Now I dont wanna make claims without having read anything myself...seeing as I dont subscribe to MT C&D or any others...but a new black camaro SS showed up to the cruise-in my friend and I started at the ice cream joint near me...and he made a point to comment that C&D marked, as a "negative" that the camaro "looks too angry"......W......T.....F!!!!!????? Id like to slam the face of the guy who wrote that article right into the fender of said vehicle. I havent had a subscription to either magazine for a long time (mom used to get em for me before I could even drive because I loved reading up on what I couldnt even legally operate LOL) and Im glad I don't. IMO that's about the biggest waste of ink I've ever heard of.
Worthless? Pretty much. I really wish they were better. I'd buy them instead of just occasionally looking and sighing with disappointment.
Car mags are all in someone's pocket somewhere along the line. There's definitely an agenda with everything they do. Look no further than the Motor Trend Car of the Year, which has essentially turned into a highly-distributed dog-and-pony show for the winning car company. It used to be a sought-after award...now it's just advertising.
What is funny is how thin the magazines have become now. The economy had wreaked havoc on the advertising industry, and ads are always the first expense to get cut. Just like automakers used to depend on SUVs for profits, so did magazines with advertising. MM&FF was at least twice as thick just over a year ago than it is now.
Oh well...what goes around comes around. The economy will weed out the weak and unnecessary mags.
As for the opinions, I usually take them with a grain of salt anyway. One person's "rubbery steering" might be another person's "precision steering". Styling is always a matter of opinion anyway. It's rare when a vehicle is universally panned for styling (coughcoughAztekcoughcough).
you can blame the internet for the lousy advertisments in todays magazines(i abolutely hate that cengenics one with the old guy with the abviously fake ripped body)
im all but certain that car magazines have done buisness in the same way since the first issue of "the wheel, what is it and what can i do with it?" debued on a cave wall in 12000 b.c.
my focus on car magazines is the eighties, since basically everything i want or owned is from that period. the only newer magazines i will stomach is grassrootsmotorsports(for range of coverage),mopar action(for cars i cant afford and the humor),hemmings muscle macines/classic/antiques/ect.(more cars ill never own but like to look at) and the occational british or puppiesanese car mag.
all of which are NOT primedia publications :toilet:
one of these days someone will come out with a magazine dedicated to that period of time and ill be ready with my $$$ for a subscription.
I get "Auto Restorer" more like a 40 page newsletter of tips, tricks and tool reviews. No adds at all. If your into restoration, this is a nice little magazine and site
http://www.autorestorermagazine.com/ar/ (http://"http://www.autorestorermagazine.com/ar/")
Well, that's Car and Driver for you. Grain of salt, man. I've got subs to MT, R&T, and CnD. The last is definitely the worst of them for making no sense whatsoever. The winners so often don't add up to the comparison that you get the feeling that first place spot was bought and paid for long before the press fleet cars showed up.
I subscribe to C&D, R&T, MT, Automobile, and Popular Mechanics. Every one of them are becoming more worthless because of the internet. When I open a "new" magazine there is not a single news story I haven't read about a month earlier online. Even the articles that appear in the mags often aren't complete, with a little "For more info go to our website" tagline.
The ONLY reason I continue my susbscriptions is that it's not practical to keep the laptop in the bathroom, and not wise to read a laptop in the bathtub. If somebody came up with a full colour version of the Kindle and it was wifi enabled and water resistant (for bathtub reading) I'd be all over it and would never buy another magazine.
I used to subscribe to Maximum PC (one of the most expensive magazines I've ever seen, with a cover price of $12) but let that sub expire when the company started offering full issues in PDF format for free on their website (and not only free, but with all ads removed!). Reading a car magazine full of two-month-old news is bad enough, but a computer magazine with two-month-old news is just silly. Not only is it old news, but the newsmaking hardware is already obsolete!
I also let my sub to MM&FF slide when I got tired of reading the same stuff over and over. If they'd focus more on the FF's than the MM's I might lik eit a bit more, but there are only so many things you can do to a Mustang.
I get Legendary Ford, its a bi-monthly and is a pretty well put together magazine. It is a pretty high quality mag but it also costs a bit more. Of course they only deal with Ford
Ditto! Been getting every one since the mid-1990's.
I'm letting my subscription to Car & Driver run out this year. If it's not a BMW, they're going to find faults with it - one way or another.
I quit reading Automobile Magazine in 2004 when I read Robert cumberford's design buttstuffysis on the '05+ Mustang prototype. He ripped the thing apart, from the wheels (which made it to production) by stating "big, brash, perfect... for a truck." There was very, very little positive opinion in that buttstuffysis. However, give him some bloated, overweight Mercedes sedan and he's drooling. Whatever, dude.
These guys seem to have an elitist, overly esoteric and pretentious view on automotive design, usually favoring anything import over domestic.
For example, C&D claims the Cobalt has "a plasticky interior." Dude... it's a Cobalt, e.g. an entry-level car not that far removed from the Cavalier and Sunfire. Is it supposed to have true wood inserts like the 5 series?
I've lost interest in car mags.
I let ALL my car subscriptions expire probably five years ago, haven't missed them...
I hate hearing about how big of an upgrade the 165 AFR's are. Even though every trickflow almost would out do them and cost around the same to the same. But in FF&MM they are the end all to cylinder heads.
And the European's are the reason why they hate plastic interiors. Ever watch the top gear on the Cadillac CTS? out performs and audi that cost 2 to 4 times as much. Both in the corners and straight line, but its not good enough for Europe because it has a plastic dash.
To be honest, the only reason I got CnD is because of a 2 for 1 deal on subs to CnD and R&T (still excellent, if you ask me). I gave up Automobile for it, and I'm really regretting it. Ezra Dyer is one of the great new talents there, and the mag is progressing really well. Motor Trend still has some really nice photography, but their writing is nearly as stale as Car and Driver's.
Exactly. Everybody's got an opinion, some people's opinions are insightful and revealing, others just stupid. That's not the problem.
The problem is there is a fine, but
distinct, line between informing the reader and schilling for the advertiser.
The worst of it is that they often acknowledge that the competition is better (ie CTS) but end the article giving the prize to BMW because hey, it's a BMW.
I still subscribe to HOTROD and while it has went through some changes, it is still a good mag. I enjoy all types of cars and they usually cover a broad range. I also subscribe to MT, but as some others have said the "Car of the Year,etc" award is a joke. Seems totally bought and paid for.
I've been getting Motor Trend, Car & Driver (AKA: BMW's ) Automobile, Hot Rod and have REALLY gotten into Grassroots Motorsports. To be honest Grassroots Motorsports is my favorite. The rest have gotten to be horrible. Not to mention now that Frieburger is back at Hot Rod we will rarely see anything Ford built up since all we ever saw when he was head editor was SBC and MOPAR garbage built up.
yes they are all cars should have real wood trim 24carat gold buttons and be able to feel like it drives itself not . that is the reason i dont buy them anymore .just glace at them at the doctors office or when the wife is shoping at walmart ill look at them there . same stuff import this import that . hey auto mags there are better cars out the best are Ford, Ford, and gm /dodge .
Pretty pictures
He really is a breath of fresh air isn't he?
The only subscription I keep up is Street Rodder. I dropped Hot Rod because I got sick of bow tie after bow tie after bow tie. You couldn't pay me to drive a Chevy, so why should I pay to read about them? At least the street rod focus is Fords, so I am right at home there.
You can thank Frieburger for that....
Well I like Fords too but I am not blind to other cars (I have a '72 Chevelle). That is what I really like about HRM, they have a wide variety of stuff. Hell last month they had AMC's, a Hudson, etc. Thats also why I enjoy the power tour...you get to see all kinds of neat cars that you otherwise would not see anywhere else. I have had subscriptions to Ford dedicated mags in the past but dropped them because all they want to showcase are Mustangs, which I get tired of seeing.
And for the record I think Freiburger does a nice job with the mag, the guy is a freakin' nut and has respect for people on a shoestring budget like me.
Look at how often they do GM and Mopar builds Vs Ford. They leave us out in the cold.
Well I am going to go ahead and disagree. Maybe you need to pick up an issue sometime? Here are some examples of some Ford stuff in Hot Rod in just the last few issues; August issue features a article on building a Ford SOHC motor from scratch and a Boss 429 Ranchero. July issue had a '10 GT500 and a '69 "super" Boss Mustang. June had an article on some members of the staff driving GT500 Mustangs through India and mentioned the Factory Five road-race themed '33 Ford that Hot Rod built in one week May had a road race '32 Ford with a Volvo engine and Mike Murillo's 2900 hp Mustang drag car. Yes there are Mopars, GM's, AMC's, etc mixed into every issue but that is kinda the point of the mag...
I guess if you are into Fords and Fords ONLY, then it wouldn't be a very good read for you.
Maybe you should reread that one....
The latest build they did that was blue oval was a 427 Cammer, the last time was the 4.6 running a carb IIRC and that was at least 6 months ago. Otherwise all the buildups are GM and Mopar
as I said.
I would imagine its hard for them to cater to every brand make and model and keep their mag wide reaching in its scope. Keep crying about it if you want, I will continue being a subscriber.:flip:
It may be hard but when they do 3-4 Mopar / GM builds to every 1 Ford build they alienate some guys. You do what you want I really couldn't care any less than I do right now weather you subscribe or not. You had not read my comment 100% or you would have understood it the first time. I felt I should let you know what I meant. No need to get butthurt about it.
I don't think we were crying about anything. I was just mentioning that Hot Rod caters to a brand of car I do not care for, so I quit subscribing. I wouldn't look look twice at any bowtie, so why should I pay to read about them? Easy answer, I don't. No crying, just stating a fact. Now I read Ford books offline and I read Ford forums online. I like the camaraderie with fellow Ford owners. Because this is a Ford forum, I would expect to throw some arrows at Brand X stuff. Heck, this is a Bird/Cougar forum, so we even throw arrows at Mustang owners! I think that is funny and my wife and daughter both drive Mustangs. :D
I let my Subscription to Car & Driver run to it's demise last month. I was a subscriber for 11 years....The March issue from this year was the last straw.....Utter .
Hey thats fine can't blame you there at all...I was just saying they
do have stuff in there about Fords quite often. I like the camaraderie with Ford owners too, but on a larger scope I just like cars in general. Sure there are certain models I like better than others, etc. I do understand there are some folks who hate GM or Mopar or Ford or whatever (which is something I really don't understand, if it hauls ass and looks good I dig it) and I suppose that is why they have different mags. Not trying to stir trouble, I was just standing up for a magazine that I enjoy getting in the mail every month!