I've always liked Road & Track, but it now appears to be more track than road oriented - such as testing three or four different Porche 911 turbo variants, but not one recent 328i. Car & Driver tests more cars that one actually encounters in real life. The writing quality of both has held up pretty well, IMO.

So you might buy these two (among others) for a couple of months & then decide if you want to subscribe. Or check your library for back issues.

Tom

European Car, EuroTuner, Automobile is ok as US mags go. Performance BMW out of the UK is a good read as is Total BMW.

For mainstream car magazines, I've always liked Car & Driver better than Road & Track, but neither of them cover mods.

C&D is the benchmark that all auto mags use, especially when it comes to testing.

Bimmer

DenverJayhawk wrote

C&D is the benchmark that all auto mags use, especially when it comes to testing.

Benchmark for what? Over editorialized drivel so notorious for blindly declaring BMW winner in comparison tests it now actively avoids doing so when BMW is actually producing the better product for once? C&D is a chore to read (a lot of it reminds me of a Jeremy Clarkson review) and it's staff is hardly neutral or without predisposition.

I prefer Road & Track out of the American rags, their writers are succinct and fair, and their contributors are far and away the best (which have included Mario Andretti, Phil Hill, Gordon Murray, & Peter Egan). Another one that may surprise you with it's quality lately is Motor Trend - about 5 years ago they were garbage but have really taken strides into turning themselves around.

Evo is probably my favorite of the British ones. Octane is also quite good, but I'm a little put off by their strong bias towards classic cars. When they were introduced their mission was to cover new and old stuff 50/50, but it's really more like 80/20 in the classics' favor.

Oh, and I also buy Forza a lot - their photography is beautiful and they go more in depth into the technical aspects for new Ferraris than others (not that I expect them to). Their features on classic Ferraris are usually great too, as well as their monthly interview. The Eddie Irvine one was awesome! I posted it on another forum like a year ago when it came out, here is the link (with photos)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4405658-Forza-interviews-Eddie-Irvine

By far the best auto mag in the world is Autocar. I subscribe to 8 auto mags and Autocar from the UK is orders of magnitude better than the US tomes. If you have not seen one of these, go to a mag store, where sometimes they carry it. I subscribe and at $250/yr it is very dear, but worth it:happyanim:.

R&T, C&D, MT all seem to cover the same thing every month.

Whichever Ezra Dyer writes for.

C&D appears to have swapped its previous BMW adoration for its new big sponsor, Audi.

Car Magazine it's a brit mag about $130.00 yr. sub. buts its the best.

Oh and obviously I read Roundel and Bimmer!

Automobile mag for reviews and articles of new cars, very well written and amazing photos

European Car mag for tuner cars and mods.

Roundel for BMWs!

hayabusa55 wrote

Whichever Ezra Dyer writes for.

That would be Automobile. I actually subscribe to Automobile, C&D, R&T, Motor Trend, as well as Roundel.

I can't pick a favorite, they are all pretty similar. R&T is probably my least favorite because of all the racing articles in the last 1/4 of the magazine, which do nothing for me.

My dividend miles were expiring so I had to order something from the dividend miles shopping mall. So I figured I'd order some magazines, since it was 10 miles to every $1. So below is what I ordered:

European Car
Euro tuner magazine
Automobile
Motortrend

And ofcourse, Maxim.

Admittedly, C&D has had history of preference for Bimmers given their focus on the criteria BMW excel at (engine, steering feedback, fund to drive), but BMWs absolutely do not automatically win comparison tests as shown by the recent last place scoring of the new 5 as well as 2nd and 3rd place showings for the 3. Audi has topped BMW in several of the recent comparison tests.

I have at one point subscribed to Motor Trend, Road and Track, and Automobile. C&D is the only one I've renewed year after year. I'm not sure how I feel about the new Editor as well as the recent departure of several writers, but when I see C&D publish a 0-60mph time of greater than 5 seconds for the 335, I think i can more readily rely on it being an actual representation of the performance one will find in the real world versus the mid 4s that other mags publish.

BTM wrote

Benchmark for what? Over editorialized drivel so notorious for blindly declaring BMW winner in comparison tests it now actively avoids doing so when BMW is actually producing the better product for once? C&D is a chore to read (a lot of it reminds me of a Jeremy Clarkson review) and it's staff is hardly neutral or without predisposition.

I prefer Road & Track out of the American rags, their writers are succinct and fair, and their contributors are far and away the best (which have included Mario Andretti, Phil Hill, Gordon Murray, & Peter Egan). Another one that may surprise you with it's quality lately is Motor Trend - about 5 years ago they were garbage but have really taken strides into turning themselves around.

Evo is probably my favorite of the British ones. Octane is also quite good, but I'm a little put off by their strong bias towards classic cars. When they were introduced their mission was to cover new and old stuff 50/50, but it's really more like 80/20 in the classics' favor.

Oh, and I also buy Forza a lot - their photography is beautiful and they go more in depth into the technical aspects for new Ferraris than others (not that I expect them to). Their features on classic Ferraris are usually great too, as well as their monthly interview. The Eddie Irvine one was awesome! I posted it on another forum like a year ago when it came out, here is the link (with photos)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4405658-Forza-interviews-Eddie-Irvine

DenverJayhawk wrote

Admittedly, C&D has had history of preference for Bimmers given their focus on the criteria BMW excel at (engine, steering feedback, fund to drive), but BMWs absolutely do not automatically win comparison tests as shown by the recent last place scoring of the new 5 as well as 2nd and 3rd place showings for the 3. Audi has topped BMW in several of the recent comparison tests.

I have at one point subscribed to Motor Trend, Road and Track, and Automobile. C&D is the only one I've renewed year after year. I'm not sure how I feel about the new Editor as well as the recent departure of several writers, but when I see C&D publish a 0-60mph time of greater than 5 seconds for the 335, I think i can more readily rely on it being an actual representation of the performance one will find in the real world versus the mid 4s that other mags publish.

Point taken - just IMO, there seems to be something that isn't on the up and up with C&D's comparos. A quick off the top of the head example is they had the BMW 330 winning when everyone else had the G35 winning (having driven both extensively I agree with the G35), now they have Audi's winning everything when everyone else places the BMW best (for example look at recent M3 vs. S4/S5 vs. CTSV comparos)

As for 0-60 times, there is always a margin of error - can't speak for Automobile or Motor Trend but I know Road & Track always makes note of testing conditions such as temperature, humidity, elevation, etc. These can all have affect acceleration, and I have no reason to doubt any sub 5 sec numbers for the 335 were fudged, though there were a few that were "corrected" for atmospheric conditions. C&D's results seemed to mirror BMW's factory numbers

I reiterate that even recent issues of C&D seem much more concerned with flowery prose and interior material fappage than I care about - I prefer a no nonsense approach to how a car drives and performs. I'm not saying not to prefer C&D, just be wary of the content you are actually consuming.

I echo your sentiments about Motor Trend - I couldn't stand them 5 years ago. However I urge you to pick up a newer issue - their improvement is staggering.

I am not defending Car&Driver but in the latest article M3 won over the brand new Audi RS5. So they did not just pick the Audi as you are indicating. As for G35 vs 330i. I would hands down take a 330i over G35.

BTM wrote

Point taken - just IMO, there seems to be something that isn't on the up and up with C&D's comparos. A quick off the top of the head example is they had the BMW 330 winning when everyone else had the G35 winning (having driven both extensively I agree with the G35), now they have Audi's winning everything when everyone else places the BMW best (for example look at recent M3 vs. S4/S5 vs. CTSV comparos)

.

1) EVO
2) Automobile/CAR - love CAR's honesty, much like EVO's, but I don't like how they're less performance-oriented.
3) Motor Trend
4) C&D/R&T - they're both okay, and C&D is significantly better since they've redone their layout.

And I totally agree about Ezra Dyer. He's definitely one of my favorite auto journalists.

A surprisingly good mag is Autoweek. They keep getting better and better.