We were talking about the GS in another thread and for me thinking about the mags and books my husband collected for years. Checked his massive library and he found this. Hope you all enjoy.

 

you have magazines that are over 30 years old.

 

Husband is a big reader (not me) . Lots of books. Lots of mags. Lots of films as well. It is like a hobby for him.

Looking back at the past is quite interesting for some. To see the advertising of the day, how a brand was portrayed etc. Many who did not live on the 70s and 80s never experienced engine downsizing, or 10,000 mile Toyota oil change intervals (now they are back), SR5 was a Toyota marketing thing these used back then. One year vehicle warranties are something very few will remember. I loved the 80s. My favourite decade. Ford even had their lifetime repair guarantee.

 

I have a bunch of old car magazines too, not going back that far but I have them from the early 90s probably. In storage somewhere.

 

Yeah. They are pretty cool to look back at. I love marketing so to see the ads. What is interesting to see IMO is the marketing, the American brand marketing was far superior in their budgets and ads. Magazine 90s marketing was out of this world IMO

 

ah that might explain some of our differences... i uh, did not love the 80s for general and personal reasons. 90s way better for me.

 

In automotive-speak, the 1980s gave us some notable advances....including electronic fuel injection, which, IMO, was the single most important automotive advance of my lifetime (carburators were a complete PITA). Other very important advances in the decade were clearcoat paint (which Ford first gave us), the center-differential for car-based AWD, overdrive automatic transmissions, and ventilated disc-brake rotors which better-resisted heat buildup and warping.

 

The quality of car magazines have declined substantially since then too. That article really shows you that. You’d never see an article that in depth in Car & Driver today.

My dad was in the commercial printing paper business. He sold paper used in publications, magazines, catalogs etc. The hay day of that business and print marketing in general is long over.

 

I saw a mercury sable (cousin to the taurus) with a For Sale sign this morning and remembered this thread. I haven't seen those things in yeaaars.

Owner kept it real clean and in good condition considering the year.

Oh man, does he have any Montgomery Ward or BEST magazines from the 80s?
I loved looking through the toy pages.

Wish I kept them

Now I just scour through pinterests.

Me too, I love the 80s, so nostalgic.

speaking of SR5, I loved the 90s corolla SR5 (GTS even better), but don't want to go too far OT.

 

Might become an (eventual) collector's item, with the Mercury nameplate now gone.

 

So? You should see some of the stuff I still have in my automotive library.

 

Someone in my work parking lot drives a pretty clean SHO everyday. I’ll snap a picture the next time I see it.

 

As in, to not exist.

 

Very true, for the past 5 or 10 years the quality has gone down, mags like "Road and Track" are mostly ads and unrelated car topics, very few car reviews. You rarely see good comparisons anymore among several competitors in any mags anymore. It is almost always a article on a single car that does not tell me much about the car, it is more about the "writer's" personal preferences, politics, trying to sound witty, injecting stereotypes into the review, etc instead of focusing on the car. Just a lack of journalism everywhere. They often fawn and swoon over German cars yet never write about the poor reliability and cost of ownership.

"Automobile" is a decent car mag but I just read a notice they are going out of business and there won't be any more magazines which is a shame.

I go through some of my or my dads/uncles old car mags from the 90's and even a few from the 80's and they are so much better, more informative, more interesting, etc. I find that true for my old fishing, gun, aquarium fish, hunting mags too. I found some old outdoor mags from the 60's and 70's at my grandmothers and grabbed some, they are really fun to look through and read.

 

They just don't sell enough magazines, they don't have the circulation. So they focus on online stuff, reviews, specs, buying services, less text. I don't fault them, I get it...people just don't read magazines anymore. They cant make a magazine good enough to make people read it no matter how good they make it, that era has just passed. Same thing with newspapers.

My Dad retired in 2007, and passed away in 2010. His company went bankrupt in like 2011 or 2012. Most of his customers are either out of business or they have deeply diversified their businesses away from just printing because the business just isn't there. At one time the paper and printing industry was a huge employer...no longer...were talking 15 years ago it was a hugely lucrative business, and today...crickets.