I've been a Motor Trend subscriber for some time now, and I noticed a trend among the cover cars over the last few months:

March 2007: Giugiaro's Ford Mustang (Mustang Concept of sorts)
April 2007: Shelby's Ford Mustang GT
June 2007: Shelby's Ford Mustang GT500KR

What is going on here? I'm all for pushing the domestic manufacturer agenda here in the states, but this is a little bit over the top, isn't it? Not only is the same make on the front cover three months out of the last four, but the same stinking model is on all of them? All of this while there have been many notable developments elsewhere in the automotive industry ... Motor Trend actually did first test drives of the Lexus LS600hL, the Evo X and the 3-Series Convertible (among many others) and even did a "best-handling car in America" segment that wasn't important enough to make the cover. What do you guys think of this?

 

Its pretty common for the cover of a magazine to be for sale.

 

No it's not actually. It has more to do with the fact that there's a huge amount of people out there that are into domestic muscle. They put whatever car is going to make the magazine sell on the cover...even if it means having the same car. Believe it or not, but a huge percentage of this country could care less about european and japanese import cars.

 

well at this point there are enough 'verisons' of the new mustang for motor trend to have one version for every month of the year.

 

We are getting some interesting arguments here. I would say that in recent years I have noticed more of a push for American Cars in the American magazines. This is not surprising to me because:

1) Magazines are advertising vehicles and alot of their advertising comes from, guess who?

2) This is primarily an American magazine and there is incentive to feature American cars especially since they have been seen as needing to play catch-up to imports in terms of quality

3) This is American magazine! European magazines would likewise tend to favor European cars, Japanese magazines favor Japanese cars, etc.

 

Yea, sucks they put tons of tuned Mustangs and they don't feature enough J-tuned cars. But then I guess they don't want to change their name to Import Tuner.

 

Whatever you think about mustangs, rice rockets etc the cover is for sale....don't kid yourself.

 

My point wasn't really in the Domestic vs. Import markets, but that there were versions of the exact same car on the covers of three out of four issues. If it were a 3 -series coupe, a M3, and then a 3-series convertible, I would be making the same argument....
If I wanted to read magazines about Ford Mustangs every month, then I would have subscribed to some specialized Mustang magazine. As it stands, I want to see pictures of and read articles about all cars, not just this particular one...

 

well, you don't have to look very hard to find someone who really likes the new Mustang. If you are selling magazines, you could do worse. I'm certainly more likely to buy a rag with a car I like on the cover. I'm pretty sure there are more people who find a hot-rodded Mustang desirable than find a car like the EVO easy on the eyes

I agree it gets a bit redundant, but you might consider it on a longer timeline - how many Mustangs graced the cover of Motor Trend in the last ten years? We might also mention that Motor Trend has always been a rather bland mag. Even the name doesn't really sound all that interesting. They need a car like the Mustang to grace their cover, because without the pictures, I'm not sure why anyone would give it a second look.

 

LOL! MT readers send letters to the editor all the time complaining of the exact opposite: that MT blatantly favors imports.

I own a S2000 and a 300C SRT-8 (American muscle): IMO MT content is pretty even between domestic and imports.

MT's problem is not bias but stiffness, their writing becoming duller every day. I much prefer C&D now: their articles are funny, entertaining, and MUCH easier to read.