Report updated Jun 3, 2026
Car and Driver Magazine US
For automotive enthusiasts and industry professionals seeking performance reporting and automotive technology insights.
Car and Driver Magazine US is an established lifestyle app that is available. With a 4.5/5 rating from 2.6K reviews, it shows polarized user reception.
What is Car and Driver Magazine US?
Car and Driver is a digital magazine app for automotive enthusiasts, providing performance reporting and industry analysis on iOS and Android.
Users hire the app for authoritative, long-form automotive journalism that provides depth beyond standard news feeds, serving the need for expert industry foresight.
Current Momentum
v26.0 · 11mo ago
Zombie- Maintains legacy magazine distribution model.
- No significant feature updates recently.
Active Nemesis
evo Magazine
By Carwow Studio
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
LifestyleNo ranking data
Rating Pulse 🇺🇸
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
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What Are The Key Features?
Provides free access to magazine issues for a limited duration on iOS devices.
Two-finger tap gesture captures images of content for sharing to social networks.
Monthly and annual digital access to magazine content via in-app purchase.
How much does it cost?
- Free tier with timed issue previews
- Monthly subscription at $1.99
- Annual subscription at $19.99
Subscription model anchored at $19.99/year, utilizing timed previews to convert free users into recurring subscribers.
Who Built It?
Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.
View Publisher Intel →Enrichment in progress
Publisher profile available very soon
What other apps does Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. make?
What do users think recently?
Analysis in progress, available soon
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for Car and Driver Magazine US?
Where is it available?
Localized markets (1)
How's The Lifestyle Market?
How does it evolve in the Lifestyle market?
The app holds a #141 Grossing position in the Canadian Lifestyle category. The lack of top-tier US chart presence relative to its brand legacy signals a disconnect between editorial authority and mobile-native engagement.
Rank progression
1 active ranking tracked — 30-day window
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
evo serves the same high-intent automotive enthusiast demographic, focusing on performance-oriented journalism and deep-dive vehicle testing that mirrors Car and Driver's editorial mission.
Differentiators
- Offers integrated 'My Scrapbook' feature for users to curate personal collections of favorite vehicle articles
- Provides exclusive track day discounts, creating a tangible real-world value proposition beyond digital content consumption
- Digital edition access model creates a direct subscription-based revenue stream distinct from ad-supported reader experiences
Head to head
Car and Driver should leverage its superior platform stability to introduce interactive, user-curated content features that mirror the engagement depth of evo's scrapbook.
Contenders(4)
Autocar competes for the same professional and enthusiast audience by providing technical automotive analysis and industry-leading news.
Differentiators
- Includes a specialized company car tax calculator, providing utility-driven value for professional automotive readers
- Seamless Pocketmags account synchronization allows users to manage multiple magazine subscriptions within a single ecosystem
What Car? targets the consumer-buying segment of the automotive market, overlapping with Car and Driver's vehicle review and recommendation content.
Differentiators
- Focuses on proprietary reliability surveys that provide actionable data for prospective car buyers during research
- Prioritizes consumer-facing purchasing advice over the performance-first editorial style found in Car and Driver
Auto Express competes by offering a blend of news and marketplace features that target the same broad automotive enthusiast base.
Differentiators
- Integrates a car deal marketplace directly into the app, bridging the gap between editorial and commerce
- Publishes exclusive digital renders of upcoming vehicles, driving high-intent traffic through speculative visual content
Auto Bild España provides localized automotive news and analysis, competing for the attention of Spanish-speaking automotive enthusiasts.
Differentiators
- Features robust cross-platform account synchronization, ensuring a consistent reading experience across mobile and desktop devices
- Maintains a high-frequency news feed that prioritizes real-time automotive industry updates over long-form magazine features
Same space(3)
CarBuzz operates in the same digital automotive news space, focusing on rapid-fire updates and community-driven vehicle ratings.
Differentiators
- Utilizes a proprietary 'BuzzScore' rating system to provide quick, at-a-glance vehicle assessments for casual readers
- Encourages high-volume social commenting, fostering a community-driven discussion layer that Car and Driver lacks
Autoblog.nl serves the automotive enthusiast community with a focus on news and user-generated content, overlapping with Car and Driver's digital presence.
Differentiators
- Features the 'Autojunk' platform, allowing users to upload and share their own automotive photos and sightings
- Operates as a community-first news feed, prioritizing user-submitted content over traditional editorial journalism
Motor Sport occupies the niche of performance and racing journalism, competing for the time and attention of the same enthusiast demographic.
Differentiators
- Includes a comprehensive historical motorsport database, providing deep archival value for long-term automotive enthusiasts
- Integrates podcast content directly into the app, catering to modern consumption habits beyond written articles
Compare Car and Driver Magazine US against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for Car and Driver Magazine US
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Editorial authority across performance reporting sustains brand equity
- Timed-preview model lowers the barrier for initial content discovery
Critical Frictions
- 2.98 rating on Android indicates significant platform-specific stability issues
- Lack of interactive community features limits daily active usage
Growth Levers
- Integrate vehicle-buying utility tools to capture high-intent research traffic
- Expand multimedia hubs to include podcast and video content
Market Threats
- CarBuzz's social commenting layer drains community engagement
- Rapid-fire news apps erode the value of monthly long-form editorial cycles
What are the next best moves?
Rebuild Android core navigation because the 2.98 rating indicates severe stability issues → improve platform retention
The Android rating is significantly lower than the iOS baseline, signaling a broken experience for a large user segment.
Trade-off: Pause the iOS social-clipping update — Android stability is the primary churn driver.
Integrate a vehicle-reliability survey tool because competitors like What Car? capture high-intent buyers through this data → increase subscription conversion
The current model lacks utility-driven research tools that keep users returning for buying decisions.
Trade-off: Deprioritize the legacy archive migration — new-user conversion is the higher revenue priority.
A counter-intuitive read
The brand's editorial authority is a liability in the current mobile market, as it encourages a passive reading habit that is increasingly losing ground to community-driven, high-frequency social automotive news.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- User-curated content collections (available in evo Magazine)
- Real-time car deal marketplace (available in Auto Express)
- Reliability survey data (available in What Car?)
- Company car tax calculator (available in Autocar)
Key Takeaways
Car and Driver maintains high editorial authority but fails to convert this into mobile-native engagement, so the PM should prioritize utility-driven research tools over legacy magazine features to capture high-intent buyer traffic.
Where Is It Heading?
Mixed Signals
The automotive publishing market is shifting toward utility-driven research and community-first news, leaving long-form magazine apps exposed. Car and Driver must transition from a static content repository to an active research tool to remain relevant against competitors that integrate commerce and buyer-data.
The Android rating gap (2.98 vs 4.51 on iOS) indicates technical debt that prevents the app from scaling across the broader mobile market.
The current update cadence is stagnant, suggesting the app is in maintenance mode rather than active growth, which risks losing share to agile rivals.