Jill posted an old magazine clipping in another thread and it got me thinking about my collection. Starting with my first brand new Mustang in 1988 up to the LC that I just got last year I have always collected the brochures for the cars I owned. I suspect that this will become more difficult as the years pass since everything is digital now. Back in the day you would go to the car show and return home with 10 pounds of booklets from the various manufacturers. These days they all have a qcode that you scan with your phone 😀

 

I have a ton of old brochures too. You used to be able to send away for them from manufacturers and they would mail them to you. Back in the early days of the Internet when we had Prodigy and rudimentary websites you could request them online, so I have a ton.

 

That reminds me of a funny story about requesting brochures on the internet. Back in 1991 I had AOL dial up and I requested a brochure from Royal Caribbean cruises website. The sent me 10 boxes with 100 in each. 😳

 

hahaha! Thats funny

 

There are some things I actually like more about the old paper-brochures. For one thing, it's often easier to find standard/optional equipment on the various trim-models (and to compare different trim-models) than it is with the on-line sites and their endless scrolling back and forth. Of course, conversely, the Build-Your-Own feature is one nice thing you have with the web-sites that you don't with the older brochures.

 

I actually thought of you when I posted this. I figured that with all of the experience that you have with different manufacturers that you would have a stack of these also

 

Yes and no. I donated some of the ones I know I'd probably not need (or want) to my local library and took a tax-deduction (some libraries actually keep them for reference). I saved some of the others.

 

I have plastic bins full of brochures that i got mostly from going to auto shows and others that I requested from manufacturers.
When I moved about a year ago - I went through the ones that I have for the older BMWs like E46 M3. These were like small books (20-30pgs) with incredible details and awesome pictures. I would pay money to get something similar for my current cars. The digital brochures are not the same imo.

 

I also collected brochures for cars I either bought or considered buying. I'm dating myself, but I actually have several VHS promo tapes from manufacturers. I think I have VHS player stowed away somewhere!