Autocar - First for car news and reviews

I've subscribed to Autocar for many years but I'm considering cancelling my subscription.  The reason is that almost everything that I want from the magazine is available on Autocar.Co.UK for free and before the paper version is delivered (within the M25).

 Given this, are any other subscribers feeling somewhat like mugs?

I still like an Autocar you can spank a bottom with! Weyhey!

Try that with this website.........

Not at all - Autocar needs to compete in all areas and different people have different habits. I work in IT, however I consume most of my car knowledge from magazines, primarily because my time doing this is sitting on the toilet or standing on the tube...

 I think it is great that Autocar puts its information on the web, however there is much much more in the mag, and if it an make decent money from the monetisation of its content, then thats a good thing!

I read Autocar on the net and buy Autoexpress to read at home, this way I get the best of both worlds. I used to buy Car as well, but that has gone seriously down hill since LJK Setright sadly passed away.

bit of an odd question to put on the 'board' really.

i mean, if you publicly suggest that you might unsubscribe because the website is good, the editors may scale back what they put online in order to stop people unsubscribing from the magazine.  it depends which they get most of their revenue from...

 of course, you could be working for Autocar and engaging in a little bit of market research... :)

Is most of the information online? Most of the news section is on the net, and a cut down version of the drive stories and road tests, but that's it. The full drive reports, the full text of the road tests, all the group tests, special articles, letters, most of Ask Goodwin, the reporter columns and the used car section are all unique to the mag. In other words all the things that make the mag great.

Even if they did put all that stuff online I'd still buy the mag; I can't take my PC with me into the break room.

It sounds like you are just the kind of punter that Drivers Republic are looking to cater for.

I can see what you mean about the site being very good, but on a personal level I have tried taking the lap top in to the crapper, and trust me it isn't as comfortable as having the magazine.

Autocar, keeping bums happy since........

You can also live a nice little pile of Mags in the toilet for emergencies, when you've not had a chance to pick a mag up when you're answering the call of a tortoise. 

You'll find them in the shelf next to the towels..............

There is nothing quite the ritual of opening the plastic wrapper, shake the marketing crap in the middle into the recycling bin, see what dog they are pretending was actually a good car inside the back cover, quick scan at the editor's intro, quick look at Cropley's motoring week, then the motorsports bit to see what Alan Henry thought of the GP, disappointment the road test is a Kia (waste of several pages)... clickling away on the website is just not the same. I have to say though I can't get use to the new Nuts mag format with no spine, but I suppose bigger pictures are worth it!

funnily enough, the same thought has occurred to me a couple of times recently.

sure, the mag is very good, and an entertaining read - but i find most of the information is also available on the website, especially the so called "scoops".

i can see other's point of view about enjoying the hard copy, and that autocar should be applauded for providing info on many fronts, but on the whole i find it difficult to justify bothering to buy the magazine anymore - there's rarely anything in it, over and above what i've gleaned from the web already, to make it worth my while.

generally speaking i subscribe to one of the monthly mags, but if i'm taking a business trip involving a flight, which is becoming increasingly rare, then i'll usually buy autocar to read on the plane - other than that, i'd rarely bother, though i do think it's a better magazine than autoexpress - by a fair margin.

i guess with other car mags having an online presence that they all do need to compete on several fronts ... and if autocar was to protect it's hard copy format by delaying publishing content on the web then it's rivals would steal a march, so it's a catch-22 - can't please everyone.

I think they could do more to differentiate the mag from the web page, because for me it is getting harder and harder to justify buying the mag.  I like the mag elements that are not featured on the web - like for example the 'cars I never bought' section and Jame Ruppert's column - but not sure if I like them enough to justify continuing my subscription.  To be honest, I think one of the big draws of the mag is that the [larger] pictures look fantastic on glossy paper, much better than the web images.  CAR magazine seems to have drawn quite a clear line between its mag and web page, and although I don't think their website is a patch on the Autocar site, I do find myself buying the magazine every month.  Maybe Autocar should develop 'premium' elements of the website for mag subscribers only.

Yes, but you are completely bias.

You've been banned from this forum in you're previous incarnations, JJ.

Good thing too.