What car magazines do you read?

[koalb]

I find print coverage to be too slow these days. By the time it gets printed in a magazine, it's been thoroughly addressed via YouTube, Twitter and the gear heads I follow on Instagram.

Also – Top Gear – back in the day – opened my eyes to the fact that while there's certainly a place for the written word when talking about automobiles, the best, most visceral representation occurs through sound and video. Is it better to read 500 words describing the beautiful noises of a Ferrari V8, or just simply hear a sample of it for yourself?

Cars at their best are a very intimate, casual experience. Perhaps the zenith of the gearhead experience is visiting a friend's garage and going for a drive. I'm not certain that automotive journalism adds a whole lot by inserting itself in the middle of that. This isn't like Michael Lewis describing exactly how and why the housing market collapsed in the late oughts, deconstructing wonky mechanisms and simplifying them for the masses. In the case of automobiles, the masses can appreciate most of the magic on their own pretty easily.

 

[Gptuners]

I don't know of any tuner type car magazines any more.. is SuperStreet still around?

I'm pretty sure they were part of the Peterson group, and got killed off a while after my favorite magazine, Sport Compact Car.

SCC used to be the most tech driven magazine I could find during a time when most of the tuner magazine were just doing the "slap expensive part on there" thing without any thought or data. Dave Coleman ended up getting the ultimate job at Mazda... it was something like "Director of Fun". It was his job to drive the cars before they went to market and decide if it fit the "fun" of the brand. I remember a story where he suggested something like a camber change on one of the cute utes or vans. It was stressful, because his suggestions caused like a million bucks in re-tooling. Ultimately they listened, and the car performed more in-line with the brand, so he didn't get fired for that one! I always loved the deep dive on technology.

 

[danvilla413]

I’ve had a Car and Driver subscription since before I had a license. I also have Motortrend and Road & Track. Why? Mostly for bathroom reading material. Also the subscriptions are super cheap.

 

[Strange Mud]

still get C&D and R&T cause I like to read and they're cheap. Neither will help OP

 

[gprace]

Top Gear, Car (British), C & D and Road & Track

 

[Nineeightyone]

I used to constantly pick up Eurotuner magazine and Performance VW -- however, they've gotten hard for me to find on the regular, and I'm too cheap to pay for a subscription. I may reconsider for PVW in the future, I always enjoyed their feature cars.

These days my interests have shifted (pun intended) though, so now I get Sportscar magazine (SCCA) and Grassroots Motorsports. The content may not be directly GTI or even VW-related, but the concepts are still applicable, and I've been learning a bunch. I'm in a weird place with the car scene though, my 'racecar' (and I use the term loosely) is a 2004 Jetta wagon, the GTI is just a fun weekend car/attainable dream car, and I have a 2nd gen Mazda3 for a daily/ex-AX car.

Since trying to get further away from social media, I've started relying on forums like this one for content that's relevant to my interest in the mk7 as a platform overall, but I don't really do much reading at this point related to the autocross car -- at this point it's just apply theory and try to improve my skills as a driver.

 

[PRRGG1]

I used to subscribe to Car & Driver until some years ago when they reduced the size of the print to save on paper cost. How ridiculous. With my aging eyes, reading it became a chore and I quit at my next renewal.

 

[dequardo]

AutoWeek (R.I.P) and Racer.

 

[uberdot]

Hot Import Nights Girls’ calendars from the 2000s with the months stuck together.

 

[kevinkar]

Have consistently read in the past:

Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords
Chevy High Performance
Autoweek
Automobile
Motor Trend
Car and Driver
Motor Trend Classics
Hemmings Classic Car
Generator and Distributor (Vintage Chevrolet Club of America's magazine)

Only subscription I have left is Motor Trend but will drop that when the current subscription runs out.

 

[Litespeedgti]

Most all of them. Love that no log in or online device neeed. Throw the mag in backpack or car. I get Road and Track.

Car and Driver is the best. When they see BS they call BS!

 

[averyislost]

Don't have a subscription to Performance VW, but I'll occasionally pick them up at a bookstore when I see some articles I like.

Currently subscribed to S3 Mag, I really like the articles they put out and the subscription is cheap for a quarterly mag. I've seen them cover everything from K-swapped Acuras, to lifted Hellcat-swapped Wranglers, to a dually-converted Ford Ranger. I love seeing the variety of people's builds and the editors just appreciate a cool project.

 

[rip steakface]

nobody looks at Evo magazine???

 

[NoGodGetOverIt]

Used to love Sport Compact Car...common sense tuning without all the outlandish crap in the other mags.

 

[urtoinpo]

Loved being given copies as a lad of UK 'What Car?' by an uncle back when it was a flawed, but good car mag in the mid-1970's. Ironically I can now browse what has been for many years now more 'What VAG?' as my wife often brings it home from her work,
but it's a lame and biased effort that lacks the depth/insight it once had so long ago IMO.

My favourite for the longest duration was 'Car' - which although has not fallen as much as 'What Car?' still is not quite the mag it
was in it's heyday of the late 1980's/early 1990's. Sometimes I used to subscribe to Auto Express, which was never very good, but
the lure of a £1, 6-week deal with a free gift used to grab me every so often until around 5 years ago.