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Motoring Magazine - The end of an era

Motoring Magazine - The end of an era

BenCee

Entry posted by BenCee ·

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How do you feel when you see VW rims on Skoda?  

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By now, you would have heard that Motoring magazine has succumbed to the pressures of the market, and left our automotive scene for good.

 

While technically, we editorials are rivals in the market, allow me to put aside my professional front for a while, and talk about my personal dismay at the demise of a title that was held in high regard in Singapore's automotive circle.

 

Motoring is (or was) Singapore's oldest automotive magazine, and its influence on the local automotive industry was clear during the heydays of Singapore's fledgling car industry in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

For car nuts who grew up during that period, Motoring was THE magazine to look out for at the bookshelves. I know myself, because I have a collection of Motoring magazines dating back to 1994.

 

Being the small industry that it is in Singapore, most established automotive journalists you see around nowadays, will have had some sort of connection to Motoring at one point or another during their career.

 

The magazine's peak was arguably during the mid-90s, when sky-high COE prices meant that car buyers were the most discerning. The power was with the readers and consumers, and the quality of writing reflected that sentiment.

 

As the market opened up around the millennium however, things started to go downhill. I'm not sure if there is any one single factor for this, whether it be the appearance of more automotive titles in Singapore, or the fact that cheaper cars meant that car buyers didn't give much credit to quality reviews, but it was a shame to see journalistic standards starting to pander to the masses.

 

As Motoring started to whittle down its operations throughout the past decade, I honestly feared the worst for Singapore's most established car magazine. Even still, the announcement of its closure came as a bit of a surprise.

 

I am sad to see it go, but I hope that one day, somehow, the title might be revived again, in some form or another, stronger and better than before.


4 Comments

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Carbutt

It's kinda hard to imagine things falling apart that easily. Motoring is still the best there is and will ever be car mag in Singapore.

 

Cheers to that!

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Heartbreakid

I am indeed shocked to hear that "Motoring" is coming to an end. I'm like you, still keeping the issues dated back to 1993, some in 1992. That was the time when the magazine is sold only for $3.50!! Pretty expensive for me those days as I was only a student.

 

I got to say that in the 90s, Motoring magazines are very much informative and very detailed in the writing and also very pictures intensive. Since 2000, the content quality of the magazine has been inconsistent. Even though in recent years it has picked up again, it still can't match those in the 90s.

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Pocus

OMG!!!! I collected Motoring too when I was a kid. It's kindda sad that a local magazine have to go. IMHO, Motoring is one of the few magazines that brings that local favor that connects to most local car owners/buyers. I understand that ever since the influx of many foreign car magazines that flood our shelves, it's been a tough fight for the local boys.

 

Sadly, we singaporeans are a weird bunch, while we lament the Government for bringing it so many "FTs" to competed our market, we ourselves prefer to read foreign products and media rather than supporting our own local flavors. Be in movies, comics, novels, media and now magazines!! If that's the case, why complain about FTs when you don't even support your own people??

 

While established foreign magazines gives very indept of the cars they review, it is often many of the models are questionmark to us, and not elevant to local context. Even localised copies of "Autocar" and "Topgear" contain hints that the original articles are written mainly for folks in European...like who in SG cares the fark how many POUNDs a used Beemer cost??? And what the hell is Vauxhall?? And why are all the cars left hand drive??

 

How that a Singapore Legacy has ended, I decided to keep the old copies of Motoring magazines in my vault, so that my children can enjoy car magazines in lolcal context....and laugh and the politcal-correctness of it's reviews.....after all most of the Dislikes is "Nothing Much." :)

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