Chris73 said:
As previousley said on the thread I was one of the people who didn't own a bus when I bought C&B at an airport as I had nothing to read on the flight. It was that and the articles in it that started me off thinking that this would be a brilliant thing to do, and instead of pissing my money up the wall on motorbikes, I could do it with 40 year old vans!
Over the next year, both mags educated me on what type of van I wanted, and what type would suit me best. Without the mags I would never have known about the different scenes, the differences between lates and earlys, Westys and Devons. Then I discovered you lot on here and I knew what I wanted..... 8)
To sum up, without the mags I wouldn't be pumping my hard owned into the scene.The danger is they become too specialised and the readership dwindles and then the mags close, and we lose a valuable entry point into our scene.
If the price is a couple of features on builders vans then so be it, I'll skip over them. The fact that James and David come on the forums and seem to care about what we think is also a plus in my book.
Anyway, Off to find that shop with the blacked out windows to see if they've got anything for my 2cv fetish........
^^ This is exactly what C&B is about. ^^
It was launched to cover vehicles that the air-cooled only VolksWorld didn't.
The remit right from the start was to feature stock vehicles and water-cooled late models and to appeal to new and future owners.
Now, I am undeniably biased towards the air-cooled scene so when I first began commisioning features all those years ago it's hardly suprising that I started featuring more and more Bays (in fact, I took and continue to take air-cooled Buses that tradtionally, would be more inkeeping with VolksWorld than C&B).
It's an arguement I've had with Ivan on more occasions than I can remember!
It helped turn C&B into the mag it is today but probably kept the water-cooled content out of C&B for longer than I perhaps should have.
The thing is - it's a winning formula.
It might not be entirely to your tastes but C&B currently outsells every other VW mag available by a considerable margin - that's why we state that on the cover - so my publisher isn't about to let me tinker with that formula and remove the water-cooled content - that would be financial suicide.
UNLESS we notice a definite shift - i.e. those interested in T4s and T5s switch over to VWt and stop buying C&B.
We've discussed this and the door is open to the possibility of C&B becoming more air-cooled specific - although what about Type 25s?
The issue we're working on right now has 6 features - 1 is a T5 (actually it's a double feature so there are 2 of them!) and there are 2 Splits and 2 Bay features.
Now me personally, I've read VolksWorld for 20+ years and I have never ever read one of the features on drag cars - I have zero interest in them - but it never stopped me enjoying the rest of the mag.
I also drew inspiration from the big budget cars to build my own zero budget one.
I never wanted to own a Bus until I started seeing cool ones in the mags - I was a Beetle person.
What I'm trying to say is that C&B is about educating people as much as anything else.
You might not want a T5 yet but maybe one day you might find yourself in a posistion where you only have funds/space/whatever for one vehicle to do everything - work, rest and play - and decide that because a T5 is still part of the VW family it's not that bad a choice...
Or, you might see a cool one - perhaps body dropped by Matt Ballz and it'll blow your mind... Maybe?
We feature company built Buses and good quality home builds and even I'm not stupid enough to deny that a Bus with a story is better than a shiny one without.
We're always listening and monitoring the markets so anything could happen but in the meantime I can only apologise to you harcore air-cooled people about the T4s and T5s - but to be fair, they have been in the mag from day one so it's not like we've only just started forcing them on you.
Like I say, I'm air-cooled through and through - I would be on this forum if I didn't work for the mag (and I would probably post more as I'd be able to write what I like rather than having to be polite and represent the brand all the time) but I do care about what's said on here and don't like the idea of anyone getting bored of C&B for any reason.
If you made a cake and someone said it tasted like stink you'd take it pretty personally but with magazines it's constructive criticism and has to be taken on the chin.
You can't please everyone all the time but we do try our best.
This isn't a mag editor having a whinge I'm just trying to reply to some of the comments on here - that have been repeated in the C&B office - so have all been really valid and useful.
Incidentally, did you notice the amount of T5s at Busfest?
They were definitely up on last year, but if anyone fancies launching an air-cooled only show I'd be happy to run something in the mag to support it.
Cheers
