Team-BHP > The Indian Car Scene


View Poll Results: Which magazine will you subscribe to this year?
Autocar India 431 65.60%
BS Motoring 79 12.02%
BIKE India 16 2.44%
CAR India 29 4.41%
Top Gear 156 23.74%
Overdrive 140 21.31%
Indian Auto 11 1.67%
Any other (Please name) 40 6.09%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 657. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 18th July 2006, 18:36   #91
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Prefer ACI & BSM. OD was quite good, esp with their on-line content matching the mag. But of late, their on-line version doesnt even list contents completely
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Old 18th July 2006, 19:26   #92
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First and foremost, whatever i m going 2 quote is not against anybody in particular.....
i agree that autocar india, top gear and car india (to an extent) are good magazines. But as an OD reader I want to defend it....
I have been reading BSM, ACI, Car India, Top Gear:
Perhaps the only magazine which is constantly trying to innovate. It is the only magazine (which I feel) having very organized test reports where there are seperate categories and star ratings (which are sensible in most cases). It is an allrounder which tries to address all car related issues and perhaps the only magazine campaigning for road safety in all forms. Apart from ACI, it is the only magazine promoting motorsport and trying to create awareness for it. They regularly carry feedback forms and are constantly making efforts to improve.Also its Automobilia section which is a boon for other readers and its surveys are equally good. Finally, it is the only quality truly INDIAN magazine while others are just of the "cut-copy-paste" variety.
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Old 18th July 2006, 19:55   #93
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OD has been improving after the change in top management. I like their new section on motorsports and especially their focus on (much neglected) Indian Motorsport. Mr.Sirish is doing a good job and he is physically present at all the events.
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Old 19th July 2006, 10:54   #94
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Yup, OD has certainly improved both in terms of content and otherwise (they started giving out good posters again. My son loves them.) after Adil left.

When Cars India came out, I bought first few issues and I found the content on Indian Car Scene pretty mediocre and stopped buying it. At least Top Gear does not pretend to cover Indian Car scene in great detail and they don't pretend about their dislike of low end cars either, which works great for me. I love AutoCar and OD for their coverage of Indian Car Scene.

Just my views and as the cliche goes, the beauty is in the eye of beerholder ... errrrr... beholder
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Old 22nd July 2006, 15:35   #95
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finally some support in favour of OD.....
Some are saying that OD is partial to a few products, i dont understand how....
They say OD favous Honda City/Accord, Toyota Innova, Bajaj Pulsar,HH Karizma, Honda Dio, TVS Apache, Hyundai Santro Xing, Skoda Octavia, Tata Indica (to an extent) and so on....
My question is are these products really bad for OD to favour them. Almost all of them are segment leaders today.....
The fact is that OD comments from a combined perspective of a layman, a car expert and a car freak and a market analyst which most fail to realise. I am saying this after reading other magazines for the last 5 to 6 years.
P.S. : Do not mistake me for a staff member of OD trying to promote OD. I am just a normal subscriber trying to defend my favourite mag and not trying to wage a war against anyone.
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Old 22nd July 2006, 16:31   #96
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While we continue our OD bashing, two points in favor of OD: the structured tests for comparo's and stand-alone tests, and the price chart. Sadly, I dont get either of these on-line anymore.
Also, their testing was done with proper instruments, not like some one who asked why use instruments when he could use a stop watch, blah, blah, blah.
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Old 24th July 2006, 18:07   #97
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ive been subscribing to 6 auto mags in india since their inception...an outright favourite has to be BSM for their exceptional quality of writing and variety of subjects...barring a couple mags, all the others are downright textbooks...so do yourself a favour and grab the latest BSM issue on stands, ull have a silly smile on your face for hours together...

cheers
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Old 7th August 2006, 14:56   #98
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I prefer Autocar India and BS Motoring. I do not like The Auto Magazine and Auto India. Overdrive is tolerable. Car India and Top Gear India are basically over-hyped mags. In fact they do not even have a website yet.
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Old 7th August 2006, 15:02   #99
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mysteryairship
Car India and Top Gear India are basically over-hyped mags. In fact they do not even have a website yet.
Is having website for a car magazine that necessary? What is the use of AutoIndia, AutoCarIndia and Overdrive's websites? They seem to be for name sake and for subscription offers. I guess these are good to have things as long as you are doing well with your actual work. What would you say about San Motors, the car manufacturer. Their email is sanmotorslimited@yahoo.co.in!

Last edited by yeis : 7th August 2006 at 15:03.
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Old 7th August 2006, 16:29   #100
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Quote:
Is having website for a car magazine that necessary?
In the era of connectivity - an astounding YES! Consider this...India is now no.4 worldwide in terms of total internet users with 50.4 million Indians online. The internet is key to information today, and will only evolve as a necessity outside its typically high-urban use. CIA linky

Quote:
What is the use of AutoIndia, AutoCarIndia and Overdrive's websites? They seem to be for name sake and for subscription offers. I guess these are good to have things as long as you are doing well with your actual work.
I find the Autocarindia website pretty resourceful. That and indiacar.com.

Quote:
What would you say about San Motors, the car manufacturer.
They do have a website - http://www.sanmotors.com/. But I think they overlooked having an email id linked to their domain. What can you expect of a team that comes out with such a crappy product as the San?
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Old 7th August 2006, 16:42   #101
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO
I find the Autocarindia website pretty resourceful. That and indiacar.com.
I too don't like TG and Car India much but I can't hate them because they don't have their own websites! Yes, these websites can be useful if they keep contents of their previous issues online for users but they essentially don't do it. They tend to be extremely professional here. Take any automag site for example, they have data near to negligible. Indiacar.com is good as it keeps roadtests etc of these mags online.
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Old 7th August 2006, 16:53   #102
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BSMotoring is the best mag, for their professional, factual and unbiased Reviews, Test Reports and News coverage!!!
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Old 7th August 2006, 19:05   #103
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The BSM website has very good archives. This includes almost all the road tests they have done till date. To those who do not have back issues this can be useful. Overdrive has very few road tests on its site. However many road tests from Overdrive,Autocar and Top Gear can be found at Indiacar website. And some tests from Car India can be found at mouthshut.com and carwale.com.
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Old 8th August 2006, 21:31   #104
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The BS website has not been updated since a long time. They have become real slow nowadays in updating the site. Before they were quick and agile.
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Old 9th August 2006, 14:46   #105
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I used to subscribe Overdrive but thought it futile to renew the subscpition. Was excited when Adil jumped over to Car india from Overdrive. Frankly both Car India & Bike India have left me disappointed. As of now I do subscribe to any of the Auto mags and buy individual copies at the book stand depending on its content and even there at times, I feel that I have been taken for a ride. Instead, I have been telling all my friends all around the world to send me technical readings of all the latest developements in the Auto field. Their Brochures are so exhaustive and make execellent reading. I recieved one of the Acura RS recently and believe me I had to read it several times to absorb its technicalities.


Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by condor
. I used to subscribe to photography magazines, but an independent, pro's articles mentioned that the magazines rely on advertisements a lot. Hence the reviews in the mags are often very positive abt the products .. wonder if there is something like this happening here too. The reviews in the auto mags do mention that the manufacturers give cars to the mag's for testing and reviews ..
I second your thoughts here Mr. Condor and have also written about it on the forum. Its a commercial world we live in and every thing revolves around it. Only thing is that some people mask it well while with others its very obvious.

Adil Jal, was the the first person, among others, who interviewed me for over an hour while my Sumo Victa was parked at Vahan Yatra Exhibition. He personally felt that I had done a good thing by doing what I did. That was the end of it. Obviously writing against a TATA car would have meant that he would miss all their ads in his new venture. Needless to say Tatas were major advertisers in the inaugural issue of Car India.

So long....
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