MotorTrend is an American automobile magazine. It first appeared in September 1949, and designated the first Car of the Year, also in 1949. Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles published MotorTrend until 1998, when it was sold to British publisher EMAP, who then sold the former Petersen magazines to Primedia in 2001. MotorTrend bears the tagline "The Magazine for a Motoring World". As of 2019 it is published by Motor Trend Group. It has a monthly circulation of over one million.