Feature: Motoring Websites

Car use is on the increase – Office for National Statistics figures put the percentage of UK households with access to at least one car at over 70%, while one household in four has two or more motors.

The UK magazine market has upwards of 20 general interest motoring titles, not including the numerous used-car, off-road, manufacturer, performance, classic and tuning titles. Not surprisingly, motoring journalism, in its many forms, has now found its way onto the internet and looks to be thriving there.

James Lee, commercial manager at the online version of

Richard Dredge, producer of beeb.com‘s motoring section, says that “while magazines and newspaper sections provide an inspirational view at the world of motoring, websites can provide an interactive as well as functional experience. For example, users of

Perhaps one of the prime functions of the internet is its ability to ‘instantly’ store and provide access to large volumes of information. This has led to increasing numbers of online versions of classified ads – such as jamjar.com, autobytel.co.uk and the largest motoring-related website in the UK – autotrader.co.uk, which registered just under a million individual users during January this year, according to ABC Electronic.

Although the most frequent advertisers on these sites are car manufacturers and finance/insurance companies, the full range of advertising reflects the diversity of the car-buying audience. Whilst many ads will form part of a multimedia campaign, some have used the interactive qualities of the web specifically to develop customer relations in a standalone treatment. James Lee cites the example of Ford, which ran a campaign on What Car? that invited visitors to interact by changing the colour of the car.

Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive