Re: New Magazine

[pbmain@xxxx]

Thanks for the rundown...that's somewhat what I was expecting, so I 
invested some $$ into parts instead of the subscription for the time 
being...

It's nice having publications like this being produced today, but 
what I don't understand is why they're so overproduced for the 
information they contain? If the magazines had a ton of tech info in 
there and all kinds of ads from different folks, that would be 
worthwhile. The national DMC club magazine seemed more like this, 
but I didn't get much out of it, other than the ads for the same 
alternator, lock solenoid, and door struts replacements from various 
sellers. 

I say this not from the DMC club perspective since I am unaware of 
who puts together what, but part of the problem with club 
publications is that whoever is putting them together, usually a 
longtime member, is more focused on the club and putting the cars in 
these unique photo locations. You'll read all these stories about 
past events, with pictures of the cars all lined up on the side of a 
mountain, or some upcoming event, but meanwhile there's a ton of us 
out here all wrenching away trying to get the cars ready to even get 
to these events with 1001 car related questions, but instead we're 
getting sent a monthly car club travel log!

If someone really wants to come up with something to market, produce 
a "Delorean Owners Companion" book, featuring all the *key* 
information from the different books, data sources, tips, etc. The 
BMW club put out a book of general tips, even across such a wide 
range of cars, and it's very helpful. It contains repair tips and 
some model-specific repair information. No glitzy color photos on 
expensive glossy paper, just an oversized book in black and white. 
Delorean could have the basics on maintenance, suspension upgrade 
tips, trailing arm inspection/repair, electrical fixes, radio 
replacements, proper car detailing, reccomended fluids, 'trick' 
fixes, rebuild estimates/pricing when major repairs are required, on 
and on..

Sure, people can go look through their owners manual once they pay 
$30+ for one, then find some other data in the service manual once 
they shell out $60, then find some bulletin about recall updates in 
another $35 manual and spend hours doing lousy digest searches that 
return 15,000 messages when searching for the original rear speaker 
sizing or the best technique for cleaning the stainless, etc. I'm 
not saying this should be a replacement for these other valuable 
books, but I have all these books but still don't have anything that 
shows me the proper "technique" for getting scuffmarks off the 
stainless steel, for instance. I'd rather not take a scotchbrite pad 
and start sanding away with the grain to "see what happens". The 
owners FAQ that's out there is very helpful to get going, but 
something in between that and these factory manuals would be 
excellent. 

For a single car model that has such a strong following, clubs, 
magazines, etc...I'd rather buy a book and use it as a general repair 
reference, THEN hunt down the latest information and products through 
literature from the DMCHoustons, PJGradys, SpecialTAuto, DMCJoe, and 
the web in general... rather than subscribe to some overpriced 
magazine for years hoping they decide to run an article on how to 
check trailing arm bolts or repair a fuel sender. At least now when 
the daily repeated question comes up, we can say "buy this book - 
it'll explain a lot", and people won't be having the same questions 
over and over again on the net...

Just an idea...maybe a team of dedicated owners could even come 
together and put together such a book. Think about all that you know 
now after owning the car compared to when you were new to all the 
technical information, and how much time you could have saved with 
the proper resource to begin with...
Pete