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Retro Cars is no more


ETCHY

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The 're launch was on the QT with no advertising

Another Writer of another mag told me Craig had very little budget at all.

Craig is a brilliant writer and a nice person ..So I am gutted

I noticed at the NEC a lack of effort from Kelsey

I sent lots of photos and a story of my Rover ..These will never be seen now..

I hope Craig and the team do something  else in the future..Perhaps with Matt Richards who seems a good egg

 

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2 hours ago, HMC said:

That’s a shame, he was great too. I thought he was particularly skilled at staging photos for the mag- like the main photo of that Facebook link.

Yes, indeed that is a shame. Sam's columns and articles were some of the best bits of PC, and he was definitely their most entertaining writer.

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Bugger! This sounds (sounded) like a good read - I had no idea it existed, or as others have suggested, I've dismissed it due to the name having previously been used for modified stuff - content which leaves me completely cold. (See SiC's swan song on RR regarding a very talented man and a complete waste of his time on a Ka or other tiny shitbox that when finished looked like it had been fashioned from blue ice cream - his verdict that it should be killed with fire nearly saw me bust my clacker valve.)

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

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That’s a shame. I enjoyed the original modified car format and the odd recent more classic issue when I’ve been able to pick it up in the US. 

Back in the days of dialup, the only way you knew what was going on in the rest of the car world was by magazine. The modern internet has killed that. 

Not to mention the likes of Max Power and Fast Car being a good way of getting your soft pawn in a way you girlfriend or Mum didn’t know about. 

The difference between US magazines and UK used to be stark. The UK having far more in-depth info about the featured car. I think this has slipped a little. 

I have Classic Porsche delivered from the UK as a Rest Of World subscription, but feel like I’m being held by Dick Turpin every renewal time. 
To make matters worse, this months issue is on Pocket Mags only (E edition). Thanks Covid.

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I think at some point you’ve to accept the format of information you receive has changed, maybe at one time you’d have read up on what to look for when buying a Rover 200 in a magazine, now you’d look for that content on a marque specific website or ask on a forum such as this, especially for something so niche as what we’re discussing here. Look at say AR online, loads of fascinating articles you valued spend hours on there. It’s not a free exercise by any means but the cost of operating it is much less than say publishing a magazine and chasing for advertising revenue from a myriad of customers. 

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On ‎4‎/‎30‎/‎2020 at 7:33 PM, puddlethumper said:

Retro Cars gone. A real shame. I hope one of their  other mags, Classic Van and pickup,

doesn't go the same way as well. I'll be well gutted.

Sad to say it appears it may have done. Pocket Mags says "Title closed. New issues will not be released.".  I'm gutted too if this really means what it says.

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I must admit I have not set foot in a newsagents for months.

Mid 80s I had a part time job in a 100 year old family run paper shop which is still going.

There were probably 10 titles of monthly car magazines and a couple of weeklys. A couple of tractor ones and a couple of lorry ones.

Since the 90s there have been what seems like hundreds of new titles. Not just for cars but all genres. Fishing magazines, crafting magazines, DIY magazines, womens magazines, lifestyle magazines, gossip magazines,rock music magazines, health and fitness magazines........

Max Power, Evo, TopGear, Mini World,  Total Vauxhall, Volksworld, Fast Ford, Classic Ford, Mini Magazine, Fast Car, Car Stereo and Security, Jaguar Monthly, Retro Japanese... and endless array of ever more niche titles squashed up on the shelf.

The little paper shop is bursting at the seams.

Was such massive growth ever sustainable? How many of the new titles survive?

 

I bought a few Retro Cars and enjoyed them.

I find magazines get a bit samey after a while. 

Years ago I subscribed to What Car? but every month was this Mondeo vs a Mazda6, that Mondeo vs a Passat,  this Mondeo vs a Vectra and a Primera. Yawn.

I also bought CAR magazine but that is this 911 vs a Lotus, that 911 vs an Alpine, this 911 vs M3. Yawn again.

 

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Very sad to hear this news. I’m not a great magazine reader because I haven’t found many that suit my tastes since early 2000s PC. Most either cater to the owners of modified or posh, expensive cars with the standard and low value classics ignored.

I did buy a back issue of Retro Cars which had a Rover 45 article in it, read it cover to cover and thoroughly enjoyed it. I only knew it had changed direction through a thread on here, I never would have bought it in its retro rides guise. 

Probably should have subscribed from the start to be honest - if more of us had done that it might still be with us!

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Maybe we* are just all getting old and a bit jaded?

Between 1989 and 1993-4 I bought every issue of CAR. Like any adolescent I was looking for a gang - and Bremner and Bulgin were the cool older brothers, Gavin Green the kindly father figure, Setright and the other older journos the crazy uncles in the attic. And on top of that you had James Ruppert doing his used car feature and people like Rowan Atkinson writing pieces.

I don't suppose anything published today is quite going to feel the same. I'm sure Richard Porter nicked ideas from the glory years of CAR for Top Gear - you can hear that in the 'Smith and Sniff' conversations (i.e. the same cultural reference points).  

Tricky time to be in what is increasingly getting referred to as 'legacy media'.

edit, however it seems Harry Metcalfe managed some of that spirit at Evo in the early days.

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14 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

 

While we're on about Practical Classics, Sam Glover has left his role on the mag, and seems to be trying to find his own place in the world. https://www.facebook.com/samgloversgarage/

That’s both a surprise and a shame! I always enjoyed a Sam Glover article. His fleet of oddball randoms was always great to read about! Hopefully the Facebook page will have updates! 

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A proper shame - been a subscriber to RC since the relaunch and really enjoyed it Wonder what happens with my subscription now then.  It was probably the nearest thing we'll see to a modern incarnation of Jalopy I guess. I suppose, looked at it objectively it's not a massive surprise as it is very niche but I find that comparable mags - Modern Classics, PC etc leave me a bit cold and I rarely bother with them.

Be a shame if Classic Van & Pickup has gone too, not something I bought often but enjoyable when I did.

I suppose we'll just be left with a small selection of mass market magazines dealing with old cars now. And theres only so many articles about MGs and E Types I'm interested in (=0)

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1 hour ago, egg said:

Maybe we* are just all getting old and a bit jaded?

Between 1989 and 1993-4 I bought every issue of CAR. Like any adolescent I was looking for a gang - and Bremner and Bulgin were the cool older brothers, Gavin Green the kindly father figure, Setright and the other older journos the crazy uncles in the attic. And on top of that you had James Ruppert doing his used car feature and people like Rowan Atkinson writing pieces.

I don't suppose anything published today is quite going to feel the same. I'm sure Richard Porter nicked ideas from the glory years of CAR for Top Gear - you can hear that in the 'Smith and Sniff' conversations (i.e. the same cultural reference points).  

Tricky time to be in what is increasingly getting referred to as 'legacy media'.

edit, however it seems Harry Metcalfe managed some of that spirit at Evo in the early days.

I think most of us would be a candidate for the ‘Crankcase’ column in Top Gear. ?

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On 5/1/2020 at 12:00 AM, Datsuncog said:

Hard business, print media. ...

Gradually losing battle against clickbait media.

There are stupid exceptions, though. I almost always buy Model Railway Journal - a very high-brow modelling magazine notorious for its eccentric attitude to publishing deadlines - from Smith's, without ever feeling the need to subscribe directly.

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The barbers I used for years while living with my parents used to have a stack of motoring magazines to read.  I remember Car being one of the titles in the pile, & normally a good read for a pre-teen me.

In later years the owner seemed to be more into the magazines that were like a lad's mag with tuned up cars, & pages of ads for Demon Tweaks.

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6 hours ago, sierraman said:

Can’t see why anyone would subscribe to What Car, it’s surely the most boring tome you could possibly pick up. They think every new car that comes out is the absolute dogs bollocks, there’s rarely any criticism in it, these days it’s full of boring articles about BIK figures for Skodas.

I get What Car’s free from someone at work, they are very obsessed with dashboard plastics and it’s very rare for a non-VW group product to win a group test. Occasionally they get all radical and let a Toyota win. 

Meh, definitely wouldn’t buy with my own money.

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15 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

I get What Car’s free from someone at work, they are very obsessed with dashboard plastics and it’s very rare for a non-VW group product to win a group test. Occasionally they get all radical and let a Toyota win. 

Meh, definitely wouldn’t buy with my own money.

A lot of the magazine's now that test new cars - What Car, Autocar, AutoExpress  & also Car Wow on line are all very VAG biased.

Possibly something to do with advertising revenue/ what country actually owns the magazine..

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What Car wasn't bad in the 80s. Budget car comparisons between Skoda Estelle, 2cv, FSO and a Yugo. Reliability surveys, Hans Lehnans grainy spy shots of new models, Latest tape players with auto reverse, mpg tests etc. 

The new car market is very different now. Its dull and so is the magazine. 

 

VAG, for all their faults do know how to make an interior feel a bit special.  That's what the testers go on. 

Even if the rest of the car is crap. 

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2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Got to be honest, I didn’t even know this magazine existed until I read this thread! I’ve never seen it on a shop shelf anywhere. Maybe that’s part of the problem?

It wasn't widely available in my experience. I saw it on sale in just three places: the Southend High Street, Medway Services and Clacket Lane Services (anticlockwise) branches of WH Smith, respectively. I managed to obtain the final issue from the latter outlet on Wednesday, so at least I have a full run of the revamped magazine to keep for posterity.

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3 hours ago, Timewaster said:

What Car wasn't bad in the 80s. Budget car comparisons between Skoda Estelle, 2cv, FSO and a Yugo. Reliability surveys, Hans Lehnans grainy spy shots of new models, Latest tape players with auto reverse, mpg tests etc. 

The new car market is very different now. Its dull and so is the magazine. 

 

VAG, for all their faults do know how to make an interior feel a bit special.  That's what the testers go on. 

Even if the rest of the car is crap. 

I’ve a feeling What Car prioritise BIK figures and plastic quality above driving experience. Look at the older TG mags, if a manufacturer brought something out that was genuinely shit like the Mk6 Escort, they’d say so. What Car would have had a fucking banner going on about how brilliant it was. I’ve a ton of old What Cars in the loft, up to about 1992, the old ones were ok for reference but the recent ones detailing a roadtest of a Skoda Roomster 1.2 TSI are just drivel. 

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8 hours ago, motorpunk said:

The bloody awful bits are usually the bits I've written. Sorry. 

Just had a look back through your post history and it doesn't seem to be riddled with dreadful typos and poor proofreading so I don't reckon it's you. 

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11 hours ago, sierraman said:

I’ve a feeling What Car prioritise BIK figures and plastic quality above driving experience. Look at the older TG mags, if a manufacturer brought something out that was genuinely shit like the Mk6 Escort, they’d say so. What Car would have had a fucking banner going on about how brilliant it was. I’ve a ton of old What Cars in the loft, up to about 1992, the old ones were ok for reference but the recent ones detailing a roadtest of a Skoda Roomster 1.2 TSI are just drivel. 

I'm confident in saying a very large percentage of people who buy the likes of WhatCar? aren't interested in the driving experience in the same way as the Evo/Top Gear fraternity are. 

People rave about the plastic quality of VAG so it's clearly important to some. 

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