Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 I've been reading Hot Rod magazine for over fifty years.

I would guess that I've been a subscriber for at least 40 of those years. And no, I've never owned an actual Hot  Rod. 

I would admit that renewing my subscription in the last couple of decades has been somewhat sketchy due to inertia.

I go back a long way. I was there for the muscle car era, but I completely missed the late 1950's early 60's hot rod scene. I was born in '54, but the first car that I really noticed was when my Dad bought a new '59 Impala. Besides being too young at the time, the hot rod thing was kind of losing steam as the muscle cars took over. Classic hot rods weren't even a consideration for me as I became a car guy. 

Except for the die hards, most contemporary car guys embraced the newer models as they arrived. Lots of Mustangs Camaros, and other muscle cars. I can't say that I ever saw a pre War hot rod being used on the street while I was growing up. 

Hot Rod magazine is currently focusing a lot more attention on these old cars, featuring all kinds of survivors and current builds. 

I think that these type cars have really limited appeal for most enthusiasts.

For most guys, even muscle cars seem too basic and lacking in the expected comfort, safety, and convenience features.

These types of cars don't fit into Today's lifestyles, they can't, and aren't going to be used as a Daily Driver. They exist primarily as expensive artifacts. 

Almost any modern sedan or SUV has better performance than most of the classic muscle cars of the past. 

If you can swing the payments, a new Camaro, Mustang, or Charger can give you more performance than you'd ever need, right off the dealer's lot.  Besides all the creature comforts combined with pretty fair fuel economy. Why would you feel the need to modify it? Maybe some new wheels or body mods, but why touch the engine? 

My recent post, "Go around me, I'm retired!" also reveals where my head is currently at when it comes to cars. I like a capable car, one that has enough performance to satisfy me. But I also want something with comfort, practicality, the prospects of long term reliability, and even livable fuel economy numbers.

I also don't want to invest too much in building or maintaining a car. I might clarify that as not very much, money or effort, I know that this makes me an old man, and I completely own that. 

I might even say that I've earned that!

Being an old guy also means that certain types of cars aren't appropriate for me any more. Obviously, "Boy Racer" types don't match my demographic. A wildly modified custom, or crudely souped up muscle car, also doesn't fit.

I don't really want to project the image of a guy that has never grown up.

I frequent the AACA forum and many of the members are quite a bit older than me. They often have cars that were popular or aspired to, from the period of their youth. 

So where does all this leave me? 

My interests have changed, I don't want a pre War car, a 60's -'70's muscle car, or even a Fifties cruiser or customized car. I have also opted out of the Euro car thing after my disappointing run with Jaguars. 

I still want to be in the old car hobby, but in a manner that works for me. I don't need or want to wrestle with a real beater or project car.

I bought my '97 Riviera primarily because I want to participate in the Rivera Owner's Association activities. I find that it fulfills my desire for a special car, but it is a thoroughly modern vehicle. The eighth gen Riviera was kind of polarizing when it debuted, because it was a new car that could be used for club activities. Just like a new Mustang can belong to a club with classic models.

I got to thinking about all this because I received an e mail from Hot Rod magazine asking to renew my subscription. I'd done it in the past primarily because the cost of multi year subscriptions has been so minimal. This time I thought, no, it was time to cut the cord. The magazine just doesn't provide me with what I was looking for anymore, if  it ever did. 

In my opinion, the best Petersen mag was Car Craft of the '90's. I think that had the best balance of repair with some performance content of course. It also concentrated on cars from the '60's through early 1980's, which was the period where my interest was focused. 

Currently I receive a bi monthly club magazine from the AACA as well as the Riview from the ROA. These are both better focused on where my present interests are aligned.

I recently picked up this latest copy of Motor Trend while at Barnes and Nobles.

I made a trip to Barnes and Nobles to see if I could find anything of interest. The current copy of Motor Trend magazine featured Cars of the Future! as well as some production cars that will be here in a couple of years. Mostly electric or hybrid. Many of those future cars are super expensive, well over 100K! 

I don't think that EVs will be adopted in a widespread manner, until there are more low priced models on the market. 

I used to subscribe to Motor Trend magazine back in the years of my high school and Junior college experience. Besides old cars, I wanted to be informed about the new technologies and cars that were coming on the market.

Motor Trend is one of the "last men standing" of the old Petersen line up. They are offering a bargain one year subscription price of 15.00. That's only a bit more than a buck a copy, the newsstand price was 7.99 at Barnes and Noble!  That's a pretty attractive offer. and after looking through the latest issue I decided to sign up for a subscription. 

This is the same deal they are offering me on Hot Rod.

Things are rapidly changing in the automotive world. Cars have improved incredibly in my lifetime. The rate of change has accelerated immensely. They are also now incredibly expensive. They are also so incredibly complex, I find it hard to believe that over the very long term that these vehicles will remain reliable and most of all, repairable. Whether or not that will be true is something that will reveal itself to us over time. 

I suppose it only makes sense to keep up with what's new, so I can partake in contemporary discussions in an intelligent manner.

I've been pretty much out of touch with the automotive market place for the last couple of decades. I think that it's time to drop in and see what's up. 

At one time I had several magzine subscriptions active at the same time. I subscribed to Car and Driver, as well as several custom and hot rod titles such as Car Craft and Street Rodder. Not to mention motorcycle oriented magazines. In recent years, during my Jaguar phase, I received Octane as well as Jaguar World. These last two titles were pretty expensive, so once I disengaged from the Jaguar experience, it made sense to cut those off. 

While I enjoy reading physical magazines, I must admit that I'm quite active on a few websites. These have taken the place of traditional magazines. Forums also allow for direct communication with other members on the forum in a much more direct manner than the old "Letters To the Editor" ever did! 

I am aware that FaceBook groups have taken over a lot of the territory once occupied by the websites. I'm not ready to embrace that aspect of social communication.

I have previously written that magazines were important at one time to maintain and increase the car guy's enthusiasm for the hobby. All kinds of automotive enthusiast media is now available to stoke the interest and passion of the car owner. Blogs, forums, Facebook groups, YouTube is filled with free videos, some even worth watching. In some ways this is really the Golden Age of Automotive Media. I'll give Motor Trend a chance for a couple of years.