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Popular Mechanics

How would you rate Popular Mechanics?
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New York
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Bob F.
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To get the ‘good content' I have to pay more for pro? AND the print magazine layout is HORRIBLE. July/August issue - no date on cover, page 33 - dark 7 PT type over dark brown. Just two of many issues. This mag used to be fun. It's just junk. Bye bye.

Date of experience: October 11, 2020
Texas
1 review
1 helpful vote
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The website has contact button, but it doesn't work. Guess they don't want to hear any critique of their content...
Pop mech used to be a great magazine, but no more. They only have green new deal crap, and the latest is a 10 page listing of their most influential tools...I know what these are, it's just filler for no relevant content. Sad to see a 100+ year old magazine go this way.

Date of experience: December 16, 2022
South Carolina
1 review
3 helpful votes
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Don't waste your money!
December 19, 2021

I'm nearing my 70th birthday soon and memories of this magazine are very strong. I remember years ago reading my father's Popular Mechanic magazines and sometimes building projects from the Magazine with him. Over the years Popular Magazine slowly fade away and I stopped buying it. So last October I purchased a new subscription hoping to see they had improved it a little. Finally, after 2 months of waiting the January issue arrived. I was excited to see the de Havilland Mosquito on the cover but soon after reading through the magazine I wanted to throw it away. What have they done to this magazine? The magazine is nothing more than a book of advertisement's, page after page. At my age I cannot believe I did not do my review on Popular Mechanics. Anyway, getting to the point I would like to express my extreme sorrow I threw my money away on this magazine. Do the Owners or editors read these reviews? Guess not!

Date of experience: December 19, 2021
South Dakota
1 review
3 helpful votes
Follow Tim N.
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I have subscribed for years and always renew my subscription. The continuing phone calls from a call center to my job and personal email to buy gift subscriptions has reached the end of my patients. I had found out that my last time I resubscribed I had been put on an Automatic re-up. I cancelled that, then started the phone calls and emails. Very unfortunate. My subscription will probably never be renewed because of this. Shame PM can't just give a customer what they want!

Date of experience: October 16, 2017
Maryland
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Not worth the money
November 1, 2022

The magazine contains very few articles from the website. The magazine features none of the headlining articles on the website. It's a completely disjointed customer experience that begs the question "why even offer a print version at all?" I suppose it's simply for the nostalgia of having a print version. When I was a kid I remember the magazines being so robust and chalked full of cool stuff, now their just a shell. Skip the print subscription and pay the extra $20 for the all access pass to the website instead. You'll get what you paid for.

Date of experience: November 1, 2022
Wisconsin
1 review
5 helpful votes
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This is awful. Truly awful. Everything looks so professional, you think you're getting a steal. Hell no. For starters, everything is misinformation. If you check their sources, reviewers mark them as awful. Secondly a lot of their $#*! you have to pay for. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, ITS A BLOODY SCAM. I created an account to get the PRO membership and received a valid email. When I forgot my password, they told me my account didn't EXIST. To make matters worse, the only way you can actually contact them through a proper link is by actual mail! Their email link doesn't WORK at all. I will never ever read this magazine or anything else by Hearst AGAIN!

Date of experience: April 29, 2020
Arizona
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Print font
July 3, 2021

I thought I was loosing my vision, I could not read the popular mechanics articles. I then layed out a article beside a article in readers digest. The font in popular mechanics is about 60% of their size. Making the magazine worthless. The articles have became also worthless. I am a thirty year client. Bye.

Date of experience: July 3, 2021
Pennsylvania
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
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Not reliable.
May 9, 2021

While some articles might be completely well factchecked and well written, there is clearly little oversite as to who can post what. Popular Mechanics has no issue publishing nonsense such as (https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a*******/mushrooms-on-mars-nasa-photos-life-on-mars/). The article is not satire even though this whole mushrooms on mars thing is a hoax and to date has not been taken down or amended. While I understand it can be difficult to know if something is real, the lack of fact checking is beyond reasonable for a publication to associated itself with anything close to science.

Date of experience: May 9, 2021
Georgia
1 review
3 helpful votes
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The 'content interest' factor has gone down a lot... no longer fun to read.
Also in their cost-saving effort, the print size is now way too small... I increased my reading glasses to 2.5 (from 2.0) just to read the print which didn't help much... It gives me a headache to read it. THIS IS THE ONLY MAGAZINE THAT HAS GONE THIS ROUTE OF DECREASING THE FONT SIZE. Will not be renewing! SAD

Date of experience: April 28, 2022
California
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Not engineers
November 20, 2022

If engineers they have failed to take the Ethical course. The fact where they do not use physical laws nor logic to prove their statements seem a bit unethical from a professional

Date of experience: November 20, 2022
Michigan
3 reviews
0 helpful votes
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Now you can find medical articles and even recipies. They've lost their way. It's become more of a woman's magazine with articles related to anything but mechanical, tools, and popular fixs

Date of experience: May 3, 2023
North Carolina
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Popular Worthless
February 26, 2023

Ive bought this magazine for 30 years off and on, always good how to articles, interesting mechanics tool review. The TRASH POPULAR MECHANICS free gift mag that was delivered last week was nothing like it was in times gone by. Stupid Articles like " Jessie James lost Gold" or Wood working tool review that lacked depth...and...Unless you own a Classic Morgan Auto Worthless. Oh yea there was a 3 page Article on the THE DEAD AND HOW TO EMBOMB... No *hit it was in the mag. Sad Sad Sad you have destroyed a great mag.

Date of experience: February 26, 2023
Texas
1 review
4 helpful votes
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Bad Journalism
August 29, 2020

Their articles on LNG trains and hurricane threat to the Houston ship channel were so shallow, one-sided and ignorant that they give journalism a bad name.

Date of experience: August 29, 2020
Indonesia
20 reviews
15 helpful votes
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Keep passing away from this kind of site, unless it's OK for you to be deemed miserable and mislaid, forget it right away!

Date of experience: May 29, 2018
Puerto Rico
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Their recent podcast on UFOs is a puff piece that shows very little critical thinking when examining this issue.

Date of experience: April 26, 2023

Overview

Popular Mechanics has a rating of 1.6 stars from 16 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Popular Mechanics ranks 189th among Magazines sites.

service
4
value
5
shipping
3
returns
2
quality
5