Apr. 30, 2006 - The Decline and Fall of Car and Driver, or Where the Hell is Brock?

I’ve been an unabashed fan of Car and Driver magazine for damn near twenty years now.  The filter through which my automotive ideals are seen is tinted by the many years of reading the works of William “don’t call me Bill” Jeanes, Don Sherman, David E. Davis. Jr., Patrick Bedard and Brock Yates—all writers for Car and Driver at one time or another.  Of this esteemed bunch of automotive hacks, my favorite has always been Brock Yates. 

While working at Car and Driver in the 1960s Yates, along with Davis, revolutionized American automotive journalism.  Enthusiast magazines up to that point were either successful hobby centered tomes like Hot Rod magazine, or quaint periodicals run by anglophiles that liked to extol the virtues of outdated little sports cars from across the pond month after month.  Car and Driver was arguably the first magazine to take the craft of automotive criticism seriously.  And I do not mean without humor, instead I mean the writing was of a caliber equal to the best of any magazine or newspaper on the market.   All types of automobiles from around the world were actually tested, analyzed, studied and reported on.   The editorial content dealt with matters beyond the car, delving into politics and social issues.  Car and Driver became known for it’s often times irreverent view of the automotive landscape and the characters prancing around in it.

David E. Davis, Jr. bounced around the automotive magazine business, leaving C&D for the advertising world, coming back to C&D, and finally leaving again and starting his own automotive magazine, appropriately named Automobile Magazine.  Brock Yates on the other hand, stayed with Car and Driver in one form or another through those many years, contributing articles and editorial content monthly.  He carried on the rebellious, sometimes shocking, yet serious journalistic spirit we have come to expect from C&D. 

Brock Yates is much more than just the modern patriarch of Car and Driver; he is probably the best American automotive pundit on the market today.  The decision to retire him from the magazine’s masthead (as announced in the May issue) is perplexing.  And worse yet was the rather dismissive way it was announced; a few sentences in the last paragraph of the current Editor-in-Chief’s editorial column.

It’s been speculated that Car and Driver has some serious cost issues, as well as a desire to cater to a younger demographic, which has lead to the decision to “early retire” Brock Yates among other changes.  I will not get into the speciousness of this move, but to say that a proper editorial send off was in order nonetheless.  I would have expected some sort of retrospective that dealt with the contributions that Brock Yates has made not only at Car and Driver, but to the world of automotive journalism.  He has written many award winning books, movie scripts, and has worked as an on-air commentator. His work should have been celebrated and not just grudgingly acknowledged.

Whatever the behind the scenes reasons were, the character of a publication is the extension of that of its editors and in this case Car and Driver was left seriously wanting.