LOL Fair enough its your opinion. and at first I did not like simon column I ignored it but i read it and enjoyed, Emma column was good to read, in the fact it would be about bike stuff which to me appeared rather intresting, What your opinion on Franks bit? and when you still read topgear did you enjoy reading the lifers section to me this is probably my 2nd favourite bit after the main article.
Is "lifers" what they call their long-term test cars? If so, there's never too much wrong with those but at the same time, it's hard to go wrong with a long-term test section as journalists are essentially reporting exactly what they find and generally aren't given many words to do so each week/month/whenever.
That said, some mags do long-termers better than others. Classic car mags are usually best for this because the journos are actually doing something with the cars, rather than just saying "nope, nothing has gone wrong this month" or "whoops, I crashed it" or some variation thereof.
As for Frank, it's just another example of a column that doesn't really inform or entertain in any measure. He's apparently "their man in the trade" or something (I can't remember how they phrased it) but it could just be any old schmo given that he never actually really offers any trade advice, and instead it's just some dull anecdote about "a women who came in the other week" or something.
The last issue I bought was in January this year, as it actually had some pretty decent features in, though the rest of the mag was badly arranged as usual.
Ways to make TG mag better:
- Get rid of about 3/4 of the adverts which should make the mag 50 pages slimmer
- Four columnists. May, Hammond, Clarkson and a guest. No more.
- Bring back a used car section. Lots of people read TG and not all of them can afford new cars. Used car sections are useful.
- Tell their journos to stop trying to be Clarkson, Hammond and May. Every one of them is like a wannabe and the forced humour in most of the tests and features is just awful.
- Fire their graphic designer. I find the mag incredibly hard to read because there's just
stuff everywhere. EVO is a good example of great presentation. No bright colours, no photos at jaunty angles, no use for dozens of different fonts, just a good use of photos and text. TG looks like it's been designed by a GCSE student doing an art project.
The Top Gear TV format is great - it works well. It
doesn't translate onto paper.
