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. For 6k you get indentured servitude of DT for three days, so it would have to be something really special like a lifetime supply of Autopian branded PB Blaster brought to you by a different writer each month…

        On a serious note I am proposing the Annual Autopian Overlanding Adventure for subscribers to be held every year the first week of July. Year one can be the WA BDR and I will organize and facilitate the event if there is enough interest. We need an UA for us pleebs!

  2. “Account” asks for mailing address & phone #. I’ll feel good about providing such with some explicit assurance they’ll never be communicated to any other entity (absent a warrant).
    (Or maybe I’ve missed that assurance somewhere?)

  3. I’ve a 14 year old German car that I rely on as my daily, so I’m not known for the best of decision making, but I’m in.

    However, I will echo the calls for a less-expensive and less frill laden level. While there are probably a number of Leather level readers out there, there’s probably going to be a decent chunk of just-trying-to-keep-my-shitbox-running fans of the site who are spending their money on gas, food, lodging, and parts for whom $100/year is a bit much. Something like a $40/year torn fabric level. No frills, no swag, no limited edition key chains. Just access.

    And on the topic of access, I know you don’t want to go full Defector, but have you considered early access for members, public access a week later? Might be a palatable combination that provides an ongoing incentive / reward for subscribing that still opens the content to a wider audience. I already support one journal that does that, and has for years, and it’s worked.

  4. “A drawing on your birthday from Jason of whatever car you want sent directly to your Atari”

    Atari? But I have a Commodore PET 2001 Series. Its graphics capabilities are… different. I suspect these new membership levels were not well thought out.

  5. Disappointed that none of the packages include a chauffeured visit to a Wendy’s drive-through in Torch’s world’s Cheapest EV.. Seriously though, love the site and happy to support the future success of it. Keep up the great work!

  7. You guys might reach out to Wes Siler for some guidance. I know they did this with Hellforleather (RIP), but then went in a different direction after a while. That went bad enough that Wes doesn’t even like motorcycles any more. Hellforleather was awesome.

  9. I can’t seem to pay for the velour membership! Any card I enter is getting declined, and I know my cards work. Don’t y’all want my money?! Haha

  10. Okay, you got my money. I hope you can set up a “countries with a crappy exchange rate” tier for the people who only have a dollar or two to spare. Plenty of media companies have different pricing tiers for the same content on different continents.

  11. I’m in! Love this site and all it entails! Let’s support these talented people and keep them and this site rolling (or rusting… in David’s case)!

    Torch, please draw the GTS in silver, with 5 spoke wheels preferred….????????

  13. If a reward is going to be a persuasive video to buy yet another car, Mercedes should absolutely be an option. She’ll make you feel like you’re on the edge of permanent immobility with a mere four cars.

  14. The Autopian is by far my favorite car enthusiasts site.
    Specially as a aircooled VW owner (former Beetle and now a Microbus), I really dig your vibe!
    I support 100% the ideia of membership (I´m member of a similar initiative for the best automotive website in my homecoutry, Brazil). BUT, for a viewer that lives abroad, in a country is struggling with an economic crisis as mine, the values for Autopian membership are sadly above my paygrade (laughter and tears) – I would gladly sign up for an Autopian ‘2CV picnic seat’ membership, though.
    Congrats from SouthAmerica!

      1. I’m in Appalachia and have always used milk crates held down by Lowes angle brackets with self-tappers. Bonus: they double as jackstands-that ain’t gonna happen with a lawn chair!

        1. Ok… I didn’t tell you this, but if you go to our merch site:
          https://autopian.myshopify.com/

          And pick The Red Light and pick an XXXL white or blue (it varies) size… it might just work and it might just be priced inconspicuously. You can pay in Meta, Venmo, Paypal, whatever…

          How it’ll functionally work I need to figure out but…

  19. I’m IN! Since the moment you’ve launched, I’ve been rooting for your success and I’m happy to financially support you in exchange for all the content that I’ve enjoyed for the past 9 (-ish) months.

    Please sell a few ads too – you’re building something incredible, but it’s everyone’s loss if you just end up losing money.

  20. Velour for the win. I did the annual plan, does this auto renew? I live less than 10 miles from the tail of the Dragon. Great spot for a future Autopian meetup??

    1. We should do the dragon then a trip to the lane museum! I’m in south Georgia, but been on the dragon a few times, would love to hoon my 62 continental through it!

  21. I personally want to see the gallery of all the birthday drawings and what people want Jason to draw (I chose a Figaro, what did other people choose?)

    1. I threw in Chevy Citation, but I might change it to a Chevy K20 Stepside. I should think of something cooler, but I’m not sure what. The Citation is a waste of his talent, but it’s also something almost no one would want drawn, which makes me want it.

  22. For the Corinthian Leather level, can we get access to a text-to-speech tool with Ricardo’s voice reading the articles out?

    BTW, the site seems much more responsive this morning.

      1. I bought a “cheap” 36-year-old German car that has cost me three times what I paid for it to date (and that’s doing the labor myself). More if I count what I could have gotten for all the blood I’ve spilled working on it.

        Sign me up.

          1. Right!? I think they should go full cult and register as a religion. We can make up our own holidays while the site benefits from being tax exempt.

        2. 39-year-old Italian car and my mechanic has yet to produce an estimate in writing. I’m pretty sure I should just buy the parts he’s acquired to date and give up the six Gs to have DT do it. If pizza’s included, my wife might actually go for it.

  25. I did Velour…who doesn’t love the soft cushion of velour. I didn’t do it for the swag, that’s all nice (but my birthday is in a month so very curious to see what artwork shows up!) I did it because you all make my day a bit brighter and if this keeps you all independent, I’m all for it.

    I also think an Autopian trip would be fun. Living in CO plenty of scenic drives out here and places to camp (who needs hotels!) as you drive through NM, AZ, UT or NV…on the way to CA?

    2. There is definitely a dearth of Intermountain states inclusion in car media. It’s either Motown, NYC (for whatever unknown reason), or LA. I’ve been trying to get some of these folk out to Utah for sometime. what I want to do is – Overland the street folk and track the dirt folk.

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