If my reviews entertain, amuse or brighten your moment in any way, then my task is done! +++ Did som...
If my reviews entertain, amuse or brighten your moment in any way, then my task is done! +++ Did someone blow up the alerts? Haven't had any since bonfire night! +++ What a mess! What happened to my reviews? +++
Member since:20.06.2004
Reviews:190
Members who trust:416
Don't get me wrong, I'm a car enthusiast pure and simple, choice is good, more the better, but this magazine perfectly reflects the state of the current motor industry......
.....Too many cars made, too few buyers to snap them up......
......Too many magazines on the shelf, not enough market for them.
Having read just about all the car mags over the last 30 years, I suppose I am hard to please, in this day and age one tends to expect greatness straight out of the blocks.
I purchased issue 1 in November 2004, it was on "Special Introductory Offer" at £1.85. A bargain indeed, my
weekly Autocar magazine is now £2.20.
The regular monthly price is now £3.70
However never judge a book by its cover, a car magazine needs to be factual and accurate, after all most data is easy enough to check with manufacturers sites on the web these days, there is no excuse for slapdash work by journalists who are paid for doing what we take pleasure in right here on this site.
Issue 1 showed promise but was definitely less authorititave than any other car magazine read recently, but after all it takes time to match content to fancy graphics and colourful pages, although personally I find black on white, old fashioned as it is, the easiest print format to digest.
So issue 1 showed some promise then, give it a few months to mature and......
......buy issue six - thanks to a roadtest of my very own car, the Honda Accord Diesel.
Dear, oh dear!
For whatever reason they had decided, during the course of the first five issues, to throw even more colour at it. The content, particularly any editorial, now looks like a patchwork quilt. We have white text on blue background, white on red, black on yellow, yellow on red, white on black, light blue on dark blue, white on orange, white on striped orange, blue on black. Oh I cannot go on counting, I have only got to page 9 out of a total of 266 livid pages!
The first actual pages I sat down to read were the comparison test on my own car. (Just in case you are interested, they wrote this article using a combination of 17 different print / background colours!) I did not have to read very far to realise that the car they had photographed and tested was not the car discribed or priced against its more expensive competitors in the comparative data section.
The simple mistake was that they had an £18,900 Sport model rather than the £20,400 Executive, they had lined up against the SE specification Audi A4, BMW 320d and Mercedes 220CDi Classic.
They praise highly and rightly, the Honda for its superb engine and excellent dynamics but then go on to criticise its "bland interior", non-electric seat adjustment and the cheap looking spoiler on the boot plus its comparative lack of equipment!
All of these items are redressed on the Executive model, which does not have a spoiler on the boot, does have an all leather interior, with electrically adjustable seats and is simply groaning with standard equipment.
Having realised that this bunch had not even gone to the trouble of checking which version of the car they had on test, I then doubted the authenticity of every other comment made in the two magazines purchased. A quality car magazine, e.g. "What Car" will always state that they have used an alternative model for photographic purposes where appropriate.
I am not here to sell you a Honda, however you do know the car you drive every day. We as consumers do not drive different cars every day and therefore in order to make informed choices, come the appropriate time, tend to rely on the likes of "Test Drive" magazine for information and "informed" opinion. After all, these people are paid to offer just that, in order that we should be better informed consumers.
When you are in full knowledge that such a basic error has been made, no matter how colourful the pages, if the journalistic content is suspicious then it really is not worth reading.
There are so many publications that do this so much better - stick to "What Car" and you will not go too far wrong.
My advice firmly remains however, there is no substitute for a decent test drive, whatever any magazine says one man's meat remains another man's poison.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Informative review for sure. Never really read these...saw them mostly places in waiting rooms for places like a dentist.
Paul99ine 06.07.2006 21:56
Not worth a look, then? Pauline.
kmc25_1 04.05.2006 12:38
Wow, you really don't like the different colour texts. We have a magazine here in Ireland, CBG (CarBuyersGuide) that prints it's text on full page photos. It looks very stylish until there is white text against sky and you don't know what they are saying!!
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