Classic car magazines - not what they used to be

[Richard DAF Webmeister]

Members will have read a review I wrote in our latest club magazine, about a new classic car magazine which, to my mind, was an interesting publication. Sadly, because of the difficulties and costs in the world of publishing nowadays, that new title has not lasted long.

I mentioned how many of the long established magazines seem to be much of a muchness, and again perhaps because of financial pressures, reducing advertising revenues, and falling circulation due to competition from the internet, they are resorting to predictable and a certain type of lazy reporting.

I can't remember the last time I bothered to buy a classic car magazine - I give one or two a quick glance in the shop, then usually swiftly put it back.

One that I will probably definitely do that to with its latest issue is Practical Classics. I don't know what is going on there, but dumbing down and stereotypical stories seem to abound. The latest issues features on its front cover, a photo of a few old cars bought for less than £1000 and they report how they did a (Top Gear type - how original) road trip to Holland to see how they would get on.

The basis of that story could have been quite good, except that one of the cars is a Volvo 340 Variomatic and - again how novel - they decided to race it in reverse around a race track, with the other "normal" cars following it being driven normally. The even have a big photo of the stunt.

Oh how they must have laughed, as they no doubt did no favours to the Variomatic as it would bound to get too hot due to the lack of an airflow and cooling.

So the next step perhaps will be the magazine doing a feature along the lines of, "How to wreck a rare car" - which is rather ironic in a classic car magazine.

I am not a miserable old so and so, and as you know, I have a good sense of humour. But I really do think they have got this wrong.

Mind you, I'm not surprised - they were one of the many "specialist classic car mags" that completely misssed the story and reporting of 60th anniversary of DAF cars and the Variomatic, and 50 years of the launch of DAF's most popular and well known models.

Ignorance appears to be bliss.

Sometimes I wonder why I put so much effort in to spreading, or trying to spread, the DAF word.

[andrew]

I agree with your comments and the sad thing is I know a few of the staff who contribute to Practical Classics. I'm informed it's the publishers who push the magazine in the direction in which it appears to be going, much the the chagrin of those who pen the pieces. As regards your efforts in promoting the "Gospel according to Van Doorne", remember, Jesus only had 12 when he started........

[triumph66]

Yes I know where you are coming from and I am a subscriber to PC for my sins. I think the classic car magazines are far too similar and thier factual contents is lacking. The fact they have a workshop and the equipment to do the job is not the same as the ordinary bloke on the street. To be fair to Danny Hopkins, the 'owner' of the Volvo, he does like the car but to mistreat it in the way he did is disappointing. I guess the Daf is consigned to the Eastern Blocs cars from that era and thus is hardly referred to in mainstream classic car magazines.

[daydoodler]

I am also a P C subscriber from issue one. I believe one does have to have a certain sympathy for the writers of Classic car mags There can't be much new or original to say about a 30 or 40 year old car that hasn't been said before. perhaps that's why they are similar. At least we can drive our cars, which is more than can be said for the people who buy the Exotic car mags featuring Ferrari and Bugatti and the like. Surely they must only be dreaming. Okay Danny Hopkins mistreated his Volvo, but at least he was not a vandal the likes of Clarkson May and Hammond who regularly destroy useable cars. I was thinking of dropping a piano onto a perfectly good Marina (the Marina club were not pleased) or deliberately rolling a Reliant Robin. So far I have been unable to work out why a particular person falls in love with a particular car. I suppose the same applies to a woman, perhaps its all in the curves. A customer of mine was mad on Messerschmitt three wheelers, he was a large burly fellow and would squeeze himself into the tiny cockpit and buzz around with an infantile grin on his face. But as long as we enjoy what we love to drive who cares???

[swissdave]

I agree that they don’t seem to be what they were. I was a Practical Classics regular although I had turned more towards PPC when it was still going, even managed to get my turbocharged Reliant Kitten in there in a group test of a few modified versions.
I gave up buying magazines when online classic car forums became a thing but now these are dying off too so I have followed the rest of the woolly herd to Facebook.
I think the magazines must have a really hard time of it these days, I bet their sales are tiny compared to the ‘90s and probably decreasing yearly.
I still think the forum era was the best so far, a great source of information and really fun when they were busy. I hope people will come back to these sites in time when the instant gratification/zero meaningful content era of Fb becomes boring.

[starider]

Hi, gave up with car magazines long ago[although I still have my regular copy of Classic Van and Pick-up].Many car magazines don't have their own workshop full of equipment,indeed when I worked for B&P, Car Mechanics Magazine often did their photo shots using our expertise and equipment,my hands and arms became quite famous.The good spin off from this was that when CM got their hands on new models on test by the motoring press, they would bring them round for me to have a "thrash"[remember driving the first Range Rover among many others]....starider

[bobdisk]

I have a subscription to Car Mechanics because they do some good very technical items, and projects. Its not a mag that just looks at how flashy new cars are. I have had a lot of good info for my daily driver, (a 2000 BMW E46 323Ci) and friends and colleagues cars. Its a shame they dont look at some old and unusual cars, I am thinking Daf of course!! I am trying to persuade a friend thinking of a car to be interested in their latest project Ford Fiesta, now for sale.

[Deleted]

I buy the classic and sports cars magazine and find it use full for odd things for my Daf's I got my green 33 from a classic cars garage from it.This months mag as a small classic car rally and a Daf 55 coupe is pictured(camel-Daf racing team)...

[mtjm]

I've just been reading that particular issue of Practical Classics. While not great to see the car being driven like that I think it is good to see some positive coverage of Daf/Volvo variomatic cars in the press at all.

Also, in the same issue they have their annual price guide for classics. This year they've picked a Top 100 cars for 2019 - cars they think are undervalued and about to go up in price, so you should buy them now. They've chosen the Daf range as one of these.

[Richard DAF Webmeister]

Feb 11, 2019 9:11:53 GMT mtjm said:

I've just been reading that particular issue of Practical Classics. While not great to see the car being driven like that I think it is good to see some positive coverage of Daf/Volvo variomatic cars in the press at all.

Also, in the same issue they have their annual price guide for classics. This year they've picked a Top 100 cars for 2019 - cars they think are undervalued and about to go up in price, so you should buy them now. They've chosen the Daf range as one of these.

Thanks for this.

My worry is partly that it gives some strange people some equally strange ideas. I've had a couple of comments/questions from people I don't know asking, "Is it true that you can drive a DAF as fast backwards as forwards?" And given how difficult it seems to be to get people to buy DAFs, it worries me that people will buy one for "a bit of fun", so to speak.

I didn't see the price tips, but I did notice in their general price guide that they seem to have ignored the club's price guides from a year or two ago.

But there we are.

On we go, belting along.

[jonny555]

Back on the original topic... I have to agree. I’ve been a subscriber to Practical Classics for 12+ years, yet increasingly find myself barely giving each issue more than a cursory flick-through. I think there’s only so many repetitive articles you can read, featuring the same old ‘mainstream’ classics. When they do feature something slightly different it’s usually an obscure eastern-bloc relic...

Putting the lack of DAFs aside, give me something to read that I haven’t seen before!

Used to subscribe to one of the glossier, higher end Classic. mags but once the average price of any of the features exceeded that of most 4-bed detached houses I lost interest.

I do however like Modern Classics, probably because I’m in my 30’s and a lot of the cars featured are relevant to my teenage years. They do have a bit of a Porsche/BMW/Merc bias but in the main it’s the one car mag I fo bother with.