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
- 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
- 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.
- Everything in Vinyl plus:
- 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
- Everything in Vinyl plus:
- 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.
- Sign up here for Autopian Velour (Monthly)
- Sign up here for Autopian Velour (Annual)
- To gift an annual membership Click Here
Autopian Rich Corinthian Leather
- 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:
- $1,000 a year (or roughly two postal Jeeps)
- 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)
- Everything in Velour plus:
- 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)
- Everything in Velour plus:
- 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
- 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]
- Everything in Rich Corinthian Leather plus:
- 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.
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Just signed up for the vinyl level, was going to wait then I read Patrick George’s comment, powerful stuff!
Does this actually work? I’ve tried several times in the past to make an account to leave a comment. Had just about given up on the whole thing — kind of the way I’ve given up on ever reading the conclusion to a certain touted overseas adventure.
Amazing. Step in the right direction.
I’ve always liked vinyl. Signed up before I even read what the benefits were. Haha. I love you guys and this site. If we can help keep the lights on then it’s the least we can do for the content you provide for us.
Thank you! I’m pro-vinyl, too. Put it on my seats and on my floorboards! (My J10 came with vinyl floors; so great!).
I’m in. You folks have generated the vast majority of my favorite automotive content over the last 10-15 years. You helped me realize that my car interests tend to lean toward weird cars. In past roles you nurtured the forum where I bought our classic Mini. You have repeatedly, and successfully, mentored users of the site to become contributors. All good stuff!
Good content deserves to support.
You’ve got me. The Defector model is a good one. I understand why you are unwilling to go down the completely paywalled approach. Old Deadspin had a huge following for sports and of course the non-sports as well (which ultimately led G/O to nuke the whole thing by firing Barry). Auto culture is a little more niche and probably can’t draw like that. So getting eyeballs to still read your stuff for free is important.
I was extremely pleased when David and Jason left Jalopnik to form this site. Their work was always a highlight of my reading there from Torch’s crazy-ass topics to Tracy using rust as part of a regular dermabrasion treatment.
Patrick eloquently put all of the reasons this business is hard for those running the sites and the people writing for them. I’m proud to be a Defector subscriber since week one and proud to help you guys out from day one. Keep up the good work.
For those that wish to support, but can’t afford a recurring subscription or ones at the current levels, hopefully they can come up with a cheaper digital only option or even just a tip jar for one time “thank you” contributions.
Make a tier under $10 without any merch and I’ll go for it. Provided I can fix my login issues. The site has been signing me out every time I close a tab or possibly after a set time. So I have to log back in every time I come back. Which was an annoyance but whatever. Today I had to get an email link to WordPress to log in so that was a bit more annoyance. Here’s hoping the log in sticks this time. I’m not running anything to make me anonymous, a DNS malware filter but that’s about it.
Why are all my comments suddenly pending moderation?
Well this one didn’t suddenly.
Mercedes explained this in one thread a few days ago. They have a new spambot filter that looks for particular keywords/phrases and will tag comments with these for moderation.
The words/phrases that trigger moderation will be released in the first subscriber email, so join now!!!
We have an automatic content filtration system that looks for words that a spammer might use. Thanks to it, we no longer have articles where spammers are half of the comments. Unfortunately, legitimate comments are getting caught up in it. We’re continually tweaking things to hopefully make that better!
Absolutely love that it’s not just “Leather”, but “Rich Corinthian Leather.” I still remember being very confused as a kid that Khan was trying to sell cars. Kind of like when Lando Calrissian wanted me to buy a Colt 45…
This is a good idea.
Can you please pitch us again in early February when most of us will have begun digging out from holiday bills and have hoarded the change from the couch/under the seats?
They should make one of those sleazy buy-here-pay-here commercials saying all you need is a W-2
I just paid my first mortgage and my wallet is going to be in January mode for the foreseeable future. Eep.
Honestly, “Vinyl” is an outstanding value. And it wears better than leather anyway. Happy to be a Day One subscriber!
I’m a fan of this idea. I do truly appreciate the work you guys are putting into this site. All of my favorite media is some sort of subscription model these days. What’s one more?
Would be nice to have a Sweepstakes – $25 a ticket, winner gets the DT 3-days of road-tripping/wrenching “fun” as the grand prize. I have a 1964 Ford Falcon Futura that could really benefit from a spare set of hands for a disc brake/power steering modernization.
Pizza would be epic too.
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Guys, I’m super not telling you how to run the show here, but… you need a real roadtripping package, not a wrenching package. I mean it works for R&T! And hell, there’s at least two I’d sign up for right now.
A curated route from Michigan (wait, no, scratch that) LA to Moab, to do several days of off-roading with David at the Easter Safari. A lot of people would sign up for that, I’m pretty sure. Maybe an extra package that’s 3-5 days of helping David get his Jeep ready at the absolute last minute – or David helping you get YOUR Jeep ready if by some miracle he plans far enough ahead and/or doesn’t break anything the week before.
Pop-up roadtrips with Jason when he buys his next off the wall thing to roadtrip home. Much smaller price, show up in the town on relatively short notice, and take the back roads home. Maybe stop at some fun computer or car museums on the way.
The “Sorry For The Surprise” Road Trip across Canada, starting in some out of the way city and taking the back roads to some surprise point of automotive interest in Canada. Maybe it’s a behind the scenes tour of Circuit de Gilles-Villeneuve! Maybe it’s a private tour and chat with the engineers at Brampton Assembly! You’ll have to get your passport stamped to find out!
Heck, maybe an annual “Coast* to Coast* Roadtrip” with the Autopian staff, starting on the east coast* at the Lane with a private tour, then setting out for Galpin Auto Sports on the west coast*. (* not actually the coast.) Go see the country at mumble miles per hour! (Except David’s group. We’ll probably need some tow trucks on standby for them.) 5 star exclusive hotels and private Michelin starred dining on the way? Hell no. Motel 6, Holiday Inn, and the kind of places that Guy Fieri would love to put on DDD if he hasn’t already. Special prize of bail money for the highest speeding ticket.
And for the truly off the wall: Super Shitbox Showdown, Audience Participation Edition! Find a shitbox in the starting city priced $3000 or under, 3 days of group wrenching, and then an “oh god I hope this doesn’t fall apart” trip to some relatively nearby automotive points of interest. Maybe a bunch of Michigan rustbuckets going from Ann Arbor down to the Lane with stops at GM’s design studio and Toledo! (Tetanus shots required.)
Also, will Velour and Rich Corinthian Leather be able to order additional classy grille badges? Because I’m 100% certain every one who signs up for that has at least 3 cars.
Oh boy, I DIG THIS IDEA!
All I ask is that you please don’t COMPLETELY murder my wallet and store it in your basement freezer.
Too late, you’ve already been drinking the kool-aid since before 03/32!
You should check out RevZilla and how they have some interesting things going on. Their CommonTread blog is similar to this (articles and all that), they’ve got a podcast (Highside/Lowside), and they offer a premium “Riders Plus” membership plan that gets you some perks–not exactly a fair comparison since Revzilla is a store first and foremost, and thus a bunch of the perks are aimed at that. Also, RevZilla has recently started offering paid events–“Get On! Adventure Fest”. I have no idea what their accounting looks like; these could all potentially be money losers that thus serve to drive business towards buying gear on their site, but it looks like an interesting market angle that would at least be worth looking into for some ideas.
… actually wait no, I just had another idea that I would sign up for.
The “We Totally Cover Racing!” roadtrip. Fancy hotels and catered meals? Nope. A bunch of stupid fast cars racing on interstates? Nah.
Starting from the Lane Motor Museum with a private tour and discussion of the best spec racing series (Spec Micra, obviously,) down to the Tail of the Dragon (oh yeah,) down south through national parks to enjoy the fall scenery, ending with the Autopian’s “What Accommodations?” party at the Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
My wallet is already sobbing in anticipation.
Nashville to Road Atlanta via the Dragon is a great trip. Nice and tidy and ends in a 10 hour sports car race.
Which is also the season ending race this year, and perfectly timed with the fall foliage. It doesn’t make up for the loss of Mid-Ohio, but I think it’ll help.
Shoot, I’d just like to do the Gambler with Mercedes and any other Autopians who’d like to participate. That sounds like fun. I mean, really, you could do any sort of auto-adjacent outing; for example, it’d be a helluva lot of fun to go wheeling with DT. My wife’s gonna kill me.
Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
When the new commenting system allows pics/gifs, I’ll insert one of the Guinness “Brilliant!” mems here.
As for the road-tripping experience, it could be like Niemann-Marcus’ xmas catalogs, a different one-off experience offered each year.
For a certain level you get to drive one of DT’s many, many cars from Detroit to LA, with a tour of Beau’s collection and lunch at his restaurant at the end. One time only offer. If you’re from SoCal you can do this for free if you agree to store the DT car you drive for one year to take some pressure off Beau’s lot manager.
Test comment.
Well it seems I have the ability to comment, but something seems wonky. I don’t seem to have a profile anymore, all my previous comment are nowhere to be found, and if I sign out it wants me to provide my email again and sends another “use this link to log in” email. Help?
I have the same problem
That is weird. Looking into it! Our back-end team may have to run some batch operations to make this work. I appreciate your patience.
Thank you, sir. Once this is sorted I will gladly pony up for the Velour level, and I look forward to using the new and improved website.
I have an old 1995 Mercury Tracer Wagon that I want to fix a couple of things, mostly the power steering is dead and the exhaust has some holes somewhere on the front, I will be interested on the 6K before Tracy heads out to LA. I am in metro detroit. I would rather support someone I know than a random shop
If you do it, I promise we will make it worth your while!
Woh, Matt. Let’s be careful, here. I AM a dipshit.
(But I’m pro-Tracer Wagon).
Can we put airtags or one of those parent tracking apps on David if this does happen? I also feel like someone should stress the post above read, “This is not a rent-a-mechanic service, it’s an experience…” It definitely would be a hell of an “experience” lol.
Sign me up for “The David Tracy Trenchfoot experience”.
Can I just say I really like this plan? I was sort of wondering what you were all going to do on the revenue side, I mean, Torch is cheap, but he can’t be free.
$100 a year seems perfectly reasonable as a base tier, if it helps in allowing you to be choosier with ads and sponsorships and keep things uncluttered and not too click baitey.
I kind of wavered on velour, will give vinyl a run for a bit, maybe step up later.
This is great! Its been sad watching the slow death of the “other car site” as it was consumed by intrusive ads, clickbait articles, and endless slideshows with minimal actual content. You all have been doing an excellent job so far, looking forward to becoming a member!
You’re watching? I abandoned them a long, long time ago…..
I only visit that ex when torchy delves the archives
> David Tracy, whom we’d prefer you not murder and store in your basement freezer,
OK, where would you prefer we store him?
(Signed up for Vinyl, but would like to echo some others. I don’t really *need* merch to go along with my membership, so a content-only tier would be great, even if it’s like $8/mo or whatever $10/mo minus cost of shirt is.)
That’s an excellent question because there’s no way I’m digging a basement AND buying a freezer for this.
Testing my ability to comment
It works!
Thank you! Although I cant change anything in my profile currently, when I click account it prompts me to send another login email. Hopefully that’s fixed soon so I can add my profile pic back
Will you be releasing updates on enrollment for the various tiers? I’d be interested in seeing how things get distributed
This is generally a great idea and much better than having a website full of ads and commercialization where half the staff works on creating meaningless article to generate income with affiliate links, BUT to pick up what Marteau said, $10/month or $100/year is a little steep. When I first read the headline I was expecting to see a base level (call it cloth?) at $5/month or $50/year that would look like this:
Autopian Cloth
What it is:
A way for you to get exclusive content 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:
$5 a month or $50 a year
Things you get:
An Autopian bumper sticker
Things you get (virtual)
Member’s only weekly newsletter
A chance to be featured (if you want) in a weekly member rides post
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…
So glad you guys are going with a subscription model! It’s something I’ve been advocating for since day 1, and it’s so much better than the tired old advertising models. I’ll happily pay just pennies a day to enjoy the wonderful content and get things, stuff and (be still my heart) goods!
Thanks for all you’ve done, all you do, and all you’re gonna do to inform, entertain and celebrate automotive culture.
Thank you!
Folks,
I’ve been working in print and online media for about two full decades now, thanks to my own poor judgment or brain worms or some combination of the two. And after all that time I can tell you I sincerely believe this: the content itself isn’t the problem. It never has been.
That side of things *has* its problems, for sure. We fail and fall short and can always be better. Journalism is made by humans, and it’s often the first draft of history, so it’s frequently imperfect. But the real problem is how you sustainably fund the content people love—the reporting, the videos, the artwork, and the writing that informs and delights.
When it’s on shaky ground financially, or when it’s dependent on the whims of trends or the market or the algorithm du jour, that’s when it goes up in flames. And then people are left without jobs, and readers are left wondering what happened to that thing they loved.
I’ve seen this happen many times. I’ve lived through it many times, too, including recently. And I can tell you with the utmost conviction that the best way to firewall against such outcomes is media that’s directly supported by its audiences.
There’s no magic bullet to save independent media, but getting direct funding from readers is one of the most powerful. Here, it will establish a baseline to allow The Autopian to grow into a sustainable, healthy business that isn’t overly dependent on intrusive ads or widget sales or whatever trend Big Tech wants to bait and switch us with that week. Do you want to see a day when more people write here, especially young writers, the next generation of leading voices in car culture? Me too. This is where we start.
And I can tell you that nobody’s willing to be more accountable to their readers—their members—than these guys are. Being a member of The Autopian means you’re a partner with this team, and you have an active hand in helping it grow. I sincerely believe in David, Jason, Matt and Beau, or else I wouldn’t be here. I’ve seen how hard all of these guys work to make The Autopian happen. Around the clock, literally! It’s a scrappy little labor of love and I’m amazed at what they’ve pulled off in eight months. I’m thrilled to imagine where they’ll be in a year.
I hope you feel the same about this awesome project enough to support it, and if you do, you have my eternal thanks. This team will do right by you, and we will work our asses off to make this place grow into what we all know it can be.
-PG
Thanks dude!
I’m just glad Autopian is asking for membership upfront rather than succumbing to slideshows, roadblocks, popups, accordions, and interstitial ads that ruin the experience. If “the other site” asked me now for $$$ to cut out that BS I wouldn’t consider it, they’ve already generated too much animosity. Which is a shame because I know it’s not the writers’ faults.
I honestly can’t think of a better sales pitch than bringing on top level talent at the same time you start asking for money. Definitely shows that the money is going to be well spent. Excited for what comes next!
Thank you very kindly!
I have no cars to wrench, BUT I would love 3 days to work on some of David’s cars. Now that would be an experience.
Bring a broom and dust pan!
In that case I think we would just buy a beater?
This is me. No current project cars but would love to spend some time getting dirty and busting knuckles on a DT rust bucket. Now how am I going to sell this idea to my wife? I’m paying $$$ to go work on someone else’s car… Gonna have to think about how to approach that one.