Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Not My Culture, Not My Magazine, Still Car And Driver Hits Its Mark


The Good: Speaks the world to people interested in automobiles.
The Bad: Addy, Very specific and somewhat esoteric.
The Basics: Largely reviews of new and forthcoming cars, Car And Driver is strong for the people into cars, but a tough sell for those on more limited budgets.


I am not, it is pretty clear from my reviews, big into cars. I know there are people for whom automobiles are a status symbol or a replacement for a deficient sex life, but when I look at cars, I see a means of conveyance and a huge failure of free market capitalism (yes, a little bit of government intervention in the automobile industry to raise environmental standards and safety standards and the U.S. would not be in the dire financial straits in the manufacturing sector). In fact, when it comes to cars, I've only reviewed two: my 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid and the 2007 Ford Focus I had after I got into an accident. So, it was only because I found myself stranded with nothing else to read than Car And Driver Magazine that I actually gave it a read.

Car And Driver, as the title suggests, is a magazine for automobile enthusiasts and it is written for the serious autophile. By that, I mean that the magazine is written in the jargon of the automobile industry with few explanations for neophytes. Instead, this is a glossy journal of the current trends in the automobile industry geared toward those who like cars for what they say about who they are as well as what the vehicles do.

Car And Driver Magazine is a monthly publication that is a glossy, 152-page (give or take, I was using the August 2004 issue for review purposes) magazine filled with pictures and articles about automobiles. The magazine has a very addy feel to it, as a whopping 78 pages are filled with advertisements! While the obvious automobile and accessory (tires, cleaners, etc.) advertisements grace the pages of Car And Driver, so too do cigarette advertisements and ads for movies and television shows that feature automobiles prominently. One of the ads, made to look like an article, was about a sexual aid, so this is a magazine that equates automobiles with speed and virility. It's a very masculine magazine and if one knows that going into it, it's fine.

But it is also a remarkably impractical magazine for most readers. While Consumer Reports does an annual automobile buying issue, every issue of Car And Driver has the latest on cars, including reviews of new or forthcoming cars. There are very few people this level of update - monthly buying guides - is truly practical for. It's not like most people will buy a car this month and next month and the month after that. Though, for those who do that, this is an indispensable tool, one supposes.

Squeezed in among the many advertisements are regular columns, features and previews in virtually every issue. The magazine opens with a column by the editor-in-chief about Car And Driver and current changes within the publication with special highlights on articles he thinks readers ought to be excited about. From there, there are letters to the magazine, wherein readers correct such minutia as the correct length of the world's longest Ferrari and the like. These letters illustrate a powerful devotion to detail and a strong knowledge of the automobiles Car And Driver reviews or writes about.

After the several pages of letters, comes a column from a conservative writer who writes about the culture of writing about automobiles, which pretty much reinforces the idea that those who love cars are big, manly men who like beer and think "liberal" is an insult. That column - where the writer lauds his working-class roots to his readers for no particular reason I can find - is followed by a column analyzing the oil industry and (incorrectly) divining that gasoline prices rising is merely hype as opposed to a real challenge to those paying for gasoline. After those columns, it was actually a pleasure to read a column about race car driving and the culture that enjoys that. The article was actually amusing and the writer got a laugh where the others blandly got only a mild rise.

The final regular columns are a preview of upcoming cars soon to hit the U.S. marketplace and pictures of unique automobiles sent in by readers or captured by the staff of the magazine. The preview column is an informative buying guide based upon actual driving experience by staff writers of prototypes or automobiles already available overseas. They thoroughly detail the driving experience from benefits to detractions to peculiar quirks of each automobile they test. As well, the writers wisely compare the driving experience of the current year's models to past model years of the same car (so, for example, a mini-review of a new Lancer compared it to the prior year's 911). Also in the regular reviewing column come reviews of automobile-related books and industry information in brief, like where certain car companies are getting their rearview mirrors from for the given year.

Outside the columns, there are features and the features are remarkably specific such that those who are not into cars will find them either intimidating or boring. So, for example, the coverstory in the issue I found myself reading was a comparison of cars (European Coups) that were all V-12s. I know the basic idea behind the V-6,8, and therefore 12s, but nowhere in the article does the writer explain to those who do not know much about cars what a V-12 is or what the general benefits or detractions of them are. Instead, the article assumes readers know and focuses instead on comparing various V-12 models on the market at the time without any sort of "apples and oranges" comparison. These articles are complete with apple to apple comparisons of key features within the models being reviewed, offering readers a valuable resource with easy-to-understand charts, even for those inexperienced or uninterested in cars.

The rest of the magazine is filled with advertisements, er, advertisements and in-depth reviews of new and forthcoming automobiles. Readers are given strong technical analysis of each vehicle the magazine chooses to review for the issue and it is easy to see how valuable this would be as a tool for those considering buying a vehicle; simply look it up in Car And Driver and you've got the next best thing to a test drive.

The problem here is that it is hard to believe that Car And Driver is truly unbiased given how much of the magazine is filled with advertisements for the automobile industry. Given that the magazine is beholden to the industry for ad revenue, it is hard to believe they would toughly critique any one company or even the overall industry (there were, it is worth noting, no articles advising raising the CAFE standards, supporting the auto workers union or asking readers for any sort of political action to keep the American automobile industry alive, at least not in the issue I read). The journalism is soft, but the reviews do seem quite complete.

As a result, it is easy to recommend Car And Driver to those looking for a new car and possessing a general idea of what they want, but for those looking for a monthly publication to read and enjoy, it is just as easy to pass this one by. But, again, for those who love cars, this seems like the ultimate source for information on them. Though it seems like there could be a website that was just as thorough with car reviews without wasting the trees each month . . .

For other magazines reviewed by me, please check out my take on:
Syracuse New Times
Catholic Digest
Consumer Reports

6/10

For other magazine reviews, please check out my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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