I stopped buying TopGear magazine a while ago.

I stopped buying TopGear magazine a while ago.

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J4CKO

41,551 posts

200 months

Tuesday 4th January 2011
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Had it for years as a Christmas present from the wife's aunt, I politely said that she doesnt need to anymore as I just had gone off it, prefer Autocar to which I have a subscription but considering that ones future as well.

Binned the youngests Top Gear Turbo mag last night as they seemed to be going in the recycling unread, thats a fiver a month saved.

Have made a new years resolution to not buy car mags, very expensive entertainment at 4 or 5 quid when they are only about 40 percent actual content, if I didnt spend money on the magazines I will have more money to spend on a car, I reckon I could probably buy a 911 with all the money I have spent on car magazines over the years.

chevronb37

6,471 posts

186 months

Tuesday 4th January 2011
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Since the demise of Fast Lane I've struggled to find a road car magazine to bond with. We've held a subscription to TG for 15-odd years but it's not something I treat as an authority. I do, however, enjoy the columns and often find myself nodding in agreement to Paul Horrell's views on the world of motoring.

EVO, to my mind, is a little too biased towards the personality. I sometimes feel the contributors are trying to impose too much of themselves upon the mag. I respect their views, for the most part, but struggle to see the relevance sometimes in their constant discussions of behaviour at the limit. And you must also question the impartiality of a road tester who is wearing a Porsche visor on his helmet. I also find that they will, almost without fail, make some kind of factual error in any article about motor racing, which is frustrating and rather undermines the authority of the writing. Having said all that, it is probably the best option for road car reading and will likely keep my subscription.

However, for me, the triumvirate is MotorSport, Autosport and Octane. With subscriptions to those, I find myself endlessly searching out new fact from every facet of the automotive world. The only problem is keeping up-to-date with everything, four monthly publications and a weekly means you have to be reading constantly. No real hardship, though...

Boba Fatt

43 posts

170 months

Tuesday 4th January 2011
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I bought the latest copy a couple of weeks ago (car of the year edition) It kinda puzzled me that they had an article on the Zonda R, which they had in the previous months.

I buy it from time to time when there's nothing else worth reading on the shelves, but I have to say the articles have got more and more disappointing as the issues have went on.

I think i'll stick with Evo.....even though it does feature cars i'll never be able to afford - but then who wants to read about a T reg VW Bora?

Papa Hotel

Original Poster:

12,760 posts

182 months

Tuesday 4th January 2011
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captainsmelly said:
Papa Hotel said:
captainsmelly said:
The magazine is just like the tv program, it's mindless drivel writtin for (and seemingly sometimes By) children.
Factual, but ironically spoiled by the poster's own punctuation and odd choices of capitalisation.
Sorry, mostly blame man flu
No, I'm sorry, I try not to go in for grammar Nazism.

Sympathies on the man flu, I know the pain.

Manks

26,277 posts

222 months

Tuesday 4th January 2011
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Twincam16 said:
Manks said:
Funnily enough my first issue showed up this morning, and I was not especially looking forward to reading it. But it's got some good short articles in in - the FS1E, Escort Mexico etc.

But the 911 GTS article is woefully lazy.
I had a flick through a mate's copy. Funnily enough the article I enjoyed most was James May on the Lada Niva (which is now available new in the UK again. He rather liked it as a budget alternative to a Defender.
I enjoyed the Niva article and almost fancy owning one. But I think as JM points out they are better suited to an agricultural setting and I suspect they might not be totally reliable.

sparks_E39

12,738 posts

213 months

Tuesday 4th January 2011
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I like Clarkson Hammond and May's respective columns, the new layout isn't easy on the eye and the content recently is lacking.