Autocar Archives
Discussion
Has anybody else subscribed to the Autocar Archives? It is advertised as the complete archive, I paid over £70 for the digital subscription. There are huge gaps in the collection, the search facility doesn’t work, it is a complete shambles. Motorsport magazine shows how it should be done, that is absolutely superb. I have emailed Autocar Archive Customer Service twice now requesting a refund but I am completely ignored
Looks like the site for it isn't finished yet?? https://www.themotoringarchive.com/
Shame, I spent years when I worked at Haymarket trying to get them to do something with the motoring archive, I'd be interested in seeing what they have done with it... All the images were sold as they were part of LAT.
I used to spend most of my lunch hours in the archives scanning glass plates from AutoCar and putting them on my website, https://austinharris.co.uk/. It's still there but mothballed now and the navigation / search isn't what it used to be.
Shame, I spent years when I worked at Haymarket trying to get them to do something with the motoring archive, I'd be interested in seeing what they have done with it... All the images were sold as they were part of LAT.
I used to spend most of my lunch hours in the archives scanning glass plates from AutoCar and putting them on my website, https://austinharris.co.uk/. It's still there but mothballed now and the navigation / search isn't what it used to be.
I've just been browsing it - incredibly frustrating how difficult it is to find anything. Once you pick a magazine to look through, it's excellent quality, but I can't believe you clunky it is. The order of issues makes zero sense - it's like they've done the hard bit by taking pictures of everything, but then they ran out of money.
Johnnytheboy said:
How complete is it?
I am custodian of a century of physical Autocars (my late father's), a certain Mr Cropley was known to email him asking for scans of articles Autocar no longer had now and then...
When I worked there LAT had two complete sets that were bound in volumes. AFAIK they were complete. Not sure what got sold / transferred when Haymarket sold off LAT though.I am custodian of a century of physical Autocars (my late father's), a certain Mr Cropley was known to email him asking for scans of articles Autocar no longer had now and then...
Johnnytheboy said:
How complete is it?
I am custodian of a century of physical Autocars (my late father's), a certain Mr Cropley was known to email him asking for scans of articles Autocar no longer had now and then...
Just went to the link and seems it's only Autocar...I am custodian of a century of physical Autocars (my late father's), a certain Mr Cropley was known to email him asking for scans of articles Autocar no longer had now and then...
the other mags like Motor etc, or even Classic & Sports Car, are 'coming soon', so as some above have said, looks like a 'work in progress still'.
I have loads of the latter mag from when its title was Classic & 'Sportscar' - ie: 'one' word, not 'two' .
A subscription of £7.99 a month to the Autocar archive suggests to me you are sitting on something.
I hope your late father got recompensed for his troubles?
Just picking up on this as a newbie here. My brother has an enormous number of AutoCar mags, going back to the 80s I think. I don't know if they are worth anything - he has died and I am looking for info to help determine values, etc.
He has other magazines, Jaguar Driver, for example. We're only just getting round to cataloguing it all... but if there's really no intrinsic value then we'll just give them away I think.
Hoping for a bit of a steer on this from those more experienced...
He has other magazines, Jaguar Driver, for example. We're only just getting round to cataloguing it all... but if there's really no intrinsic value then we'll just give them away I think.
Hoping for a bit of a steer on this from those more experienced...
There is no value frankly. For years I took my Octane and C&SC copies to the doctor's waiting room to get rid of them, but as posted a year or so ago I have 20 years of Autocar and the same of Motorsport and the only recourse, when I want to get shot of them, is to take them to the tip. It'll take a number of journeys I can tell you!
Pretty much what I thought, thanks. I've seen various posts on eBay and other places offering job lots for next to nothing, and to me it seems not worth the effort of packaging, posting and so on for the princely sum of almost £20. If there was a rabid collector or two out there looking to fill a gap in their set then fair enough, but it sounds to me like this isn't the case, so I'll be ordering a skip - I don't fancy multi-trips to the dump.
I went to the LAT auction & picked up some fascinating originals …a Brockbank cartoon for me and a load of Max Millar original cutaway drawings for friends with Astons & Crossleys! In amongst the lot that included the Brockbank cartoon were a load of other (non Brock dull cartoons) and some 1940's drawings including a 2ftx3ft Millar cutaway of a 1943 Humber 4x4 Heavy Utility (for an Autocar feature). I kept it under glass on my office meeting room table! I still have it; it is a masterpiece of pen and ink drawing. No CAD then!
I am loth to throw out magazines - I keep all my old CAR, right back to Small Car days . But I don't keep new ones and as I subscribe to C &SC , Motor Sport and Octane they mount up. I used to take them to Hospital /GP waiting rooms but no more -'It's covid '. (Really ? Anybody ever catch covid from reading about a 250 GTO restoration ? ) .
There's often a lot of griping about magazines, usually about cost, but I think few people actually enjoy a long read , preferring a diet of bite size factoids on line . You literally cannot give them away - I recently offered my regular magazines every month FOC to anyone who wanted them , so they'd in effect get a free subscription in exchange only for whatever charitable donation they wanted to make . Not one taker . Anybody ?
There's often a lot of griping about magazines, usually about cost, but I think few people actually enjoy a long read , preferring a diet of bite size factoids on line . You literally cannot give them away - I recently offered my regular magazines every month FOC to anyone who wanted them , so they'd in effect get a free subscription in exchange only for whatever charitable donation they wanted to make . Not one taker . Anybody ?
Looks like they've had another stab at launching this if anyone is interested https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/from-the-archiv...
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