Cover: This is where we used to put all the new BMW 3-series and Chevrolet Corvette variants. Now, you'll notice a bunch of new and unexpected cars, like the Miata.

Noted Notables:

* Notice how the cover image itself no longer sucks.

* OCDers such as myself find that the red and blue bars around the "and" now extend that last pica down to the baseline. You'll sleep better tonight knowing that, trust me.

Table of Contents: Whereas Car and Driver's previous table of contents (TOC) used to have all the easy readability of Finnegan's Wake, we tried to make the revised TOC a model of clarity and simplicity.

Noted Notables:

* All the big features are on the front page.

* All the other departments are on the second page.

* We decided not to describe TOC on the TOC itself, for fear that time-space would collapse upon itself.

Columns: Traditionally, there have been two types of C/D readers: Those who skip the columns, and those who write several hundred letters a month describing their various disappointments with said columns. With this new design, we expect this to remain unchanged.

Upfront: With all the Internets out there, how can a monthly magazine do breaking news with a straight face? It can't, which is why we're not doing it anymore (Praise the Lord! —Ed.). Upfront will instead be a mini-features section with long-range forecasting, infographics, humor pieces and standing elements like Tech. Dept., which breaks down some recent piece of new technology.

Noted Notables:

* This section opens with a big marquee that carries a mini-TOC over it, giving you a free first hit of all the dope (Dropping the precious slang...you know, for kids! — Ed.) inside.

* Arrows! Arrows!

* The rail-type navigation at the top of the section's pages is an old C/D hallmark, and it's back because it looks cool and it works. With a glance up at the page corner, you always know where you are, even if you already knew you were on the toilet.

Feature Well:

Rigidly formatted websites like this here Jalopyneck are great at delivering quick info, scoops, photos, and interaction, but in general even with great photos the web doesn't allow for the visual differentiation of one story from the next, and it struggles to impose a hierarchy on stories. A magazine is different. Great photography and art direction make each print story unique and allow the reader to sink into the page. Smart story pacing lets the reader know what's most important. This redesign plays to those strengths of the printed page, and does what this medium does best: Epic visuals, longer stories and comparison tests, and great packages jam-packed with stuff.

The Charts: We made the comparison-test charts easier to use by putting all the info in one place, rather than scattering the various pieces around like so many chicken parts in a Santeria ritual.

Noted Notables:

* The bar graphs are back! Long the best part of the entire goddamn magazine, our comparative bar graphs return to the road-test page.

* Also, check out the sweet fake magnifying glass in there. Designing that took Nathan, like, three hours.

Drivelines: What's a car magazine without car reviews? Nothing, that's what. The revised Drivelines section will provide more piquant opinion and more background on the cars we cover.

Noted Notables:

* The thumbs-up/thumbs-down graphic replaces the "highs/lows," because Recreational Drugs Fortnightly threatened to sue.

Gearbox: At Car and Driver, we test stuff. We don't just paraphrase the press release for the latest auto-fellator - we actually do the hard research. Every month, the Gearbox section will put a category of accessories or tools or other aftermarket hardware through its paces.

What I'd Do Differently:

Wherein we try to get really important people to tell us how they've screwed up. Rarely works.

(You can read Car and Driver by subscribing — it's only, like, $10 a year — or you can buy an issue at a newsstand — it's only, like, $10 per issue. — Ed.)

A member of THE H.A.M.B. forum posted the picture from the review showing his car being raced against the X6. The car's owner stated:

This months car and driver has a artical about a bmw twin turbo suv that goes anywhere,hauls anything and beats anything.They show it hauling bails of straw and driving on the e-way and then beating a stright axle,fuel injected,altered wheelbase 63 chevy II on the dragstrip................Whooooooa. That is my chevy and that little red suv couldn't beat my car in its wildest dreams. Do they really have to photo crop and mis-represent the public into thinking if they buy a bmw suv,then thay too can do what their mag says. I hope someone who advertises in that book see's this and decides on why they support the down rite lies they print.

Though the article never explicitly states that it's racing the other cars, the phot ogallery is full of shots of the X6 racing various vehicles it turns out weren't actually there. So what does CarandDriver have to say about this? They use this obviously embarrassing moment to take a tongue-in-cheek potshot at John Phillips, a writer for the buff book who penned the article.

CarandDriver Official Response:
John Phillips became so attached to the BMW X6M that it - appropriately enough - triggered many irrational responses. One of these was his insistence that we photoshop the BMW beating the clearly superior Chevy Nova. Any attempt to dissuade him - by telling him, for instance, that only an idiot would believe a BMW SUV could beat a purpose-built drag car - just resulted in heated calls to the suicide hotline and even more foaming at the mouth than usual.

It's funny, but we think CarandDriver needs to either apologize to the owners whose cars were being portrayed as losers or actually race them for pinks. We'll even pay Csaba to come out and judge.

(Hat tip to Cody!) [THE H.A.M.B.]

As to My Bona Fides: Standing on the shoulders of giants.

With those first tentative whacks at my new iMac, I officially begin my tenure as Car and Driver's 18th editor-in-chief. I also officially paraphrase the opening lines of David E. Davis Jr.'s column for the inaugural issue of Automobile, the magazine he started in 1986 after his second run as editor here. I got into the business of writing about cars, and into cars themselves, largely because of David E. When I went to work for him at Automobile in 1991 as a college intern, it was the fulfillment of my fevered, 19-year-old dreams. The first day on the job, I stepped into his office wallpapered with framed photos of him with Jackie Stewart, Carroll Shelby, and Jim Clark and felt as if I had entered the nerve center of American automotive enthusiasm. There he sat-large as a bear, dressed like a billionaire, and surrounded by the evidence of a life well lived. Now I step into his indelible footprints, laid down in the '60s, as I write in the same space.

DED Jr. inspired generations of car enthusiasts with his ability to depict cars as somehow more than just machines. When David E. sets his fingers to a keyboard, the whole history of the automobile comes flooding out-short, self-contained stories of human achievement and conflict and passion. His writing made me see man's best ambitions reflected in cars' bodywork.

I started reading him at the urging of my father, Mickey. I believe that car enthusiasm is largely hereditary, and my dad's automotive syllabus went from ABCs to DEDs. His enthusiasm was catholic. Our detached garage, sited three miles north of the Detroit city limits, may have actually had revolving doors. The old man went swiftly from a Porsche 356B convertible to a Series I Jag E-type to a toothpaste-green 1950 Buick to a big-block Vette to a Model T to a smattering of lesser Ferraris. One of my fondest memories of our driving together was back in the '80s, prowling richer Connecticut for pre-boom, front-engine V-12 Ferraris. I think he demonstrated far too much impulse control by not plunking down for that ratty, $55,000 275GTS. Had he bought it, I'd probably be writing this from my parents' vacation compound on Alterman Island.

This perch, I'd argue, is better still. I enter an office previously held by Csaba Csere, a man with a brilliant and agile mind, a deep passion for automobiles, and a breathtaking knowledge of automotive engineering. The long run of his editorship coincided with what is arguably the finest era in automotive history, and he presented it with the depth, insight, and fearlessness that are at the heart of this magazine. Like all of Car and Driver's great editors-garagehold names such as Davis, Purdy, Brown, Mandel, Sherman, Yates, Jeanes, and Ludvigsen-Csaba told us what to think, and we listened.

It's humbling to think of my name alongside those. I'm not quite sure what I did to deserve this, the greatest job in the known universe. Car and Driver has the best content, the best heritage, and the best future of any car magazine. It's bigger than its category-it's an American icon, a brand whose name has become shorthand for car magazines in general, in the way that Coke stands for cola. I promise not to turn C/D into New Coke. My job is to keep this great institution thriving and true to itself, and to bring you all the authority, independence, and general outrageousness of Car and Driver wherever and however you may want it-in paper form, online, on your phone, or in ways that haven't been invented yet.

As for my bona fides, I'm going to let one of my mentors say it for me. Here's David E., from his first Automobile column:

"I am a car enthusiast. I love automobiles, especially the great ones. I have chosen this line of work because it keeps me in intimate, hourly contact with automobiles, along with people who drive them and the people who design and build them. I am not an automotive expert, nor a pundit, nor an analyst. I am a car nut, better informed than some, perhaps, because I've been able to eat, sleep, and drink cars for the past 35 years, but a car nut nonetheless." - Eddie Alterman

While manufacturer sponsorship doesn't provide the majority of NASCAR's funding - that honor goes to mainstream sponsors like Mello Yello — it is a key part of the race series' equation. Manufacturers like GM and Chrysler provide funding for racetracks, key engineering know-how and parts. There's also the historic connection between NASCAR and the manufacturers; 17 cars wear Chevy badges at NASCAR's top level.

Car and Driver, not recently known for either humor or relevance but benefiting from a revival under new EiC Eddie Alterman, reported President Obama had ordered Chevy and Dodge out of NASCAR as part of an April Fool's Day prank. NASCAR didn't get the joke, with many teams, fans, executives and assorted rednecks believing the news.

That shock has apparently awoken the above parties to the real possibility of losing the support of two brands most closely associated with going fast and turning left and instead relying on the support of newcomers like Toyota. While NASCAR claims it'd survive both financially and emotionally, we get the feeling that they're pouring a little cheap beer out for their homies at the not-so-Big Three. Humor's always best when it causes the target to get all introspective, thus proving they never really got the joke. [via NASCAR]

The following missive from Jamie and the boys at Motive confirm the online-only magazine will close its doors so the staff can focus on their other sites like VWVortex, Fourtitude, Swedespeed, Mwerks, and Turbonines. It's sad to see a publication that desperately tried to merge the worlds of blogging with forums, but we wish the team luck and hope this "hiatus" ends up being just that.

We wish you guys all the best.


From Jamie and the rest of the Motive staff:

As many of you know, Motive's Editor-In-Chief Eddie Alterman has left our team to take the position of Editor-In-Chief at Car and Driver magazine. Essentially, Eddie's new job is the equivalent of playing for the Yankees, and hey, we can't blame him. Most of the Motive staff grew up with "old-school" Car and Driver and miss dearly the witty articles, off-the-wall stuff and general "fun" that Car and Driver used to be. Eddie has a unique opportunity to try and bring that "flavor" back to Car and Driver and (with the hopeful support of a French-owned publishing giant) we are anxious to see what he and the rest of the team over there have in store for us.

So that brings us back to Motive. After a lot of soul searching, alcohol, painful deliberation and more (alcohol) we have decided to put Motive on ice for now. With nervous investors, a horrible economy, the loss of Eddie and other factors, the decision, while not an easy one, has become clear. We've had a good ride with Motive and we'll miss it dearly. While we didn't accomplish everything we set out to do, we certainly did accomplish an awful lot, including proving to ourselves and to you that we could do something a little different that was a little more fun and inspiring.

Over the next several weeks we'll be running a few more new car reviews and we'll sprinkle a few "Best of Motive" pieces that are some of our favorites. After that we won't be updating the site regularly, but we will leave it up— there is still a lot of good material there. And don't worry, the discussion forums won't be affected by this in any way - they were here before Motive and will be here after Motive.

Motive introduced us to a lot of new technology and processes, and those are going to be integrated into all of our brand-specific websites (VWVortex, Fourtitude, Swedespeed, Mwerks, and Turbonines, for those of you not in the know.) We will be redesigning all of those websites in the coming months, and you'll definitely see shadows of Motive in the re-designs. We also have plans to launch something entirely new later this summer. I don't want to give away all the details yet, but we think some of you will be excited.

Every one of us that was involved in making Motive happen would like to say thanks to all of you that supported us and those of you whose critiques have pushed us to deliver our best work. The emails, IMs, and private messages of support meant a lot to all of us and we'll miss it. In the mean time we have a lot of cool stuff to work on, and we look forward to giving everyone another update in a few months.

- Jamie and the rest of the Motive staff

[via Motive]

My dad gave me my a subscription to Car & Driver when I was just nine years old. Every year after, I would save up money made doing chores just to re-up that subscription. The magazine meant enough to me I even saved almost six years of issues before my mom made me throw the lot of them away. I remember crying when she made me toss them. It was, I'm sure, like that for many other Jalopnik readers. Well, maybe not the teary-eyes part.

But, like many of us here at Jalopnik, we found, at some point between now and then, the buff book we once loved became tarnished, losing that magical shine. I stopped reading it regularly almost a decade ago, now only picking it up in airports or when I see a friendly name on the cover.

Until today. You see, we haven't heard much good news these days. The Carpocalypse has seemingly consumed almost everything we cover. Which is why we're actually joyfully shocked to be announcing Eddie's appointment.

Just as proudly, our sources at Hachette inform us that Jalopnik, by highlighting Eddie, and highlighting the painful misstep of a pretender to the throne of the auto buff books, played a major role in getting Alterman's name in front of the right people. But we feel confident it was Eddie who took it from there.

Eddie's a man who we consider to be a friend. But more importantly to the task at hand, Eddie has the strength of ideas necessary to restore Car & Driver to the top of the auto buff book food chain. Which is why our warmest wishes go out to Eddie AltermanI'll be signing up for a subscription again because I want to see what Eddie does to the place — but also because I hope to one day have the same feelings I once felt when I received my copy of Car & Driver in the mailbox each month.

Why is Eddie so great? In a changing media environment he's one of the few people who has found success in car mags, newspapers and online. He isn't just familiar with the automotive community online, as so many frightened buff book editors claim to be, he's actually helped establish Motive as a player in the new media world of car journalism. For instance, he knows how to properly credit stories to websites, a basic skill few on the other side of the media world understand. Car & Driver and CarAndDriver.com currently function as two separate organizations to the detriment of both the publication and its readers. Eddie can bring them together where they belong.

Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. Names Eddie Alterman Vice President, Editor In Chief of Car and Driver

New York, N.Y. (February 25, 2009) - Alain Lemarchand, President and
CEO, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. (HFM U.S.) announced today that
Eddie Alterman has been named Vice President, Editor In Chief of Car
and Driver. Alterman will report to Lemarchand will begin his new
position on Monday, March 2, 2009. HFM U.S. Group Editorial Director
John Owens has served as acting editor in chief since Csaba Csere's
departure two months ago.

"We are fortunate to have Eddie Alterman joining us as the editorial
head of one of our largest and most important brands. He is a
respected journalist and has extensive experience in automotive both
in print and digital content. He and John Driscoll, Vice President,
Publisher Automotive Group, will make a great team," said Lemarchand.
"We're confident that Alterman and his group will be able to create
outstanding content that will accelerate the growth of the brand by
enlarging the audiences of automotive enthusiasts as well as consumers
who look to Car and Driver and CarandDriver.com for credible advice
and reviews when they are buying a car."

In 2006, Alterman was founder and Editor In Chief of Motivemag.com, an
online car magazine combining original editorial and user-generated
content. Before that Alterman founded and served as Editor In Chief
of MPH's magazine and website. He also coordinated advertising and
marketing effort for print and online and was named one of Crain's
Detroit Business's "40 Under 40" young leaders. Alterman worked for
Men's Journal and began writing the magazine's car column and
automotive feature stories from 2006 to present. During his tenure
with Automobile, he developed and supervised the brand's web site and
maintained writing, editing, and custom-publishing responsibilities.

About Car and Driver

Car and Driver's expert editorial team is recognized by car
enthusiasts and automotive manufacturers as credible journalists who
practice to the highest standards. The magazine is published by
Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. twelve times each year delivering an
audience of over 11 million readers monthly (source: MRI Fall 2008).
With a circulation of 1.3 million copies (ABC Jan-June 2008), Car and
Driver is the world's largest monthly automotive magazine. The
magazine is a leading publication for in-market buyers, and the Car
and Driver brand extends to many platforms including a web site,
mobile site, radio, custom marketing programs and an integrated
marketing database. CarandDriver.com
relaunched last year with an easy-to-search format for the consumer
which combines Car and Driver's credible car reviews with improved
searchability and tools for people who are in the market to buy a car.
CarandDriver.com's advertising is sold by Jumpstart Automotive Media,
an HFM U.S. company.

Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. (www.hfmus.com
) enthusiast brands and targeted media products reach nearly 60
million consumers through magazines, online and mobile content. The
company's editorial hallmarks are trusted expert content along with
independent product testing. Our prestigious brands fall into five
sectors and include: Fashion (ELLE, ELLEgirl); Automotive (Car and
Driver, Road & Track, Jumpstart Automotive Media); The Luxury Design
Group (ELLE DECOR, Metropolitan Home, PointClickHome); Women & Health
(Woman's Day and Woman's Day Special Interest Group) and Enthusiasts
(American Photo, Boating, Cycle World, Flying, Popular Photography,
Premiere and Sound & Vision). HFM U.S. Total Solutions marketing
initiative packages these assets across brands and platforms with
customized marketing programs. HFM U.S. is part of Lagardère's
(www.lagardere.com) media division Lagardère Active, a producer of
special interest content in over 40 countries.

After yesterday's resignation of long-time Car & Driver chieftain Csaba Csere, it's important we get someone in the job of Editor-in-Chief over there who can help save the buffest of auto buff books, someone who can merge what car lovers want to read with what car engineers want to write. Most importantly, someone who can make us want to again read Car & Driver — and not just for the tiny bits and pieces lucky enough to make it through the editorial process.

Also, they've really got to merge the website with the magazine. This separation thing is getting silly. But whatever — Eddie's the man who can do it!

Next up: "Save The Buff Books" and "Save Car & Driver, Save The World" T-Shirts!

Photo / Graphic Credit: KORSdesign

MPH Editor Eddie Alterman invokes the ghost of GM's murdered Oldsmobile brand by referencing his pub as "Not your father's car magazine." In a GM Fastlane podcast. That, our friends, is intentionally or unintentionally an example of what our neighbors to the south would refer to as cojones. Or it's just an example of how unmemorable GM's advertising has become. That said, maybe when the need arises to euthanize more brands in a year or five, nobody will notice. In the meantime, if you were looking for the lyrics to Small Wonder's theme song, you can find them here.

Podcast: MPH Votes Corvette Z06 No. 1 Spin [GM Fastlane Blog]

Related:
Motorama Dream Car Sold for 3 Million at Auction [Internal]