What is carmagreviews?
What Gaol am I hopping to achieve?
What is carmagreviews?
What you are looking at is a world first (that's no bull shit ... I challenge you to look around...) I am a kiwi who has reviewed Automotive or car magazine contents of most of 'main established' car magazines in the English speaking world (I would love get some German & French but my year 10 language skills are pretty poor) this has been a massive job.
Because I review the car mags hence my name carmagreviews
Magazines reviewed is on going see List that I will create *
Currently I am wading through in depth Auto Italia magazines 1999-present lent to me by David Brise of Fiat Club Wellington New Zealand
This Job and project as been a 'labour of love' I started this at 12 in an old exercise book (I am now 45) then the database was converted into Lotus 1-2-3 and finally into update versions of Excel - Currently Database stands at 300+ Spreadsheets each with 5000 lines of text and more and 35 fields. I have covered 60 years of 50 different publications from publication date 1947 to present!
I covered not only car magazines but Heavy truck & van. New developments include Hot Rods, motorbikes, Military vehicles and even farm tractors!!
I covered almost everything noted, these include tests, previews, driving impressions, buying articles, book reviews, letters to the editor, barn finds even rare cars that come up for sale like the one below where learned historians like Michael Worthington-Williams have never mentioned:
1952 an ATLANTA 4 door DHC Coupe 12 cylinder 1945 recorded in a classified on 18th January 1952 Auto Car (GB) Page 44 in supplement area Volume 97 Issue # 2929 for sale by a private seller for 900 pounds sterling telephone in the UK old phone number 60 9299 (I never knew they made any post war.....
I got a professional web design consultancy to build me a professional site (I have sunk my life savings into ...) this site reviews in depth automotive magazines over last 2 years (2006-2007) which is fully search-able on http://www.carmagreviews.co.nz/ if there are inquiries prior to 2006 send me an email and i will give you some references julian.walls@xtra.co.nz
In timeI hope to host the old database and it will be fully searchable but this will cost me tens of thousands and use up 1 gb to host!
Note I tell you the references I do not give you the copy as I respect copyright - For Kiwis and hopefully in time Australia I can direct you which library has the magazine with the relevant article (If librarians from other countries are reading this please email me your holding of magazines...and I will update the site information.)
In reviewing the contents of car magazines I believe I am well versed to comment on the magazines themselves and note I am impartial and not connected with any magazine or publisher (To Read about me go to 'about' section on my web site)
The number of magazines to review by1 man is almost an impossible task I probaby reviewed well over 20,000 in last 34 years as I am adding 2 new magazines to the website and 3 magazines to offline database per day!
in 1950s there were very few magazines probably around 20, by today there are 500 plus
of which I review around 35 regularly!
Today's times there are more specialised magazines either on country of origin like Auto Italia, Australian Muscle Cars or specialised on a marque, Mini World, Fast Fords, Land Rover International so I tend to be choosy what I review.
In today's environment The publishing world has changed very few magazines are produced by independents. Most are run by big media companies where accountants are making decisions on what story to run with less control by editors. Big companies like Emap, Fairfax, Petersen Publishing, Chevron, Channel 9, Hemmings these are more production run publications.
But smaller companies who hold out here -Straight Eight Publishing, Kelsey Group and Parkside Media more still concerned at grass root levels ...
I seeing more younger people managing the magazines which although a good thing in that they are in tune with target audience of a younger generation most lack the knowledge base of the old, are totally up themselves and can not distinush between an advertorial and a non advertorial in their writing
Layouts have changed to more glossy formats with litte content bites that suggest its readers have a low concentration level or suffer ADD like the viewers who watch the E Channel!
Many are coming more lifestyle based and read like a copy of M2, FHM without the babes (What are we all 15?)
Proof reading is very poor despite many publishing groups having large teams of people who are employed to do just that. One British Classic magazine is frankly an embarrisment to Classic Car movement despite its strong selling ability that in its barn find page in terms of cars identification is regularly wrong - Each Month in its xspotters corner readers have to correct its writers. Recent embarassments have been They could not tell the difference between a Ford Zephyr Mk2 xand a MG Magnette Farnia or Difference between a Jaguar Mk2 and Armstrong Siddeney 234
The main danger in today's features is same material is been reproduced in different magazines and photographed by same out fit like LAT.
A lot of car magazines have been lying to us for years- about cars they have tested
'We Tested this Lamborghini' where is reality is Lamborghini test driver took it out and 'we' sat in the passager seat or tested by someone else but we claimed credit for it!
Examples
- One British car magazines years ago said they tested a Lamborghini but I detected the profile of x 'Aussie bearded one' Peter Robinson driving the car!
- Silver Spear Race there was one Dodge Magnum XE Touring Wagon but 22 different journalists from different magazines claimed they were in it ( Now come on guys ....unless you trying to break the record how many people you can squash into a wagon ...you have got to be kidding..)
- Cars we've tested lately or 'Drive'
Take a Publicity Photo ; drive a similar car around car park and call that a driving impression - Joining a car manufacturer at cars new launch or debut at some exotic location it used to be the Middle East (buts thats bit unstable at present....journalists seem to get kidnapped :) now lately its Italy or Spain and car is been 'driven' in the company of other journalists but information provided has been sourced from the manufacturer - Jeremy Clarkson wrote in Car years ago in 1993 and featured in his book "Clarkson on Cars" highlighting his best columns what really goes on - the better story is based on how manufacturer's treats the journalist in terms of accomodation and gifts....
- We Tested this Car
Word 'Test' has been abused....
An Australian magazine years ago claimed on their front cover that they tested a rare Isuzu 117 Coupe now your's truly bought it for that trason but the test was not so. Lets face it when was the last time you saw one of these or a road test ( there was one in October 1973 Motor Magazine International Page 86-91 Volume 1 but it was later 1.8XE) this one claimed to be earlier 1.6 DOHC - But alas it was a photo feature!
Recently a local NZ Publication tested a Ferrari 599GTB Fiorana and all it was was red Ferrari outside a trendy Auckland Cafe in a photo shoot ...come on people are we going to stand for this?
Whats Gaols am i hoping to achive?
- Is it Keeping the magazines honest? could be one reason
- But really it to help YOU find that difficult reference you need for a car, truck or bike you are restoring, about to buy , about to fix , to find others with a similar car.
- Within 5 years time a person cxould give me any rare car or model I hope to produce its complete history of where that particular car occured in print, whether it was restored, tested past or present, took part in competitive activity, ownership details or was auctioned
I await your inquiry and discussions of anything unusual....
See my next post where I start a discussion in publishing cars where there is little information....
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