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Do you miss the (printed) AutoTrader publication?
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Rick
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005
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Location: UK

PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2019 7:32 pm    Post subject: Do you miss the (printed) AutoTrader publication? Reply with quote

Opening a copy on a Thursday, you'd never know what you might find for sale. At the time when I was first taking an interest in acquiring a car, in the 1980s, buying - or rifling through a copy of - AutoTrader was an enjoyable ritual, something that the advent of the internet has pretty much done away with now, at least in print form. Sifting through online sales just isn't the same.

Does anyone here have any fondness for the old, printed, AutoTraders? And Exchange & Mart for that matter?

RJ
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Rootes75



Joined: 30 Apr 2013
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PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2019 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Didn't know it wasn't printed anymore!
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Rick
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PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2019 10:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rootes75 wrote:
Didn't know it wasn't printed anymore!


I've not noticed it for sale in years. I've certainly not bought one in 20+ years, but you've got me thinking now.

A quick search suggests that it went out of print in 2013, according to this:

http://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/auto-trader-magazine-to-be-axed-in-june/74035

RJ
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Minxy



Joined: 22 Sep 2010
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PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2019 10:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It was a Friday lunch time ritual for me - in my lunch hour go down the newsagent and buy Autotrader and exchange and mart along with a free Friday add. Wasn’t it Auto trader that used to send around a chap to take a picture of your car for the advert?
I still prefer to ‘hold paper’ when I read- I still buy newspapers, magazines and paperbacks. I can see newspapers and magazines will struggle in the future but I hope and like to think that books will thrive.
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Bitumen Boy



Joined: 26 Jan 2012
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Location: Above the snow line in old Monmouthshire

PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2019 11:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I still miss the Ad Trader paper that used to be printed weekly covering these parts. The problem with everything being online is things are so fragmented now, instead of one or two weekly papers you've now got an uncountable number of websites, far more than you can keep an eye on, meaning you can easily miss seeing exactly what you're looking for. When you do see something interesting chances are it's at the other end of the country or even overseas, to be honest I'd rather not know if it's too far away.

The papers were good for wanted ads too, I remember placing a wanted ad for Herald steel wheels to refurbish in "South Wales, Dean or Herefordshire" and quickly getting a call from a guy only a few miles down the road. I went down later that day and we reached a mutually acceptable deal within a few minutes, paid cash, job done. I bet I wouldn't get that kind of response to an online ad, probably just a bunch of jokers in Norwich or Newcastle (or Nigeria!) wanting £££'s more than the stuff is really worth. I think the internet has vastly inflated people's idea of what stuff is worth in cash terms in a way that is detrimental to our hobby.
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MikeEdwards



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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I used to buy Auto Trader (or Auto Mart, before that) every week for a period of time, and sift through it. I dropped it when I decided that I wasn't really looking for a car, but it was a welcome change when they started listing stuff in alphabetical order, as it meant I could scan through the magazine for stuff I was interested in very quickly.

To me, though, losing the print version is a bit like people abandoning traditional autojumbles in favour of eBay - in the sense that a traditional autojumble might throw up all sorts of stuff that I want to buy, but I'd never think of going on line to look for.

I still have the pages from Auto Trader that both my Vauxhalls were advertised in. It's a good job it wasn't done alphabetically then, as I'd never have found the Firenza - looking in either "V" or "F", the title of "Silver Viva coupe" wouldn't necessarily have registered.
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Rootes75



Joined: 30 Apr 2013
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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 10:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I was younger and first getting into classics it was before ebay etc, we would get our local 'Trade-it' paper on a Weds and Friday iirc. We would scan the ads and there used to be loads of barn finds etc and plenty of spares ads, that's all gone now.

I found my 1937 Ford 7W advertised locally in Trade-It back in 1994, my first classic at the age of 18! I was the first person to ring about the ad on the morning the paper came out. Very glad I was too!
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mikeC



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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 11:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Exchange & Mart was a weekly ritual for me, along with Motor Sport every month - back in the 'Sixties Motor Sport had pages of classifieds which invariably turned up an unexpected gem.
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Rootes75



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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see the old classifieds as something that has been killed off by ebay. It used to be nice getting the paper and phoning and chatting to a vendor, no having to bid against others or being outbid at the last second!

You don't seem to find those bargain barn finds advertised anymore, as soon as they are put on ebay the price just rockets.
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norustplease



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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 11:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whenever she found an Autotrader in the house, my wife always used to roll her eyes and say...'what are you up to now?'
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Bengt Axel



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PostPosted: Fri May 24, 2019 12:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think I went through the entire 1980's with inky fingers due to Autotrader. Never missed it, but miss it now!
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Ellis



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PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2019 11:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have got the very last edition of the North West Autotrader in front of me now and it is a shadow of the thick editions of the 1980s and 1990s.

The one I have is less than an inch in depth and the classified ads in it are so small that I need a magnifying glass rather than my reading spectacles to read them - a far cry from it's past.

Do I miss it as I did on Thursdays? The old version, yes, the one I have on my knee now, no.

A strange thing was that until the early 1990s you could not even buy an Autotrader in the Conwy Valley. The reason? It was printed in Llandudno Junction by the same printers(RE Jones Ltd) who produced The North Wales Weekly News which had a large vehicles for sale section and was published on a Thursday.
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Mog



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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2019 2:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The good old Exchange and Mart ! I bought my first Morgan 3- wheeler from an ad. in the Exchange and Mart . My brother drove it back from Bedford as I was too young. About 1960 , Easter time .
Saved the money up from my 7 day a week paper round !
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