Newspapers played a major role in expanding my knowledge about cars.
BHPian chiekennugget recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Newspaper, defined as a printed publication (usually issued daily or weekly) consisting of folded unstapled sheets and containing news, articles, advertisements
when I was younger my information about cars used to come from going to showrooms, father telling me stuff, highly professional/academic discussions by FBI (fourth grade bureau of investigation) etc. Never used the internet much.
Newspapers played a major role in expanding my knowledge about cars. If I wanted to know about the latest gewgaw in the car world they were right there. I used to collect car ads from a newspaper. I complied it into a book but I can’t find it anywhere.
My favourite ad was by BMW for the i8. It was awesome! It occupied the entire front page and behind it were details about the tech in the car.
I decided to do it again and document my observations.
News paper of choice:The times of India, main paper.
Oldest paper checked:1|3|2024
Recent paper checked:1|7|2024 (a few papers were missing in between)
Maruti Suzuki
As expected, they advertise a lot. At one point I got up and stopped going through the papers because I felt fatigued looking at them. I also found a Wagonr ad from an eenadu paper, I am not going to include that. 
Toyota
Toyota advertises their Maruti products more than they advertise their own, which makes sense. Toyota also published a Camry ad on march-13. I know the exact date because it had the most car advertisements (3 including Skoda, Maruti, Toyota), I can’t find the Camry ad anymore. 
(Hotwheels for scale)
Skoda and Volkswagen
They don’t advertise a lot, combined they advertised only 6 times. Maybe the newspaper is under engineered for there over engineered cars.
Jeep
They advertised only once.
Renault
They advertised only once but the ad was ruined by adding a person in it. It would have looked perfect without it. 
Nissan
I expected to Nissan to advertise only once, but they proved me wrong by advertising TWICE!!. 
Mahindra
I thought Mahindra would advertise more, but they didn’t. They had two advertisements but they were the same, to announce the launch of the 3XO.
But, Mahindra has a bigger digital advertising footprint. I have seen a lot of Mahindra ads online compared to any other company. 
Citreon
They advertised only once. They took up all of first 2 pages just to announce the arrival of the C3 Dhoni edition. (Forgot to take a picture)
MG
I went through the stack of papers twice to see if I missed an MG ad. I decided to check the Hyderabad times paper and found them there.
In the ads I have seen, they put the Gloster way back occupying little space. I don’t think MG is interested in selling this car.
Lexus
They advertised only once, which is one more than I expected them to advertise.
The German trio
Audi
I have seen only one Audi ad which was shocking. I was expecting to see at least 5 from them since I remember them having a stronger newspaper presence when I was younger
BMW
I have not seen a single BMW ad. This disappointed me quite a lot but it is in line with what I remember. There is also a possibility of them preferring one publication to another and advertising there more.
The most surprising of all
Mercedes Benz
Mercedes like their advertisements quite a lot. I have seen so many. Expected them to advertise once or twice. Was in the opinion that luxury brands would be frugal with their advertisements to maintain their image/exclusivity. 
This article was behind a Mercedes advertisement:
I thought of providing probability of seeing a car ad in a paper, but midway through doing this I stopped counting how many papers were checked and lost count.
Probability: Favourable outcomes/Total number of outcomes
In this case: Favourable outcomes: Car advert
Total outcomes: Number of newspaper checked
But, what I can do is check the probability of seeing an advertisement from a certain company when we know the number of car advertisements.
I have missed only around 15 papers in between and the likelihood of all of them having an advertisement seems low.
I have seen 61 advertisements in total (only 59 are attached)
If anyone has a different newspaper, please do share which companies advertise and how they do it (frequency).
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
