Retro Cars is no more

[MJK 24]

It’s a shame to see these titles fail.

I was astonished to see Auto Italia on sale last year.  I stopped buying it approx 10 years ago when it inevitably started to repeat itself.

Times are changing, for better or for worse.

[brownnova]

49 minutes ago, HMC said:

I’ve got a bit of nostalgia for PC as I started buying it aged 15 in 1995 and it fed my love of old cars but inability to own one. I really used to lap up staff car sagas I suppose as a substitute for having one myself. 

This was me too... (although in about 2000)... been an on and off reader/subscriber etc. Mrs_b has just bought me a subscription to PC as she knows I always enjoy reading it when I get the chance. 
 

5 hours ago, sierraman said:

Used to be an avid reader of Practical Classics but it seems it’s all about catering to the hipsters... 

I have the beard, since lockdown I have the ponytail (could be man bun if I wanted) l, I possess checked shirts and tweed jackets, and buy vinyl.... and like Practical classics....

Shit, am I a hipster? 

 

[meggersdog]

John Joe came into my workshop a couple of weeks ago and suggested he might be out of a job soon. Looks like that is the case with the demise of Modern Classics. Shame as he is a really nice guy.

[stuboy]

1 hour ago, brownnova said:

I have the beard, since lockdown I have the ponytail (could be man bun if I wanted) l, I possess checked shirts and tweed jackets, and buy vinyl.... and like Practical classics....

Shit, am I a hipster? 

wooly  on put not put on all they way too

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, brownnova said:

This was me too... (although in about 2000)... been an on and off reader/subscriber etc. Mrs_b has just bought me a subscription to PC as she knows I always enjoy reading it when I get the chance. 
 

I have the beard, since lockdown I have the ponytail (could be man bun if I wanted) l, I possess checked shirts and tweed jackets, and buy vinyl.... and like Practical classics....

Shit, am I a hipster? 

 

I’ve had long hair on top, am not clean shaven and I have some checked shirts and have a cassette collection. I’m a hypocrite. 

I’m not up at night worried though about whether Mk3 Escort prices are up or down. I’m up at night wondering where the fuck the Lonsdale YD41s on HML are.

[Angrydicky]

I too used to buy PC in the late 90s early 2000s. Loved it but lost interest when Will Holman left. The content and writing both went downhill imo.

[sierraman]

Years ago it was a seventies repmobile tear or whatever, now it’s ‘buy these £9,000 cars before they go up in value’

[Angrydicky]

9 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Years ago it was a seventies repmobile tear or whatever, now it’s ‘buy these £9,000 cars before they go up in value’

I agree. How many of us can afford to splash £9k on a car? I certainly can't. The cheaper stuff, the bread and butter, is ignored as it doesn't generate fancy covers or big ad revenue.

[skoda_fan]

Agreed. Of course Covid isn't helping either. They are obviously struggling to put issues together now. I still subscribe to PC, but can read the interesting bits in three minutes flat. I'll prob cancel in due course if it doesn't improve.

Btw what do others do with their mags once read? Bin them or hoard them? I'm a hoarder but often wonder why. They'll prob all end up in recycling one day.

[sierraman]

50 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

I agree. How many of us can afford to splash £9k on a car? I certainly can't. The cheaper stuff, the bread and butter, is ignored as it doesn't generate fancy covers or big ad revenue.

Classic cars are a rich mans hobby, but the stuff that’s between the classic and banger stage i.e. Mondeo Mk1, Cavaliers etc are going up in value, everyone’s an antiques expert these days, you go on the one make/model pages on faceache and it’s full of ‘wots my Cavalier 1.4 Envoy worf, dun only 184k?’. Fuck all pal. 

[Rod/b]

12 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

I too used to buy PC in the late 90s early 2000s. Loved it but lost interest when Will Holman left. The content and writing both went downhill imo.

Just to prove we keep talking about the same old stuff on here ?

 

[brownnova]

Don’t you just hate it when the same old content gets recycled ???

[flat4alfa]

3 hours ago, sierraman said:

Years ago it was a seventies repmobile tear or whatever, now it’s ‘buy these £9,000 cars before they go up in value’

This ^

[flat4alfa]

2 hours ago, skoda_fan said:

Btw what do others do with their mags once read? Bin them or hoard them? I'm a hoarder but often wonder why. They'll prob all end up in recycling one day.

Five decades-worth all ended up in the loft.  Thousands of them, including international subscriptions such as Retro Viseur. 

Then we sold the house

The loft didn't get cleared in time during the move.   It was a rushed move in the end and the keys had to be handed over

I feel regret for not sorting it, as many are quite valuable and likely of the last few left not turned into pulp

I also feel guilty for leaving a tinder box up there for the new owners

But I'm better now.

[eddyramrod]

3 hours ago, skoda_fan said:

Btw what do others do with their mags once read? Bin them or hoard them? I'm a hoarder but often wonder why. They'll prob all end up in recycling one day.

I do the same, and MrsR gives me endless grief about it.  Just as she does over my model cars, my Cadillac, the Sun 9.50 holiday I've just booked for next year... nothing suits her.  I keep telling her I'm leaving the models and the mags to the Lakeland Motor Museum, but she won't have it.  All she can see is "the mess" that her (adult) kids "will be left with" after I'm gone.

I must update my will....

[sierraman]

5 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

I do the same, and MrsR gives me endless grief about it.  Just as she does over my model cars, my Cadillac, the Sun 9.50 holiday I've just booked for next year... nothing suits her.  I keep telling her I'm leaving the models and the mags to the Lakeland Motor Museum, but she won't have it.  All she can see is "the mess" that her (adult) kids "will be left with" after I'm gone.

I must update my will....

Christ tell me about it! I’ve a loft full of old car magazines and matchbox cars. It’s a hobby, some husbands hobbies are going out for 48 hours on the piss on a weekend or shagging other women, mine is collecting cars and occasions reading a road test on a Renault 25 in a 1986 copy of What Car, with that in mind they want to stop fucking complaining. 

[eddyramrod]

I keep telling her exactly that.  Her usual reply is "I wish you would!"  Thought she'd have had enough of that with her first husband!

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, eddyramrod said:

....I must update my will....

If your property is jointly-owned with her on a joint tenancy, she'll get it anyway (subject to any outstanding mortgage) regardless of what you say in your Will.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

I cleared out the majority of my old mags when we moved house. Had to be ruthless, most given away, some binned and a few kept for sentimental reasons.

I very rarely buy magazines now. I would always buy one when I fly, but that's about it.

Half the problem is I'm rarely near any decent shops, so rely on what I see in Tesco. I would have to go out of my way to buy the likes of RC.

I don't do subscriptions - I went through a phase of land rover obsession and subscribed to one of the mags but after a year I had 12 issues covering basically the same three models of car. None of which I owned because they were by then worth more than I wanted to spend on one.

That put me off subscribing, I prefer just lifting a magazine if I like what they are covering that month. Even then it'll likely sit on my bedside cabinet for a week before I get round to reading it.

Online content like autoshite is so much more accessible - I've always got my phone on me, if I stop for a cuppa I'll have a browse on here.

While I'm cooking the dinner I'll stick YouTube on and catch up with content there, "cooking with Hubnut" has become a regular thing.

I used to read at night, now as soon as my head hits the pillow I'm out

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[AnthonyG]

10 hours ago, skoda_fan said:

Btw what do others do with their mags once read? Bin them or hoard them? I'm a hoarder but often wonder why. They'll prob all end up in recycling one day.

I keep the odd issue of ‘Car’ that comes my way but I pass on the rest, as anybody who went to the FoD meet can testify. Although I ended up with a pile of Kirton’s CS & C! 

Car has recently (pre-COVID) started being printed on very cheap paper, one of the cited reasons being ‘reorienting investment towards our digital brand’ so its obviously on the way out. TBH it’s mainly an offshoot of the Porsche Owners Club these days anyway. 

I very rarely buy new magazines, when you can get old Autocars from the Bay for a tenner for 5 posted, spending £4.50 or whatever on the latest one seems pointless. Old ones have much more interesting content as well. 

[HMC]

These days a the emphasis of road tester seems to need to have Extensive knowledge comparing contrasting and operating infotainment systems rather that the implications of upgraded metallurgy in big end bearings. How many magazine staff have engineering backgrounds? More to the point does that matter anyway.
 

I suppose essentially it’s driven by most readers  not giving a fuck about the latter and making purchasing decisions on the former. Not better or worse but just different times.

And it’s all a bit more MEH as it’s quite hard if not Impossible to make a truely dire car anymore. They are all competent and have decent warranties. It was easier to say interesting things when there was such diversity in the competence of the car manufacturers. 

 

[dollywobbler]

Entirely so, but cars have changed too. Look at how varied the market was in the 1970s compared to today. Do you want air or water cooling? Front wheel drive? Rear wheel drive? Front engine? Rear engine? Wankel? Monocoque or separate chassis? Handling like a 2CV or a BMW?

[puddlethumper]

I was well pissed off when Classic Van and Pick up went tits up. Now I get Classic Car Mart instead.

I certainly don't consider it any kind of substitute.

[Mally]

On 23 July 2020 at 12:42 PM, eddyramrod said:

 

I must update my will....

Leave all the crap in the loft to us, well, them, I'll probably be gone long before you.

Then a roffle can  take place and she can have the cash.

That will shut her up.

[Marina door handles]

I really wonder what the future of print media will be. I do like to have a physical paper magazine to read, I subscribe to PC (bit miffed Sam Glover left as I really liked his weird eastern block stuff)  but only ever buy other car magazines from newsagents once in a blue moon. 20-30 years ago I was a magazine-aholic but the internet has filled some of that void.

Actually I think I prefer older magazines over my lockdown/Furlough period I ended up buying a pile of mid Eighties  CCC magazines off Ebay. Now they were a great read! Doesn't really help the people in print media now though does it? 

[SiC]

I bought this today. About the only magazine I buy and that's only time to time. Excellent writing style and printed on good quality paper. 

Others on the shelf didn't take my interest at all. 

[Sir Snipes]

You'd think anything that could be said about a Jag mk1 had been said by now. 

[skoda_fan]

3 hours ago, Sir Snipes said:

You'd think anything that could be said about a Jag mk1 had been said by now. 

I think that exemplifies a lot of the problem. Take current issue of PC. On the cover: best soft top for 9 grand. (Like someone said above, who can afford that anyway?). Pics shown: MGB (natch) Alfa Spyder (ditto), Minor convertible (yawn), TVR etc. Also on the cover: VW bay, restored Healey, Interceptor buying guide....like we're going to rush out and buy one of those!. Admittedly somehow a Ka has crept on there too which is a bit more Autoshite. Yes, I'm left with the feeling that I've read it all a hundred times before. All the mags whose loss we're now bemoaning dared to feature stuff that was a bit more left field. But they're gone and PC is still here which I guess says it all.

[sierraman]

32 minutes ago, skoda_fan said:

I think that exemplifies a lot of the problem. Take current issue of PC. On the cover: best soft top for 9 grand. (Like someone said above, who can afford that anyway?). Pics shown: MGB (natch) Alfa Spyder (ditto), Minor convertible (yawn), TVR etc. Also on the cover: VW bay, restored Healey, Interceptor buying guide....like we're going to rush out and buy one of those!. Admittedly somehow a Ka has crept on there too which is a bit more Autoshite. Yes, I'm left with the feeling that I've read it all a hundred times before. All the mags whose loss we're now bemoaning dared to feature stuff that was a bit more left field. But they're gone and PC is still here which I guess says it all.

Even when it’s featuring relatable cars they’re spending (presumably not their own) comedy money fixing them up. 

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Sir Snipes said:

You'd think anything that could be said about a Jag mk1 had been said by now. 

Probably? But I haven't read everything that can be known about a Jag MK1... 

I don't get this repeated content moan bollocks. These are classic car magazines where the content is about old cars were in production 30-80+ years ago and almost all haven't been manufactured since. Of course there will be repeated content in them!

30 years is 360 issues, each issue covering several types of car. Say 5 British cars each issue (usually more), that's 1800 ... there hasn't been that many different model cars from major manufacturs in the UK and are still around to buy.