Motor Guide ripped the lid off a major scandal in the automotive media in 1956. Okay, not really.
In the 1950s, car magazines could live or die on their newsstand sales. Nobody knew that better than the legendary Henry Scharf, publisher of Speed Age, Car Life, and a number of other automotive titles that came and went. Car mags were often impulse purchases, picked up by casual auto enthusiasts or even non-enthusiasts on their way to buy something else. To sell copies, a magazine should leap off the rack into the customer’s hands with an eye-catching dream car or a sensational headline on the cover. Take Scharf’s Motor Guide, for example.
Published from 1956 through 1959 as a pocket-sized magazine, and apprently in need of a circulation boost, Motor Guide exclaimed on the cover of its October 1956 issue that “Car testing is PHONY!” What a salacious string of thoughts that conjures up: Rigged test procedures, bogus test equipment, carmakers and car magazines in cahoots (sure, like that could happen) and other dirty deeds.
Well, you may be surprised, or maybe not, that despite the sensationalized title, the story itself is pretty tame—and it actually makes some sound arguments. As the writers only pointed out, magazine road tests and the data they include might be of limited value in choosing your next car purchase. Take for example 0-to-60 mph times. Do you really care if the car does 0-60 in 5.2 or 5.9 seconds, when what you want is adequate and satisfying acceleration?
In those days especially, vehicle testing methods and equipment could be variable, so different magazines could obtain significantly different performance results with the very same car. Sometimes the variation could be wider among the results for a specific car than among those for the cars you might wish to compare it to, as Motor Guide noted. What good are the numbers then? Also, vehicle break-in was far more critical back then, so comparing the test results fo say, a Ford with 200 miles on the clock to a Chevy with 2000 miles could be meaningless.
The story goes on to make a number of good points, even though the cover blurb is a total ripoff. The byline is “Les Angeles,” hmm. What’s their final advice to car shoppers? “First of all, read all the car tests you like,” says Motor Guide. So they’re pro-car magazines, there’s a relief. But ultimately, only you the buyer can decide if the vehicle fills your needs and wants. “It’s the half hour you put in behind the wheel that’s the real test,” they sum up. We can’t disagree with that.
Every time I see one of those commercials where somebody buys a car online from only a picture, then has said car delivered to them at home, and they run out hollering and screaming like it’s the best thing since sliced bread and they haven’t even started it up, much less driven it a mile, that old line about there’s a sucker born every minute pops up in my head!
I’ve went to look at many cars based on a pic, but upon inspection, walked away because of the hidden defects. Same thing while shopping a dealers lot, something I’ll never do again, I look for something that catches my eye, but have walked away from many of them, especially after a start up and or drive.
I never gave the magazines much credit for their tests. Factories and dealers, as well as some of the magazines themselves, tuned their favorites to get the best times out of them, used professional drivers, and generally had their thumbs on the scales to sway your thinking. 0-60 means nothing to me, tell me how long this thing will last without staying in the shop all the time and we’ll talk!