anecdoter's Full Review: Motor Trend Magazine Subscription
While sometimes it is interesting to energize one's fantasies with 400 horsepower, $300,000 supercars, a comparison of these rather expensive toys every couple of months gets tiring - especially if you can't even afford a single monthly payment on one of those exotic dream machines.
Motor Trend magazine deals as much with automotive fantasy and horsepower lust as it does with practical automobiles. Good luck finding a review of a car that you can actually afford - unless you're a doctor, lawyer, or stock market jockey. Seeing what refinements the people at Lexus have made to their over-rated cars can be informative, but only if you can afford one.
Motor Trend's selection of cars to review should be much more balanced. Would it hurt to actually include reviews of cars that people who make $20,000 a year can afford? It would probably add some much needed variety to this magazine. Every couple of months it seems that there is a new high performance shoot out between the same six cars - all pictured together with headlights on in the twilight above some speedway in the southwest. I personally would find it very funny if somebody did a parody of these covers and replaced the exotic cars with minivans. Seemingly every other month, much of the magazine is devoted to a comparison between the six most expensive luxury cars. Also, every year there is the now obligatory shootout between the Firebird/Mustang/and Camaro, which is interesting, but the results are always the same - apparently nobody really pays much attention to Motor Trend's opinion on the matter because the Mustang continues to outsell the GM twins two to one. All of these examples lead me to one point: rehashing the same articles and test drives gets old fast, Motor Trend would provide a much needed service to its readers if it would only try keep track of the pulse of the auto industry, as opposed to the spectre of their day dreams.
Motor Trend should print more interviews with the designers, engineers and corporate bosses who actually dictate the trends that flow through the auto industry. Since the auto industry is shrouded in secrecy, this magazine could provide picture and commentary of a particular manufacturer's concept cars to give readers an idea of what to expect from the new models of that company. The same could be applied to engine lines. In-depth articles could profile the major changes a particular make of engine has gone through over the years; for example, the Ford 302 has been in production for over thirty years. Since the future of auto is not, due to limited supplies of oil, the combustion engine, it would be nice if Motor Trend would bring back their Environmental Trends news page to highlight the technologies that are emerging that will someday change the way we fuel our cars.
Despite the fascination with expensive toys, Motor Trend still has some good things going for it. The Long Term Updates are good for people who are considering a slightly used car or are considering buying a newer model of a particular line. At the back of almost every issue is several pages worth of charts that list cars, by price, with some interesting data, such as economy, performance (horsepower and quarter mile)weight, etc - while not too detailed, it is helpful and the list is very complete. Motor Trend does a good job of highlighting all the major American auto shows and is usually very detailed about the offerings from each maker. Finally, Motor Trend does give good advice in the car care section, which gives advice from professionals on how to maintain your car- such topics include routine maintnance, detailing, and preparing for the winter.
Despite these pluses, I cannot honestly recommend this magazine because I do not feel that it offers much in diverse content. Foreign autoshows are only given scant coverage which highlights the most unusual concept cars, and there is little profiling of cats that are not imported to America - which it would be nice to see a comparison of Ford's European and American offerings. This magazine only Motor Trend seems to be more of an automotive fashion magazine, with the emphasis on glamour than anything else; this is very unfortunate because this new editorial direction leaves readers without a firm understanding of the directions that the automotive industry is heading in.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.