What we're hearing from the masses is that of those who participated in our totally unscientific poll, the vast majority either hate Car and Driver's new redesign or couldn't even tell the book had been redesigned anyway. Sounds like Mission Accomplished, if you ask us. There are a few peeps that do like the new design, about 12%, but considering that Car and Driver paid "big bucks" for this, we imagine they were hoping like 88% of people would love it, instead.
We wonder what this means for the biggest car magazine in the world. Is that title in jeapordy now (or more so than it was before) and If subscriptions are falling, how fast? A few readers noticed they began giving subscriptions away today, which means if you're too cheap to pay $12, $10 or even $3.99 for a year's subscription, perhaps the magazine would be worth paying nothing for. That's 100% off the cover price! The free subscriptions were spotted on Slickdeals.net (great site!) and hosted through freebizmag.com, but their inventory has already been depleted, so don't bother filling out your info and the questionnaire.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
J.Crew @ Feb 1st 2007 8:55PM
This is my post from Winding Road and i think it fits here as well...
I am also a current subsriber to C&D as well as Winding Road (with free download!) I credit Car and Driver for discovering my passion with cars. It was their Corvette vs 300ZX stories that brought me into the fold. The redesign is bad and they are acting like a bunch of GM execs from 20 years ago!! They are denying they did something wrong even though they are the leader in print. They will slowly (or rapidly…) start to lose the hardcore base they have built over the last 50 years with this type of attitude. The anniversary edition was the last great read from them as everything else since has been the new format. I do not want to give Winding Road too much credit yet as I have been only on board for 2 issues, but you guys have it dialed in with great passion, pictures, and detail in your articles…the way C&D used to inspire me is how you guys are now doing it! C&D needs to get it back and fast. The clock is ticking…
Shoaib @ Feb 1st 2007 9:37PM
Motortrend FTW!!!!!!
verdegrrl @ Feb 1st 2007 10:02PM
The layout makes the articles look too much like the ads. It's hard to differentiate between infomercial ad and the real story. Cheapens the whole effect.
It's also gone form a place where LJK Setright or Jeremy Clarkson would feel at home, to Consumer Reports with a pulse. Much too namby pamby with brief half-hearted forays into political incorrectness.
C&D has lost their attitude and swagger that made them distinctive.
huis @ Feb 1st 2007 10:15PM
The old look was timeless and classy and very easy to read page through. The new look seems cheap and in-your-face like it's trying to look like an import tuner kind of magazine or something. When I'm paging through the new issues before going to sleep, I get confused about whether I'm reading C and D or Motor Trend.
Howard Kerr @ Feb 1st 2007 10:35PM
I picked up my first issue of C & D in 1967 or 1968. What got me was their test of a Mercury Cougar XR 7 versus a Jaguar 420. (This was their era of testing the "old world" versus the upstart "new world" as in their most famous test: the Ferrari GTO vs. Pontiac GTO.) I also bought my first issue of Road and Track about the same time, but didn't stick with it as much as I did C & D.
In 1971 or 1972 I "discovered" the British magazine CAR. I had been a subscriber to C & D for a few years, but CAR just blew me away. In the '70s I let my sub to C & D "die" and started buying/reading CAR...without ever even looking inside the cover first as it was that good. Over the years, I would pick up C & D whenever I saw a reasonably attention getting cover picture or "headline" test. I now buy C & D aboout 2 or 3 times a year. The re-design, like verdegrrl says, makes it difficult to tell the NEWS from the COMMERCIALS....NOT a good thing.
BTW, I don't buy CAR all that often anymore, either. Besides the fact that one copy costs $10 here in Tn. (love that nearly 10% sales tax......NOT), CAR's most recent in a long line of redesigns for the sake of redesigning has turned me off.
Sorry, C & D, but I'm not sure that FREE would get my attention at this point.
Snutz @ Feb 2nd 2007 12:14AM
I think a lot of people that voted "what redesign?" did that because they don't get the magazine so they didn't know it was redesigned, at least that's what I meant when I voted that way. I'm sure if I was still getting the magazine I would have noticed.
Peter @ Feb 2nd 2007 8:44AM
#6
Ah, the 'I have no clue what this is about but want to vote anyway' option? Very useful.
D-Dog @ Feb 2nd 2007 12:38PM
Fire the moron that approved the rework and revert back to the original design. The new format is unreadable for my 50 something eyes. I have been reading C&D for 40 plus years and the new design is just awful.
Snutz @ Feb 2nd 2007 1:17PM
#7
What can I say? I like to feel included in things :)
Conor @ Feb 2nd 2007 9:00PM
i like the redesing, (im also 13). i wrote an angry letter to car and driver about the whole amatuer quote thing about the mkr and the big bucks quote. i would like to work for a mag or blog like you some day, and would sending an angry letter to c&d hurt my future in that career? just need a little advice from the experts!
HTY @ Feb 4th 2007 4:47PM
C/D went downhill when they canned Brock Yates anyway. I'll stick to Autoweek.