Does anyone read Car Mechanics regularly?
Discussion
I do and I love it. I'm not even in the trade but like to do a bit on my own car. I've also got a few friends in the trade.
I like the old school style. The regular column at the back from the old trader, the regular contributors with their fleet of sheds, the tales from the auction, problem pages and the tales from the workshop.
I like the old school style. The regular column at the back from the old trader, the regular contributors with their fleet of sheds, the tales from the auction, problem pages and the tales from the workshop.
I have a lot more in common with the articles in there than EVO and Car magazine. This months issue features the overhaul of a small car. I can't remember what it is but they attempted to change the glovebox and ended up snapping the bottom half of the dash off and kind of bodged it by recalling how the guy at the scrap yard removed the second hand glove box and plastic welding stuff...
Memories.......During the 70's I was one of the staff photographers working on Car Mechanics.
Many an hour was spent in our "state of the art workshops". Ok it was really a dark damp railway arch in beautiful downtown Waterloo.
I would be hovering behind one of our mechanics as they changed an Escort clutch or sorted out a noisy Cavalier wheel bearing ready to swoop in to take a series of shots to accompany the relevant article in the magazine.
Sometimes i would act as model for a heading shot or a front cover.Looking back now I can t believe that shoulder length hair and long droopy moustaches were ever in fashion.
You would have thought that with all of that mechanical work going on in front of me I would be pretty handy with a spanner.
Afraid not ,my input involves keeping an eye on the service schedules and booking the car into my local garage.
One big plus point at the time was that we had to choose a performance car that no other member of staff had ,to run as a company car.
This gave the magazine a large variety of different cars at hand to use as feature articles.
Happy memories of an Alfasud, Peugeot 205 GTI. Xr3. Astra GTE all on company expenses.
Many an hour was spent in our "state of the art workshops". Ok it was really a dark damp railway arch in beautiful downtown Waterloo.
I would be hovering behind one of our mechanics as they changed an Escort clutch or sorted out a noisy Cavalier wheel bearing ready to swoop in to take a series of shots to accompany the relevant article in the magazine.
Sometimes i would act as model for a heading shot or a front cover.Looking back now I can t believe that shoulder length hair and long droopy moustaches were ever in fashion.
You would have thought that with all of that mechanical work going on in front of me I would be pretty handy with a spanner.
Afraid not ,my input involves keeping an eye on the service schedules and booking the car into my local garage.
One big plus point at the time was that we had to choose a performance car that no other member of staff had ,to run as a company car.
This gave the magazine a large variety of different cars at hand to use as feature articles.
Happy memories of an Alfasud, Peugeot 205 GTI. Xr3. Astra GTE all on company expenses.
Got one of my cars on the cover and in the centrefold and prior to that worked with the magazine to do a service guide for the Senator 12V engines.
Used to buy every issue but as my taste in cars is somewhat stuck in the 80's and 90's I see little in the current issues to make me want to buy a copy
Used to buy every issue but as my taste in cars is somewhat stuck in the 80's and 90's I see little in the current issues to make me want to buy a copy
As a young car-mad schoolboy in the early seventies I used to buy every issue and learned a lot. Practical Motorist as well.
But Car Mechanics is still going. The passion is still there though. The editor Martyn Knowles is a friend of mine and he produces a great magazine. I recommend it if you haven't picked up a copy yet.
But Car Mechanics is still going. The passion is still there though. The editor Martyn Knowles is a friend of mine and he produces a great magazine. I recommend it if you haven't picked up a copy yet.
Mopar440 said:
As a young car-mad schoolboy in the early seventies I used to buy every issue and learned a lot. Practical Motorist as well.
But Car Mechanics is still going. The passion is still there though. The editor Martyn Knowles is a friend of mine and he produces a great magazine. I recommend it if you haven't picked up a copy yet.
I don't doubt that the passion is still there the problem for me is in the last years the few issues that I have randomly picked up and looked at on the library shelf in every case the content was too new for me. But Car Mechanics is still going. The passion is still there though. The editor Martyn Knowles is a friend of mine and he produces a great magazine. I recommend it if you haven't picked up a copy yet.
I'm maybe just talking from my own viewpoint but for me modern cars (up to 6 years old) are getting more difficult to work on, modern car owners treat the cars as white goods - those enthusiasts that do still work on their own cars are tending to run older cars - look at the recent poll on here
How old is the car you usually drive - click me
Just see where the ages of the cars are in percentage terms, and it also (from my memory) blew pretty much any previous poll I've seen out of the water in terms of responses - most polls top out at around 500 and this one was closer to 750
I applaud the passion and enthusiasm for printed magazines - I just think it's probably got a falling readership for some of the reasons I've outlined above.
Regular reader since the late 70s - can't believe no-one's mentioned Ted Connolly yet.
I've never subscribed (probably should before it goes) but buy whenever I see it. Used to buy PM, too until it folded. Then again, I still miss Jalopy and Old and Slow Car.
I like the way they've kept pace with technology (up to a point).
I've never subscribed (probably should before it goes) but buy whenever I see it. Used to buy PM, too until it folded. Then again, I still miss Jalopy and Old and Slow Car.
I like the way they've kept pace with technology (up to a point).
B'stard Child said:
I don't doubt that the passion is still there the problem for me is in the last years the few issues that I have randomly picked up and looked at on the library shelf in every case the content was too new for me.
I'm maybe just talking from my own viewpoint but for me modern cars (up to 6 years old) are getting more difficult to work on, modern car owners treat the cars as white goods - those enthusiasts that do still work on their own cars are tending to run older cars - look at the recent poll on here
How old is the car you usually drive - click me
Just see where the ages of the cars are in percentage terms, and it also (from my memory) blew pretty much any previous poll I've seen out of the water in terms of responses - most polls top out at around 500 and this one was closer to 750
I applaud the passion and enthusiasm for printed magazines - I just think it's probably got a falling readership for some of the reasons I've outlined above.
Good post Ian I'm maybe just talking from my own viewpoint but for me modern cars (up to 6 years old) are getting more difficult to work on, modern car owners treat the cars as white goods - those enthusiasts that do still work on their own cars are tending to run older cars - look at the recent poll on here
How old is the car you usually drive - click me
Just see where the ages of the cars are in percentage terms, and it also (from my memory) blew pretty much any previous poll I've seen out of the water in terms of responses - most polls top out at around 500 and this one was closer to 750
I applaud the passion and enthusiasm for printed magazines - I just think it's probably got a falling readership for some of the reasons I've outlined above.
Some well-reasoned points
StangGT said:
Is it any good for the hard of (mechanical) thinking?
I can't comment accurately on more recent issues but it was a very useful resource in the past when content was very much aligned with tasks the could be tackled at home without a lot of specialist tools.I bought pretty much every copy for probably 10-15 years from early 90's onwards but my car taste didn't move on like the magazine did.
I probably only buy one or two magazines a month now PPC and retro car magazine when I can find copies and that's it. I love reading magazines with content that appeal to me there is something very nice about reading good copy (PPC need some better proof readers but I'll forgive them that)
I shudder at what I used to buy magazine wise, Octane, EVO, Car and Car Conversions, Motorsport Magazine, Practical classics, Classic car magazine - plus anything else that caught my eye content wise.
The internet isn't a replacement for Magazines but bloody hell it's got some serious content when you go looking
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