DISCLAIMER: NOT GRM.
Here's the stupidest line I think I've ever read besides the turboboosters comment, this time from the NY Times about the Volt, starts out ok but then:
"...Motor Trend, the car enthusiasts’ bible, was so impressed that it named the Volt its 2011 car of the year."
CRINGE. OUCH. WTF? /rant
I think I should go over there and post where the 'real' 'car enthusiasts' hang out 
One out of touch print news source raving about another out of touch print news source. You didn't think we would be surprised did you.
Raze wrote: DISCLAIMER: NOT GRM. Here's the stupidest line I think I've ever read besides the turboboosters comment, this time from the NY Times about the Volt, starts out ok but then: "...Motor Trend, the car enthusiasts’ bible, was so impressed that it named the Volt its 2011 car of the year." CRINGE. OUCH. WTF? /rant I think I should go over there and post where the 'real' 'car enthusiasts' hang out
Road & Track?
In reply to forzav12:
Don't make me kick you
(I know that was sarcasm)
i guess it depends on how you define the word "enthusiast"... Motor Trend probably still has the biggest circulation, so they get to be called the "bible"..
Egan is the only thing R and T has going for it really. Now, if the GRM folks can wrangle Egan to write for GRM that would make the best magazine even bestester!
You know what i like about people who want everybody to give them money, is that they write about everything that anybody might be interested in (new car market is the context here).
Where as you guys, who arent posting for money, post about your own fairly narrow interests. Narrow in the sense that there are probably 250-400 new car models for sale in this country right now. I dont even like 250 cars total, of all the ones ever made. You guys probably dont either.
If yall guys came 96% of the way to talking about the range of new-car market and product that they did, id stop giving MT 3 pennies a day to send me a magazine and dedicate that 3-4hrs a month of MT reading to GRM forum-reading on top of the 20 or 30 i already do.
However, since it's closer to 1% i think i'll keep giving my 3 pennies a day to MT and use you forum guys for the other 29 days of the month that i dont get a MT. 
novaderrik wrote: i guess it depends on how you define the word "enthusiast"... Motor Trend probably still has the biggest circulation, so they get to be called the "bible"..
I'm not sure it still does, but for many years Car and Driver had a lot larger circulation than any of the other car mags. I don't read any of them anymore myself.
Personally I think the Angus MacKenzie era has done a lot to return Motor Trend some of the respectability it seems to have lost for a while. I'll admit that for the longest time I just sort of dismissed it, but I've recently started picking it up in the GRM library again and it's pretty good.
As for the bible comment, that's what pure, good ol' fashioned name recognition will do for you. To some extent they earn that right by persisting so long in a marketplace where others come and go.
jg
Car enthusiast and motorsports enthusiast are different things.
That's true. Autoweek used to own that market. Now, they are a complete joke. As to Motor Trend, they have indeed improved(no where to go but up?) although many in the industry still question their road test "results". Motor Trend Classic, however, is outstanding.
I've read a few issues of MT over the last year or two, and it has improved over what I remembered. Their MT Classic magazine is really quite good, I think, although it's not cheap.
JG Pasterjak wrote: I've recently started picking it up in the GRM library again and it's pretty good.
I never thought about it before, but I suppose you have to keep an eye on the competition...so, just how many different magazines are in the GRM library? (not counting Cat Fancy or Soap Opera Digest, of course.) 
stuart in mn wrote: I've read a few issues of MT over the last year or two, and it has improved over what I remembered. Their MT Classic magazine is really quite good, I think, although it's not cheap.JG Pasterjak wrote: I've recently started picking it up in the GRM library again and it's pretty good.I never thought about it before, but I suppose you have to keep an eye on the competition...so, just how many different magazines are in the GRM library? (not counting Cat Fancy or Soap Opera Digest, of course.)
We subscribe to the big 4 (RT, CD, Aut, MT) plus Autoweek. Most of the big marque club mags. Some of the tuner mags, and a couple of the awesome UK mags (Classic & Sports Car, Octane, Thoroughbred & Classic). Plus Newsweek. The other bathroom always steals the Newsweeks, though, and we have to go over there and get them back on our side of the building or we're stuck with the same material for weeks at a time.
jg
Hard to count, because there are several GRM libraries. We have shelves lining the conference room, but we also have large, overstuffed magazine racks in the bathrooms--the real libraries. Basically, our offices are like our houses... car magazines/books/related crap laying around all over the place.
In addition to the plentiful subscriptions that J.G. mentions, we also buy old magazines at swap meets, and we also buy books as well as get review copies. Let's just say you can tell we all like to read.
Margie
Sounds like my house...new magazines, old magazines, piles in the bathroom, shelves everywhere.
Hmmm. If Motor Trend is the bible, I guess I'm an atheist.
My wife hates my collections of car mags, it's funny but when we moved into our house last year I scrapped most of my MTs, R&Ts, C&Ds but kept every GRM and CM. I especially like CMs because they're basically always relevant and really never outdated. Most stuff in GRM is like that too.
JG Pasterjak wrote: We subscribe to the big 4 (RT, CD, Aut, MT) plus Autoweek. Most of the big marque club mags. Some of the tuner mags, and a couple of the awesome UK mags (Classic & Sports Car, Octane, Thoroughbred & Classic).
You might want to have a look at Practical Performance Car for the 'GRM end' of the UK car mag market. It's the only UK car/bike magazine subscription I've kept since moving to the US.
BoxheadTim wrote:JG Pasterjak wrote: We subscribe to the big 4 (RT, CD, Aut, MT) plus Autoweek. Most of the big marque club mags. Some of the tuner mags, and a couple of the awesome UK mags (Classic & Sports Car, Octane, Thoroughbred & Classic).You might want to have a look at Practical Performance Car for the 'GRM end' of the UK car mag market. It's the only UK car/bike magazine subscription I've kept since moving to the US.
Practical Performance Car has a 999 pound challenge... Hmmm...where have I heard of that before?
And guess what? Met those guys at Goodwood 5 years ago... and they were all excited to meet us, and told us how much stuff they get out of GRM! Uh, thanks. I think. Especially appreciate the heads-up: "Oh, 'allo, we're stealing your Challenge idea."
Ironic part is that there are great cross-promotion opportunities there, if you're not too much of a noodge to actually, you know, communicate like a stand-up guy.
Margie
On the whole, arbitrarily hating perfectly good things because they aren't the EXACT thing that you want them to be is getting INCREDIBLY tiresome.
I was referring the prevalence of copycatting in the magazine world, which is a bit of a carryover from another thread. As far as hating, actually, we've stolen our fair share of stuff. All's fair in love and war.
Margie
Marjorie Suddard wrote: Ironic part is that there are great cross-promotion opportunities there, if you're not too much of a noodge to actually, you know, communicate like a stand-up guy.
Man, exactly. I see so many dumb mistakes like that.
Marketing. Everyone thinks they know how to do it. Very few do. You're absolutely right. I always laugh when I need a location for a shoot and people want to charge me. Me: "No problem, I'm sure I can find another business that wants to be on television." Geez.
And I LOVE it when people steal my ideas. Really is no more positive feedback that someone thinks you did something right.
fast_eddie_72 wrote: And I LOVE it when people steal my ideas. Really is no more positive feedback that someone thinks you did something right.
That is the smartest thing I've read here in a long time.
You really need to define "enthusiast'. The mainstream car magazines such as , and have been reduced to writing prose for a class of enthusiast who is more interested in the performance of the Key Fob than they are the engine or the brakes. These Enthusiast live on a diet of cell phones, video games, and high end video. No doubt such a crowd will appreciate the Volt as Car of the Year.
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