Automobile Magazine

Ah yes ? the automobile magazine. It is a staple in the diet of any teenage boy and the man who never outgrew his teenage years (and to be fair, auto mechanics and the like purchase these magazines). These magazines typically show flashy sports cars and concept cars that most human beings couldn?t ever hope to afford.

What?s the purpose of these magazines? It is a forum for automobile manufacturers and parts manufacturers to grab an audience. In the midst of these advertisements, the reader is given a few Letters to the Editor, a few insightful articles about the happenings and future of the automobile industry, and some exposes on those exotic automobiles.

I?m here to tell you that Automobile Magazine doesn?t disappoint my expectations.

I neither subscribe to this magazine nor would I ever consider a subscription to this magazine. I have a neighbor who is a car buff, and he let me flip through the last twelve month?s worth of issues for Automobile Magazine. I think after spending the last two weeks dissecting the magazine I am qualified to give my biased opinion (why bother being unbiased?) of my findings.

The first section of the magazine is entitled the News section and is edited by Eddie Alterman. This section seems to highlight automobiles of all caliber ? sports cars, min-vans, luxury cars, and your basic passenger cars. It tells you what cars are almost ready for release at your local dealership and what new tidbits of information of interest.

The ?News? section houses a ?Depreciation Corner? that looks at one vehicle, telling you what they retailed for new, what their current value is, what the strong points are and what the weaknesses are. I suppose that area would be of interest to anyone purchasing a vehicle, although I?m sure you can find the same information at Epinions.com or Consumer Reports.

The ?News? section also is home to a monthly article called ?Five Minutes With?? This section interviews some mover and shaker in the automobile industry.

The next section is entitled RPM. RPM specifically covers various automobiles, tells you what market the car is available in, how much it retails for, and some information about the engine power, etc.

These two sections seem to be in every monthly issue of the magazine. Beyond them the magazine seems to change monthly. Sometimes they discuss a long-term road test of various vehicles and detail how they?re holding up over the course of the year (Logbook). Other issues have various other sections that show up every so often. All the issues have a ?Letters to the Editor? section.

One other section that seems to pop up every issue is Vintage Stuff. This section is about ? you got it ? cars of yesteryear. I have to admit this is the one section that I will spend time on, because I think the car designers of ?The Good Old Days? created some beautiful motorized sculptures. However, I feel it is important to point out that they do consider cars as recently manufactured as the 1980s for this section.

Like just about every other automobile magazine Automobile Magazine isn?t my cup of tea. Sure, the fancy sports cars are neat to look at, but I really don?t care a lick about them beyond the pretty picture. I?m never going to own an Italdesign Cala or a Mercedes-McLaren F5 so I just don?t care how smoothly they run or what their top speed is (and Good Lord, man! At the cost of these cars, do we really care about gas mileage?).

For that reason, I simply cannot recommend the magazine. However, if cars are your thing, then you may want to give it a look.