LexFather

Did u go to the link i posted? Automobile is sub-par, IMO.

Dan_K

iTrader: (1)

Autoweek. If anything, you get some news every week.

mmarshall

Personally, I like Car and Driver, Road and Track, Automobile, and Autoweek (Autoweek has printed many of my comments).......and Consumer Reports for their reliability charts. I especially like Car and Driver's comparison tests and the editorials by Patrick Bedard, Csaba Csede, and John Phillips, but I considered Brock Yates a moron and I'm glad he's gone. Jean Jennings of AUTOMOBILE magazine is also quite good...and she is a classy lady. Ditto for Rich Ceppos of Autoweek...formerly from C&D. Motor Trend is OK.....somewhat better than it used to be...but still not one of my favorites.


In contrast to the excellence of some of these auto magazines, the average newspaper auto write-ups are TERRIBLE.....some of those people don't know one end of the car from the other, and I sometimes wonder how they even get the engine started. And they worship practically everything they drive, kiss the manufacturer's a** no matter what, and look at it with rose-colored glasses......you never hear anything about the vehicle's negative points....which, believe me, are there. These people, in spite of the fact that they are getting paid for it, IMO are doing the public....and potential car buyers....a disservice with their inaccurate and one-sided write-ups.

The poor quality of so many newspaper auto write-ups is one reason, among several, why I do my own auto reviews and post them on CL and elsewhere, even though on a casual test-drive I usually don't drive the vehicles at their limits and cannot comment on their behavior at those limits.

For those who prefer to watch TV than read, the weekly Motorweek TV show, with John Davis and Pat Goss, is a good show for evaluating vehicles (I casually know John Davis...he's a sharp and level-headed guy and doesn't do crazy things like powerslides and drifting, and I have a high opinion of him), but the show, like the newspapers, sometimes overemphasizes the car's good points and does not mention the negatives enough. And IMO Goss sometimes overemphasizes the domestic-nameplate vehicle too much, especially in relation to Asian brands.

Tekknikal

i love Car

MrG4Life

iTrader: (14)

Just read it. How about this, I'll just continue to borrow my friend's Automobile magazines and settle for something else.

Hameed

Car & Driver
Modified Luxury and Exotics


It's not worth it to me because it costs almost $100.00/per year for a subscription.

I am sure it provides for great reading, but at almost $10 per issue, I would rather buy something else.

AzNMpower

I stick with Car and Driver the most, and I used to read Motortrend quite a bit. However, lately the latter hasn't come up with the most brilliant material, especially with the Camry being Car of the Year.

As with all magazines, I don't take them too seriously since cars tend to be subjective and personal taste. But it's nice to read opinions. Except CR.........they're better off testing toasters.

mmarshall

Motor Trend, unfortunately, has a long history, going back decades, of picking questionable products for its COTY title. Some of them, like GM's X-Body cars and Chrysler K-Bodies and Omni-Horizon, literally spent more time in the shop than out.

CR actually does a good job testing cars if you look at it, as many people do, from a non-sporting or non-enthusiast point of view. Most of the people who read Consumer Reports are interested in value, reliability, versatility, and how the vehicle is going to perform every day as a daily driver, not how fast it can do 0-60, the quarter-mile, or lap the Nurburgring. In this CR does very well. I usually try to tailor my own auto reviews along these lines.

For what you seem to be looking for, I would agree with you.....it's hard to beat Car and Driver, especially that Brock Yates is gone.....he himself dragged the magazine down several notches.

MrG4Life

iTrader: (14)

I'm subscribed to Consumer Reports and appreciate their testing of cars. I love the Auto issue which is published every year in the April edition.

thetopdog

You can't expect a car magazine like RnT, Car And Driver or Motortrend to report on reliability. They test brand new cars (some of the time before the cars even hit the streets) that haven't been around long enough to make any kind of determination of their reliability. Plus truly evaluating all the factors involved with a model's reliability is extremely time consuming, expensive, and redundant when magazines like Consumer Reports are around.

retrodrive

VIP Style, VIP Car, Car Audio and Electronics
I pick up some mags off the shelfs in stores once in a while but rarely. I might sign up for some Japanese BMW magazines because I am about to get one. There are some good magazines in US though.

natnut

The best car magazine IMO. Free of PR speak and not biased by adverts. Best of all...it's free!

Winding Road :

http://www.windingroad.com/

Subscribe using your e-mail then download.Read and be enlightened.

natnut

Winding Road--free online downloadable magazine

http://www.windingroad.com

UDel

Car and Driver
Road and Track
Automobile
Sports Car International
Top Gear
Car
EVO
Motortrend
Porsche Mags

Sometimes Max Power and Redline, modified Euro cars and naked woman are the highlights of these magazines although they are too expensive at over $10 a mag. I think the British/Euro mags like Car, Evo, and Top Gear have the best pics and articles but they are too expensive and have more then a fair share of US and American bashing.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Not exactly what he means. For example - in spring of 1993 when Toyota launched the MkIV Supra, C&D tested one. It did a 13.1 @ 109 mph. Not one single owner was able to duplicate that performance on a fully stock car ever. At the same time, I've discussed magazine test mules with people whom I trust, and they tell me the manufacturers are notorious for things like empty catalytic converters and "special" engine computers to ensure they beat the competition. FWIW, no Supra after that red '93 hardtop ever tested better than 13.5 seconds at 106 mph. That's what padded means.

Also, I've subscribed to all of these magazines at one time or another. I like C&D editorials more often than not, but for the most part I have better things to do with my time. When they started piling up unread, I figured I was just wasting my money. The one thing I really liked about Autoweek - the ads for cars in the back. Other than that, read Automobile if you want sizzle without substance, read C&D if you want the Bedard or Yates enthusiast opinion on something, or read almost any of the European magazines if you want an education on the latest technology (especially the bike magazines!)

And get Consumer Reports if you want an unbiased (but unscientific) rating of how car owners are doing with their cars. (It's unscientific because the ratings come from soliciting CR readers, not the general population - to be fair you would need a general cross-section, and CR doesn't have that.) Still, I do look at their ratings as a reasonable guide for what to expect.