CAR Sold to the Germans, After One Careless Owner
Throughout the 1990s, the UK's CAR Magazine was known for its breathtaking photography, incisive analysis, pithy prose and independent spirit. Readers devoured the elegant and technically proficient ramblings of LJK Setright, John Simister's lucid descriptions of how cars can handle, the witticisms and lateral thinking of Russel Bulgin, and the roly-poly eccentricity of James May. Sadly, Setright and Bulgin died, Simister left for The Independent and May joined forces with that fat egomaniac at TopGear. CAR became just another boring, soft on cars (and the causes of cars) buff book that missed the Internet train. And so CAR's owner, EMAP Publications is selling the mag to Germany's Heinrich Bauer Verlag. Bauer publishes Bella ("Exclusive survey: Germany's favorite Christmas meal is potato salad and sausages!"), Das Neue Blatt ("A best-ager entertainment magazine for the 40-59 age group"), Romanwoche ("Romance tales for the mature lady") and Auto Zeitung ("The modern general-interest auto magazine"). There are also porn titles, but we won't go there. We wish Car a quick recovery.
More by Martin Schwoerer
Comments
Join the conversation
At least we still have EVO, which shames all the other car rags that I've ever seen, including C&D in its heyday.
willbodine, I agree with you too. For a few years in the late 80's and early 90's, I used to spend some fairly large coin to have CAR airmailed to me in the US. I loved reading the reviews, the columns by LJK Setright, etc. I even loved reading the adverts of all the used vehicles I'd never be able to buy in the US.
So besides TTAC for the reviews and editorials and Autoblog for the news and pics, what do you guys actually read?
I saw a funny thing at the newstand today: CAR Magazine, Jan 2008 issue, page 24: "The Truth About Electric Cars".