Subscription: Top Gear Mag vs EVO

Avalange

Avalange

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Joined
Jun 16, 2007
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SW Germany - car & beer paradise -
Hello alltogether!

I live in Germany and I'm bored of all the no-fun-just-facts car mags here, so I want to get a better one, namely Top Gear Mag or EVO. I will certainly not subscribe to both because I don't want to spend so much money on magazines.

When looking on the mags' websites, I see that a 1 year subscription to Top Gear Mag would cost me 87 pounds while the EVO would cost only 48,20. Is the shipping included in both of the prices?

I've never read Top Gear Mag nor EVO before and I'd just like you to post some pro/contra facts of both the mags. Which one do you like better? Is Top Gear Mag worth the extra money? How many pages has a usual edition of TGM or EVO?

Thank you!
 
TG: Similar style to TG TV - so if you're a fan of Top Gear (and, well, I assume you are, since you're here), you'll like TG Mag quite a bit. However, I really don't think TG mag is really worth the money - as all other mags, it's abundant with ads and filler content. Great magazine, excellent reading material and photography overall.

EVO: A bit too supercar-oriented. Great if you're really into supercars (and we all are here). However, all the content of EVO is available online at www.evo.co.uk - so even if you don't subscribe, most of the stuff is there, albeit with a month or two delay sometimes. EVO has imo the best batch of long-term cars if you're into supercars and really sporty cars.

I'd also recommend you check out CAR magazine (www.carmagazine.co.uk) - I've been buying it monthly for the past 4 years, and I have to say that the balance between supercars and normal cars is excellent, they have some of the best writing and photography in the world (Easton Chang just did a photoshoot for them a few issues back of the Vauxhall VXR8). Some of the drive stories they've had over the past few years are absolutely epic - the RR Phantom following the Orient Express comes to mind first. A truly great mag. However, some of the best writers that CAR had have since moved on to other magazines - Tom Ford, Piers Ward, Paul Horell and former CAR editor Jason Barlow have all moved to TG Mag. Nevertheless, I still think that CAR is one of the best balanced mags out there.
 
I'm a fan of Autocar, and seeing as how you are in Germany Auto Motor und Sport (sp?) is a must. Top Gear is too expensive and Evo focuses strictly on sports cars.
 
Auto Motor und Sport sucks big time... Sport Auto is really the only german car magazine that I ever spend money on, but even that isn?t as good. EVO on the other hand is the best car mag I?ve ever seen, definitely better than TG mag. Brilliantly written, superb photography, awesome choice of themes for their big articles. And while it does have a strong bias toward sportscars, that?s exactly what I want in a car magazine. Who cares about everyday cars, if I want to find out about the next Golf 1.9 tdi (for whatever reason), I can go to the dealer and test drive it, and there?s always google...
 
^ What is wrong with Auto Motor und Sport? Granted I've only read a few translations, but they've been pretty thorough reviews.
 
the fact that they are sometimes very biased toward german manufacturers, and the fact that some brilliantly made cars will lose comparison tests because they use 0.1l/100km more fuel and have a topspeed of 2 km/h less... Sport Auto is, in essence, similarly flawed, but at least they can?t resist a properly made sportscar, and their "supertest", although not as technically thorough as it may seem, is still one of the best benchmarks of automotive testing...
 
I subscribed to Evo at the Autosport show, only ?20 for six issues plus two massive books of collections of all their Ferrari articles and all their British sports car articles plus polish for the cars I don't own.

Going to take out a fulltime subscription to Evo & to Car in the coming months ...
 
I have subscriptions to both Top Gear and EVO. The former due to having excess supermarket loyalty points to spend, the latter I spend my cash on.

Truth be told, I wouldn't spend my own money on TG mag every month. Car news is more and more accessible on the internet, their 'look at me do something crazy' sections tend to be aimed at the 12 year olds out there. The only interesting bits are the opinion columns by May, Clarkson, Horrell etc.

EVO, however, is in my opinion worth every penny (although I'm not convinced by the mag's recent redesign). Yes, it concentrates only on sports cars, but those are the cars I'm interested in. They do large, well-written features, a huge annual 'Car of the year' fest, and decent, mostly unbiased reviews. Yes, most of their stuff goes up on their website, but it does so a month or so later.

My advice is to buy a copy of each (try a large newsagent in town), and see which you prefer. CAR is also ok, but at the redesign a year back it went far too 'style over substance' for my liking.
 
One more for EVO here, I'm a huge fan. I've read a few issues of CAR and TG, and neither really did it for me. Only good thing I've found in TG were the columns, and while CAR is slightly better, it's still a bit dry.

I don't read EVO to get information about cars per se (internet is full of it), it is just a good read, no matter what car they are reviewing. Usually it's either supercars, or sporty versions of regular cars, but it's always an event. Their trips, long term reports, races they attend to, yearly awards, special features and so on, everything is written really nicely from a perspective of petrolheads and not someone evaluating the costs of options and fuel consumption.

Also they seem to be the biggest Porsche fans, which obviously appeals to me ;)
 
i'll put in another vote for EVO. While they are definitly supercar centric (hell they have a lambo and a zonda in their fleet) I think the writing is just about the best i have read in any magazine. It reminds me of Dave Coleman from sportcompact car before it went down the shitter
 
Thank you for your answers so far!

To the German folks here: Where can I possibly buy TGM or EVO (or Car) here in Germany? Are they very expensive?

To all of you: Could someone post some EVO scans of articles that are already on their web site (so no illegal stuff) so I could see the layout?
 
Avalange said:
To the German folks here: Where can I possibly buy TGM or EVO (or Car) here in Germany? Are they very expensive?
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airports and train stations... and yes, 10 eur is quite expensive for a car magazine, but EVO is worth it...
 
MXM said:
You save quite a bit by subscribing directly from UK. After you've chosen the one you like obviously :)
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Not really, at 10? per issue, getting TG mag in the shop is cheaper than getting a subscription at 87 pound for 13 issues (Germany). EVO is cheaper than getting it in the shops (48 pound for 12 issues). Saving money is not a good reason to take a subscription on them. Making sure you get all the issues without being dependent on your local newspaper shop for having them in stock is.
 
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Avalange said:
To all of you: Could someone post some EVO scans of articles that are already on their web site (so no illegal stuff) so I could see the layout?
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Here is one feature article they did several years ago, which tests the ZO6 when it first came out, against what EVO figured was it's competition - a Noble M12, an Exige Cup, and a used 911 GT3 RS.
 
Adunaphel said:
Not really, at 10? per issue, getting TG mag in the shop is cheaper than getting a subscription at 87 pound for 13 issues (Germany). EVO is cheaper than getting it in the shops (48 pound for 12 issues). Saving money is not a good reason to take a subscription on them. Making sure you get all the issues without being dependent on your local newspaper shop for having them in stock is.
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Whoa, TG is that expensive? :?

Anyway, in euros EVO is 5.33?/issue (1 year subscription), and 10.20? in the shop here. So saving money IS a good reason in this case. And you get a nice "collector's edition" covers not covered by ads ;)
 
I'm putting another vote in for EVO! Best car magazine I've ever read.
Sure there are many supercars featured but that's not all. They do a lot of testing of hot hatches and other more affordable cars. Their motto is "The thrill of driving" and they've said numerous times that they test cars which are fun to drive regardless of price tag.
Also they do some really interesting themes and articles in the mags. One or two issues ago they had a cult car special e.g.
Sometimes they feature buying guides as well which are really good.
 
MXM said:
Anyway, in euros EVO is 5.33?/issue (1 year subscription)
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That's not bad at all, seeing as the UK edition is ?3 to ?4ish. I should really change my subscription to 'send to France' as opposed to 'keep sending to UK and my parents will send my post on once a month or so'...

There are also certain regional editions, comprising both translations of UK evo articles and original features and pieces. There's a France edition and an Italian one, for example, but unfortunately for you no German one.
 
Again thank you!

I've got one last question: How many pages does a usual EVO have?
Ok, another one: How much ads are in there? Some German mags have almost 50:50 content to advertisement.

The language/translation isn't the problem. Over half the things I read or have to read are in English anyway.
 
Avalange said:
Again thank you!

I've got one last question: How many pages does a usual EVO have?
Ok, another one: How much ads are in there? Some German mags have almost 50:50 content to advertisement.

The language/translation isn't the problem. Over half the things I read or have to read are in English anyway.
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Issue 112, Car of the Year 2007, has 210 pages. Of that, 78 pages are adverts (thus there are 132 pages of actual content). It goes : news, opinion columns, car reviews, features, fleet updates, info (laptimes on the evo track and ratings of all evo cars from the past 15 to 20 years or so), adverts.

This sounds about right. Last year, they introduced a 13th issue (so one every month of the year and one extra), and to launch the 13th issue, all the adverts were for Shell's new fuel. This drew a number of complaints (which were fair as they got bloody annoying after a bit). The response from EVO was that that issue had more content to advert ratio than ever before, with more than 150 pages of content and less adverts than usual (if I remember corretly, the actual issue is in the wrong country for me to check).

About a third of the adverts in each issue are at the back of the magazine, so if you're looking for a product or service, they're all squirrelled away back there. There was also a 4 page 'advertorial' for a Mazda, including a tale of someone cycling from one end of the UK to the other. It actually looked quite interesting reading, if you ignored the constant 'Mazda' namedropping.

The important thing is that there aren't adverts slap bang in the middle of a big feature. The Car of the Year segment, for example, takes up 44 consecutive pages, and in amongst it there is not a single advert.
 
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