Autocarindia vs Overdrive

[artofzen]

Here is the poll to go with it guys ;-)

[Rtech]

grrr...you're giving me extra work here zen!

Pasted from the otehr thread!
"Hey arto....make this into a poll, makes it a lot easier for ppl to see the results!

Anyways, Overdrive doesn't come close to the professionalism of Autocar India. Whenever i read an ovedrive article or test, I get the feeling the writers are keen so show off how fast they drive or what excellent drivers (yea riiite) they are. Especially Mr. Darukhanawalla himself....sheesh! Also, every second page has reference to overdrive being India's largest selling mag. No class at all and sounds very immature to me.

Also, the photography is miles ahead in Autocar. Look at the interior shots of cars on test and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Infact, I'm so dissapointed with overdrive, I have not renewed my long term subscription yet. "

[Maamukkoya]

Same opinion here. Half of the stuff OD guys write, is abt themselves. Who they are, how they are, why they are...big crap.

But have to admit that their road tests contain more data. For example, Q mile times. bhp and torque curves etc. Basically they seem to get more info from the factories. contacts, thats all i guess.

And yes every page contains at least two lines describing the greatness of Adil, sirish, yogendra etc, either by the person himself or somebody else lol

[Revvmaster]

Well well well, indiacar.com discussions seem to haunt us here as well....

IMO, OD is one of the lousiest and most boring magazines i've ever come across. The last real decent issue of OD i ever read was probably way back in 00-01. Their articles are a lesson in history. So damn long. It takes them more than two pages to just start off with the name of the car they are testing or even mention that they are talking about it in the first place. They begin off with some long history lesson (why oh why do we need to get tortured) and then after u wonder when is it gonna end does the actual test-drive of the car really begin.

Rtech rightly mentioned that they keep harping about themselves all the time in the articles. The only decent ones seem to come from one guy, the rest are a bunch of JESTERS. One guy thinks he knows not only about cars, but everything else as well. Adil can go on and on and on... its a perfect bed-time story. The whole magazine seems more like a journal or a project report rather than a magazine. Editing is horrible off-late with mistakes galore.

ACI is far better in this regard. Lots of stuff to read with each article being compact and to the point. Its easy to trace out what they are saying and locate everything rather easily. Their testing of vehicles seems much better and they dont seem like they've licked the arses(sorry!) of some PR agency handling the manufacturer's test-drive. They are ready to call a spade a spade. Honesty at its best.

But overall it BSM that wows my heart. Typical JC writing. Cool to the point of no return. They dont take car-testing as a point of influencing people to buy cars, they just give their opinions and leave the rest to u to decide. Very hands-off approach. They dont ever seem to ever catch u by the throat and force u into submission. Just pure informing and nothing else.

Keep Revvin ?
Revvmaster

[shravan316]

Autocar is much more professional than Overdrive.

[Rtech]

BS motoring...forgot about them. They are more like light reading, like Revv says. I don't buy their mag's for the road tests though, but I like the way they give their driving impressions of the exotic cars in India and driven on Indian roads.

I also like the fact that they have a special section dedicated to bikes. This is one area where Autocar falls behind. Their coverage of bikes seems more like an afterthought than a genuine test. I guess they live up to the "car" part of Autocar.

[artofzen]

but have u guys noticed something in autocar ....when they are testing more than three to four cars...the latest car gets our choice tag ;-)))) atleast for that issue..

[artofzen]

BS motoring has the best internet site of the lot ;-))))

[Dippy]

I agree artof Zen the latest in the our choice thing is the Elantra and Tavera

[carthick99]

I think autocar is far ahead of the rest of the mags in India. Overdrive falls short on quality of content and design where autocar excels. bs motoring has greatr writing style but they seem to lack on the hardcore testing part where autocar scores. Plus autocar has better overall features be it technology or covering the latest in the market. By my vote i think autocar is far ahead of the rest in India.

[GTO]

Autocarindia vs Overdrive? Is there even any competition?

It takes me a cumulative of 15 - 20 hours to read an Autocarindia from front cover to back...and ONLY 1 hour to finish up an entire overdrive. The editorial, columns and articles in Autocarindia are superb, both in quality and quantity. I am very particular about the quality of english used in my readings and its sheer pleasure to read the autocarindia. Overdrive is horrible...Its an ordeal for me to read through their test-reports - to the extent that I almost dont pick up some new Overdrives from the news-stand (Am an autocarindia subscriber by the way).

As Rtech mentioned, the photographs in Autocarindia are three generations ahead of Overdrive. And why only the photographs, even the layout (colours and all that) with the design is easing to the eyes of the reader.

Also, Its beyond me to understand why Overdrive uses "PS" instead of "BHP" which is the standard in 90% of the countries to express an engines power-output. The first instance of PS in India would be those misleading Hyundai ads. Nowhere in their reports does Overdrive use BHP, with all power figures quoted in PS. Ouch...whats next Overdrive? News sections in German?

Innovation is key and just look at what Autocarindia has offered to its loyal subscriber base. The SpeedRuns, Helpline sections, exclusive coverage of JD Quality surveys, ITV-F1 coverage, the recent dedicated technical sections explained in simple english, tyre tech...the list goes on and on. Its thus not surprising to see why Rishad Saam Mehta and Ashraf Sheikh dumped Overdrive to join Autocarindia. Overdrive is nothing but a one man (Adil) show.

Going with Revvmaster, BSMotoring is also my no.2. They must be a little low on budget, and hence dont use pro-grade timing equipment to test their cars and report on figures. But I love that bunch of guys. They are Jeep lovers, RD350 fanatics, rave about muscle cars...the list goes on. BSMotoring is full of true unbiased car guys.

GTO

[shravan316]

Hey GTO,
What abt torque units??
Is Nm standard or is Kgm standard?

[Rehaan]

Autocar it is!

-Rehaan.

[S350L-E240]

Autocar,
But had u given an option as ' all need improvement ' id have clicked on that,
I hate the way ACI guys review cars,
And they act like they're selling BRANDS, Found them cheap to include DC's letter which im sure is more like some butter for hime to give em more commission?
and yeah hate the buyer's guide at the back with their silly comments like the one next to s class reads

STILL THE ONE WE'D RUN TO 20,000 discount available..
they write that for all mercs...
and like what someone else said they just take the new car and rate it the best..
and somehow they never write anything bad for mercs,
and not to forget misleading info on mercs if u rememer my signature

Hate it when they say 20,000 discount available,
my foot man if any ACI editor reads this check ur knowledge !

and yeah for the S it says 6.1 km/pl in city? damnit is a lonely highway their city?
My car never gives more then 4 and i drive it very calmly!

Yeah u see most of my posts are Merc related...
Thats cause for me a CAR = Mercedes

This month's issue says Elantra interior is the best, Man i know someone who got one last week and it's the cheapest thing i sat it, Horrible plastic, eveyrthing is bad, and he's got the higher version which has SICK wood, man all the 3 other cars are better appointed when it comes to interiors,

Again getting to E270CDI, they say it's priced at a premium, Are they nuts? it' costs only a few 1000's above the 220CDI and that isnt a premium for such performance!

Again when they say interiors are feature rich with superb climate control and sound systems they'd rather mention now it' comes with pre installations for a phone and how many sound systems does the car have?

And they praise the SBC,
which atchually has been kicked on and off world wide, Even owners dont like it much,

sorry im being a JERK here but i think they are a bunch of useless people who dont have the guts to say anything wrong for mercs... or any other nice car...

yeah i guess they wont get their silly test drives if they do that
But then too i guess they are better then the rest so they get my vote here..

[Rtech]

don't be afraid to talk freely S350! lol!!

However, I agree with you on most of your points. I can't believe they called the Elantra's interiors as the best! They look like they were taken from an '80's Jap. taxi!

however, I guess the rest of us voted as to which was the best from the 3 mags, and whatever you may say, AI is the better mag here.