If you tried to open the MotorTrend+ app and found it gone, or heard that your favorite show like Roadkill was canceled, it’s easy to assume the whole brand is finished. Add in the headlines about Warner Bros. Discovery drowning in debt, and the picture looks even worse.
But the real story is more complicated than “MotorTrend is dead.”
Some parts of MotorTrend have shut down. Others still exist. The brand itself has changed hands. This article breaks down exactly what happened — what’s gone, what’s still here, why these cuts were made, and where you can still find MotorTrend content today.
MotorTrend Is Not One Thing — It’s Several Businesses at Once
Most of the confusion comes from treating MotorTrend as a single company. It isn’t. MotorTrend Group has historically operated across four separate areas:
- Print magazines — MotorTrend and a large group of sibling titles
- A cable TV channel — the MotorTrend channel on pay TV
- A standalone streaming service — MotorTrend+
- A digital editorial website — motortrend.com with news, reviews, and buyer guides
Each unit has its own costs, its own audience, and its own fate. Some have been shut down. Others are still running. So when someone says “MotorTrend is going out of business,” the right question to ask is: which part of MotorTrend?
What Has Actually Been Shut Down
Here’s a straight look at what’s gone, with no speculation added.
Print Magazines (2019)
At the end of 2019, TEN Publishing — MotorTrend’s publisher at the time — discontinued 19 of its 22 automotive print titles. Titles cut included Automobile, Lowrider, Truck Trend, and Vette, among others.
MotorTrend magazine itself was not among those discontinued. This was a consolidation move driven by declining print revenue, not a total collapse of the brand.
MotorTrend+ Streaming Service (2024)
In early 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery shut down the standalone MotorTrend+ app and subscription service. About 1,000 hours of MotorTrend content was moved to Discovery+ and Max, with more content migrated through March as the service wound down.
Existing MotorTrend+ subscribers were automatically moved to an ad-free Discovery+ plan at the same monthly price. So the service closed — but the content didn’t disappear entirely. It just moved to a bigger platform.
MotorTrend Production Studio (2024)
This is the cut that hit fans the hardest. On November 18, 2024, MotorTrend announced that its production studio was closing and that several fan-favorite shows would no longer produce new episodes. The affected titles included:
- Roadkill (season 13 is its last)
- Roadkill Garage
- Hot Rod Garage
- Faster With Newbern & Cotten
- Roadworthy Rescues
Host David Freiburger publicly confirmed the news. Episodes already filmed but not yet aired will continue to stream on Max and Discovery+, and will air on the MotorTrend cable channel through 2025. But no new seasons are planned under the old studio model.
Why Warner Bros. Discovery Made These Cuts
MotorTrend didn’t fail on its own terms. The cuts were driven by the financial situation at its parent company.
Warner Bros. Discovery has been widely reported to carry somewhere between $37 and $41 billion in debt, along with credit rating downgrades and ongoing pressure to restructure. That’s a company fighting to stay financially stable across all of its divisions — not just the car stuff.
A niche streaming service like MotorTrend+ simply couldn’t grow large enough to justify the cost of running a separate platform and production operation. WBD’s strategy was consolidation: fold niche content into bigger platforms like Discovery+ and Max, and cut anything that required heavy ongoing investment to maintain.
MotorTrend wasn’t singled out because car content failed. It was caught in a wider corporate cost-cutting sweep. That’s an important distinction.
MotorTrend Group Was Sold to Hearst — What That Means
Here’s the part most people haven’t heard about, and it’s actually the most important detail for understanding where MotorTrend is headed.
In late 2024, MotorTrend Group was reportedly sold to Hearst. Hearst already owns major automotive media brands, including Car and Driver and Road & Track. Adding MotorTrend to that portfolio makes Hearst one of the largest car journalism publishers in the country.
This sale is the clearest sign that MotorTrend is not dead as a brand. A company doesn’t get purchased and folded into a larger, active media group if it has no value. Hearst is buying the brand name, the audience, and the content library — and they already know the automotive media space well.
What this likely means in practice: MotorTrend continues as a digital-first brand, sharing infrastructure and possibly editorial resources with Car and Driver and Road & Track under the Hearst umbrella. The old model — original TV production, standalone streaming app, dozens of print titles — is gone. But the brand name and its web presence carry on.
What Still Exists Today
Despite everything that’s changed, several parts of MotorTrend are still active.
When WBD announced the MotorTrend+ shutdown, they were explicit that the digital outlet would continue. MotorTrend’s website still publishes car news, first drives, long-term tests, buyer guides, and video content. That editorial operation is ongoing.
The back catalog of MotorTrend shows — Roadkill, Texas Metal, Bitchin’ Rides, and others — is still accessible on Max and Discovery+. If you want to watch old episodes, they’re there. New episodes of already-filmed shows will continue to appear through 2025.
The MotorTrend cable TV channel still exists, though its future is less clear without new original programming coming from MotorTrend Studios. Some commentators have raised questions about how the channel fills its schedule long-term, but no official closure has been announced.
Where You Can Watch MotorTrend Content Now
If you were a MotorTrend+ subscriber, here’s the practical version of what to do:
- Open Discovery+ or Max — your content library is there.
- Search for shows like Roadkill, Texas Metal, or Bitchin’ Rides directly.
- Visit motortrend.com for written reviews, news, and video clips — that’s still free and active.
- Check the MotorTrend cable TV channel if you have a pay TV package — remaining unaired episodes will still surface there through 2025.
The MotorTrend+ app is gone, but the content it held didn’t vanish with it. It just requires a different login now.
So Is MotorTrend Going Out of Business?
The short answer is no — but the longer answer is that the version of MotorTrend most fans grew to love has largely ended.
The standalone streaming service is closed. The production studio that made Roadkill and its spinoffs is shut down. Most of the print magazine portfolio was cut years ago. These are real, significant losses — and it makes sense that fans feel like the brand is gone.
But “restructured, sold, and scaled back” is different from “bankrupt and shuttered.” MotorTrend has not declared bankruptcy. Its brand continues under Hearst. Its content library still streams. Its website still publishes.
Think of it like a store that closed most of its physical locations, stopped making its own products, and then got bought by a bigger retail group that kept the name on the front door and the website running. Clearly not the same business it was — but not completely gone either.
For anyone tracking stories like this one — where corporate debt, media consolidation, and brand survival intersect — OnBizDaily covers business developments in plain language worth keeping an eye on.
The Bigger Picture for Car Media Fans
MotorTrend’s situation reflects a broader shift happening across media. Niche streaming services are struggling to survive on their own. Print is consolidating fast. Cable TV audiences are shrinking. And large publishers are buying up smaller brands to build
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