Who currently owns Cars Illustrated Magazine and carsillustrated.com

1. What the current websites say about ownership

The live site carsillustrated.com presents itself as “Cars Illustrated” and markets reprints, digital magazines, and branded merchandise, including a 2024 copyright statement that frames the operation as “Cars Illustrated Magazine” ^{[5] [1] [2]}. Those public-facing signals show who is running the consumer-facing presence today, but a website’s branding and copyright line are not the same as a verifiable legal ownership record; the available sources do not include corporate filings, WHOIS records, or company press releases to confirm a corporate entity behind the site ^{[5] [1]}.

2. The magazine’s original publisher and print-era ownership

Archival summaries identify Cars Illustrated as part of the Schneider Performance Series published by Stephen Schneider at CSK Publishing, produced in Hackensack and Saddle Brook, New Jersey, during its short print run in the 1980s ^{[3] [4]}. Those accounts place the magazine’s historic ownership firmly with CSK Publishing and Schneider, which explains the intellectual lineage of the brand but does not automatically imply continuity of ownership into the present digital incarnation ^{[3] [4]}.

3. Community memory and claimed custodianship online

Forums and community posts suggest individual enthusiasts have taken custodial roles for the brand’s archive; a BangShift forum thread references the site and connects it to Tony DeFeo’s old magazine work, implying that enthusiasts or former staffers may be influential in the site’s content and curation ^[6]. The carsillustrated.com homepage likewise reads like a fan-driven archival project—“Welcome back to Cars Illustrated! Our goal…to celebrate the work…”—which is consistent with a hobbyist revival rather than a corporate relaunch ^[5].

4. What’s provable and what remains unverified

From the provided reporting it is provable that carsillustrated.com operates under the Cars Illustrated Magazine name and sells reprints and merchandise with a 2024 copyright notice ^{[1] [2]}. It is also provable that the original 1980s magazine was published by Stephen Schneider’s CSK Publishing ^{[3] [4]}. What cannot be confirmed from these sources is the legal, corporate identity of the current site operator—there are no cited business registrations, domain ownership records, or authoritative press releases in the material supplied that name a present-day owner beyond the site’s own branding ^{[5] [1]}.

5. Alternative interpretations and implicit agendas

Two plausible readings of the evidence exist: one, that a rights-holder or small publishing imprint (potentially using the name MM&FF Digital Magazines as a product line on the site) is commercially republishing back issues ^[7], and two, that the site is a fan/archival project seeking to monetize reprints and merch without an overt claim of having bought formal rights from prior corporate owners ^{[5] [2]}. The site’s language—celebratory, archival, and retail-oriented—fits both narratives, and enthusiast-run archival projects often have an implicit agenda to preserve and monetize cultural artifacts without the transparency of corporate ownership disclosures ^{[5] [1] [2]}.

6. Bottom line

Based on the available reporting, the current public face of Cars Illustrated and carsillustrated.com is the website itself, which identifies as Cars Illustrated Magazine and sells archives and merchandise ^{[5] [1] [2]}; the original print title was published by Stephen Schneider’s CSK Publishing ^{[3] [4]}. The precise, legally registered owner of the carsillustrated.com domain or the corporate entity behind the present-day “Cars Illustrated Magazine” cannot be confirmed from the supplied sources; further verification would require domain WHOIS records, corporate filings, or direct statements from the operators beyond the site’s branding ^{[5] [1]}.