MotorTrend+: Watch Car Shows

My Experience with MotorTrend+: Watch Car Shows

I’m a retiree who spent years working on my own cars in the garage, and now I just like watching other people do the hard work. I downloaded MotorTrend+ several months ago because my old cable package dropped the channel that had Wheeler Dealers, and I was missing my Tuesday afternoon routine something fierce. My grandson set up the app on my Google Pixel 7, and honestly, I was worried it would be too complicated. But once I got the hang of it, I found myself using it almost every evening after dinner. Last Thursday, I sat on my patio with a cup of coffee and watched three episodes of Roadkill in a row. It felt good. The picture is clear, the sound works fine, and I don’t need a degree to find what I want. Something that simple makes a big difference to me.

Features Worth Noting

The biggest thing for me is the library. I’ve been watching Top Gear since the old days, and this app has tons of it. I also discovered some new shows I never heard of before, like Dirt Every Day, which got me interested in off-road stuff I never tried. The search bar works okay—I just type in a car name or a show title and it pops up. I like the watchlist feature, because I can save a show I see in a recommendation and come back to it later. My memory isn’t what it used to be, so this helps a lot. One thing I really appreciate is the download option. When I visit my daughter in an area with spotty cell service, I download a few episodes beforehand and watch them without any buffering. That saved my sanity on a long car trip last month. The personalized recommendations are hit or miss—sometimes it suggests something I genuinely enjoy, and other times it’s clearly just pushing whatever is new. But I don’t complain too much because I’ve found some gems that way.

What Needs Work

Let me be honest—the app isn’t perfect. Sometimes it takes too long to load when I first open it, especially if I haven’t used it for a couple days. I’ll tap the icon on my Pixel 7, and then I’m staring at a spinning circle for what feels like forever. Not the end of the world, but annoying when I just want to sit down and relax. Also, the interface can be a little cluttered. There’s a lot of tiles and buttons and banners that I don’t always care about. I just want to see my shows, not a dozen ads for something I’m not interested in. I contacted support once because a show kept stopping in the middle and it wouldn’t let me resume from where I left off. They replied in a few days—not the fastest, but the person was polite and walked me through clearing the cache. That fixed the problem. Still, I wish they answered sooner because I lost a whole evening of watching.

Pricing

I think the price is fair for what you get. I pay for the monthly subscription, and it’s less than what I used to pay for a premium cable channel that only had a handful of car shows. Here, I get access to pretty much everything they’ve got. There’s no extra charges for watching on my phone or my tablet, which I appreciate. My grandson told me there’s also a yearly option that saves a little money, but I prefer monthly so I can cancel if I need to. The only downside is that you have to pay to see anything. There’s no free trial that lasts very long, so you have to commit a little bit upfront. But if you’re a car person like me, it’s worth trying for a month.

Developer Notes

I don’t know much about app development, but I can tell the people behind this app care about car content. The shows are organized well enough, and they add new episodes pretty regularly. I’ve noticed that every few weeks there’s an update on my phone, and my grandson says that usually means they’re fixing bugs or adding things. I wish they would focus more on making the app faster to open and less busy on the main screen. Less flashy stuff, more straightforward menus. But I’m just a retired guy who likes his hot rods, so take that for what it’s worth. The app feels like it was built by car enthusiasts for car enthusiasts, even if the tech side could use some polish.

Security & Privacy

I’m careful about putting my credit card info into apps, but this one seems trustworthy. It’s from a big company I recognize—Hearst—and I’ve used their magazines before. They ask for the usual stuff like an email and password, and they make you agree to terms I never read all the way through. My grandson looked it over and said it was fine. I don’t get weird spam emails or anything since signing up, which is good. On my Pixel 7, the app only asks for permission to access my storage when I download episodes, which makes sense. I feel safe using it, and that’s all I really care about.