(Stroking long, white beard) Remember magazines? In the pre-internet era, when ink on paper ruled, magazines were essentially your only entrée to the gated worlds of everything from fancying cats, to semi-pro sewing, from building model airplanes to fishing competitively. And of course, the full scope of cardom beyond whatever was rolling around your hometown was available at your favorite newsstand, if not arriving directly in your mailbox once a month.
As I’m sure was also true for many of you, Car and Driver and Road & Track were staples in the Vieira household. Those subscriptions were re-upped faithfully, and Motor Trend was added to the mix whenever a good subscription deal presented itself, or whenever individual issues caught Dad’s eye. As a model builder, I picked up Scale Modeler and Auto Modeler on the regular, and as soon as a 1974 Super Beetle became my daily transpo to school, Hot VW was frequently read over a bowl of cereal before heading to Seekonk High School.
As the internet grew and magazine sales slumped, I held onto good ol’ ink and paper longer than most, probably because I was in the magazine-making business by then as a staffer at RC Car Action – and also because in those pre-smartphone days, lugging a laptop into the bathroom was a real hassle.
Today, The Autopian is in my pocket wherever I go, as well as all those print titles that transitioned from paper to pixels. We get our car news, entertainment, and info as quickly as it can be reported, and there’s way more of it, as there’s no limit to virtual pages. I’m glad I got to experience both worlds, the disconnected one we all knew before 1996 or so, and the modern realm of unlimited information and instant access, for better or worse. But I do miss the thrill of finding a fresh glossy magazine curled in the mailbox.
Your turn: What Were / Are Your Favorite Car Magazines?
the one magazine that I have been absolutely obsessed about is Autocar India.
I have been an avid reader of ACI since I was around 5 or so. Back when I lived in India, my grandpa would take me to the bookstore every month and I’d walk out with my magazine happy as a clam. I still have a good chunk of them in my possession and it’s nice if one wants a dose of nostalgia.
Nowadays, I just read the online version as it’s not too feasible for grandpa to ship an issue every month, although he does still send me some issues every once in a while.
Hot VW’s and VW Trends were definitely my go-to. I still look back thru the 80’s issues with nostalgia that hits like a cement mixer that’s t-boned a Miata. On the rare occasion I felt the need to dream about stuff I’d probably never own, the DuPont Registry fit the bill nicely.
When I was first getting into Jeeps, JP Magazine was great. I outgrew it pretty quick, but it was a nice gateway.
Early 90’s – Car and Driver. My dad had a subscription
Late 90’s and early 2000’s – Tuner magazines
There was also a hot vw’s thrown in there at random. My cousin had a 69 beetle. Also liked to look at the dupont registry from time to time.
Growing up in the 70/80s, it was CarToons for sure. Add in the Mad, Cracked and yes even the occasional Crazy (hope someone gets the reference).
In the 80/90s I did Hot Rod, sometimes Minitrucks for the compact car stuff. Sport Compact Car later when I finally had a sporty compact car.
Now Grassroots Motorsports is all that remains.
Car and Driver, Road and Track, Auto Week, Four Wheeler, Peterson’s Four Wheel and Off Road, and 4 Wheel Drive and Sport Utility. Plus a smattering of Sport Compact car and Grassroots Motorsports.
Duplicate
Grassroots Motorsports and Classic Motorsports are STILL great! And Hemmings Sports & Exotics was fantastic, but that one flamed out.
Age 9-12 so 1963-66 , Car Craft, Hot Rod, and Pete Millar’s CARtoons.Don Garlits, Ed Roth , George Barris. Then my very worldly Uncle Al started bringing his Road and Track issues when he would visit from California. Oh yeah, and I actually subscribed to Car Model magazine. (Strictly cars, mind you.) Then the sixties hit and I found cool artistic mags, I remember one called Eye. No cars there. Then I was buying Peter Max posters.
Hagerty Drivers Club by a wide margin.
Stroking long white beard, Set Right as a start.
The original “newspaper” Autoweek, and On Track.
Practical Classics in the Uk. I had a subscription all 5 years I lived there and then managed to snag boxes of back issues from 1986-2008. Sadly, those boxes were destroyed by our moving company when coming back to the states.
I learned so much from that magazine, loved the focus on the day to day cars that were used, abused, and then trashed. The things people forgot.
I’m still a subscriber. The last issue had articles about PT Cruiser convertibles, the Fiat Ulysse, a Jowett Jupiter and the Lotus Carlton amongst others.
That’s amazing! I think there was something about 1st gen insights when I was visiting in ‘22. I need to subscribe to it digitally
I was in high school when the Great Recession was hitting, but I mostly remember wearing out my automotive magazines in every class while claiming “but I already did my homework.” A clear lie. I had so many including MotorTrend, Truck Trend, FourWheeler, Petersons 4wheel, Mustangs and Fast Fords, etc.
Covers I remember well (and still own lost in the attic) are MotorTrends from 2007-2010 like the Ford Interceptor Concept, the Pontiac G8 GXP, and the Challenger SRT8. But I read every page, even the midsize sedan comparisons with dedication.
Makes me wish for an annual “Best of Autopian” zine. That sounds like a great idea for a membership drive…
Car & Driver. Since 1978. Yes, I read it back when David E Davis was at the helm and Brock Yates was an editor. Still some of the best writing to be found.
Same.
Then Automobile when he started that up.
Then for many years in the 90s I was addicted to CAR Magazine out of the UK – which I had to pick up from the newsstands which sold foreign covers.
So many interesting reads from them!
John Phillips and PJ O’Rourke were authors I looked for. O’Rourke’s tale of driving a 1956 Buick from Florida to California is one of many highlights.
Used to be Car & Driver, but the bias was real. If I pick up a new Magazine (which I haven’t in a while), it’s going to be something Mopar related. They’re pretty good for what they are.
In order. AutoWeek, European Car, Hot VWs before 2000
Growing up it was Road and Track, CarToons, and Car and Driver
Sad, I still find old R&T issues more informative than most sites today.
Dune Buggies and Hot VWs, definitely. I also read VW Trends, but a lot of their content covered show cars and similarly out-of-reach builds. IIRC DBaHV had more practical articles about wrenching and mods (my preference).
These aren’t car mags, of course, but Cycle World, Motorcyclist, and the occasional issue of American Roadracing.
Also for those of you who might remember Dirt Bike Magazine, Rick Sieman passed away earlier this year. 🙁
Unquestionably and consistently, Collectible Automobile.
Too much has changed at the magazines that chronicle new cars for me to choose one, but I fondly remember the CAR (British) of LJK Setright, Russell Bulgin, and Phil Lewellen, the C&D of Brock Yates, and Automobile of David E. Davis and Jean (then) Lindamood.
When I was a kid, I would stop at the pharmacy in town during my paper route to see if any new issues of C/D, R&T, or MT were available. C/D was my favorite, but I must admit that as a 9 or 10 year-old a lot of it went right over my head.
Later I got a subscription to AutoWeek, and there was a stack of them in the bathroom. There was also a hot-rod centric mag, I can’t remember the name but the lead writer was Tony DeFeo.
It’s been about 20 years since we’ve had any kind of paper-delivery subscription.
Just like watching Tron as a kid, most of it went over my head but I loved it anyway.
My favorite car magazines were:
Car and Driver
Hot Rod
Radio Control Car Action – the only magazine that photos of my custom paint jobs got published in.
Four Wheel and Offroad was the shit back in the day.
Their Disposable Hero XJ project was a major influence on my Subaru Outback build.
I still have my Car & Driver subscription that I’ve had since 1995. Being a deeply unpopular kid in grade school, those issues helped me avoid the lunch time/recess/school bus teasing.
It’s still quality writing, even if it’s not as frequent.
I really think C/D lost something around the time John Phillips effectively retired (or was put out to pasture?). The next generation of writers who could actually write engagingly about cars were digital natives, and they largely wrote for websites like Jalopnik.
Car & Driver and also Road & Track were always in our house. In fact, whenever my school did those magazine sales for really crappy prizes, those two, Consumer reports and Sport Illustrated were always the ones they signed up for.
CD and RT were both definitely influential in my love of cars.
Sport Compact Car when Dave Coleman was the editor
This!
Grassroots Motorsports until about 2010. And all the crazy UK tuner mags from the late 90s/early aughts. Many a Saturday evening was spent at Border’s Books thumbing all of it.
That!
Dave actually created a new engineering term, called the Dave Point, and no one uses it. I think he is still with Mazda and, the last time I checked on him, he was playing with a Hayabusa-powered miata…..
Oh yea! Grassroots was good too!