[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

About Dilip Bam, initially I appreciated him, although I was quite young during AutoIndia days. I remember him giving positive point to Splendor and negative point to caliber for engine installation. This was something I did not like, but his articles in AutoIndia were worth reading. One of the test I remember he did was to check the bottom end of both KD125 and RX135.

Hormazd Sorabjee is not the same person who was with AutoIndia. I really liked his reports, but not now.

Dilip Bam - you can find still posting replies to readers as "Bike Guru" in Cybersteering - The complete guide to Indian Cars. OK, the language like "dying QWIKLEE like BRUCELEE" may not tickle the taste buds of everyone, he does manage to address the issues of the readers. Like all good men & wine, he must have also matured, but seems to be tilting towards TVS

Hormazd Sorabjee - +1 to that; think tying up with a international magazine and building up a huge circulation (no mean task) must have some influence on the bearer!!

By the way, don't you miss articles like K2K and K2K2? Pity to see talent going waste .....

[_raVan_]

Havent anyone in here tried AutoBild? Or has it already been discussed?

[v10]

Autocar anyday. Much better quality, reliable news, reviews and articles.
Topgear too.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by vrprabhu

1) Dilip Bam - you can find still posting replies to readers as "Bike Guru" in Cybersteering - The complete guide to Indian Cars.

2) Hormazd Sorabjee - +1 to that; think tying up with a international magazine and building up a huge circulation (no mean task) must have some influence on the bearer!!

3) By the way, don't you miss articles like K2K and K2K2? Pity to see talent going waste .....

4)

Originally Posted by _raVan_

Havent anyone in here tried AutoBild? Or has it already been discussed?

1) Thanks, will be referring to that. Compared to the latest ACI tests that are more like one liners where the core stuff is there, this may be better reading.

2) Linea was awarded COTY before it came out. I realized that quality is dropping below acceptable levels. This has more than required influence on the quality and decisions by COTY. IIRC, Hormazadji was the one to initiate the process of Indian COTY. In the latest ICOTY, ACI did not participate. Correct me if I am wrong. I dont know what is happening at ACI.

3) Well, I do miss a lot of articles from their side. Mainly technical articles. Earlier technical explanations were provided, but they are now reduced by mere one liners. I hope the original ACI is back. With the technology advancing, IMHO, they have more stuff on technology to write about rather than giving ads that act as not required default bookmarks.

4) Its not the best. Initially I bought the issues, but later on found out that ACI is much better. AutoBild Editor is Yougendra Pratap that was with OD since second issue of OD. As soon as ADJ left, YP took over and quality was good. I had better expectations from YP. But Autobild is not good at all IMHO.

[karpusv]

From a certain viewpoint ACI sounds more like a HONDA in-house magazine. They never seem to speak abt the flipsides of HONDA.

Even if mentioned, they usually wrap it the summary with a nice ending

[akj53]

Success seems to have gone to Autocar's head. Their tone has become arrogant and self laudatory. While overall Quality is better than others, but my take is that ACI is ...........
'Andho Me Kaana Raja'

[parimal_g]

I have stopped reading both the magazines,am still getting reminders for the renewals for overdrive but its not worth.
1>So many printing mistakes
2> Surprising road test figures for e.g if they have tested a swift in july 06 with 0 to 100 figs of 13.87 even after three years in a comparao with Punto/i20 that figure will not change am really surprised by the consistency of test drivers how accurate one can get
3> Same for the breaking distance figures.
4> All the international news mostly from internet source and same about the photographs.
5>Biased towards particular company.
6> No audio review section like tests and all.
7> For autocar very bad Bike coverage,if you see the current magazine there is a comparo between p220 and new Frazer then why not to include Apache 180 ..?I tell you these magazines have problem towards TVS bikes.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by parimal_g

Surprising road test figures for e.g if they have tested a swift in july 06 with 0 to 100 figs of 13.87 even after three years in a comparao with Punto/i20 that figure will not change am really surprised by the consistency of test drivers how accurate one can get

To their credit, why would they test the same car again? If the manufacturer has not changed any technical aspect, and their previous run was in ideal conditions (weather, road surface etc.), why would you want them to run the car through a 0 - 100 a second time? I don't see anything wrong in quoting their older timing.

[shatrughna]

After a long time saw this thread on the page 1 of the forum. Out of curiosity opened the link. Had voted earlier also here and surprisingly, I could vote again- and my choice was Autocar.

After 8 months I had picked up both the mags - AC & OD - Anniversary issues. Both voluminous and made an interesting read. However, may be I am getting biased over the years of reading these mags- gradually more towards AC. Same was the case with the anniversary issues. OD I read over the same night I bought and AC I am still savouring the articles - one by one. Contentwise - surprisingly, both had very little in common unlike some issues which I had bought together earlier (sometimes it used to appear that they have the same reporter, editors and advertisers as well).
However, must admit that in Overdrive at least the new car guides' data has been improved a lot- and more readable and some of their long term cars (garage) reports are very nice.

[jaaz]

Which ever Mag is on top, the September'09 issue of Overdrive is good with their Ladakh ride in the Small Cars.

More information would be welcome in respect of Small Cars which sell in more volumes and also 2 wheelers.

I read both of them - ACI and OD. Many of the previous editors of OD have launched other new mags. But Hormard has sticked to ACI.

[lifeonwheels]

I work for an international automotive research and publication company (definitely not such magazines),. Knowing some of the guys who write for magazines brought upon some shocking facts. Sometimes these guys don't at all have a particular car with them and still they do the smaller sections for them.

In the Car India issue of July or August there is a Skoda Fabia (p) vs Jazz and then a Fabia (d long-term test. Both tests have the same car . Check for yourselves.

I don't need to buy any magazines since my company has a subscription for all of them but still I were to spend my money I would only spend it on Auto Bild (priority) and ACI. For OD I wouldn't even spend half of what they charge. A chilled beverage with some time on this forum would be more rewarding. Ever since Sirish and Bert have taken over the main duties they have screwedup the magazine. They seem to be more focused on travelling to international destinations and laying their hands on exotic cars. It really makes no sense.

Why would I want to read about Sirish driving a Bugatti Veyron? Tiff, JC or any other credible surce such as MT would be the place I would head to for reviews of such cars.

Overall it's all sponsoring game. These guys will write in an inconclusive manner mostly leaving doors open for sponsors to flow in their money.

[oops]

Autocar is far ahead from Overdrive in terms of COntent:

Overdrive July issue contents:
Jazz,Polo,Punto,Pulsar220,A6 3.0,Land Cruiser,Ritz,Comparison between Laura/Civic/Corolla/Jetta/Sonata,Honda CB1000R.

Most of these were covered by Autocar in June issue itself.

[nav75]

Originally Posted by jaaz

Which ever Mag is on top, the September'09 issue of Overdrive is good with their Ladakh ride in the Small Cars.

Climbing up and returning back from Baralacha la is not going to Ladakh.

[vivekanand005]

Originally Posted by karpusv

From a certain viewpoint ACI sounds more like a HONDA in-house magazine. They never seem to speak abt the flipsides of HONDA.

Even if mentioned, they usually wrap it the summary with a nice ending

I agree with you. even i have the feeling that they sound like unofficial PRO of Honda,
otherwise i will go with ACI.

[hanmust]

Here is an interesting episode from Autocar show in UTV. It was also published in their 10th anniversary issue & it was the most interesting articel in it from me.

YouTube - History of Mercedes S-class