Autoweek Classified Ads

Has anyone else noticed the staggering drop in the number of cars offered for sale in Autoweek's classified ad section?

It used be be several pages of Sports & Imports ads, and there were always several Ferraris on offer. It was a reliable indicator of asking prices for most late model exotics. These days it's down to less than a couple of pages, especially if you discount the large dealer ads that are just signposts to the dealership without prices.

 

Could it be that now that it is a bi-weekly, folks are in too much of a rush to sell their vehicles through them?

Besides, with the internet, I am surprised that there are any print car ads anymore.

 

There were a lot of the same car being listed over and over again. I assume that most cars are not selling and the sellers are deciding to save their money and not re-listing them again.

 

funny you started this thread. i have been noticing the "shrink" for sometime. when reading my latest issue, two pages had stuck together and i was momentarily shocked and thought wow they are getting killed.

it hasn't help that the editorial portion of the rag has gone to crap. i only still get it because the ran some super cheap renewal rate 5 or so years ago and i paid up for a decade. my mistake.

 

Remember newspaper classifieds? They used to be pages and pages now nothing more then a few dealer cars. Online has taken over.

 

I stopped getting AW because of some political rant Denise McClugage (SP) went off on. I thought I was subscribing to a car mag. Guess I was wrong there loss not mine.

 

I may be in the minority, but I hate the new bi-weekly format. I have been a subscriber for many years, but did not renew it last month.

Perhaps advertisers are not happy with the new format, and have stopped placing as many ads.

 

Bingo.

Unless it's a glossy car-porn magazine like DuPont, not much point.

 

I'm a 35+ year subscriber who will not re-up. You guys are making me think I'm not alone. There have been more cigar and watch articles in the past year than I need in 5 years, and as previously stated, editorial content has gone downhill, even after they muzzled the young Crain guy.

At the Road America ALMS race, there were cartons and cartons of the current Autoweek issue in various places......free for the taking....never saw that before.

 

No one reads it, so why advertise there?

 

Same reason newspapers are going out of business and on life support. It simply takes too long to get the news and classifieds out. By time you read it in a paper, it's old news and what everyone was talking about yesterday. Online is instant gratification or, in the case of classifieds, instant results.

 

tic tock They are scraping to survive just like any other publication, but are somewhat directionless... I have seen it at many of the newspapers I USED to deal with....

 

Autoweek was/is too expensive IMHO. I looked at using it once and dropped the idea due to price.

 

When I was a Kid, it was THE only source for car / racing info... now its just been passed by... there are so many better publications - Octane, EVO, Motorsport, Autosport, etc... so Autoweek just for me does not get it any more. no suprise that the adds are less, I think the number of subscribers has declined as well.
Today all the racing reports are old news... there is no special inside news...

 

Octane gets my vote as the current best. It has a great balance of features on the old and the new.

 

It is nice too look at the shiney pictures while on the throne, but honestly, most of what I read in Octane has already been printed on the web. Their columnist are better, being from the industry/hobby rather than just some old journlists, but overall there is no "News" in there or even unique perspective to the cars. It really just comes down to having paper in the lap rather than an LCD screen when I am trying to relax.

 

I stopped subscribing a couple years ago when it became all bad editorials and SUV/motorcycle reviews. If I wanted to read about those things, I wouldn't have bought AUTOweek. In the few years I was a subscriber it went from a great magazine to something I'd page through and throw away 5 minutes later.

 

Some years ago I tried selling a car through AW for several weeks. The only responses I got were from inmates.

 

They can dream too can't they?