best used car mag ?

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Thu 8 Nov 2001 22:46
best used car mag ? - Steve G

I have subscribed to UCB - used car buyer magazine since its launch and find it useful for assessing the current market/auction prices etc.
But there use to be a excellent used car mag called buying cars ( later car choice) which suddenly stopped in 1994. This mag covered every angle in the used car game, great stories about car dealers antics,mystery shoppers visiting showrooms unveiling scandulous selling scams.
I'm not aware of any other used car mags on the market but it seems strange considering the used car business is far larger than the new car market.


Steve G
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Thu 8 Nov 2001 23:07
Re: best used car mag ? - ladas are cool
have you seen the car magazine which is just about car auctions, i dont know the name, but it was a good mag (this is a useless message i have put on, isnt it)
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 08:36
Buying Cars Magazine - Paul Robinson
Having been involved with Buying Cars/Car Choice, I?d just make a couple of
comments:

- Magazines are (excuse the pun) driven by the demands of advertisers not readers.

- The market is dominated by some very powerful big players. Buying Cars was bought out by Haymarket, who after a discreet period killed it off.
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 14:53
Used Car Magazines - Honest John
UCB grew out of Paul Toogood's car auction magazine. It's been very successful and a bloke I know quite closely has written for it from the start. Same bloke worked on Buying Cars from the Steve Cropley days, right though when it became Car Choice to the point where Haymarket pulled the plug on it. (Quentin Willson also cut his used car writing teeth on Buying Cars). Hats off to UCB which is doing all right and will soon be into its fourth year. But the problem with any used car magazine is getting the ad revenue and the cars. Manufacturers support the new car mags with advertsing, advertorials, test cars and a staff car park full of long termers. Used car magazines don't get the same ad revenue and have to go out and buy their cars.

HJ
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 19:53
Re: Used Car Magazines - Steve G
I never really understood why buying cars became car choice.
'Buying cars' is a good simple name for a mag about used cars. Car choice is just vague. It seems this mag was doomed when haymarket bought it. I never realised such political shannigans went on in the magazine business.
I stopped buying What car/Top gear/Car sometime ago, fed up with spending £3.50 on nothing more then a advertising and very little else.
Hope UCB can survive.
There was a little mag called car auction a few years ago , does this still exist ? ( not motor auction which became UCB).
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 21:55
top gear mag. - ladas are cool
has anybody noticed that the car reviews shown on top gear, are exactly the same car reviews that are in the magazine, so whats the point of watching the program, when you can read about the cars in you own time, and without the stupid presenters.
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