Car Adviser Magazine

Glasnevinlad

Picked this up in Easons today, a new Irish mag by all accounts. €3.50, not a bad price but it is only 64 pages long so wouldnt have paid any more for it. There are some very good articles in it, twin test between the new 320d and the A4 TDi sport. Some totally boring ones too, like the Toyota Yaris. It is good though overall, I recognise some of the writers from other mags and newspapers and it is reasonably well put together with loads of good quality Irish images, while not quite being a rival for What Car or Auto Express. I am happy to see an Irish mag back on the shelves though, is is sad that Irish Car and Car Buyers Guide (even though the former was crap) are gone now. Reading car reviews on the net is no substitute for a glossy mag and I remain addicted to most of the UK ones. I will probably buy this one again too.

ION08

I picked up a copy yesterday myself. It's a good read with some interesting and relevant articles

colm_mcm

If its like any other Irish car mag it'll just be full of praise for any manufacturer who advertises in it.

bspoke

Not while I'm editor of the magazine it won't! That is the first paragraph in the contract I signed for doing the mag - journalists should not be shills to manufacturers/distributors. That's what PR/Marketing departments are for.

If a car is crap I, and the team that work with me, will say so and likewise if it is the best thing on four wheels we will praise it from a height - but only because of the car's merits and never due to adverts that appear in CarAdviser

layviae

went to easons in the square to try to pick up the magasine on friday however they didnt have it. does anyone know where else stocks it or could i get it delivered?

bspoke

Try Easons again tomorrow layviae. Technically the mag was not meant to hit shelves till Monday but the distributor managed to get some copies out on Friday. If it's any consolation my local shops don't have it yet either :-)

Tae laidir

I bought it in James Hospital.
Well done to all. A great read.
I am not in the Motor Trade.
It was particularly interesting to read 'The Irish Car Industry in Collapse, what really caused it'.
It was written by Alan Devine, who I presume is in the Motor Trade.
It contains statements such as '2009 saw economic contraction, and increased unemployment, but it was gradual'...except the Motor Trade.
I think he knows few Architects/Builders/Tradesman/Builders Merchants!
It is amazing how it is always someone else's fault.
Alan puts the blame principally on John Gormley and changes to an emissions based tax system and also the banks.
He conveniently forgets:
1. If my memory is correct, SIMI welcomed the changes, as it reduced the tax on fuel efficient cars, and they intended to sell more of them and make even bigger profit margins.
2. The Motor Industry (dealers & distributors) made bad decisions, and expanded assuming the boom would continue forever.
3. Most of their comrades in Europe already had CO2-based tax system. It was on the cards for years!
4. Cars now last a long time, if you look after them. They assumed the NCT would send us all scurrying to their forecourts!
The article ends with a threat to Leo Varadkar & Phil Hogan to 'protect jobs in the industry'.
In Stuttgart? Ghent? Osaka? Sunderland? Seoul? Riyadh?
Alan, take a Bus Eireann to a nice hotel for the weekend, and relax with a few pints of Guinness for yourself.
And you would be protecting jobs in Irish industry.
I can't wait to read Car Adviser Issue 2.
PS. I hope they include a Price List. I know nowhere I can get this info from a single-source.

MuppetCheck

Tae laidir wrote: »

Alan, take a Bus Eireann to a nice hotel for the weekend, and relax with a few pints of Guinness for yourself.
And you would be protecting jobs in Irish industry.

So the guy that sold you your car, the people that service your car, the receptionist that answers your calls, the guy that cleans your car - the people that clean the dealers showroom even are not part of Irish Industry?

layviae

bspoke wrote: »

Try Easons again tomorrow layviae. Technically the mag was not meant to hit shelves till Monday but the distributor managed to get some copies out on Friday. If it's any consolation my local shops don't have it yet either :-)

thanks looked in my local news agents today and they had it just starting to read it now. i only had a quick flick though it and i couldnt see anything about ordering a subscription for it im wondering are you planning to do home delivers or can i only get it in the shops

bspoke

We will be doing subscription in time, didn't want to jinx ourselves first time out though. I'll get details included in next issue or if you are on Facebook have a look at the Car Adviser Page for further announcements.

paddy1976

Best of luck to the guys on this. It is a tough market to be in, but quality is always worth a read.

Setanta2010

Liking the new mag. Well written articles, not too many ads, purty pics - what's not to like? The comparative articles are a good idea - don't think I've seen that done before. Wish you all the best of success. Never hurts to have another car mag with well informed articles on mo mo's while riding the Dart. Well I can dream, can't I? :P

colm_mcm

Is the target market for this magazine boardsies with barely any posts

Setanta2010

colm_mcm wrote: »

Is the target market for this magazine boardsies with barely any posts

WTF has the number of posts I've made got to do with my opinion on a car magazine? How many posts would you like me to have before I post then? Couldn't find an icon for dickhead so 'eat me' will have to do. :pac:

colm_mcm

Not aimed at you specifically, just interested to see people who'd never post in motors very interested in this magazine.

Setanta2010

colm_mcm wrote: »

Not aimed at you specifically, just interested to see people who'd never post in motors very interested in this magazine.

So, if this had've been, say, a new computer mag that I'd picked up and commented on, you'd also question my motivation? Or an audio mag? Or a film and tv mag?

Must be great to have such singular focus that you devote your entire free time to the pursuit of one pasttime. The rest of us? We dip into assorted areas of interest - some more than others.

Tell ya what sport, I'll delete the account and refrain from commenting on any other posts.

Adios!

AltAccount

Jesus, what a baby :rolleyes:

layviae

colm_mcm wrote: »

Not aimed at you specifically, just interested to see people who'd never post in motors very interested in this magazine.

i probally spend as much time reading the motors forum as well as other boards forums as those that have thousands of post however i dont spend much time posting as i generally dont want to say much (and im dyslexic so kinda puts me off).

i posted on this tread because i wanted information and saw that someone on the tread would have that information a comment like your orrignal one was actually very off putting to people who use the forms but dont post often its unlikely to make us want to post again and was very disapointing to see that sort of attuituide from a mod, the comment to me came accross as that our opinions were worth less than those that most more often

i noticed that most of those with very few posts have been registered two years or over (actually ive been registed since 2005 but lost my account in the great hack as i was locked out of the email that i originaly registered with)

on topic i loved the magasine especailly the article on nissan notes (love nissans)

colm_mcm

Again, it wasn't specifically aimed at anyone, just observing that most posters in the thread have very low post counts (nothing wrong with that)

Not meant as an attack on anyone and certainly not intended to cause offence.

ION08

colm_mcm wrote: »

Again, it wasn't specifically aimed at anyone, just observing that most posters in the thread have very low post counts (nothing wrong with that)

Not meant as an attack on anyone and certainly not intended to cause offence.

They're probably being held captive by car adviser executives and being forced to praise the magazine at gun point *gun cock sound* ... might explain the low post counts?
:-D

Jimbob 83

I smell fish !

bspoke

colm_mcm wrote: »

Not aimed at you specifically, just interested to see people who'd never post in motors very interested in this magazine.

Might it be that posters have not had a magazine to get behind in awhile??

Have you read Car Adviser yet Colm? If not PM me your address and I'll send you a copy, hopefully it can combat the dismissive attitude you appear to have with the magazine.

I had not planned to get drawn into the whole 'publicise via Boards' thing (not my style) yet was delighted to see it being discussed. However when a moderator of the motors section, and therefore someone with a bit of sway around here, is shooting it down I feel I have to respond.

As Layviae pointed out (and I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this); your initial comment may have put others off.

colm_mcm

If its available nationwide (munster) ill give it a shot and buy it , not looking for a freebie

Is it available in Clare/limerick?

bspoke

As I type its available in 2,500 stores nationwide (unlikely to change on a Sunday evening either :-) Dunnes, Centra or Supervalu would your best bet but I can have a look through distribution list and narrow it down to specific stores - after I'm done bathing the kids :-)

colm_mcm

Will check it out tomorrow

bspoke

Nice one. I look forward to your views on it.

colm_mcm

I'll try to be objective

alcof89

introducing a new car magazine in this climate? Risky!

colm_mcm

I've tried 4 different places and can't find

bspoke

Hmmm...if you want to narrow it down to village/town etc (PM me if you want) I'll check through distribution list and let you know where has it.

McGrath5

Just had a quick read, very interesting stuff.

I will be buying this again.

Silvera

It was a nice surprise to find a new Irish car magazine on the shelf of my local Easons last week! It's a well put-together magazine, incl photos of Irish-reg cars (as opposed to the usual UK/German/No reg number cars in other Irish magazines).

I would like to see more used car articles, and a used car price list if possible (perhaps a used price list could be organised in conjunction with one of the car sales websites and/or the trade 'Car Price Guide' publishers?)

dgt

I'll have a look for it tomorrow when I'm in the city. I generally only read Car Mechanics, Auto Italia and TBMW.

I hope, I really hope that there are no biases towards or against car manufacturers

Bpmull

Anyone get this magazine in Kilkenny as everywhere I look doesnt have it looked in most places in Kilkenny city. Is there a perticular day it comes out as maybe they are all just sold out. Thanks.

Autosport

Bpmull wrote: »

Anyone get this magazine in Kilkenny as everywhere I look doesnt have it looked in most places in Kilkenny city. Is there a perticular day it comes out as maybe they are all just sold out. Thanks.

Did you try Easons???? I got it there

Bpmull

Autosport wrote: »

Did you try Easons???? I got it there

I'll try there today thanks.

Glasnevinlad

Has this magazine disappeared? I have not seen one in Easons since!

bspoke

Good to know Easons have sold out :-)

The magazine is quarterly at the moment with plans to move it up to bi-monthly in time so hopefully you wont have too long to wait in between issues.

As it happens issue 2 has just returned from the printers and should begin to appear on shelves around the country from tomorrow.

Here is what to look out for, for those that are interested



*Hope thats ok mods - if not just let me know and I'll delete*

goochy

That's good to hear would love to buy an irish mag didn't buy 1st issue found there were a lot of pics and not enough writing ! Text was large and not enough content in test drives . Just some points but best of luck!

Hornswoggle

I picked up issue 2 today in Topaz in Tallaght, have to say it is a good mag, and its better than issue 1. Don't agree with them that the VW Golf is a 5 star car though, overpriced and dull if you ask me...

bspoke

Wait until you drive it Hornswoggle. I was never a huge fan of previous generations but was really impressed with how it drove at launch. Styling is a bit predictable mind...

Guy:Incognito

Being that its a quarterly mag, would it not have been better to push the date back a week to include the budget details on changes to motoring costs?

By February the budget is a distant memory.

bspoke

Budgetary changes are included, we had an inside line (compromising pictures of Noonan)

Most of the distributors have announced price freezes or had taken VRT changes into account when announcing prices so hopefully the prices quoted will not change too much.

goochy

I understand you want to be a consumer magazine but it would be good if you had some features from the original car driver mag. Like stars and their cars

NobodyImportant

Wish you all the best of luck, but thats a tough market. Really tough.

I'm an Irish car enthusiast, but I dont tend to buy many magazines. When I do, its the odd classic car mag, top gear etc.

A Mag on the Irish Car market isnt going to have the most exciting things to cover. Our motor industry runs on econo diesels now. Trying to get people interested enough to spend money on a magazine which talks about econo diesels is a hard task.

Golf 5 star? VW fanboy? Cant think of much more of a dull box on wheels with an overrated repuation for reliability.

Ron Burgundy II

NobodyImportant wrote: »

Wish you all the best of luck, but thats a tough market. Really tough.

I'm an Irish car enthusiast, but I dont tend to buy many magazines. When I do, its the odd classic car mag, top gear etc.

A Mag on the Irish Car market isnt going to have the most exciting things to cover. Our motor industry runs on econo diesels now. Trying to get people interested enough to spend money on a magazine which talks about econo diesels is a hard task.

Golf 5 star? VW fanboy? Cant think of much more of a dull box on wheels with an overrated repuation for reliability.

Here we go VW bashing is about to start.

bspoke Best of luck with the magazine must get myself a copy.

bspoke

Ratings in Car Adviser are taken in context with the competition so against say a Focus, Astra, cee'd etc the Golf 7 is IMHO a 5 star car but taking into account that all car reviews are is opinion then that is all it is.

Don't take my word for it though - use Car Adviser as a source of research and then form your own opinion by driving the car yourself.

HellFireClub

alcof89 wrote: »

introducing a new car magazine in this climate? Risky!

More like stupid.

HellFireClub

bspoke wrote: »

Ratings in Car Adviser are taken in context with the competition so against say a Focus, Astra, cee'd etc the Golf 7 is IMHO a 5 star car but taking into account that all car reviews are is opinion then that is all it is.

Don't take my word for it though - use Car Adviser as a source of research and then form your own opinion by driving the car yourself.

Or maybe go on the internet and read proper reviews by professional car reviewers for free and save yourself 3.50 Euro!

http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/

MuppetCheck

HellFireClub wrote: »

Or maybe go on the internet and read proper reviews by professional car reviewers for free and save yourself 3.50 Euro!

http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/

And you link a magazine that is overwhelmingly influenced by their advertisers:D

coolbeans

MuppetCheck wrote: »

And you link a magazine that is overwhelmingly influenced by their advertisers:D

I've gotta agree with you there. What Car is the worst magazine out there if you're looking for objectivity. Shameless shilling.