Wheels magazine is changing – for the better!

WELCOME to the all-new Wheels magazine! Well, to your first look at it anyway.

When our February issue goes on sale next Thursday Jan 31, it’s going to look and feel very different.

There’ll be new content, new sections and a fresh, more premium design (with significantly better paper stock to highlight our award-winning photography), and it’ll also include more than 65 pages of Car of the Year coverage.

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Welcome, then, to a new chapter for Wheels. To a wholesale reinvention of Australia’s best-selling and most influential motoring title, which is something that doesn’t happen very often. The last time Wheels received such a comprehensive overhaul was fully 13 years ago.

A lot has changed in that time and you were the catalysts for this change. The ‘new’ Wheels has been a year in the planning. We asked you what you wanted to see from the magazine and you overwhelmed us with your feedback. We were humbled and at the same time stoked at the passion and insight of our loyal readers.

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The response to the lengthy survey we conducted was some 400 percent larger than expected and the results were unequivocal. You want Wheels to continue to be a blend of big features, comparison tests and industry-leading reviews created by the world’s best journalists and photographers. That’s a given.

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But you also want more. Our Showroom section will be larger than ever (and include dual-cab utes) and there’ll be a greater focus on real-world, attainable cars.

We’re also placing a heavier focus on car culture. Our new ‘Overrun’ section will celebrate the cool and wacky machines and people that make the car world such an interesting, and occasionally baffling, place.

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And while Wheels is forever looking forward to bring you the latest in car reveals and cutting-edge technology , we’ll be looking backwards too with a monthly section on ‘Modern Classics’. They’ll be hero cars from the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s that either already have a cult following or are diamonds in the rough. Cars that were perhaps unloved at the time, but are now deservedly gaining in popularity and value.

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As for how Wheels will look, our overriding goal was to make the magazine feel more premium. That means luxurious, heavyweight paper stock and a design that is both easy to navigate and easy to read.

We understand magazines are an immersive experience, and we value the fact that Aussies are prepared to pay for Wheels in an era of abundant free content. We know you want something that takes you deeper than what can be achieved from behind a screen, and that has been our overarching goal.

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We’re confident we’ve succeeded, but we won’t really know until we hear from you once you’ve read it. Let the feedback begin!