Here’s What You Get When You Become An Autopian Member, And How It Will Make This The Greatest Car Website Ever

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The Autopian is a place for car-lovers. It was created after three people — Beau Boeckmann, Jason Torchinsky, and David Tracy — sat down in some microcars one day and scribbled down this motto: “The Autopian exists to serve the car enthusiast community by creating content that informs and entertains, while celebrating the unifying quality of automobiles.” We’ve upheld that motto for over eight months now, and many of you have rewarded us not only with your clicks, but with your excellent comments and frequent questions about how you can support this community more. We now have an answer: Become a member. Not only will it help us become the best version of the car website you’ve always wanted, but you’ll also get things and stuff and perhaps even goods out of the deal. Here’s a look at the details behind The Autopian’s Membership.

The Autopian came into being after hundreds of people kept messaging Jason and me — then writers at Jalopnik — asking us to do something. Readers were yearning for an easy-to-use website that championed car culture, and after a while, the calls became impossible to ignore. So Torch and I, two car-nuts who were just big enough dipshits to think we could pull this off, reached out to Jason’s friend and diehard car-person Beau Boeckmann (whom you’re going to see more of on this site soon!). An avid consumer of automotive media (and a media personality in his own right) and someone who had wanted to be involved in this business for years, Beau came out of the gate with a “Let’s do this thing” attitude. He’s affording us the freedom to do our thing; we hired Mercedes Streeter and Matt Hardigree, and recently we’ve got Patrick George hanging out with us to help build a more sustainable operation from the content-creation side. We’ve got some incredible contributors, an awesome video team, and so much fun stuff planned for the future.

We’ve built something here, and you all are the most important part of it. This community is something that we all plan to keep growing for years to come, and an important element of that longevity will be your support in the form of membership.

You may be familiar with the website Defector. It’s a product of a bunch of former Deadspin writers quitting and starting their own subscription-based, mostly-sports website. It works great, and the site is firing on all cylinders, providing readers with exactly the content they want. We like this concept, but feel that a completely paywalled site would in many ways thwart what we’re trying to do here, and that is: champion car culture. We think a car website should be accessible for everyone from every walk of life, so our membership is optional, though we will try to force your hand by bribing you with exclusive content and merchandise!

So let’s talk about those bribes, shall we? (For now, we’re only shipping to folks in North America, since shipping costs are so high; if you’re not in North America, we’ll offer another, more virtual tier at a future date!).

Autopian Vinyl

Vinyl Banner

  • What it is:
    • A way for you to get exclusive content and merchandise while supporting The Autopian’s mission.
    • Basically, this is you officially joining our cult. Because you can’t spell “car culture” without “car cult.”
  • What it costs:
  • Things you get:
    • A special, limited-edition Autopian shirt
    • An Autopian bumper sticker
  • Things you get (virtual)
    • Member’s only newsletter
    • Weekly wrenching open chat with Autopian writers/weekly open chat
    • A chance to be featured (if you want) in a weekly member rides post
    • Access to special content (extended cuts, early project car updates)
    • Early invites to Autopian events like car shows and parties
  • Things you get (emotional)
    • The warm feeling in your heart of supporting independent media at a time when a lot of your favorite car sites are going away…

Sign up here for Autopian Vinyl (Monthly)

Sign up here for Autopian Vinyl (Annual)

To gift an annual membership Click Here

Autopian Velour

Velour Banner

  • What it is:
    • A way for you to provide even more support to the site while also getting more opportunities to interact with the staff.
  • What it costs:
  • Things you get:
    • Everything in Vinyl plus:
      • A classy-as-hell grille badge
      • Random raffle prizes, including press swag from automakers.
  • Things you get (virtual)
    • Everything in Vinyl plus:
      • Invites to private quarterly Zoom/In-Person Automotive Trivia Nights
      • A drawing on your birthday from Jason of whatever car you want sent directly to your Atari
  • Things you get (emotional)
    • A powerful, pervasive feeling that you’re actually doing genuine good in the world, which will be expressed via powerful sex hormones that everyone around you will absolutely notice. Also, you’ll probably sleep better.

Autopian Rich Corinthian Leather

Rcl Banner

  • What it is:
    • The ultimate in Autopian membership.
    • A chance to be treated like a king by a bunch of car-loving dirtbags.
  • What it costs:
  • Things you get (physical):
    • Everything in Velour plus:
      • An annual private tour (potentially with other members) of Beau’s personal collection in LA, the Petersen Museum, The Crawford Museum, or the Lane Museum led by a staffer or friend of the site. If you come to Beau’s collection you’ll also get lunch at the famous Horseless Carriage restaurant in Galpin Ford
      • Limited-edition Autopian merch every quarter
      • Reserve parking at any Autopian event (where possible)
  • Things you get (virtual)
    • Everything in Velour plus:
      • A video from David or Jason to a person of your choosing that encourages them to buy a specific car OR allow you to buy a car (or just a birthday video) 
  • Things you get (emotional)
    • David will send you a signed vial of rust flakes from one of his project cars. Place this vial in your garage as a reminder that, as bad as things are going with your own project car, things could be worse. Legend has it that if you rub this vial three times, it will give you good luck with loosening stubborn bolts. (Use of a breaker bar to remove a tiny 1/4-inch (or 6mm) bolt voids warranty; also, there is no warranty).
  • Sign up here for Rich Corinthian Leather
  • Give the gift of Rich Corinthian Leather by Clicking Here

The Autopian Wrenching/Road Tripping Experience

Dttrip

  • What it is:
    • Hanging out with DT, wrenching all day, living the dream.
  • What it costs:
  • Things you get:
    • Everything in Rich Corinthian Leather plus:
      • David Tracy, whom we’d prefer you not murder and store in your basement freezer, will spend at least three full days helping you wrench on your car. He will bring pizza and beverages, and it will be an epic wrenchfest, though one focused on fun. This is not a rent-a-mechanic service, it’s an experience with one of the internet’s foremost shitbox wrenching experts.
      • [Ed Note: Are we really doing this? This seems like a terrible idea? Is anyone going to actually do this? I have many many questions. – MH]
  • Sign up for the wrenching experience by clicking this link
  • Gift this experience by Clicking Here

How Membership Will Improve The Site

We’re trying to build a financially sustainable operation here at The Autopian, and membership — as well as carefully-placed ads — will be key in making that happen; this is our first shot at this, and we’re always looking for ways to improve the membership experience (we welcome your ideas!). The more members who sign up (either by clicking the links above or by clicking the “support us” button on the homepage), the more cars we can do dumb things with. I personally want to fly to Brazil to buy a very rare Jeep, fix the thing up, and take it on an epic South American roadtrip. I may do that regardless, but you becoming a member will make that so much more feasible; plus, the video/articles will come faster!

Membership will also allow us to hire more talented writers, host more reader meetups, and just produce more and better content for you all to enjoy. We’re excited to continue building this car community, and we thank you for supporting us in our early days as we worked our butts off to build this place from scratch. Now it’s time to continue working our butts off to make it even better.

About the Author

Jason Torchinsky

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477 thoughts on “Here’s What You Get When You Become An Autopian Member, And How It Will Make This The Greatest Car Website Ever”

  2. How about the Yugo level where you throw $10.00 per year and you don’t get anything but the satisfaction of keeping David Tracy in Harbor Freight tools for 10 minutes?

    2. Also, one reason why I picked velour is because TOMORROW’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

      Get scribblin’ on that Cougar, Torch!

      (Actually, take your time. This will be my favorite present this year! There’s no rush at all!)

      1. I went with a year of velour because my birthday was just over a week ago and I will forget all about this by next year, so it will be a really fun surprise.

  8. There should be a level below vinyl. Perhaps $5/mo and call it tatty old blanket, cheap parts store seat covers or disintegrating foam with exposed springs that poke you in the ass…something like that. You know, for us cheap bastards who spend all our money keeping old beaters running.

    2. This. Much like with cars, we need a really bare-bones base model because we ain’t getting richer. Can we have the Deformed Plaid Seats From a 30-Year Old Renault 4 plan below Rusty S. Trusty’s Tatty Old Blanket at like $25/year? Perks could include a monthly newsletter with selected articles stuff from the weekly newsletters, a Camry/Corolla dent sticker, a roll of duct tape, and once a year, a single flake of rust from David’s fleet encased in transparent epoxy (there’s a virtually endless supply). I would be able to afford that.

  9. I see that the memberships renew automatically. Is there a way to purchase a membership that does not auto renew? I don’t mind paying to support this site since the content has been great so far, but I’m reluctant to sign up for anything that renews automatically.

    1. We have it set to maximum reminder, so as you get close you should get a bunch of notices saying something like: are you sure you wanna keep giving these dirtbags money?

      1. I still would strongly prefer a non-auto renewing option. I’m sure non-renewing/cancelling is very easy, but there is still a risk that I’ll end up paying for something that I did not intend to (I have had a few bad experiences with auto renewing memberships in the past).

        Any chance you could create non-auto renewing options at a higher price?

        1. Not exactly a non-auto renew option, but if you go to your subscription tab in your account after you sign up, there’s a widget that lets you turn off auto renew immediately. It’s not exactly what your looking for but thought I’d at least mention it :), hope it helps!

  10. This rolled out at like 1:30 AM so it was heartening to see we already had signups in the wee hours! Thank you so much to the community. We have big plans and every little bit helps!

  13. I think you are making a mistake by not having a $3 to $5 tier for people who only want access to extra content. I can live without merchandise, I can’t visit your events, and I have no use for any of the interactive features of your $10 tier (I’ve been lurking here obsessively since day one, every day, and I only created a commenting account today), but I want you to stick around, and I want you to grow, so please take the money that I can actually afford to spend these days.

    1. So maybe something like a $5/month digital only tier? That would operate pretty similar to my Mustang Club of America (and its sweet, sweet x-plan) membership.

  14. While practically speaking I prefer Vinyl to Velour as far as tiers are concerned you got my for Velour. Best of luck.

    Maybe one day I’ll have a car that would be worthy of David Tracy wrenching on (hopefully a Baja-ed 40’s Bug with the original cable brakes)

    Best of luck to y’all with the site! I’ll definitely be sticking around.

  15. “White supremacist”? “ Classism”?
    Are you guys gonna allow a car culture site to degenerate into a forum for political screeds?
    If this place does not come down hard on moronic comments that are ideology based, personal attacks, and cancel culture supporting, then you fail big time. Just read Gizmodo if you want an example of how not to run a site. It’s ruined a stellar tech site by being completely taken over by a bunch of baboons, who can’t stick to the subject without spouting leftist propaganda. I hate overly moderated sites, but you guys started a really good CAR CULTURE site. Please stick to your first principals, and banish political and ideological rants, before your good idea is crushed. I would be onboard for membership as long as it remains car focused.

    3. This place has been clear of that nonsense, both in the content and the comments.

      If you don’t want it here, don’t bring it here.

      Yes, we’re looking at you.

  16. Hi guys, managed to sign up after some back and forth with the login process – it directed me to an error page the first time, had to try again.
    May I suggest a cheaper tier with just the digital goodies (or even a “name your price” tier, with just the warm feelings)? Not that I don’t appreciate the merch/events, far from that – but since I am a dirty foreigner that hates liberty, most of the physical goods and services probably won’t be available to me. Also, even $10 could be a bit expensive for those of us living in countries with unfavourable FX rates.

    1. ^^ what he said. I was hoping for Autopian to be a global community – will and can you make sure enthusiasts from outside of the US actually receive the goodies (and get metric along imperial units in the articles:)? 10 bucks may be pretty steep price for some (especially younger) people… I’m from the EU, and I’m tempted to get the rich Corinthian – will my membership cover travel and accommodation for the private tour?:P

    2. I agree with you, Ruivo.

      10 freedom bucks is about 15 dollarydoos, which would be totally worth it if the merch is able to make its way down under but I suspect the shipping would kill the deal.

      Maybe a compromise would be an option to view the site completely ad-free. I absolutely detest advertising and I’ve been enjoying reading this site as it is one of the few ad-free wonders of the modern day internet.

      2. “Dollarydoos” is hilarious. I’m thinking of a foreign legion price that allows you all the access without having to worry about the merch.

  19. Lets be constructive here. Last week when you announced the move, most of the people said they will be super pleased (me included) to give 1/2 $£€ per months because we love you guys, and love the work, and LOVE the ad free experience of this website.
    To all this people you’re saying today, “bellow 10bucks/months you’re not worth my consideration” (paywall or not). “If you’re not rich, you’re not worth visiting Beau’s collection”, “not worth joining our rallies”.
    Let me remember you that California lifestyle and level of income don’t relate to the rest of the world, or of the carworld.
    My yearly income is in the 4 digits most of the time, that’s the reality.
    It’s not really enjoyable to be remembered that what’s matter to be a member is money, and not being a carguy.

    1. That’s pretty aggressive wording. $10 is a reasonable amount and cheaper than my Netflix and Dunc’d On podcast subscription. The website is still free to use and nothing is being taken away. However, an extenuating circumstances option wouldn’t be a bad idea.

      This site is run by people and isn’t a faceless machine (unlikely my SN95 when I finally get around to replacing the front bumper and header panel). This is their first attempt and I’m sure they’ll be willing to work with you and others in your situation.

      1. $10 a month is a pretty big step though; that’s the complaint. And comparing it to Netflix isn’t exactly a good comparison. Netflix has billions of dollars of content at your disposal that would last you (after a I looked it up on Google) 36,000 hours to go all the way through. I want to support this site, but $10 a month (or even $100 per year) is a pretty steep ask. Hell, back in the day I paid far less for the various car magazine subscriptions I had, even accounting for inflation.

        1. It’s not a 1:1 value proposition though. Netflix has billions in capital, investors, and is rapidly raising prices while killing off fan favorite shows. The magazines had pages upon pages of ads, you paid for it, and it had the backing of giant publishing firms.

          This is more like an optional PBS/NPR pledge drive where you still have access to all the content. The completely optional subscription will only make the site better and hopefully making it a liveable income for the workers and their families . So for me, it’s a $10/month donation I’ll gladly pay to support writers whose work I love.

              1. I don’t think my point was made clear enough: My point is that the first step to becoming a contributor at NPR is very small. The first step to contributing here is kinda big.

                Basically…

                At the Free Level (no donation) you get loads of great content, you can comment and interact with site admin type people, and it’s great.

                Or you can pay $10 per month ($100 per year) and get some questionable benefits.

                You get so much for nothing, and then if you want to contribute, it kinda costs a lot to not get much more. I just doesn’t make sense to me.

                1. So you’re upset because you’d like to give them money… but just not $10? You could always turn the subscription on-and-off month to month when you feel like it. Yes, that’s kind of janky but this is all a work in progress.

        2. While a cheaper, no-perks option would be great, I wonder how much processing fees get in the way of that. Credit cards and memberful each have to take their cut before the subscription money reaches Torch’s Atari.

          1. Aren’t those somewhere in the realm of 2% to 3%?

            My main point is that you get tons of great content for free, but the first step to contributing is a big one. $100 minimum (or $10 per month) isn’t small, and some of the perks are a bit dubious depending on where you are located.

            Hell, I’m not unfamiliar paying for content that is otherwise free; I paid $50 to be an “Alliance Member” at JalopyJournal for this year because I felt the content/info/insight I gained from that site was worth it to help ensure it’s further existence.

            But this site operates a bit differently, and $100 seems like a lot tougher of a sell for some reason.

        3. I think you’re looking at it a little wrong.

          Okay so in Canada there’s a subscription service called Crave. It’s like HBO Max but Canadian. The lowest tier is $10/mo, and there’s one that’s $20 a month that gets you higher resolution and the ability to watch on things that aren’t a browser.

          This is sort of like good Crave, except instead the basic tier is free and the upper tier actually has benefits beyond “you can also use it on a game console.” And that’s reasonable to me.

            1. Basically, $10 a month is about the same as a ton of other places do for their beginner-level premium tiers, and should be treated like that. Looking at it in the same way, it’s not a big ask.

              Since streaming services were being talked about, they all have the premium tiers in addition to the basic service. I brought up Crave because I know their pricing structure, but you were comparing it to Netflix and it’s amount of content. The premium tiers of those places also don’t change the content, but you do get some (dubious, in those cases) perks people who don’t take the premium option don’t.

    2. I don’t get that at all, instead it’s a totally reasonable amount of money to both run the site and provide the perks at the same time.

      The bottom tier has merch and exclusive content, that takes some time to produce and the merch is going to cut into the costs. The tours, same thing, they require the commitment of someone involved to spend an afternoon (at minimum) and use resources.

      Remember actual content isn’t getting paywalled. I think honestly this is a totally reasonable pricing structure given a cost/benefit analysis, and the site still works if you don’t have the budget.

      1. I’m in europe, i don’t need the merch or the meetings, but i need the ad free exp and to support the website and the ability to edit comments. I can’t afford the vinyl subscription, like i guess many people, but i’m willing to give a smaller amount, they should take that money.
        This is the pre step before putting ads for non members. The user experience of this site is too good to go back reading something full of ads and pop-up.

        1. It’s the “how low can we go and still pay the bills” problem. There isn’t much incentive for a lower tier if it doesn’t provide anything for the reader, or of the perks don’t offset what income they get.

        2. I actually don’t think an ad-free experience is available in any of the tiers. Shame, as that would be a perk worth paying for (can’t install ad blockers on my work computer).

          1. I guess it’s implied that members will stay ads free, that was the promise from the ground up until they figure it out. And David just mentioned on his IG post that ads are coming.

        3. I want to clarify that while ads are are coming, we will not be taking the approach of the site that we all came from. Over there, auto-play video ads are forced on you, playing at full volume and taking up nearly half of your screen. And the other half of the screen is taken up by pop-ups that you cannot truly cancel. And at the bottom of each page are ads that pretend to be articles.

          We will have ads, but the goal is to keep them unintrusive.

            1. Habe you been there recently ? They have 15 videos on autoplay on the main page, those videos are also embedded in all articles, in between other types of ads.
              They are the worst.

  20. Whilst I think this is a good idea…I’m not fully convinced that there’s a great (dare I say sufficient?) motivation as yet for Autopian’s outside of North America to ‘invest’ in membership…

    …and yet I’m not sure on a mutually beneficial solution either.

    1. I’m seeing this a lot (also this launched at like 1 AM in New York so it makes sense we’re seeing this across the pond). We definitely need to come up with a solution for this. I’m going to jump into it today with everyone and try to come up with something but at least Monday.

      1. You’ve got time. As a full time Opponaut, I’m certainly one of many who’ve simply donated one time occasionally to keep that site going in the background. I’ve even been known to send money to Wikipedia. I know The Autopian is intentionally more commercial than either of those sites but there’s still an argument to be made for financial contribution…but how that works best for you lot is something you might have to try and sell to the most of us.

  21. Nice idea.

    All my money goes to my old cars, Lego for my kids and living in a small expensive scandinavian country. Haven’t even got Netflix… So I’m supporting you emotionally and with my quality comments 😉

    Full disclosure: I spend 60$ a year on another car culture site membership, but that’s because it gives us one “free” weekend a year of classic car racing festival greatness.

    (could I be taken off the spam watch list by the way? My recent very witty and very well considered and professional comments went into some “for consideration” limbo)

      1. Not the last two ( really great ones 😉 ) that got withheld, but I have earlier posted links to external images for showing points and such.
        But thanks, it’s seems to have vanished by now.

      2. Keywords seem to trigger more than links. But some of the keywords are easy to hit. Think of what spammers would be saying and you can come up with at least a few.

  22. Are we branded dorks if we wear Autopian merch to Autopian events? Ok, ok, it’s not the t-shirt. Whatever, I guess I’ll have to pickup a Finnegan Speed and Marine shirt if I attend something in person.

  23. I can’t believe you guys named a tier “rich corinthians leather”! Oh, how I wish I had this sort of extra dough available!
    Also, loved the exponentially crazy tiers! Don’t stop at 6k, create one for 100k where the buyer can snag the entire curated DT rust collection!
    Anyway, thanks kor this – allowing us to chip in without pay walling. I hope this works well enough to keep content forever free.

    1. The $6,000 gig is absurd, and there’s no way anyone’s gonna take me up on it. Maybe a group of people in like, Antarctica, will pool their funds together, and my dumb ass will be stuck taking a boat from the tip of Argentina to fix a Scherp.

      Honestly, I’d be down.

      1. So what you’re saying is that if 100 of us chip in $60, we’d have infinite possibilities to play an incredibly cruel prank on you.

        There’s a Hilux in Kabul that needs new wheel bearings and some adjustments made to the machine gun mounts.

  25. Seems pretty reasonable! I’m probably in for Vinyl. The top tiers seem like good ideas. C&D seems to have great success with their tours, which are pretty outrageously expensive.

    Hope this works out for y’all!

    1. Thanks! I’d love for us to do a beater tour for members that was much much cheaper than the R&T or C/D drives (which seem nice and worth the money!).

      2. Funny that you’re saying to that other white supremacist commenter that you are for the freedom of speech, but me talking about classism on a classism topic is subject to moderation…
        I know i know, it’s not a pretty topic, on what supposed to look like a a cool news, so let’s clean it.

                  1. Oy vey. Once our commenting system back to health I’ll look into it. Currently, it seems that nobody can look at historical comments without going through each article. That definitely needs to be fixed.

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