hutch replica driving in Nottingham on Saturday. Then in Hucknall on Sunday, saw a quite rough but incredibly mean-looking early '70's Chevelle. AFAIR its the first one I've seen in the flesh - cool..
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I used to like Performance Car which I found to be very down to earth and easy to read, with a good blend of humour, technical information and very balanced road tests. They spent a lot of time talking about "affordable" performance cars as well as exotica, and they were as enthusiastic about the likes of the Clio Williams, Fiat Coupe and their long term Seat Cordoba GT as they were about the Ferraris and Astons.
Since it became Evo, I just can't feel as excited about it. Reviews are heavily focused on supercars and higher end sports cars, with almost apologetic coverage of hot hatches and the like. Articles involving cheaper cars seem to have an almost "sneering" tone to them, with numerous daft comparisons with more expensive machinery. In short, it seems to have become much more snobbish and for want of a better phrase "up itself". Unlike the PC days, they never mention things like fuel consumption or "liveability" which, unless you are filthy rich and/or have several cars, always has some relevance.
They also seem to pride themselves on picking faults with cars that have received unanimous praise everywhere else (the mk3 MX-5, Focus RS/ST and Aston DB9 are just a few that spring to mind).
My favourite at present is Autocar (the data accompanying their road tests is amazingly comprehensive), although I recently bought a copy of Test Drive and thought their group tests were very well designed too.
Cheers
DP
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Since it became Evo, I just can't feel as excited about it.
I agree Performance Car was great, I've still got a few copies up in the loft. IMO Evo was good a few years ago when it was biased towards affordable stuff, but its now gone up market. I remember one of the writers replacing a Skyline with a Ferrari and I thought, what's he got that for, they don't normally run cars like that?
But I sometimes will still buy it if I'm bored and its got one good feature in it. I think I've only bought it once this year.
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I used to subscribe to Autocar and Motor, they did good road tests but annoyingly it was always half full of classifieds; but then couldnt afford it weekly when I went to Uni. I now sometimes buy Car, Evo or one of the classic mags but only if theres something of particular interest in there. Bought the new-look overly glossy Car last week and thought it was crap. Quite enjoy reading Practical Performance Car which mainly features older performance cars, sometimes with excessive engine conversions...
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Car magazine is an absolute and utter disgrace to the journalistic profession.
It appears to be aimed at 12 year old adolescents, either that or the type of poncey graduate ABC1 readership demographic that everyone seems to worship, and I would like to see shot, despite being part of it myself. : )
It's like, SO ironic and I SO get it, that patronising article about Chinese cars SO reminded me of the gap year that my parents paid for. Tripe.
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I purchased "Motor", then "Autocar & Motor" , and then the resultant "Autocar" when the combined magazine reverted to its original name, for something like fifteen years. I didn't throw away a single copy in this period and found looking back interesting, especially with respect to things predicted to happen and "scoop" pictures of new designs that could then be compared with what actually transpired. Over this timespan I also found the earlier magazines to be of consistently higher content and less airy-fairy or full of "clever" prose.
Lost interest overnight and since then the only regular magazine "purchase" has been a twelve month Top Gear subscription that came free as a birthday present. Didn't renew when the time came.
Today, if I am flying long haul (frequently) and think I have time to read (rare, I usually work for the majority of a flight and sleep for the remainder) I simply buy whatever takes my eye in the newsagent at the departure airport; usually Bike or Ride magazine though very occasionally a car mag. If in a French speaking country I'll buy a local French language mag to practice my skills as well as to see what they have available to buy that we don't.
As an aside; working in Bangkok last week I noticed that the weekly motoring supplement of the local rag had large chunks syndicated from Autocar; prices were simply changed from Sterling to Baht and the article otherwise printed LS&B. I smiled when one of the articles was about two superminis (Colt and Micra?) and was shot at the Fire Service Training College at Moreton-in-Marsh; just up the road from SjB Towers, and there I was reading about it in the back of a taxi to BKK for my flight home. I work frequently in Shanghai and see there is a complete Mandarin Chinese language version of Autocar each week too, so it seems the magazine world is as global as the dreaded "Who wants to be a millionaire?" that at one stage seemed to be on the TV in every hotel room of every country I visited, worldwide.
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I really like Test Drive mag- used to have subscription to Top Gear and still buy it occasionaly but find it has gone way to lifestyle for my liking and is now more a copy of QG with a few cars thrown in than a true car mag.
Still can't beat What Car? for everyday cars, even though some of their test results are decidedly dodgy.
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Diesel Car in the period when owned/edited by John Kerswill. Esoteric mix of tests of real world cars, interesting stuff on taxis and commercials plus travel writing from likes of Stuart Bladon and Phil Llewellyn.
Sadly missed.
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And it's free. Thank you, HJ - we perhaps take all of this for granted but believe me it's appreciated, not least your honest and realistic road tests.
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