sierraman Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 It’s impossible to make any sense from magazine reviews these days, all the ones that shoot from the hip and tell it how it is are long gone. I think they’re terrified of offending anyone. I browsed through What Car recently, it was felt like a really boring tome written for really boring men who wake at night thinking about benefit in kind figures. Whilst at the same stand I looked at Top Gear - once a great magazine that told it how it was. Now it appears to be a children’s publication aimed at a similar market to ‘Shoot’. Craptical Plastics seems to be for the yuppies and people who call real ale ‘craft beer’. Tasked recently with finding something to read on a long journey I’ve genuinely struggled to find something worth reading, I decided in the end to take an old copy of ‘Motor’ and watch some videos on YouTube like Alan Howatt or Hubnut. Anyone else gone back to reading the contemporary old stuff? lesapandre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New POD Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I've just bought : The Drone age by Michael J. Boyle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartacus Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I just don't get the same interest reading magazines as I used to. These days I'll read automotive reference books to keep me 'in the game', anything by Dave Vizard, Corky Bell, Pete Burgess, Clive Tricky. I'm also interested in fitness so a PE GCSE revision manual covers that. lesapandre and sierraman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HMC Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Print is dead. So said Egon Spengler in ghostbusters (1984); who no doubt paraphrased someone else. I think it was easier to make good copy when there were genuinely bad new cars out there. It’s also driven by what interests most buyers so financial stuff, tax stuff and how the infotainment system works are all big hitters for some. The car as an appliance. I quite like what car, but favour 1990s editions, and sorry to repeat myself CAR from about 87-97. Wudrecommend PS- no doubt What car? Would not recommend a used Cadillac hearse to undertake the busting of ghosts. Merely adequate steering lock and dire combined cycle fuel economy only merits 2 stars I’m afraid. bunglebus, crad, Dippy and 2 others 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KitKat Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I just keep a stack of select old issues of my favourite magazine titles back from their prime, usually mid-noughties. Thumbing through a few old Classic Ford mags this week, despite the calibre of grammar never being CF's strongpoint and there never enough detail or nitty gritty, it's still fun to witness classifieds from 2005 for 3-door RS500's at £12k and £500 MK2 R2000s with "tax and test". Practical Classics, especially when Fuzz and Sam Glover were at large as I love their writing styles and road test articles. Car Craft as I'm into yanks and its has much ado technical and engine building stuff, and the feature cars are usually fabulous. HotRod when David Freiburger was the editor-at-large, and earlier; I have a particular weakness for old 60's editions. But I'm reading Crime and Punishment at the moment, which I can confidently report is neither automotive related, or erotic. lesapandre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon.k Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I have Car Magazine on subscription as a freebee with my bank account, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get back into it after reading it from the early 90s to mid 2000s. I've been giving it the benefit of the doubt although the constant lifestyle references and pictures of the journalists' massive watches has been annoying me. There are too many references to driving to a ski chalet, loading mountain bikes, living "on a farm" and therefore needing a Discovery, going to Ikea, and of course the perennial long-term test staple; "look at this photo of when I took three bricks, a couple of plastic kids toys and a bag of grass clippings to the tip". The whole magazine seems to be pretty uncomfortable in its own skin. It can't quite decide whether petrol cars are acceptable or not, whether electric is the answer, and whether or not SUVs are a good thing. Then we get onto the perennial bore of the letters where people write in with some weak premise whilst really all they want to do is throw in that they've just bought X or Y. This month is a celebration of 700 issues but despite all the backslapping it did just make me think how far away the mag is now from what it once was. Maybe I'm being harsh and the problem is I find the cars boring, or maybe the problem is everyone finds the cars boring so the magazine hasn't got much to work with. HMC is right about the fact that there aren't many genuinely crap cars to slate in reviews either. Was it Car or Top Gear who had the title for the review "Her name is Rio and she's Crap"? I seem to remember a pretty scathing one on the Mentor too. Probably a bit unfair but quite funny. I find Evo much better because they write about cars with genuine enthusiasm. When I just want to enjoy an easy read through a magazine I have taken to buying the old boy style magazines like Heritage Commercial, Vintage Road Scene, Bus and Coach Preservation . There are some great pictures and real enthusiam from the writers. lesapandre and egg 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket88 Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Autocar..........still the most accurate barometer of the car industry. Peter C and NorfolkNWeigh 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sierraman Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 I think there are still some bloody shit cars coming out. MG3 case in point, just absolute dog shit, you’d just go and buy a used Astra or whatever. Not read CAR for years, apart from the 80’s copies. Obviously you got the oddball highbrow thoughts from LJK Setright but apart from the that it was objective and had some great photography in it. A lot of the content in magazines now is so distant to what a lot of people know, thinking back years ago it might be a saga of a restoration of a Austin Cambridge in a prefab shed by a man working on an extension lead from the house, freezing his bollocks off welding some sills on with a crappy old MIG he found at a car boot. It’s more likely to be a cost no object retrim of a Jensen Intercepter in today’s craptical plastics. In a way watching the saga of someone welding up an old Focus on here is the logical successor in a sense. Perhaps the magazines no longer cater for the grass roots. lesapandre and KitKat 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter C Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 New mag coming out soon. https://shop.kelsey.co.uk/subscription/CMB lesapandre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon.k Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 That does look promising! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lesapandre Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I just take the smartphone with me and read this site. www.curbsideclassic.com is pretty good too. If you want something unusual La Vie De L'Auto is good - it's a French quality classic car weekly I always pick up in France. With Google translate and my new excellent photo-to-text app I get by reading it. I can photograph an article, turn that into text and run it through the translator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sierraman Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 1 hour ago, Peter C said: New mag coming out soon. https://shop.kelsey.co.uk/subscription/CMB Now we’re talkin! Hopefully it’ll be well researched and a bit of a reflection of the old Peter Simpson days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sierraman Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 Will you be able to buy it in the newsagents like Smiths? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HMC Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Wonder what the evolution will be from old car mechanics? It sounds like a practical classics meets car mechanics. In fact there’s a “bangernomics” bit of practical classics (a way of getting newer cars in under the radar without inciting a riot) which is probably a clue as to where it might be headed. Kelsey’s take on it perhaps. Is Lindsay Porter still about? Bolton library had a great book of his about reviving a 2 door marina Which was very practical and preferable to doing GCSE revision circa 1995 which was the reason I was there. lesapandre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sierraman Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 I’ve got that book. Haynes book of Bodywork? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HMC Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Just now, sierraman said: I’ve got that book. Haynes book of Bodywork? I think it was this - But probably the same marina stuff repackaged. I wondered if it was partly collated from car mechanics. lesapandre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sierraman Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 Just now, HMC said: I think it was this - But probably the same marina stuff repackaged. I wondered if it was partly collated from car mechanics. Yeah I’ve got that one. I had it for my 17th birthday. What a sad twat I was! HMC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter C Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 18 minutes ago, sierraman said: Will you be able to buy it in the newsagents like Smiths? I hope so. Getting a car magazine from your local newsagents must surely constitute as an essential journey. HMC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inconsistant Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I’m on a newsletter email list for a new mag due out some time in the future called Alternatve Cars which, going by the newsletter content looks diverse, unusual and very promising. I enjoy(ed) Motorpunk mags over the last year or two, but mostly I’m on screen reading either the website Driven To Write which is excellent, especially the Archie Vicar Archive of reprinted old car reviews, Or I’m perusing one of the only things thats any good on facebook, the ‘Car Design Archive’ page. egg and Alusilber 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sierraman Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 48 minutes ago, Peter C said: I hope so. Getting a car magazine from your local newsagents must surely constitute as an essential journey. If it avoids us losing our shit from being prevented from living day to day life then that seems essential to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bunglebus Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 I haven't forgiven Kelsey for killing off Ultra VW magazine, which was genuinely well written and photographed, and better than Volksworld was at the time. That was the beginning of the end for me, I cancelled my Volksworld, Custom Car and Street Machine subs as instead of devouring them instantly, they were just stacking up unread. I still have about a years worth of CC and Hayburner magazines that I haven't even opened. I'm not sure what the change was as I'd loved car mags from an early age, partly it was cost but I think I just got burnt out after amassing a huge collection going back to the 60's, and it started to weigh me down. Sold all the custom hot rod related stuff, still got all the VW ones which I'll sell when I can be bothered to list them. If I was going to pick up a mag it would be Custom Car, Street Machine or PC, as I have no interest in modern stuff, everyday or supercar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_Fearn Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 21 hours ago, Peter C said: New mag coming out soon. https://shop.kelsey.co.uk/subscription/CMB I hope this doesn’t go the same way as Retro Cars magazine. I thought that had great potential but went as quickly as it came. Craig Cheetham the editor seemed to be one of us. Peter Simpson is a good old school writer/dealer. Peter C 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flat4alfa Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 I used to buy and read so much, until a decade ago By then, the glossy classic magazines had over-repeated themselves and upped their game to focus on well out of reach models, winding me up with words such as ‘accessible’ when referring to the top bid on a Jaguar E-type needing £25k of work Top Gear lost it very early on. Going sideways in a £200k+ super car while being brash and cocky doesn’t correlate to anything seen on the way to Tesco car park; i.e. the real world Practical Classics was great but then got cluttered and messy - I’d open page after page, wondering where to start. It was like the PlayStation Generation needed more sugar I buy nothing now, sorry to say The best reference guide is Flickr pages @trigger‘s Retro Road Tests! Shite Ron 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HMC Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 There was a great chod friendly seam on the original TG mag. There was the bangers edition that’s been mentioned in passing before (Banger racing, scrap yards, the team buy a £500 car each, competition to win a marina etc) Also one where they did a long road trip in one of those late 80s mini RED HOT special editions. It was in about 1999 and it was pretty knackered. Kudos to them for devoting several pages to it. Could have been to mark 40 years of the mini thinking about it, being 1999. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kringle Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 Stumbled across code BC20 for 6months for £19.99 for that new mag ^ remember it's direct debit incase it's shit. rainagain 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_Fearn Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 There are loads of really good car books about if you fancy something a bit more in depth. This one remains my favourite, I’ve read it at least 3 times. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yugo-Rise-Fall-Worst-History/dp/0809098954 I enjoyed this one too by Bob Lutz. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Car-Guys-vs-Bean-Counters/dp/1591846226 Also, why not try the Readly app? You can get most magazines available all on a tablet, it took me a while to get used to not having a paper copy but I prefer the flexibility of reading whatever I fancy on the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter C Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lesapandre Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 (There is one of those XF's parked near me. It's part of the stock of a local back street bodyshop - the bumper and front is off. What surprised me was how badly put together and flimsy and shoddy looking the structure behind is. I will snap it next time I go by). Peter C 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazebo Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 Most magazines now (in any genre, not just cars) are thinly disguised product placement. I used to like guitar magazines, but they have become like reading an Andertons brochure. Journalism isn't what it used to be. lesapandre and KitKat 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamworthbay Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 Just cancelled my last subscription after many many years. Practical classics has been gentrified over recent years with more and more £20k + cars creeping in and the weird far right ramblings of Nick Larkin on Facebook don’t help either. The final straw was the Range Rover being awarded best car of the 70s, not because it was an amazing off road vehicle, but because it has inspired the new SUV and soft roader craze. Their circulation numbers have been falling for ages and rather than attempt to get younger readers they are firmly aiming at the pipe and slipper brigade. Very sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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