Wellington, February 17 (JY&A Media) Autocade, the online car reference, notes that after the UK, the biggest market for its printed Year of Cars annual is Germany—something which heartens its creator, Jack Yan.UK-printed hardcover annual finds fans in the BRD
Mr Yan says that he has had a lifelong fascination with cars, and when he was eight, a classmate gave him a copy of Auto Katalog 1979, the annual published by Auto, Motor und Sport. The classmate was none other than Hollywood actor Karl Urban.
‘I was exposed to German products everywhere: my father worked for the local Grundig agent, and here was this incredible, worldwide look at cars, which definitely helped the way the original Autocade site was structured,’ said Mr Yan.
Mr Urban had German roots and it was his father who was an avid car fan. The book was an old annual he no longer wanted as he had a newer edition.
‘In those days, the only way to get a copy of Auto Katalog here was through friends with European connections, as you couldn’t buy them from a newsstand here,’ recalled Mr Yan. ‘The way it was organized, referencing cars by how they were known in their country of origin, is something mirrored in Autocade.’
Autocade started as an English-language online reference on cars in 2008, citing a number of inspirations, but it was Auto Katalog that kicked it all off.
In 2023, it branched out into its first yearbook, but it really found its feet with Year of Cars 2025, which follows more of a traditional automotive yearbook format, dealing with the year’s highlights, industry news, and examining the car in a social context. This year, it includes a full guide to Chinese electrified luxury cars.
A hardcover volume printed in the UK, Autocade Year of Cars does not compete with established publications like Auto Katalog, but serves as a useful gift-book complement.
It is available directly from the publisher at Libriz (libriz.co).
Note to editors
Autocade is a registered trade mark of Jack Yan & Associates and may be protected in certain jurisdictions. All trade marks are the properties of their owners and are used in an editorial fashion without any intention to infringe.
A sample PDF copy of Autocade Year of Cars 2025 is available to media on request.
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| Autocade Year of Cars 2025 cover High-resolution JPEG, 916 kbyte |
Autocade Year of Cars 2025 drag coefficient timeline Medium-resolution JPEG, 429 kbyte |
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| Autocade Year of Cars 2025 Chinese luxury car directory, two selected pages Medium-resolution JPEG, 956 kbyte |
Autocade Year of Cars 2025 Ford Capri drawings Medium-resolution JPEG, 596 kbyte |
About Autocade
Autocade was founded by Jack Yan in 2008 as an online car encyclopædia after he found many existing references lacking in accuracy. Its contents, limited to a single-paragraph entry for each generation of a car model, are backed up by offline resources and painstakingly researched. It is often quoted by other resources such as Wikipedia. In 2023, a print counterpart was created to provide an informative, entertaining read to complement the original site. A members’ site with more features, Autocade World, launched in 2025.
About JY&A Media
JY&A Media is the independent publishing house behind Lucire and Autocade, founded in 1987 as Jack Yan & Associates in Wellington, New Zealand. Its main titles began online, Lucire in 1997 and Autocade in 2008, before their brands were extended into print editions, Lucire having taken what was an unprecedented path in 2004. It is also responsible for licensing these editions, with Lucire’s first internationally licensed print edition appearing in 2005. Its publishing activities are grouped under Lucire Ltd.
Contact
Jack Yan, Publisher
Autocade
T 64 4 387-3213
E information
@jyanet.com
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