RE: PH Blog: the death of the car brochure

[CarlosV8]

Over the last 5 years or so I've been hoarding some old brochures - at first just cars I owned, but then cars I just liked. It's great reading through some of the old stuff when you're at a loose end on a rainy day. Much more satisying that looking at modern day websites!

Last year at the FOS I spotted a couple TVR press packs from a mid 90s motor show (Chimaeras, Griff, Wedges etc) - bought both (along with a few others) with the intention of selling 1 press pack on at a profit to fund the rest. Obviously I never have, they're both now up in a box in the loft. Stupid old car tat addicition!!

[Cacatous]

My favourite brochure was the Ford RS accessories one from the 90s which showed all the body kits for the Escort, Sierra and Granada.

I also had a thing for Rover and Austin as well as MG.

[task]

A nice archive of Range Rover Classic posters;

http://www.range-rover-classic.com/Home/land-rover...

I managed to buy a sales brochure for my CSK a few weeks back from Ebay too

[Twincam16]

Very good points raised there. There are major drawbacks to the digitisation culture too.

I went to the bike show in Birmingham last year, and I wanted more information on the new Honda range, specifically the new NCR, which they'd just launched. I asked the man on their stand whether he had a brochure.

He hadn't. Instead, he whipped out an iPad, faffed about with it for five minutes, then took down every last one of my personal details short of blood group and identifying marks, and said he'd send me the information.

Ever since, I've had an inbox full of non-related spam from Honda, emails responding to a nonexistent 'speculative enquiry' from my local Honda dealership regarding a test-ride I requested (I didn't), and they've sent me a physical brochure through - for the wrong bike.

They have completely put me off dealing with them, all for the sake of printing some brochures to hand out at a show. I can't understand this iPad culture at all - by all rights it should be one of those pieces of overpriced tat which gets jetissoned after it only gets bought by about 12 people worldwide, like Betamax videos and Laserdiscs. It's bulky, it's fragile, you can't type on it, you can't put discs in it and you can't share anything from it with anyone unless they also have a £200-odd white elephant too.

But for some reason Apple seems to inspire a religious fervour that bypasses all common sense. It's spread like a virus and now this technology which is actually an all-faffing, all-fussing overpriced pain in the arse is being foisted upon the rest of the world.

Honda - if you gave me the brochure at the bike show, I might have bought the bike.

[volks al]

Twincam16 said:

Lots of stuff.
Sent from my iPad.

[beasto]

I had a largish collection which I gave to a auto fan friend.

I know what you mean about online info - form over function seems to be a continuing car industry fad.

Carmakers might do well to emulate IKEA's easy-to-use iPad-iPhone catalogue.

With some stylish dressing up, it could be a useful template for those car range brochures.

[Trommel]

Twincam16 said:

I can't understand this iPad culture at all - by all rights it should be one of those pieces of overpriced tat which gets jetissoned after it only gets bought by about 12 people worldwide, like Betamax videos and Laserdiscs. It's bulky, it's fragile, you can't type on it, you can't put discs in it and you can't share anything from it with anyone unless they also have a £200-odd white elephant too.

But for some reason Apple seems to inspire a religious fervour that bypasses all common sense. It's spread like a virus and now this technology which is actually an all-faffing, all-fussing overpriced pain in the arse is being foisted upon the rest of the world.

I like car brochures; I must have thousands of them - but really?

Does Mick Walsh have an iPad?

[beasto]

"It's bulky, it's fragile, you can't type on it, you can't put discs in it and you can't share anything from it with anyone unless they also have a £200-odd white elephant too.

But for some reason Apple seems to inspire a religious fervour that bypasses all common sense. It's spread like a virus and now this technology which is actually an all-faffing, all-fussing overpriced pain in the arse is being foisted upon the rest of the world."


Uummm... my iPad's tolerably light in weight, has a built-in keyboard in two sizes, and you can share across all networks. As for discs, they're going the way of tape cassettes, I'm afraid.

No religious fervour in this office - it's simply a very useful tool that I use for presentations, writing and more.

[Twincam16]

Gatsods said:

Candellara said:

An interesting fact. If the requirement for printed matter declines, the environment will be in real trouble. If the millions of trees required for sustainable paper production are not planted, this will have a catastrophic affect on the environment. Young trees that are planted and cultivated for paper production absorb tons and tons of CO2.

As a motorist which pumps out plenty of CO2, trees (and subsequently paper) are your friend :-)

The plastics, manufacturing, transportation, electricity used to power our tablets, PC's, smartphones etc is far far more damaging to the environment.

Edited by Candellara on Wednesday 18th April 17:45

Either that or because those very trees aren't being cut down in the first place the environment and rainforests will flourish... But of course printed media such as brochures take up a miniscule % of all paper produced.

But the vast majority of trees used for paper pulp are cultivated in ongoing operations within sustainable forestry. The trees only exist because of the print demand. When one tree is cut down, another is planted. You can grow more paper organically and it's a fast-growing, environmentally-friendly source. We're not talking vast Amazonian logging operations or drug barons culling vast areas to grow cocaine here.

Compare this to the energy-intensive demands of the so-called environmentally-friendly 'paperless office' - rare-earth minerals, plastics, metals, energy-intensive production techniques and the industry's propensity for built-in obsolescence and actually it's print media which comes out looking more environmentally friendly. Unfortunately a lot of people seem to have lost sight of what constitutes 'progress' and seem to automatically equate ever more complicated, unrepairable electronics with 'progress' when actually many are classic examples of 'bad design' - something unnecessarily complicated, expensive, environmentally unfriendly and with a short shelf life replacing something rather simple, timeless and cheap.

[Twincam16]

beasto said:

"It's bulky, it's fragile, you can't type on it, you can't put discs in it and you can't share anything from it with anyone unless they also have a £200-odd white elephant too.

But for some reason Apple seems to inspire a religious fervour that bypasses all common sense. It's spread like a virus and now this technology which is actually an all-faffing, all-fussing overpriced pain in the arse is being foisted upon the rest of the world."


Uummm... my iPad's tolerably light in weight, has a built-in keyboard in two sizes, and you can share across all networks. As for discs, they're going the way of tape cassettes, I'm afraid.

No religious fervour in this office - it's simply a very useful tool that I use for presentations, writing and more.

Speak for yourself, I've tried them and I hate them. And I can't type properly unless my fingers make contact with keys that can be felt and noticeably descend when I press them while looking at a screen or another piece of source material, otherwise it'd take me hours to write things it takes me minutes to do otherwise.

I honestly can't think of a single reason why I'd want any tablet computer. All the reasons given to me by people I know who have them don't figure in my life at all.

[Trommel]

Twincam16 said:

I honestly can't think of a single reason why I'd want any tablet computer. All the reasons given to me by people I know who have them don't figure in my life at all.

A tablet is just a very portable computer with a different interface, more useful for consumption and presentation of media than creation of media (although Hockney etc. may disagree).

If you want a machine to write a novel on don't buy a tablet (obviously), but for an awful lot of people they're far more useful than a netbook or a laptop.

[B'stard Child]

ecurie said:

sanctum said:

The reason I don't stick images on my bedroom wall, is because I know the wife will take them down ... I want my own room...

I've got my own room !
My wife banned me (well, the brochure collection) to a spare room we have. Together with the model car collection, the model train, a F1 Bridgestone tyre/wheel combination (wanted to turn it into a coffee table for the living room), yet to build plastic kits (one day...), etc... Best room in the house (after the garage).

I'm not alone

[georgeboyter]

I have a suitcase full of brochures from the '50's mainly. Beautifully illustrated ones for Humber, Hillman, Singer, Triumph, Alvis, Armstrong Siddeley, Allard, Rolls Royce, Bentley and many more. Predominantly British, but also some Continental and Eastern European ones such as Wartburg and Tatra. There's also some great American brochures for Nash and marques that are no more. They really are works of art, some of them. I've kept them for many, many years.

[Maxus]

Growing up in the 80's the next door neighbour worked at the Ford dealer. He would regularly pass me the latest "Ford Cars" brochure as well as passenger rides in the latest kit(XR4i/RS1600i/Granada Ghia X Executive/2.8 Capri). These were very special at the time.

I still have lots of the brochures as well as some dealer posters, mainly of various XR's.

Happy days

[number1nesta]

Ebay is a wonderful thing. I've recently had this trip down memory lane and consequently started to collect all the brochures of the cars i've owned (the exact year is a must). It allows me to see exactly what sold my choice of car when it first hit the showroom and because all my cars have been second hand, it's interesting to see what made the new owner part with their hard earned.

This little hobby has spread too, my dad was in sales so had a new car every two years (or 60,000 miles), so I was forever digesting the finer details of any given model range (usually Vauxhall or Ford). It too meant I was an absolute geek when it came to specs. But what's great it that i've come across some of those brochures online, bought them and given them to Dad to enjoy, whilst at the same time giving me a great trip down memory lane...

Excellent article, couldn't agree with it more.

[New Scot]

This makes me feel very old! I remember wonderful "Space - Grace - Pace" Jaguar brochures from the Mk7 then Mk 2...

Also accessory brochures - anyone remember chrome badge bars and so on from CUD? They had one tailored for the Mk 2 with angled brackets to fit behind the front number plate in front of the grill! Both Momo & Moto-lita had brilliant leaflets showing all their wood and leather-rim steering wheel options.

Much later, my sons always loved the TVR postcards handed out by the thousand at the Earls Court and NEC motor shows in the heyday of the Chim and Tuscan! And they still ask why I never bought a purple Cerbera. They thought my E36 M3 Evo wasn't cool enough!

[slarnge]

I use to collect them when i was a kid,i have still got all those brochures that are shown on the blog page. Iv made a few quid aswell selling some of the rare ones. I must have 4 big boxes still full of late 70s and 80s cars.

[excel monkey]

Garlick said:

But the best part was the photography; every picture told a story that gave an insight into the lifestyle of the owner. A base spec car might be positioned on a building site with hard-hat wearing gents looking at some plans spread over the bonnet. A GL would show a middle management type parked outside a modern office looking serious in his grey suit carrying a briefcase. The top spec model would be ambitiously parked outside a rambling country pile or alongside some stables often with a driver or butler in shot. The sports car would either be on a winding road or at the squash court and of course the estate would show happy families having a picnic or generally smiling as they enjoyed outdoor life.

So true! Even thought there was very little difference between the trim levels in terms of equipment, the difference in photography and locations was huge. They really were trying hard to make the top models seem aspirational. Was great that every model got a full page to itself. I guess the huge number of permutations of options on modern cars makes the whole L/GL/GLX hierarchy thing less relevant nowadays.

[will261058]

I remember going to the Motor Show at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow with my Dad and coming home with a ton of brochures on everything from an E-Type to a Glasgow Corporation Bus! kept me busy for months, Happy Days.

[Twincam16]

excel monkey said:

I guess the huge number of permutations of options on modern cars makes the whole L/GL/GLX hierarchy thing less relevant nowadays.

I'm not so sure about that. BMW are masters of the bootlid badge game (engine code, then i,S, MSport etc), and Audi has created a whole culture of aspiration surrounding the S-Line.

The guy living next door to my parents has an Audi A6 2.0 TDI S-Line Le Mans, with all badges visible on its rump. If that isn't in the spirit of a Ford Granada 2.3 Ghia GLX then I don't know what is.

Oddly enough Ford seems to have done the opposite, summing entire packages of options up in single meaningless words. Zetec's no longer an engine code, and there's nothing particularly rank-pulling about 'Titanium' or 'Style', as opposed to an ever-lengthening list of letters or the crest of a lauded Italian design house famous for its Maseratis and De Tomasos.