Magazine publishers are always looking for the secret to selling more subscriptrions. The question always goes like this: Does Old Cars Weekly need more stories about Fords, or less articles about hot rods or a better balance of historical articles and how-to-do-it features. No one ever thinks about this . . . how can we get more classified ads for cheap old cars?

If we thought like used car dealers, we'd be out there beating the bushes for old cars that people are selling cheap. And I don't mean for $10,000, which some magazines seem to consider cheap these days! I'm talking about good old-fashioned prices like $500 or $1,000 or even $3,000. Let's say, nothing more than $5,000.

I know the cheap cars are out there. I see them at swap meets (especially in the fall when folks are trying to get rid of them). So why not have different sections of classified ads with all cars in a section selling under a certain price? If you could do it, there would probably be thousands of people signing up to get subscriptions.

Am I wrong? Don't you remember when you could buy an old car to fool around with and still have enough left to pay your bills? Don't you remember when young people could afford to own old cars?