Friday, April 06, 2007

Irrelevant



Car and Driver arrived in my mailbox last week. It's done that monthly for the past 26 years. I've never missed an issue and I read it cover to cover. It's still my favorite buff book car magazine.

It's not to say there aren't things I don't like about Car and Driver. See the picture above, the 2007 Cadillac SRX SUV going through a slalom course. One of my big pet peeves with Car and Driver, is that every car has to be judged on performance when it was not necessarily meant to be a performance vehicle. Putting a picture of this SUV going through a slalom, is about the most ridiculous thing I've seen. Imagine the laughter if they put a Mustang GT towing a boat on their next cover.

I've always been drawn to Edmunds.com and InsideLine.com for the more sensable approach to testing vehicles. (They also pay my mortgage.) Car and Driver does an fantastic job at covering sports cars and low-buck racing, but they always loose it when they have to test a vehicle with 65 series or higher tires. Not every car was built to excel on the race track because not every driver is looking for that in a vehicle.

I am such that person. I do own an SUV and sports car. I love the way my Mustang GT takes a curve on it's Dunlop SP2000's. It's light, responsive, and a blast to drive when the off ramps get twisty. It does not loose it's composure. In the other hand is my Jeep Grand Cherokee with Quadra Drive (4x4). No, it's not light and responsive but I'm not looking for it to be. I'd be a horse's ass if I was out there on it's all-weather tires trying to push it through the corners as fast as I could. I don't ask my Mustang GT to get me through a rain storm or take a load home from the nursury. And I don't ask my Jeep to give me any thrills.

The buff books are in big trouble, Car and Driver included. Advertising dollars are plummeting while readers move to online magazines such as ours, InsideLine.com. Car and Driver celebrated it's 50 year anniversary last year and InsideLine.com it's second. Insideline.com has triple the readership of CarandDriver.com.

Online magazines are supposed to provide content to the consumer faster then traditional publishing and Insideline.com succeeds at that. I had to take a picture of my own copy of Car and Driver as that issue has not made it to their website yet and it's over a week old.

Car and Driver, if you could shape up your editorial skills and publish online simultaneously, you'd give Insideline.com a run for the money.

Stay the course and your future is Life.

-Life is Over

2 comments:

arash said...

Online mags are the great, but I can't stand scrolling through a long article. While with a conventional magazine, I am perfectly comfortable doing so. Also I like to read my mags lying on my bed or while sitting on the toilet or what not. And I can't do that with a laptop.

And I agree about the C&D mag always being performance oriented. It was fun for me a few years ago, but I have a wider taste in auto mags now. I like some of the european magazines. They have a different and possibly more candid way of covering automobiles that I like.

I'm waiting for the edmunds magazine, or edmunds tv show to start. It's only a matter of time.

Also I miss the insideline videos that I used to be able to grab as podcasts from iTunes. Hope that comes back soon

Anonymous said...

No one wants to hear about Arash "sitting on the toilet or what not."

Cheers!