in the October Car Craft, they have a 4 page story by Douglas R Gald about installing a steering wheel in an AMC. that isn't so bad, until you see the 5 page story that Jeff Smith did about aligning your car at home. i'd think that if it takes 4 pages to do a steering wheel story, then it should take at least 20 pages to do a decent DIY alignment story. hell, Jeff Smith's "tune up your Holley carb" story was also 4 pages (5 if you count the first page, which was nothing but the obligatory pic of Jeff Smith playing on a dyno with the headline at the bottom).

so, what's the story here?
1) is Jeff Smith just that much better at fitting technical subjects into a certain amount of pages than Douglas R Glad?

B) did they need to pad their page count?

III)were they aiming for people that have always wanted to change a steering wheel but were afraid they might wreck something?

D)did they just do it becasue the CCRambler hasn't been in the mag for a while?
V) all of the above?

I let all of my magazine subscriptions expire, no time for them anymore. If I want information I'll surf the web.

:yes:
I too have been letting the mag subscriptions expire. Must be a common thing nowdays. Sure do get frequent phone calls offering great deals to renew. :(

All of mine have expired too... for over a year, I've had a stack of mags I haven't even read yet.

I still get Chevelle-World, and MAKE time to read it (cover-to-cover, usually the day I get it)

I just got a renewal deal in the mail for 3 years of Car Craft for $25. I didn't send it in. That is a good deal though. You figure that if you buy Car Craft 5 times in three years it's paid for itself. My Car Craft subscritption is up in May '10 and I don't think I'm going to renew it. Most of the time when I get a new Car Craft in the mail, I flip through it once and toss it. There's not too many stories in them that make me go, hey I want to hang on to this one in case I ever want to do this to my car.

For Henry D if he's reading, I do like Chevy Hi Performance and will keep that subscription going.:thumbsup: The rest of the mags, I just check out at the news stand and pick one up if it's got something useful in there, which isn't often.

I bought a 2 year sub to Hot Rod and got a 3 year Car Craft free, For $20.00 if figured I didn't have much to loose. That was a year ago and they still send me subscriprion offers every month.

LK

Car Craft doesn't have much to offer anymore, but for the dirt cheap price I keep subscribing. Get ripped off $5/issue at the newstand or twelve issues for $7? You do the math. I get Car and Driver as well, but it sucks. I get it just to have something to read on airplane rides. Dirt cheap as well.

I don't save any issues these days. Nothing good being written that's worth saving. I used to save every issue, but stopped several years ago.

That was a year ago and they still send me subscriprion offers every month.

LK

Those can be confusing. You get one every few months that says, your subscription is up in just a few short months and for this deal you must renew now! Then you sit there and think, it is:confused:, I swear I just renewed it.

They're preying on confused old men. I think we should sue for discrimination or something.:D

I still subscribe to Hot Rod, Car Craft and Chevy High Performance. I have to have something to read in the morning while Im in the bathroom. :D

i got all the mags then i had 3 piles of mags then i through them out after keeping some of them for good articles. hot rod, car craft, gm high performance, chevy high performance, i had a few hundred mags from 1989 til 5 years ago. then i let them expire and threw the rest out

i havent paid hot rod in 5 years and they still send me the mag.... they call once in a while to see if the mags are geting to me in good shape, and i tell them " i havent paid you in 5 years..." o well i keep getting them.

I'm about to let Hot Rod and Chevy Hi-Performance expire. I cant stand the way they try to get me to renew early all the time!! I sent them a check last October. By March, they are trying to get me to send them renewal money. I told them to knock it off or I will quit. They kept at it so most likely I'm done. Been subscribing for about 9 years.

i havent paid hot rod in 5 years and they still send me the mag.... they call once in a while to see if the mags are geting to me in good shape, and i tell them " i havent paid you in 5 years..." o well i keep getting them.

Now that's a subscription offer I wouldn't be abel to pass up, 5 years and you don't pay a cent. I'll have to keep an eye out for that one.:D

I bought a 2 year sub to Hot Rod and got a 3 year Car Craft free, For $20.00 if figured I didn't have much to loose. That was a year ago and they still send me subscriprion offers every month.
LK

Those can be confusing. You get one every few months that says, your subscription is up in just a few short months and for this deal you must renew now! Then you sit there and think, it is:confused:, I swear I just renewed it.

They're preying on confused old men. I think we should sue for discrimination or something.:D

Actually, if you're dumb enough to pay again when they solicit you months before your scrip is up, they bank your money, and it works for them instead of for you. :mad:

And BTW - did Chevy Rumble go belly-up? Haven't seen it in a while.

I quit getting them myself. I think the last sub. I had was car craft. I use to like the cheap junkyard builds, but like most everything else, its basically the same old builds over and over. I liked the tunnel ram article. If they did some junkyard rear disc swaps, maybe a junkyard overdrive swap, backyard rering, overhaul, type builds, it would get me to reup my subscription. I just dont have the kind of money thier "budget" builds cost. jim

If the price to renew Car Craft wasnt so cheap. I would let that lapse too. I enjoy it enough to spare the 10 dollars a year it costs to keep it coming.

The last time I subscribed was to Car Craft on one of them Ebay deals they used to have. I got the 3 years for $4 deal. :thumbsup: I got every last issue they promised, too. :cool: Too bad you can't get them deals anymore. If you search hard enough, there are some sellers that sneak 'em in though. I subscribed my wife to US magazine so she'd stop payin' at the stand every week for 'em. I think I paid $14 for a year. :thumbsup:

My first subscription was to HOTROD over 40yrs ago--------------it was also my last to expire, last year. :sad:
Through the years I guess I've subscribed to about all of them--------------even PLAYBOY at one time.
But finally, one by one, enough crap was enough!
Probably my BIGGEST disappointment was Super Chevy. After Doug Marion was thrown out in the street, SC just never recovered and continued to go down hill. Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, I know, there are some people who have, or have had, issues with him, but when all is said and done, he was probably one of the most knowledgeable Chevy journalism people of our times. If you didn't, or don't, know Doug personally (and I do), you really don't know how extensive his Chevy background actually is. Not to mention that he is really a great guy to be around (kind of like Chuck Hanson). :thumbsup:

I let all myine expire too..except Hemmings Muscle Machines.
That is one great magazine...and I truly look forward to every issue.

i still get Super Chevy, dumped the rest-Carcraft has gone away from anything i am interested in years ago-you have to take any article lightly, a lot of it is BS anyway
only reason i really read them is to look at new stuff by the advertisers, lol
i only renew when i get a killer deal, sure not from the people who call me up to renew with a high price and have no idea when my sub. is gonna expire, lol

I recently subscribed to Hot Rod for 20 dollars for three years, and a free Hot Rod wall clock.

The best thing I have seen in it so far is the picture of the 69 Chevelle on the bottom of page 20 in the Sept. 09 issue. Check it out if you can.

The other car magazines I let expire. Too much redundancy between them, and the cars they feature are so far out of my price range.

I like HRM for Drag Week and the Power Tour coverage, helps me dream! 20 bucks for 4 years isn't bad either!

B) did they need to pad their page count?




Yes. Glad pointed that out quite obviously, IIRC. Did you read the article?

not being critical of you, just thinking that I remember he made it clear they just needed some extra material.

CC used to be the only thing I read. That stupid steering wheel article is one of the first CC article's I've read in almost three years now. I spend my time reading books instead now. I used to really look forward to getting CC too.

Too many dyno tests month after month. Too many articles about how to take your car to some shop they like and have the work done. The ads are sometimes the most informative things in the magazine. I used to subscribe to Kitplanes magazine. They had an excellent format. Each month had a column on aerodynamics and control systems, another column on engines, another on what's new in regulations, a column on aircraft structures and of course new products. So each month had new info in all of the categories. No, I am not a pilot, but I did enjoy learning about aviation stuff. If the car hobby mags did something like that, it might interest me a lot more.

None of the "print media" has figured out how to keep readers from canceling. Their 150 year old model of selling advertising to the advertisers and then selling the advertising to the readers has them spiraling down the poop chute as fast as yesterday's dinner.

They need a new model.

Something I don't understand is why, with all of the printing technology available, they don't:


Separate newsstad versions and subscription versions
Allow subscribers to "pick the content" via the web
Make each issue a "keeper".


Examples-

As we go through our builds (and re-builds) we have different interests (i.e-tear it apart, chassis, drive train, brakes, etc.) and those interests change as does our project.

And frankly, if I am building a resto-mod Chevelle, I really don't want to pay for an article on a Street Fighter Mustang (no offense Liz, but Fords are not in my near term future), nor am I interested in reading about nothing but the results of the free dyno test of the free engine, with the free manifold, free carb, free distributor, cam, covers, wheels, brakes suspension, stripes, etc.

A part of each mag could be "general", much like they are printed now, but the subscription version could be customized based on a subscribers interest.

Just imagine how cool it would be to be able to go to "Magazine Name.com" sign in and click off a few boxes so that starting in "Month" you're version would include several detailed 20 pg articles about your topics of choice. A REAL GOOD "How To".

Hot Rod
GM
Chevelle
BBC
Rest-Mod
Drivetrain
Headers
Brakes

Good articles, not long advertisements written by people who are prohibited from saying things like "it made a big improvement as compared to stock, but I still prefer "The Other Company's" product." or "these headers wouldn't fit without hammering them to death, so we dumped 'em."

Now I have a keeper. It goes on the shelf, not in the recycling. It's a part of my build.

If I buy it off the newsstand I pay a HUGE price and get nothing (figuratively). For $7 bucks you could at least give me more that 30 pages of ads. The newsstand versions could include a "special" section based on whatever was the most popular "subscriber" choice, so that after I pay $7 for it my hind end doesn't feel like it's been kicked.

Man I gotta agree! I used to subscribe to Car Craft back in the day when it was excellent. I let it go for several years and now picked it back up with my daughters school fundraiser mag drive.

What a piece of crap that has turned out to be! A steering wheel change? Are you kidding me? I went through that issue in 5 minutes and pitched it!

I let all of my magazine subscriptions expire, no time for them anymore. If I want information I'll surf the web.

I'm with the masses on this one... The only 2 I get are Chevelle World, and Hot Rot, the only reason I get Hot Rod is it was offered so cheap..... But I HIGHLY doubt if it will be renewed again....

I still subscribe to Hot Rod, Car Craft and Chevy High Performance. I have to have something to read in the morning while Im in the bathroom. :D

Same here, except delete Car Craft and add Super Chevy and Hemmings Muscle Machines. The Hemmings features some great cars.

Hemmings Muscle Machines & Muscle Car Review. I enjoy getting them once a month and each has its good points.

Car Craft gave me a 10 year subscription for $20 at an event one year; I still read it, it's ok and better then the rest I use to read. When it expires in 2015 I'll let it go.

I just read em on the newsstand pretty much cover to cover

my bro has a subscription to car craft and hot rod. I have to say car craft is pretty good but imo all the magazines these days are pro touring obssessed, and not to offend anyone, that is just not my thing at all. I do not like seeing 17 inch or bigger wheels on muscle cars:noway:

2 years ago at the Car Craft show, I got 3 magazines for 3 years for $21. I got CC, HR, and PHR. of the 3, I like PHR because it's ground level stuff, they show actual people doing the work and though there are the high dollar cars, most of the articles are not 100% resto or 100% full on race cars, they're (on thier way) nice drivers.

Just subscribed to Hemmings Muscle Machines, a special offer $12 for 12 issues and today a special offer to extend my subscription for $11 for another year! not bad and from what others say it's a good mag as for all the other subscriptions I let all but Hot Rod and HPP go

2 years ago at the Car Craft show, I got 3 magazines for 3 years for $21. I got CC, HR, and PHR. of the 3, I like PHR because it's ground level stuff, they show actual people doing the work and though there are the high dollar cars, most of the articles are not 100% resto or 100% full on race cars, they're (on thier way) nice drivers.

you mean like the "real world low dollar daily driver" NASCAR tribute Laguna?
they've got $30k of magazine money (so probably closer to $40k if you or i were to buy the same parts) dumped into a car that might have a value of somewhere just shy of $10k.
don't get me wrong, i love me the NASCAR Lagunas, but the $4k paint job that could be duplicated with $20 worth of Krylon semi gloss spray paint is just insane.
i do like most of the Mustang articles that Liz does, tho, even if the stuff doesn't apply directly to anything i'll ever do. but sometimes the "look at me, i'm a cute girl that works on cars" pictures seem a bit unnecessary.
and at least Hunkins got away from showing the jailbait photos every month.
i started this thread in the hopes that some of the magazine guys might see it and change things going forward. a 4 page steering wheel install? in Car Craft? the magazine that used to tell you how to fix a broken Mopar trans mount with a couple of hose clamps is down to 4 pages about taking a couple of screws and one big nut off, then reversing the order to put it back together? it takes less time to swap a steering wheel than it takes to read that article.
i think what they need is more people like Jeff Smith. i don't think i've ever read an article from him that i didn't learn something from.

I just got the latest issue of super chevy, and enjoyed it. They (sorta) showed what was involved in changing gears, setting pinion depth and shimming the carrier, and had a thing on the new camaro where after just a computer tune it was in the 12s, and after a cam and exhaust swap it was in the low 12s. They have some mags where there is not much that interests me. For the price I paid for a 2 year subscription I would be losing money to buy just the real cool ones.

... I just dont have the kind of money thier "budget" builds cost. jim

whew...I thought it was just me. I dont agree with their "budget" figures...