While Car and Driver magazine Boasts better sales than Motor Trend, Motor Trend has always been my favorite car Mag. I have been subscribing to Motor Trend Magazine for over 8 months now, and have been buying individual issues off and on for as long as I can remember.

Motor Trend is a magazine that focuses on new cars, new automotive technology, future automotive technology, and even past technology. The magazine is about 150-160 pages long which is issued monthly, but I have experienced times when I have had to wait 2 months for an issue, of course they sent me the missed old issue along with the new one. You can only imagine how pleased I was with that.

When you First open Motor Trend Magazine you are greeted with a multitude of advertisements. It's not until about page 12 that you get some actual info from the magazine, which comes in the form of editorial notes, and reader input. In-between Ads, or even on the same page as some advertisements are where this magazine excels; The reviews.

Reviews: Many excellent, some not, while the reviews are not as long and drawn out as many other magazines, Motor Trend gets right to the point. Motor Trend has a substantial amount of cars reviews in each issue, all very informative, some more than others. Motor Trend usually always has a Vehicle of the year award in every other issue. These 'Car, Truck, SUV' tests offer in-depth info from 0-60 times, amenities, to 600ft slalom specs for each of the candidates. Motor Trend also offers info in the back of the magazine on past test drives, which give 0-60 times etc. on all the recent cars they have test driven.

Photography: The Photography in Motor Trend is not really its strongest attribute, but it does offer adequate interior views of practical and exotic vehicles, excellent in-motion action, and good, yet sometimes a little too distant exterior views.

Controversy: Compared to many other magazines, the 0-60 times, and mostly all other performance specs on cars and trucks are better in Motor Trend than reported in other magazines. For example, Road and Track (another car magazine) can have a certain car having a 0-60 time of 7.8 seconds, and Motor Trend will have the same car as low as 7.2 seconds. This is not the scenario all the time, but it does happen quite frequently. Maybe the Drivers at Motor Trend are just better? Who knows.

Advertisements: I recently counted 79 pages of advertisements in a recent issue of a Motor Trend Magazine. Out of a total of 152 pages this makes the percent of Ads over 50%. Shouldn't this be illegal? I think it should. Shame on you Motor Trend! Most of the Ads consist of Car Ads, which are kinda fun to read, but many are ads for computers, TV shows, toys, Medicine, and even beer ads; products that probably should not be in a car magazine.

Pricing:
The Actual cover price is around $3.99 per issue, if you subscribe you save almost 60% with a cost of only $10.00. Motor Trend gives you the option to send them a check or money order when you subscribe, or to pay later. I really recommend you pay when you order. If not paid in a few weeks you will get countless letters telling you how surprised they are that you have not paid yet. So 'bill me later' actually means 'pay us in a week'.

Conclusion: Excellent reviews is what sells me on this magazine. I find myself and many others, including commercials quoting Motor Trend's specs, a sure bet that this is an enthusiasts magazine. Although the Ads can get annoying, the reviews, information, and photos make up for the 70 or so pages dedicated to selling products.

-Thanks for reading!

Recommended: Yes

Recommended For: Hobbyists/Enthusiasts
Primary Reason for Buying: Product Reviews/Information