The Road Rat Magazine
Discussion
As a serial EVO subscriber for over 10 years now ive held off on sub'ing to this so far.
How are you all finding it, as im reluctant to buy the back issues inc a sub from issue 5 as its £116.
Are you all still as impressed with it or is it just a book of glossy photos none of us can have any relationship to?
How are you all finding it, as im reluctant to buy the back issues inc a sub from issue 5 as its £116.
Are you all still as impressed with it or is it just a book of glossy photos none of us can have any relationship to?
frayz said:
As a serial EVO subscriber for over 10 years now ive held off on sub'ing to this so far.
How are you all finding it, as im reluctant to buy the back issues inc a sub from issue 5 as its £116.
Are you all still as impressed with it or is it just a book of glossy photos none of us can have any relationship to?
Issue 1 was good, but LOVED issue 2 (I love the 917 story).How are you all finding it, as im reluctant to buy the back issues inc a sub from issue 5 as its £116.
Are you all still as impressed with it or is it just a book of glossy photos none of us can have any relationship to?
If you have time to sit down and read it's worthwhile.
I basically save them for holidays
I’m not overly impressed by the writing, nor the research. I find it’s more fancy photos (that aren’t actually that good at showing off the subject) that are “artistic” for the sake of it.
I find it’s like one of those expensive coffee table books and I’ve never really gotten those either-here, look at some pictures of the stuff I’m “into”.
Sorry to be a bit down on it but if you’re expecting anything like the heyday of motoring journalism from the 70s through to the early 00s you’ll be a bit disappointed.
What was that pseudo architecture magazine that was about a few years ago in all the desperately cool places-paper or something like that it was called?
It’s like that for cars.
I find it’s like one of those expensive coffee table books and I’ve never really gotten those either-here, look at some pictures of the stuff I’m “into”.
Sorry to be a bit down on it but if you’re expecting anything like the heyday of motoring journalism from the 70s through to the early 00s you’ll be a bit disappointed.
What was that pseudo architecture magazine that was about a few years ago in all the desperately cool places-paper or something like that it was called?
It’s like that for cars.
Podie said:
Issue 1 was good, but LOVED issue 2 (I love the 917 story).
If you have time to sit down and read it's worthwhile.
I basically save them for holidays
I've only bought issue 2 so far.If you have time to sit down and read it's worthwhile.
I basically save them for holidays
The 917 story was good, but probably no better than a snippet taken out of one of the many 917 books.
On the flip side I found some articles were poor, in particular the half-story about the trip to the Scandanavian test facility/town.
Olivera said:
I've only bought issue 2 so far.
The 917 story was good, but probably no better than a snippet taken out of one of the many 917 books.
On the flip side I found some articles were poor, in particular the half-story about the trip to the Scandanavian test facility/town.
I liked that article, but then I quite enjoy Richard Porters stuff. I think that about sums it up - some interesting articles, some not. Different things appeal to different people. Beautifully produced, nice photos, nice smell. I’d buy one then get the rest if you enjoyed it rather than order all the back issues.The 917 story was good, but probably no better than a snippet taken out of one of the many 917 books.
On the flip side I found some articles were poor, in particular the half-story about the trip to the Scandanavian test facility/town.
They must be getting a lot of flak re the postage, I got this email last night:
Road Rat auto-email said:
You left your magazine behind
Hi,
We asked the folks who built our website to send you this e-mail because — or so it seems — you decided pretty late in the process not to buy The Road Rat.
This may be because you didn’t much care for our shipping rates. To be honest a few folks have questioned them out loud. I can only ask that you consider two points. The first is the sum its almost exactly what the Royal Mail in the UK charges us to ship 1.1 Kg/2.2lbs of printed paper across Europe, across the world even across the UK. It’s a good rate, courier services cost much more. The other associated costs we swallow.
As a tiny business we can’t afford to swallow any more and — personally speaking — I’d rather not increase the cost of the magazine and feign 'free-shipping’ because there is no such thing as free shipping. There’s a reason Jeff Bezos is as wealthy as he is.
Best. And thank you for your interest. Mikey, Editor.
Hi,
We asked the folks who built our website to send you this e-mail because — or so it seems — you decided pretty late in the process not to buy The Road Rat.
This may be because you didn’t much care for our shipping rates. To be honest a few folks have questioned them out loud. I can only ask that you consider two points. The first is the sum its almost exactly what the Royal Mail in the UK charges us to ship 1.1 Kg/2.2lbs of printed paper across Europe, across the world even across the UK. It’s a good rate, courier services cost much more. The other associated costs we swallow.
As a tiny business we can’t afford to swallow any more and — personally speaking — I’d rather not increase the cost of the magazine and feign 'free-shipping’ because there is no such thing as free shipping. There’s a reason Jeff Bezos is as wealthy as he is.
Best. And thank you for your interest. Mikey, Editor.
bungle said:
They must be getting a lot of flak re the postage, I got this email last night:
What a strange thing to send out.Road Rat auto-email said:
You left your magazine behind
Hi,
We asked the folks who built our website to send you this e-mail because — or so it seems — you decided pretty late in the process not to buy The Road Rat.
This may be because you didn’t much care for our shipping rates. To be honest a few folks have questioned them out loud. I can only ask that you consider two points. The first is the sum its almost exactly what the Royal Mail in the UK charges us to ship 1.1 Kg/2.2lbs of printed paper across Europe, across the world even across the UK. It’s a good rate, courier services cost much more. The other associated costs we swallow.
As a tiny business we can’t afford to swallow any more and — personally speaking — I’d rather not increase the cost of the magazine and feign 'free-shipping’ because there is no such thing as free shipping. There’s a reason Jeff Bezos is as wealthy as he is.
Best. And thank you for your interest. Mikey, Editor.
Hi,
We asked the folks who built our website to send you this e-mail because — or so it seems — you decided pretty late in the process not to buy The Road Rat.
This may be because you didn’t much care for our shipping rates. To be honest a few folks have questioned them out loud. I can only ask that you consider two points. The first is the sum its almost exactly what the Royal Mail in the UK charges us to ship 1.1 Kg/2.2lbs of printed paper across Europe, across the world even across the UK. It’s a good rate, courier services cost much more. The other associated costs we swallow.
As a tiny business we can’t afford to swallow any more and — personally speaking — I’d rather not increase the cost of the magazine and feign 'free-shipping’ because there is no such thing as free shipping. There’s a reason Jeff Bezos is as wealthy as he is.
Best. And thank you for your interest. Mikey, Editor.
Ordered all 4 back issues last week and am thoroughly enjoying them. Used to subscribe to CAR years back and enjoyed it for its breadth of topics but it went off the boil and I cancelled the sub and just never went back to it. Very very occasionally by the odd issue but not often. Subscribed to Top Gear for years but that too went from being a fairly full read to just average and gave up on that several years back. Other mags I've tried are either barely warmed over press releases supported with advertising, or not much more than spec-sheets with pictures, group tests of fundamentally pretty boring new cars, endless features about the latest incremental update of some halo car or other or road trip stories that have potential but are edited to be frustratingly short and strike an awkward balance of not enough about the car or the trip. Dull dull dull.
Took out subscription to Octane a couple of years back and found I enjoy the lengthier stories, back histories, adventures, photography and more intelligent writing style and I look forward to that dropping on the mat every month.
Road Rat is different again, bit more coffee table and quite indulgent, sort of an Octane+. Brave choice to go the route they have when there's so much on-line content around, but publishing needs to change with the times and all credit for moving to this style and format and frequency. Spot on and I have no issue with it being the price it is.
Took out subscription to Octane a couple of years back and found I enjoy the lengthier stories, back histories, adventures, photography and more intelligent writing style and I look forward to that dropping on the mat every month.
Road Rat is different again, bit more coffee table and quite indulgent, sort of an Octane+. Brave choice to go the route they have when there's so much on-line content around, but publishing needs to change with the times and all credit for moving to this style and format and frequency. Spot on and I have no issue with it being the price it is.
The Road Rat is a luxury item.
Personally I love it. It moves on substantially from Evo/Autocar/Car/TopGearMagazine, and if you want to stand still with these monthlies then that's your choice. I have an Evo magazine subscription too, and both subscriptions will continue.
The postage: its just a matter of how you think about it, What if postage was free, but each copy was £14 ? Why do some resent £4 postage on a £10 magazine? Why is £10 ok for content/editing/printing and £4 not ok to carry it hundreds of miles?
The writing is proper, thoughful, literature, and not just a lazy journo copying and pasting the press release from a manufacturer. The editing team have enough clout to source articles from heavyweight motoring authorities. The production values are super high with posh paper and lovely printing/colouring.
Are they going to sell in the volumes that the monthlies do? No. But bizarely the yearly costs are roughly the same at £40-50 odd.
I'll bet at least 75% of subscribers are high income bracket, and you could probably charge more per issue.
But if you're reading this Mikey, please no.
My conclusion: Do you have the cash for a luxury car publication, something deeper and more arty than the rest?
Personally I love it. It moves on substantially from Evo/Autocar/Car/TopGearMagazine, and if you want to stand still with these monthlies then that's your choice. I have an Evo magazine subscription too, and both subscriptions will continue.
The postage: its just a matter of how you think about it, What if postage was free, but each copy was £14 ? Why do some resent £4 postage on a £10 magazine? Why is £10 ok for content/editing/printing and £4 not ok to carry it hundreds of miles?
The writing is proper, thoughful, literature, and not just a lazy journo copying and pasting the press release from a manufacturer. The editing team have enough clout to source articles from heavyweight motoring authorities. The production values are super high with posh paper and lovely printing/colouring.
Are they going to sell in the volumes that the monthlies do? No. But bizarely the yearly costs are roughly the same at £40-50 odd.
I'll bet at least 75% of subscribers are high income bracket, and you could probably charge more per issue.
But if you're reading this Mikey, please no.
My conclusion: Do you have the cash for a luxury car publication, something deeper and more arty than the rest?
Mezzanine said:
ettore said:
We must be due another soon, surely?
It’s been Covid delayed but they have said late June/early July for the next one. Going on previous communications about production delays I would say it will be nearer end of July before we see it!The_Doc said:
The writing is proper, thoughful, literature, and not just a lazy journo copying and pasting the press release from a manufacturer.
That’s where I would disagree, I think the actual content is poor. It may be written in flowery prose on heavy weight paper but the actual content itself is incredibly light.
It’s “Wallpaper” (the magazine title) for cars.
Having bought the first four issues I’m going to give issue five a miss, simply because of the postage costs - which have leapt to £5 within the U.K.
Also the editor (Mikey) continued snooty attitude on social media grates. A recent post on Instagram critiquing the layout on a certain page and it’s effect on a photograph was not well received by him, despite one post above the magazine itself apologising for the oversight
Also the editor (Mikey) continued snooty attitude on social media grates. A recent post on Instagram critiquing the layout on a certain page and it’s effect on a photograph was not well received by him, despite one post above the magazine itself apologising for the oversight
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