[pganapathy]

Originally Posted by Honda Monk

Fellas I got his advertisement from India Today
3years subscription of AUTOBILD for 2900 and get a JVC KD R-325 Car Stereo(worth 6K) free.
This is an introductory offer of AUTOBILD India to market.

The HU ain't having USB slot. A very basic one
How is the offer!?! is the HU price correct as per market?

Worth going?

Do you want or need the HU. If not, the gift is pointless and you should then want to spend that amount on the magazine. There is no point in saying good VFM so I got something I didn't want.

MODS: can we please have an option that says not going to subscribe to any magazine. Thank you

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by Honda Monk

Fellas I got his advertisement from India Today
3years subscription of AUTOBILD for 2900 and get a JVC KD R-325 Car Stereo(worth 6K) free.
This is an introductory offer of AUTOBILD India to market.

The HU ain't having USB slot. A very basic one
How is the offer!?! is the HU price correct as per market?

Worth going?

The gift is worthless and are you going to read that magazine fully to justify the subscription else it will just occupy space in your cupboards.

I used to read OVERDRIVE from June 1999 till 2011 as I joined Team-BHP and found it better to surf and read as the quality was better without any bias (towards Maruti and Hyundai). Honest revies were least found. I had all the copies from the first month of my reading till the last.All off the magazines were taken by Overdrive (Don't know for what)

The HU does not seem useful as it lacks the most basic ammenity (USB Slot) so no point in having it. when such gifts are given away it is always the base variant.

[Honda Monk]

Well thanks for the comments mates.
I actually put the question in a wrong way or incomplete.
First of all I am looking to subscribe an auto magazine (autocars it has to be) but only yesterday got this offer mail for this new auto magazine.
I primarily wanted to know the quality and content of the magazine if people know here. Moreover it is given with this HU as freebee, since I need an HU so asked this query. I wanted to know whether one can go for this auto publishing as compared to others and secondly about the HU on offer.
I think I have got the replies. Nobody has vouched for the magazine!

[tharian]

Bumping up this thread to post a query on the magazine collection that I have.
I was clearing out my collection due to space constraint, have to get rid of them although I never wanted to.
The initial idea was to sell them off to a recycle guy which then I thought is foolishness as I was going through the mags when clearing them out.

The collection includes Auto India from mid 93 till they stopped publication .Few editions of Car & Bike till Overdrive started.
Overdrive second publication on till Dec 2012. As far as I remember, no missing editions.
I am checking with people if I can give them to a library since I really do not want to waste these away for scrap.
Any kind of inputs are welcome.

[pganapathy]

Originally Posted by tharian

Bumping up this thread to post a query on the magazine collection that I have.
I was clearing out my collection due to space constraint, have to get rid of them although I never wanted to.
The initial idea was to sell them off to a recycle guy which then I thought is foolishness as I was going through the mags when clearing them out.

The collection includes Auto India from mid 93 till they stopped publication .Few editions of Car & Bike till Overdrive started.
Overdrive second publication on till Dec 2012. As far as I remember, no missing editions.
I am checking with people if I can give them to a library since I really do not want to waste these away for scrap.
Any kind of inputs are welcome.

I would suggest you give it away to a charity that either looks after kids or elders. The kids will learn and possibly we can inspire some of them into the auto industry and for the elders it will help with some reading to pass their time. Off the top of my head, can't think of any, but am sure there are a few around in Bangalore or even the rural areas around.

If money is not an issue, don't sell it, even if it is to a book store. Let somebody benefit from it.

Just my two cents

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by tharian

Bumping up this thread to post a query on the magazine collection that I have. I was clearing out my collection due to space constraint, have to get rid of them although I never wanted to. I am checking with people if I can give them to a library since I really do not want to waste these away for scrap. Any kind of inputs are welcome.

I also was in the same state of condition a few months back.

So all I did was shot an email to OVERDRIVE and just told that I have all these magazines with me and all editions with their posters and suppliments still preserved.

Got a reply within 3 hours from Mr. Sirish Chandran saying if they could take them all. So I did so and sent the whole lot to them myself when I visit Mumbai.

Cheers,
Anurag.

[Maky]

Just wanted to drop by and add that I went ahead and subscribed to Autocar based on your Poll results here a couple weeks ago: ).
I received my first copy yesterday, fairly satisfied but I find it to be very similar to a Top Gear issue I bought a while back. I'll update over the next few months. Maybe I should subscribe to Top Gear as well to get a better idea.

[Pedaltothefloor]

Originally Posted by Maky

Just wanted to drop by and add that I went ahead and subscribed to Autocar based on your Poll results here a couple weeks ago: ).
I received my first copy yesterday, fairly satisfied but I find it to be very similar to a Top Gear issue I bought a while back. I'll update over the next few months. Maybe I should subscribe to Top Gear as well to get a better idea.

There is nothing like Top Gear mate. You don't have the unholy trinity in any other mag.

[sridhar24]

Originally Posted by Pedaltothefloor

There is nothing like Top Gear mate. You don't have the unholy trinity in any other mag.

If i have not mistaken you are referring to the BBC car show when you say trinity. They are undoubtedly best presenters. But discussion here is about the Magazines and Indian editions in particular.

In the Indian auto magazines i still believe Autocar India is still the best out there, followed by Overdrive, BS Motoring. I have been a regular reader of both Autocar and Overdrive and sometimes BS Motoring.

[Pedaltothefloor]

Originally Posted by sridhar24

If i have not mistaken you are referring to the BBC car show when you say trinity. They are undoubtedly best presenters. But discussion here is about the Magazines and Indian editions in particular.

In the Indian auto magazines i still believe Autocar India is still the best out there, followed by Overdrive, BS Motoring. I have been a regular reader of both Autocar and Overdrive and sometimes BS Motoring.

I am referring to Indian edition of top gear and three of them write one article each in very issue which more than beats the day lights out of all other motoring mags in India.

[Baddychat]

Originally Posted by Pedaltothefloor

I am referring to Indian edition of top gear and three of them write one article each in very issue which more than beats the day lights out of all other motoring mags in India.

Precisely nothing beats the content of Top Gear. There is more to car magazines than reviewing the next car that is about to hit the roads. Some of their articles from Clarkson, Hammond and May which deal with road safety, driving styles, car design, topics which are hardly get a mention elsewhere.
Also the thing which people normally complain about in terms of local content. TG India does a lot of local tests these days. They ain't too far behind ACI anymore me thinks.

[9thsphinx]

I agree with so many of the comments above. I will and already have subscribed to Top Gear from 2011 and have been an avid reader. I like my magazines, unlike novels, to be a blend of everything - a bit of humor, sarcasm, truth, facts, stories, ideas, opinions, technology and data analysis.

Top Gear India ticks all the boxes and although I almost always skip the motorbikes section, IMO that's one 100 Rs per month very well spent.

[FrozeninTime]

I have been avid reader of Autocar India for the past 13 years and in these years I have seen the quality of this magazine slump but the cost of buying it has increased exponentially.The magazine has shifted focus from objective assessment of vehicle, more consumer oriented content to more lifestyle like content aping magazines like Top Gear.The magazine is more interested in testing SUV and luxury cars than let say Santro.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Pedaltothefloor

I am referring to Indian edition of top gear and three of them write one article each in very issue which more than beats the day lights out of all other motoring mags in India.

I like your comment. I think the same.

However, I think that some of our own content writers like Vardhan, Girish, Sriram, Abhishek etc do a good job. Clearly though, their writing styles, to my eyes, appear to be significantly inspired by the genre of the Big Three from TG UK.

[Prabal]

Well, who likes which Indian auto magazine more, or less is subjective - a matter of personal preference, so I shan't get in to that. I for one think that most Indian auto mags have sold out to the devil! And that goes for the Indian auto TV shows, and various other media as well. Most of our auto journos/auto show presenters etc. will seldom be brutally frank about a product, especially it's shortcoming(s), and even more so when the manufacturer holds some promise of upping the ante (read that as spread of lucre - in currency or kind, directly or indirectly). This is most stark when they pit one vehicle against another, or do a 'segment' shoot-out. Even with hand-picked representatives of the 'segment,' with those out of favour shamelessly omitted time-and-again in the mix, they exhibit partiality. I'm not suggesting that all of them are corrupt, or on the take. Some of them are simply too incompetent to know better!

And not for a moment am I also suggesting that none of the vehicles deserve praise - there are many, very good products available in the market indeed, and I absolutely love them! But then, some of the better, honest products don't sell well unfortunately. Why? And what doesn't sell well new, doesn't resell well. And, what doesn't resell well, doesn't sell well new...there's a viscious cycle in there. Not every product is undeserving of it's fate, but neither is everyone deserving either. A vehicle's history is determined not just by the performance of the product alone, but by a sum-total of various attributes of the overall ownership experience. While the manufacturer is responsible for a lot of its reputation, much of its image is also built on unscientific reasons, including hearsay! In fact, I find a lot of automotive brand equity built on certain inexplicable attributes, including often with total disregard to engineering excellence and build quality. So, how do these auto-journo-cum-experts have any bearing on the market at all with their reviews? Especially when few among the car-buying public, that they're ostensibly delivering their verdict for, seldom base their decision on their reviews anyway. Or do they? Or are they just read for entertainment, and maybe a little heads-up? Anyway, that's a whole new Pandora's box, and although you might feel that I'm going off topic, I could've arrived at a convergence to track, by meandering off it on what is actually a parallel one a bit longer, but I'll keep that for another day! I'm digressing from the current delectable exercise of auto-journo bashing, so lemme come back and just stick to that, singular track only for now! Let me also add that there are also some Indian auto journos that I really respect - but I can count them within one finger. And let me also add that to me, people like Tiff Needell, Tony Mason, Quentin Wilson, Ed China, etc. mean a lot more cred than Jeremy Clarkson and his present bunch of pansies! Just so you know whether to read on any further, or dismiss me now at least as an unfashionable imbecile!

The woeful inadequacies of most of our so-called auto-journos are embarassingly evident when they go on foreign junkets, and have to match their professional knowledge/prowess with many dyed-in-the-wool experts from foreign media. Some of our hacks might be able to enthuse you with their communication prowess (be it writing, speaking whatever). They will also talk numbers and properties with elan - like bhp, torque, short/tall gearing, ride and handling, design cues like the grille, waistline, slalom, elk-test etc. just so long as you don't ask them to explain what these terms mean by themselves. In commitment to their jobs, they will also plagiarise or rehash an old article written once by somebody else but now under their own byline. You will also see them driving around town braving the wind in their hair in a Rs. 1 crore convertible, occasionally also badly damaging a car (totalling isn't unknown either!) in their call of duty, only so that they can tell you about the sound quality of the music system at flat chat (a term that one chap would think, even today I'm sure, is an allusion to communicating on social media!). But hand them a spanner to work on a vehicle and you'll probably have a medical emergency on your hands! Heck, some of them even drive so badly, that even in the throes of a heart-attack you'll probably insist on driving yourself to the hospital, instead of risking an increase in the intensity of the cardiac infarction! One fella I know also used to refuse to leave the comforts of the rear seat lest his inability at the wheel became known - he would have gladly accepted that above-mentioned spanner, but only to bolt himself to the back-bench if he could! I've known most of these chaps from very close quarters, and amongst various heart-wrenching experiences in their august presence, have also had the extreme misfortune of observing one well-known chap frantically look for a misfiring spark plug in an Opel Astra 1.7TDI, roughly 12-13 years ago!! Pretty much around those times is when I started distancing myself from the creed! Throttling a self-proclaimed auto expert-cum-journo someday is not a occupational hazard I was willing to risk settling with!