Australian 4wd Action Magazine

darthloachie wrote:

supergaz wrote: I think Total 4x4 / Total off road just need to do more features on real life 4x4's. It must be hard to find something to write about, if its from a winter tyre review each year to another land rover which should stay in one of the land rover mags!
Maybe real people and what they do with their 4x4's.
Total use the 4x4 shows to find suitable 4x4's to feature, and even their own forum seems to struggle. Maybe they should visit pay and play days to find real people with 4x4's built to a budget.

don't be daft ............. they can't even follow up on an email request sent to us to feature our jimny received after the 2011 show

Yes, they are a nightmare to get any information from, i had no idea on what was happening on the day, no idea on when it was to be published and I don't even get a free copy, I think alot of people with show worthy motors realy just cannot be bothered to deal with the magazines. Whoever wrote the article has never spoken to me in any way, some interesting mods are missed out and the thanks to my ex partner made my girlfriend sick.
On the plus side it hopefuly made an interesting read to jap 4x4 owners and will get more people to consider a jimny for an off road toy.
I'm gutted Bigjimny did not get a mention as this would have been good for this great site thanks to Martin, however on the plus side Jimnybits and Off road armoury did get mentioned which may enable people to consider jimnys over the mass landrover parts market.
I will be at the next show, but will I take the jimny? I'd only do this if it was to be part of a Bigjimny stand.

Looks like a good reason to emigrate, great country to explore and better TV and magazines and obviously climate.

I have often thought about an online magazine as it would reduce costs so much, however, paper magazines have continued to exist whilst the internet has been around for many years for a reason - people, such as myself, like to have a paper magazine to read. You can take it anywhere, keep it forever and it doesn't have a battery to go flat like a phone or Ipad. Numerous magazines have an app for their mag to be read on Iphone/pad these days though.

I have thought about a Suzuki only magazine that could be online only. Look how much we all enjoy reading Dave's blogs on Bits4Vits.

The thing is, someone has to start it off. It's never going to be a real money earner, at least not for some time after it's established. So it get's done by someone in their spare time who can write, take photographs, travel the country at their own cost looking at other peoples cars, has computer and website building skills and then the time to sit down and put it all together.

Having a network of buddies that can write and take photo's across the country would help, however, they have to be found and be trusted to deliver what they say they can, when they can. Magazines use freelancers for this job and if they are no good, they don't get used again.

If someone can bank roll such an online magazine, I can see it could become a financial goer. It would take some time before it broke even though, with payment per download and advertising. I don't have the money or the time and I like my salary.

It would be hard to find fresh material for a monthly Suzuki magazine though. There are limited numbers of Suzuki 4x4's people like us would be interested in. SJs, LJs, Vitaras, Grand Vitaras, LWB + SWB variants and Jimny's. That's it then really though. Landrover mags have survived with this number of models for years but they have a far bigger following.

Challenge trucks feature most months in most magazines and as I have a special interest in Winch Challenges, I don't mind seeing them month in, month out. It does get to a point where they are all the same Landrover 90 or another Landrover chassis based trayback with the same parts from the same manufacturers - Gigglepin this and that ... Yawn!

Seeing people push the envelope is what I like though and I can spot something different about most challenge Landrovers quickly now. I know they are Landrovers and I joke about them but you have to respect them and what they can do.

There are people with great Zukes who push the envelope or simply do great things with their Zuke though, who you don't see because no-one is actively looking for them. Have a look as this little lovely below for example:



The owner of this truck would never come forward and ask for this SJ to be magazine featured but many of us would sure as hell like to read a decent article on it!

Reading build threads on the internet is great, but seeing it all put together in a nice article by someone that can write and take decent photos just brings it all together in such a nice way it's like you're reading about another truck.

You see and read about things you didn't realise had been done as they may seem insignificant to the owner. That's where the skill of the writer comes in though. They need to know their trucks to notice these for themselves in order to highlight them. They also have to care enough and be interested enough to notice these details.

I went to Edition 38 this year - a VW car show. I looked at a Mk1 Golf. A car I have always liked but don't know them well. I then read a magazine article written just before the show. I wish I had read it first as I missed so many cool mods from not knowing the model and not knowing the mods were mods. When pointed out they were so cool and original.

There are also some absolutely standard but stunning old SJ's to be found on eBay every now and then which would be feature worthy. There's a LWB pick up on there right now - a black one.

Real life articles are done on Landrovers all the time, but then they are worked more than Zukes. Seeing people's daily Zuke that goes 'laning at the weekend or on European trips would be good though. We also have our European cousins we can include in this too.

I have had a bit of experience with most 4x4 mags out there over this last year trying to promote my Club and some local events and have found Total 4x4 / Total Offroad to be the better one to deal with. Several of the Landrover Mags do not even acknowledge my emails. More fool them as they have missed out on free event reports with photos that Total 4x4 have received and published quite happily and give me more space each time I do so.

My Mrs and I have discussed emigrating to Australia, albeit briefly, and both have a profession that may allow us to do so. I would seriously consider it if the cost of living was not reported to be so high out there compared to the UK. It does appear to be a beautiful place to live and so vast for the 4x4 enthusiast to explore.

Oh well, I'll keep dreaming, reading build blogs on forums, magazines, Greenlaning and attending events as a spectator to get my fix.

Kirkynut