About Us
Welcome to Car and Driver. We've created this page to introduce ourselves to you and to let you know what it is we do around here. Car and Driver is a print and digital magazine covering the newest car offerings, showcasing car culture, and helping people shopping for a car by serving up our unique brand of intelligence, independence, and irreverence. We've been in the magazine business since 1955 and online for more than two decades.
We make the complicated easier to understand for those of you shopping for a new car and push the limits of performance machines for our enthusiast readers. A Car and Driver review balances the subjective with objective data and pulls no punches; on our best days, we hope we even give you a good laugh. We pull together multi-car comparison tests that separate the good, the bad, and the ugly to give you the product knowledge that you crave. Our online ranking system breaks down vehicle segments to help shoppers make informed decisions. In addition to sharp and unbiased reviews, our features and columns allow our readers to ride shotgun with the world's finest automotive writers.
Like vinyl records, the print version of Car and Driver is on trend, collectible, and never goes out of style. In each issue, you'll get the very best from our writers, photographers, and graphic artists in a format you can hold in your hands. It's also the only place to get our legendary Backfires column, where you can read the best (and worst) letters to the editor and Ed.'s responses. Do what legions of discerning readers have been doing since 1955 and subscribe to Car and Driver.
We're also in the business of testing cars, trucks, SUVs, and vans. That's what separates us from other automotive media. For more than 60 years we've been answering the objective questions—How fast? How quick? How much grip?—and our findings have settled countless barroom bets. With the goal of covering every make and model on the market, we test upward of 400 vehicles per year, more than anyone else in the industry. In the early days of the magazine, just as the interstate highway system began to connect the country, we used a stopwatch to measure acceleration times. Today, we use highly precise GPS-based testing equipment. Testing is continually evolving as technology and vehicles change. Recently we've added several static tests to measure cargo space, interior stowage pockets, infotainment response time, and the size of blind spots, among other things. In all, we collect more than 200 data points on every test vehicle. You can learn more about our tests and procedures here.
Why put so much energy into vehicle testing? We believe that third-party testing is critical because manufacturers' performance claims are just that: claims. Over the years, C/D testing has uncovered numerous cars that didn't perform as promised. In 1999, our test of an underperforming Ford Mustang Cobra led Ford to admit that defective intake manifolds were compromising airflow. Ford installed new intake manifolds and mufflers to deliver the promised horses. When a 2001 Mazda Miata proved slower than the outgoing model despite a claimed 15-horsepower increase, we called BS. Mazda then confessed that the 155-horsepower number came from a Japanese version that didn't pass U.S. emission standards. Mazda offered to buy back early models or provide free maintenance and $500. More recently, Toyota claimed that the 2020 Supra's center of gravity was lower than the GR86's, so we measured that. Toyota was wrong.
Car and Driver is partly supported by advertising, but everything you see on the site or in the magazine is produced by our editors or contributors and adheres to our high standards for quality. To ensure accuracy, our content is fact-checked by the copy department and edited by the testing team to verify technical accuracy. If we do have any content created in partnership with advertisers, we will mark it as such. And we value your contribution as well: let us know if you spot an error or have feedback you want to share.
