What is happening at EVO magazine?

[Limpet]

Greg_D said:

it goes waaaaaay further than that, eg i know of at least one manufacturer where the car interiors are partially stripped down and silicone treatment is given to the areas that 2 bits of leather touch to stop squeaks. it's that level of prep that makes any subsequent observations pointless...

Yep, agreed. An old school mate works for Audi's press office, and from what he has told me, there is very little about the press cars that is representative of what Joe Public as a consumer, would get. The painstaking preparation they get before they are allowed anywhere near a motoring journalist is a world away from the hour-or-so PDI check that punters cars get at a dealer. And as someone above said, you can bet the reg number flags on a dealer's computer when it is booked in for a service or any repairs, and the kid gloves are dusted down.

Then of course you have the ongoing relationship with the manufacturer to consider. Clarkson and Chris Harris are just two motoring journalists who have had manufacturers get huffy at something "honest" they've said or written, and go on to refuse them access to cars, subsequently.

Car magazines are good entertainment, but there is way too much going on behind the scenes to give their opinions any real credence, in my view.

Edited by Limpet on Saturday 30th December 13:41

[coppice]

Nothing new about press cars being 'special' . and I think it's disingenuous not to expect it. Remember the tale of the Autocar E -Type test ? Car was on racing tyres and , reputedly, with an engine more D than E .. Not too many other 3.8s(or 4.2s ) did a genuine 150mph.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter as I don't read car magazines as market research but because I enjoy reading about cars, as long as the reporter can write decently . And that can be a forlorn hope. But you got to wonder , how the hell can you say anything original, let alone memorable , about the umpteenth minor re- iteration of yet another grotesquely overpowered AMG or RS Audi ?

I know what I'd write about the Bentayga though. 'Bentley have set the bar high in virtue signalling - not only do they get Stevie Wonder to style their car they get the British Dyslexia Association to name it .....'

[havoc]

bqf said:

It may have been said earlier on, but a new publication has just been launched - the 'Classic Motoring Review'. Quarterly, packed with good writing, as well as the occasional flashback from the best motoring writers, inc the late, lamented LJK Setright.

Few questions:-
- Are you linked to it in any way?
- Is it all / mainly text (appears to be from their website), or if there's photography what's the scope / quality like?
- What's the proportion of old- to new-articles?

[Carl_Manchester]

I have been reading EVO from the start and it was always about exotica, it did go through a phase when the Scooby and Lancer's were still en-vogue but it was short lived.

I think its gone down-hill in 2017 but I don't think the magazines production quality peaked until 2014. I think the ECOTY content and some of the reviews peaked around that time and not earlier.

If you want an example check out the print version and the youtube video of the Porsche Boxster GTS review in Majorca from 2014. The photography and production were as good as it ever was back in the so-called earlier noughties heydey of the magazine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1LhUzL3qdU

[garreth64]

I cancelled my Evo sub earlier this year, having had every issue from issue 1 onwards as I felt it I wasn't enjoying it like I used to.

I took out a digital sub to Readly instead for £7.99 which gives you Car, Top Gear, Autocar, Modern Classics, Classic Car, What Car, as well as many others I read such as What Hi-Fi, T3, Stuff, Empire, Total Film etc etc

I've just noticed that EVO has just started to appear on Readly as well, so I can read it again now effectively for nothing.

Unless you really like a printed copy, this seems to be the way things are going.

[RemaL]

I have contacted Evo via their contact us page, twitter and direct email to cancel my subscription. 5 times. yes I have not called but should not need to

Not one reply. apart from thanks for contacting us we will get back to you within x days. Nothing else.

So went to the bank and cancelled my DD

I cancelled due to finding more adverts and finding other mags to be a better read. I also have been buying Evo since the first magazine came out.

[Tommie38]

I cancelled my subscription this year. This is as somebody who had up until that point bought almost every issue and had been a subscriber for well over 15 years.

Like others have said, I cancelled for a few reasons:
- The writing style was starting to bother me. A lot of it was attempting to be poetic but was actually quite unsophisticated. Highfalutin almost.
- Most of it was quite predictable. Porsche wins ECOTY, RWD good, BMW make better drivers' cars than Mercedes and so on. As an aside, it took me a long time to realise than an Evo 4 star car could be a better driver than an Evo 5 star car for people in the real world.
- The medium has been completely overtaken by online content. There is no way I will pay for print media when so much rich / high quality content is available online for free.

Cancelling was quite a sad thing for me to do. Prior to Evo, I had read Performance Car and had done so from the age of about 12. I actually kept the Evo subscription running for perhaps 3 years longer simply because my retired father read it. Even he is watching videos online now.

All of that said, I would like to see Evo live on, and I do hope that the YouTube channel is successful. I was happy to see Jethro popping up on the Motor Trend channel and I certainly don't have anything against Catchpole or any of the other long term team. Generally speaking I'd watch all of them on YouTube videos and I am a subscriber to Harry's Garage.

[2xChevrons]

suffolk009 said:

I was once chatting with Phil Bell, editor of Classic Cars, I asked him why they kept putting MGBs and TRs on the cover with such disproportionate frequency.
He said it was because sales go up 10-15%, each and every time.

When I worked on classic car mags it was the same - however much you think people might be bored by endless articles about MGBs, Triumph TR6s, Jaguar E-types, Mazda MX-5s, Minis and Morris Minors, they were always rock-solid commercially and if you filled an issue with the 'big hitters' it was almost guaranteed to be your biggest seller of the year. And it's something of a Catch 22 because those popular classics have the biggest specialist, club and parts supplier base who will advertise alongside features with those cars in, so your adverstising department is always on the phone saying "This Hillman Imp feature isn't really doing the do, can we swap it for an MGB feature?"

You'd think that the audience would be as bored of reading Morris Minor buying guides as the staff are of writing them but all the evidence is that they're not. In terms of classic car mags (which won't really apply to EVO) you have a core of regular readers but most of your sales are newcomers who are looking for information, so the person who read your Moggy Thou buying guide in 2012 will not be the same one who reads it in 2015. We found there was about a three-year cycle you could get away with - over the period you could space out on article on the history of the MGB, how to buy one, how to maintain one, a road test, a modifying guide, a twin test against [rival 1], a 'living with' guide, a twin test against [rival 2] and then a bumper 'all you need to know about the nation's favourite classic' MGB super feature', then you could start over again. Interlace that with similar churn for all the other favourites and that's how you produce a classic car mag. And it works because that's what people want to read.

You have to allow for the quirky, interesting stuff as well because that's what keeps the subscribers and regulars on board, but you will as a rule make no money on them. It's great to write about NSU Ro80s, pre-war Humbers, Ford Pilots, Corvettes, Vauxhall PA Crestas, Leyland Princesses, Merc 190Es, Citroen GSs etc. etc., and you'll always get loads of emails saying "more of this stuff, less of the MGs, please!!" but all the hard evidence from revenue and sales is that 'people' don't want to read this in a general-issue classic car mag. You have to go up to the 'premium' market for that.

CABC said:

that's interesting.
so are we now moving into an era of GTi articles for next 20 years? I think it's already started!

Yes. In the past five years or so '80s hot hatches (well, Golf GTIs and Pug 205s) have gone from 'never write about these unless there are already two big MG/Triumph/Jaguar features to offset them' to 'worth a punt'. Fords have gone the same way - they used to be confined to their marque-specific titles but you'll increasingly see Escorts, Capris and Cortinas in the general rotation. People used to complain a lot about 'modern crap' like the MX-5 and MGF being in but that doesn't raise an eyebrow now, and you're seeing 80s and 90s Japanese stuff creep in too.

At some point most of the people who care about MGBs and Triumph TRs will not be an audience because, to be blunt, they'll be dead. Their kids will be in the position they were in the 1980s - at a stage in life with the money and time to burn on fulfilling a childhood dream or reliving their youth, and they'll want to buy a Golf GTI, a BMW 3-Series, a Honda CR-X, a Subaru Impreza or whatever. So the 'classic mags' will have to shift their focus. Modern Classics is just astutely ahead of the curve and deservedly doing well from it. Just like Practical Classics was in the early 80s, which started off as a mag for people who wanted to run 50s and 60s cars as interesting and fixable dailys long before they became investment vehicles.

That is assuming that the printed press continued in a recognisable form into the future, of course, and that there will be any nostalgia around cars for in a generation or two, which I suspect there won't be.

edit: to swap quoted usernames for the right ones!

Edited by 2xChevrons on Sunday 31st December 14:19

[Carl_Manchester]

garreth64 said:

I cancelled my Evo sub earlier this year, having had every issue from issue 1 onwards as I felt it I wasn't enjoying it like I used to.

Unless you really like a printed copy, this seems to be the way things are going.

i have been reading evo via zinio for the past year(s) i can highly recommend it as an alternative.

[suffolk009]

Fascinating read ChevronsX2, but I think you swapped my quote and the other fella. Not that it matters.

Nice insight thanks, I feel able to take on the editorship of a Classic Cars magazine now.

I remember the issue that C&SC first did a feature on the MX-5. I have one, so I'm obviously biased, but what a terrible week at the office that must have been, trying to think of something new to write about the car. Ditto when they featured a Lotus Elise. As I recall they announced with great triumphalism that they were the first classic car to feature the MX-5 on their front cover. Genius really.

[2xChevrons]

suffolk009 said:

Fascinating read ChevronsX2, but I think you swapped my quote and the other fella. Not that it matters.

Nice insight thanks, I feel able to take on the editorship of a Classic Cars magazine now.

I remember the issue that C&SC first did a feature on the MX-5. I have one, so I'm obviously biased, but what a terrible week at the office that must have been, trying to think of something new to write about the car. Ditto when they featured a Lotus Elise. As I recall they announced with great triumphalism that they were the first classic car to feature the MX-5 on their front cover. Genius really.

A very early issue of Practical Classics (single-digit issue numbers) featured the Triumph Dolomite Sprint, then about 18 months out of production, and I'm pretty sure they had articles about the TR7 when it was still available in the showrooms.

The MX-5 and the Elise are kinda classic from the moment they're built, especially the MX-5 as it's just a modern take on a medley of features from every 60s British sports car. The Elise is much more high-tech but if you teleported one back to the 1960s people would have no problem understanding what it was all about. The ethos is the same.

The whole 'it's a classic if it's British and unreliable, even if it's still being made but if it's Japanese it will never be a classic ever' mindset is deeply weird. You can put a 2004 Rover 75 in a classic car mag and not raise an eyebrow - try any other 2004 mass-market saloon and your readership will combust.

[andymc]

garreth64 said:

I cancelled my Evo sub earlier this year, having had every issue from issue 1 onwards as I felt it I wasn't enjoying it like I used to.

I took out a digital sub to Readly instead for £7.99 which gives you Car, Top Gear, Autocar, Modern Classics, Classic Car, What Car, as well as many others I read such as What Hi-Fi, T3, Stuff, Empire, Total Film etc etc

I've just noticed that EVO has just started to appear on Readly as well, so I can read it again now effectively for nothing.

Unless you really like a printed copy, this seems to be the way things are going.

do you have the link? I fancy that

[CS Garth]

2xChevrons said:

The situation in nutshell

Nailed it

[samoht]

Thanks for a brilliantly informative post, I won't look at a classic car mag in quite the same way again ;-)

[greenarrow]

CABC said:

suffolk009 said:

I was once chatting with Phil Bell, editor of Classic Cars, I asked him why they kept putting MGBs and TRs on the cover with such disproportionate frequency.
He said it was because sales go up 10-15%, each and every time.

that's interesting.
so are we now moving into an era of GTi articles for next 20 years? I think it's already started!

I hope so !

Its just amazing really how long its taken for "modern classics" such as GTIs to be accepted in the classic car community. The earliest 205 GTIs for example are over 30 years old now, so definitely "classic". By comparison, MGBs were being featured in C & SC and Classic Car when they will still in production.... in fact I'm pretty sure the first ever issue of Classic Car back in 1973 had an MGB GT V8 on the front.....

[playalistic]

andymc said:

do you have the link? I fancy that

https://gb.readly.com/

[havoc]

Tommie38 said:

Cancelling was quite a sad thing for me to do. Prior to Evo, I had read Performance Car and had done so from the age of about 12. I actually kept the Evo subscription running for perhaps 3 years longer simply because my retired father read it. Even he is watching videos online now.

All of that said, I would like to see Evo live on, and I do hope that the YouTube channel is successful. I was happy to see Jethro popping up on the Motor Trend channel and I certainly don't have anything against Catchpole or any of the other long term team. Generally speaking I'd watch all of them on YouTube videos and I am a subscriber to Harry's Garage.

Sort of where I'm getting to - I know I should have cancelled already but I've been hanging on in the hope it'll get better again...esp. after I heard Trott was leaving. Trouble is, it looks like it's now even worse - "not-eCOTY" is probably the final nail in the coffin for me.

2xChevrons said:

suffolk009 said:

I was once chatting with Phil Bell, editor of Classic Cars, I asked him why they kept putting MGBs and TRs on the cover with such disproportionate frequency.
He said it was because sales go up 10-15%, each and every time.

When I worked on classic car mags it was the same - however much you think people might be bored by endless articles about MGBs, Triumph TR6s, Jaguar E-types, Mazda MX-5s, Minis and Morris Minors, they were always rock-solid commercially and if you filled an issue with the 'big hitters' it was almost guaranteed to be your biggest seller of the year. And it's something of a Catch 22 because those popular classics have the biggest specialist, club and parts supplier base who will advertise alongside features with those cars in, so your advertising department is always on the phone saying "This Hillman Imp feature isn't really doing the do, can we swap it for an MGB feature?"

You'd think that the audience would be as bored of reading Morris Minor buying guides as the staff are of writing them but all the evidence is that they're not. In terms of classic car mags (which won't really apply to EVO) you have a core of regular readers but most of your sales are newcomers who are looking for information, so the person who read your Moggy Thou buying guide in 2012 will not be the same one who reads it in 2015. We found there was about a three-year cycle you could get away with - over the period you could space out on article on the history of the MGB, how to buy one, how to maintain one, a road test, a modifying guide, a twin test against [rival 1], a 'living with' guide, a twin test against [rival 2] and then a bumper 'all you need to know about the nation's favourite classic' MGB super feature', then you could start over again. Interlace that with similar churn for all the other favourites and that's how you produce a classic car mag. And it works because that's what people want to read.

You have to allow for the quirky, interesting stuff as well because that's what keeps the subscribers and regulars on board, but you will as a rule make no money on them. It's great to write about NSU Ro80s, pre-war Humbers, Ford Pilots, Corvettes, Vauxhall PA Crestas, Leyland Princesses, Merc 190Es, Citroen GSs etc. etc., and you'll always get loads of emails saying "more of this stuff, less of the MGs, please!!" but all the hard evidence from revenue and sales is that 'people' don't want to read this in a general-issue classic car mag. You have to go up to the 'premium' market for that.

And this is why I still struggle with 'proper' classic car mags (even C&SC, which I'm currently subscribing to) - most of the true-classic British stuff holds no interest for me, yet at least 50% of every issue is old Triumphs and MGs and Riley's and Land Rovers etc. etc. Yes you get the odd Citroen (cool, innovative, unusual) or Merc/BMW, but you hardly EVER see anything Japanese (they were making some stunning stuff in the 1970's which was miles ahead of the UK) and US stuff is only marginally less rare.

[thegreenhell]

havoc said:

And this is why I still struggle with 'proper' classic car mags (even C&SC, which I'm currently subscribing to) - most of the true-classic British stuff holds no interest for me, yet at least 50% of every issue is old Triumphs and MGs and Riley's and Land Rovers etc. etc. Yes you get the odd Citroen (cool, innovative, unusual) or Merc/BMW, but you hardly EVER see anything Japanese (they were making some stunning stuff in the 1970's which was miles ahead of the UK) and US stuff is only marginally less rare.

The January issue of C&SC celebrates 50 years of Mazda rotary-engined cars. The next issue is 'in search of the best MGB'. /Natch.

[edo]

Just put 199 copies from 007 to present day (a few earlier ones missing) if anyone is looking for any

[2xChevrons]

havoc said:

And this is why I still struggle with 'proper' classic car mags (even C&SC, which I'm currently subscribing to) - most of the true-classic British stuff holds no interest for me, yet at least 50% of every issue is old Triumphs and MGs and Riley's and Land Rovers etc. etc. Yes you get the odd Citroen (cool, innovative, unusual) or Merc/BMW, but you hardly EVER see anything Japanese (they were making some stunning stuff in the 1970's which was miles ahead of the UK) and US stuff is only marginally less rare.

I kinda got away from this point, but: It's not that there is no market for people to *read* about Japanese stuff, or German classics or Citroens. It's that there isn't the commercial activity around those types/marques to support a feature. It's all in a bit of flux now, both due to changing demographics and the impact of the internet, but your standard classic car mag doesn't pay its way from people buying the actual mag, but from the advertising revenue adn while some of the big firms will just run an ad in every issue regardless most like to run ads alongside relevant features because they know they're hitting their target audience most effectively. There are only a handful of specialists in the country for (say) the Citroen SM and they probably don't need to advertise anyway because they'll be known by word-of-mouth among owners and the appropriate register of the Citroen Car Club. So if they do put an advert in it will probably be a half-pager at a low rate. The same goes for the Japanese scene - it's not that it doesn't exist but it's very close-knit and self-contained, so the businesses that support it don't need or want to advertise in a 'stuffy old classic car mag'.

Meanwhile an MGB feature could get adverts from two owners clubs, several big-name parts suppliers, half a dozen dealers and a couple of businesses selling mods. You could get three or four pages of ads off the back of a two-page MGB feature, while a fascinating, never-before-seen-in-print road test of an immaculately restored Datsun E10 Cherry X-1 would earn nothing but a load of emails saying how much they enjoyed reading it and how nice it was not to read about an MG. Which you can't pay your way with, however nice the feedback is. It's not just 'foreign stuff' that gets overlooked because it doesn't earn - Rootes Group cars (with the possible exception of the Sunbeam Alpine) don't have the commercial backing to be in the '1st division', and neither do Vauxhalls (although this is changing for stuff like hot 80s Astras and Novas).

It is changing now as the market changes and, crucially, you're getting a new generation of writers who care not a jot for an MGB or a Jaguar Mk2 but grew up on 80s and 90s German and Japanese metal and so both know and want to write about it.