Sorry if this an old subject, but are ALL motoring writers obsessing on exotica these days?
With one notable exception (Car Mechanics) most mags seem uninterested in average cars and are therefore, as far as I am concerned, a total waste of space.
Or am I just getting (even) older?
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Hi mutterer
I couldn't fix a blown fuse on a car but I love "Practical Classics" for the reasons you mention (articles about ordinary cars and interesting people with a real love for ordinary cars).
Mind you "Popular Classics" which was more historical and less mechanical folded and merged with "Practical Classics" - is the car magazine market perhaps a form of escapism for the reader?
pat
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Hear, hear!
To motoring mags, please add many motoring programmes - obsessed with ridiculous cars that I'd only buy if my lottery numbers came up.
splodgeface
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Hear, hear! To motoring mags, please add many motoring programmes - obsessed with ridiculous cars that I'd only buy if my lottery numbers came up.
Add to that the ridiculous things they do with them - particularly the obsession with burning the tread off expensive tyres.
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Well, I see your point, although I quite like looking at the flash stuff.
However, certainly in the case of the magazines, there must be a demand for it or they wouldn't be like that. Conversely, there can't be much of a demand for more technical programmes about ordinary cars or else there would be more [some?] of them.
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I used to buy 'used car buyer' magazine.This started well with features like buying cars at auction for £ 5000, but this soon became buying cars like £25K BMW's and other such German dross (completely irrelevant to most of us).
There was a similar thread sometime ago and i believe HJ mentioned that New Car Mags have it easy because manufacturers are keen to let these mags test thier latest models whereas used car mags have to find and finance there own fleet...
Is Used car Buyer still available ? probably worth a second chance....
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Yes it is but only if you are interested on expensive cars. What these people seem to forget is that a 5 year old BMW 7 may be cheap to buy but will cost an absolute fortune to run
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"..a 5 year old BMW 7 may be cheap to buy but will cost an absolute fortune to run"
I seem to remember Quentin Willson saying that the basic (consumable) spares for these were quite cheap, and because it was so well built, they were likely to be all you needed for a few years. I accept that if something major happened, it would be horrible, and I wouldn't buy one because of the image, but I could see his point. Large cars are often ridiculously good VFM because of the depreciation, yet they will outlast smaller cars by years.
As for mags, I think there are two sorts: those that are tell you useful stuff and those that are just aspirational - I like most of the writing and photos in Car, for instance, but I only buy it occasionally.
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Right... I have read every issue of PC since No 2, which shows how old I am getting. They don't seem to cover much on Nissan Sunnys though, pity.>> Hi muttererI couldn't fix a blown fuse on a car but I love "Practical Classics" for the reasons you mention (articles about ordinary cars and interesting people with a real love for ordinary cars). Mind you "Popular Classics" which was more historical and less mechanical folded and merged with "Practical Classics" - is the car magazine market perhaps a form of escapism for the reader? pat
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a cynic might say the Sunny never needs any of those interesting mechanical repairs but only boring difficult rust ones...I speak as a lover of the Datsun Stanza in pre-rusted form...perhaps if I had read PC from issue 2 I would know more! pat
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Try Diesel Car for real world tests and opinions - a more interesting magazine than its title may conjure up (unless you unfortunately are hopelessly biased against diesels, that is...)
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Will this mag help me when it comes to buying my first ever diesel car in a few months time? Currently have read a few editions of Whatcar.
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Yes it will. It's obviously biased towards diesel vehicles but always seems well researched and there's a lot of good advice on running older cars. Road tests of new cars are very thorough. Compared to mags like Top Gear and CAR you can tell they're running on a budget but I like it.
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Anyone got an copy of issue No. 136 and/or 137 they don't want, that they'd like to sell on? (BMW 320d tests).
Oz (as was)
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Yes it will. It's obviously biased towards diesel vehicles but always seems well researched and there's a lot of good advice on running older cars. Road tests of new cars are very thorough. Compared to mags like Top Gear and CAR you can tell they're running on a budget but I like it.
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I was a bit bored when lying in the bath reading Top Gear and got annoyed with how much rubbish was in the mag. Of the 275 pages, over 100 pages were entirely given to adds and over 80 pages were new and used car data that is the same (or at least 99%) every month.
With the remaining pages there is not much worth reading and in fact as it so well spaced there isn't much there at all.
They may be working on a tight budget but the mag itself is very expensive considering the amount of adverts there are and one would have thought that they could pack something interesting in.
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Used Car Buyer is still around. Very much so.
HJ
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Saw the latest issue of UCB in WHS today. Featured car is the Suburu Impreza WRX Turbo.
I rest my case.................>> Used Car Buyer is still around. Very much so.HJ
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I was a bit bored when lying in the bath reading
I'm sure none of us want to know what you get up to in the bath.
;-)
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I second the praise given to Practical Classics - real people, real cars, very little "fantasy land"-type stuff. While it must be nice to be in the enviable position of finding an E-Type or similar in bits and getting an expert to do a "blank cheque" restoration, it's heartwarming to read of someone who built one in his shed, over a number of years, while sticking to some sort of budget.
Anyone remember Your Classic from the mid-90s? Another one that catered for the Average Joe who liked to run a classic car. It concentrated on the cheaper, more accessible end too.
Around the same time there was also an excellent mag called Car Choice (which evolved from Buying Cars?). Quentin Willson and Steve Cropley used to write bits and pieces for it as I recall. Used to give excellent information about used car buying (and some new ones too).
Finally, an oddball one - anyone ever buy Jalopy magazine? A real "anti-snob" car mag that dealt with running old bangers on a shoestring. Readers were encouraged to contribute stories about how they kept old Cortinas and Avengers running for pennies. Very entertaining!
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I remember 'Jalopy' magazine. The best car mag I've read in years. Pity it disappeared. I also mourn 'Popular Classics' which I preferred to 'Practical Classics' although I do now subscribe to the latter. It seems to be increasingly going down the hot hatch route now though, and the quality of the writing seems to be dumbed down, perhaps I should switch to the 'Automabile'. I must be getting old.
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You right about Car Choice (formerly Buying cars), was a excellent mag. Quentin Wilsons 'dealer diary' was a entertaining read and the whole mag dealt with real world car buying. Shame it stopped. (i've still have some issues from 1993 hanging around, how sad !).
Thanks for the info on UCB HJ , i might give it another go..
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Never miss HJ's contribution to UCB always good stuff, although you read most of it here first!
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Steve Cropley and an art dirtector from Car magazine (Adam?) set up 'Buying Cars?' in an office above a jewellers in the market square at Cirencester. Quentin joined later as 'business manager'. I got on board after that. Trouble was, it wasn't making any money. But Haymarket wanted Steve. So they bought it out, even though it was competitive to 'What Car?', gradually moved Steve sideways, put in a new editor (name change to 'Car Choice'), let it get more mainstream (which is inevitable as people on a mag want to blag cars from manufacturers: one of their few perks), then killed it off.
HJ
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Thanks, HJ - I often wondered what happened to 'Buying Cars'. I'd always assumed it was killed off for being a bit too informative...
BTW, do you know anything about the fate of 'Jalopy', or was it just simple market forces? I don't suppose manufacturers were exactly queueing up to lend them anything!
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Jalopy - edited by Rod Ker, now occasional motoring correspont for the Torygraph I believe! I used to read that all the time. (When I could get a copy)
Triumph Herlads and all that...
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Triumph Herlads and all that...
>>
'HerLads'? Is this a freudian slip? ;)
HF
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Practical Classics get my vote (and money). Informative, the staff own some unusual cars (including a Princess Ambassador at one point). The mechanics and restoration section always have me fascinated at the simplicity of some of the work they do. A Rover P4 pad change didn't look nearly as daunting as my Uncle Trevor said it was. Simply, there is no pretention, no flash motors just a lot of good articles by people that love cars, warts and all.
As for any others, I only read what I find here, the telegraph motoring section and watch Top Gear, anything else is just 'I'll say nice things because the car company paid for an excellent lunch last week.'
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Noooo, the name would crop up so frequently that he couldn't be bothered to type it correctly, hence Hlerad, Hlader, Herlad all used to appear. Considering it was a magazine[1] concerned with cars that go wrong a lot, it's hardly surprising the Hadler got so many mentions...
[1] In the loosest possible sense of the word
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Dave,
Did he ever write for the Griunard?
Matt35.
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Last time I saw anything written by Rod Ker was a couple of years ago in CLASSICS magazine. He was still grappling with the Herald (reminded me of his Jalopy "running reports" where he'd weld in bits of old fridge metal to keep the thing on the road!) and had bought a Capri Laser for something like £60 from an auction...
When Jalopy was current I went a bit mad and ordered a load of back issues direct from Rod, unfortunately I no longer have them...
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Rod Ker currently writes/tests for Classic Bike Guide (Norton Commando vs Kawa H2 in Feb 2003 edition)...
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Would second the votes for diesel car. On the mend since it escaped the clutches of Future publishing but still to match the aeivements of 10 years ago when it was edited and run by John Kerswill.
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Is Mutterer a member of the Guild of Muttering Rotters by any chance?
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Magazines tend to cover expensive machinery because people enjoy reading about it regardless of whether they can afford it or not. Go to any motorshow and I guarantee the Bentley, Ferrari, Porsche stand etc. will be a lot busier than the Daewoo one.
For all that, magazines do cover "ordinary" cars extensively. Autocar, for example, have given enormous coverage to run of the mill Focus, Mondeo, Vectra etc. in recent times.
On the subject of "Buying Cars" magazine, I remember it, and it has to be said Autocar has been a much better magazine since Mr Cropley joined it and his column is frequently one of the better parts of the mag.
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Princess Ambassadors eh - the austin ambassador? I thought that was a great car. Not the Nine o'clock News had a scene in (I think) Longbridge where Mel Smith was on the production line and said "Seen the wrench Bob"? and Griff R-J says "No I think Bob's got it". and Rowan Atkinson says "Bob had it last, didn't you Bob."
The scene finished with a voice-over "The Austin Ambassador: Hand built by Roberts"
pat (aka bob)
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Pat,
Thanks for the memory! Brilliant Ad!
Had the advertising people been managing the company we might still have a British car industry?
Matt35.
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Hello,
Rod Ker is my uncle, he has a huge pile of the jalopies in his bedroom.
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All the motoring programs teach nothing except how to look stupid going sideways round "the track". However watch world rally and knowledge is frequently passed on, by far the most entertaining.
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At the airport waiting to depart I bought a copy of Practical classics mag. Best £4 I've spent in years. Better still when I got to the hotel another guest had left a copy of last months edition. I'm that impressed that I'm stopping buying Focus and going over to PC. It's a good addition to the Car Mechanics mag I currently read. I don't own a classic but it's so interesting.
Steve.
---
Xantia HDi.
Buy a Citroen and get to know the local GSF staff better...
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At the airport waiting to depart I bought a copy of Practical classics mag...... I don't own a classic but it's so interesting.
Hmmm...I wonder what proportion of PC readers actually do own a classic car? I don't, but as you say, it's still an interesting read.
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i bought it again last week and as i havent read it for a few months thought it was excellant (i dont have and dont want a classic car i see enough problems during the day without having homework as well)
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