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”

  1. I’m a cheapskate. Is there a membership level below Vinyl? I’m thinking of something along the lines of ‘Burlap Sack’ or ‘Duct Tape’…

  2. With the revamped login system, I don’t see a way to look at previously left comments, and the site hasn’t had notifications yet. I love being able to engage in conversations but it’s tedious to try to find comments – is that expected to be supported in the near future? (Or am I just missing a new place to find comments I’ve left before?)

  3. What happened to my old account with the low membership number, many comments, and avatar ?

    Old password seems to work and now I have a shirt size?

    2. Well my avatar is somewhere apparently but do I have to get an email every time I sign in. Done it twice in three minutes.
      Can’t look up other user’s comments and about page things either.
      Still no editing comments or images in comments.

  4. Thank you, my recommendation for your site, followed you over here from Jalopnik, where they thinly veil their disdain for cars as they virtue signal about global warming nonsense. They’re writing about cars for goodness sakes. It’s as if they’ve fell into car journalism, being forced to write about a topic they disdain. Also, Jalop writer’s copious political opinions jammed into ever article are obnoxious, some of your morning dumps are getting there. Impartial please, we are here to enjoy cars and to forget politics.

    2. Counterpoint: Cars are inherently political. There is not a single aspect of car ownership and driving that doesn’t have deep political connections.

  5. Agree about a cheaper membership, I am nowhere near meat-up territory.

    Logged back in, my Avatar catchline seem to be gone, good thing I ignored all the requests to fill out my profile more…

    Pages seem to load faster.

    Still no edit, or way of posting or attaching pics, or notification of replies and likes?

    There is great content here, but there are also great users, the comments can be half the fun and appeal.

  9. And… you broke my account. I clicked on it to check on comments I posted. Glad your not putting up a paywall. Still not interested in “memberships”

  10. I had bad luck with previous memberships of cars sites that I’ve signed up for with Drivers Republic closing a month after I took out Membership and Petrolicious imploding not long after I got (admittedly complementary) membership. It makes me a little wary although I have a lot of faith in the team at the Autopian have a better business model than the above.

    1. I’m trying to figure out why this keeps happening and I don’t have an answer. Our new system should solve this, in the meantime I’ll try to whitelist you.

  14. Sorry guys (and gals) two part conformation to sign into a site to make a comment about a car, and a fee on top of that. Good luck all, but I’m out.

  15. Shameless revenue plug ahead.

    I think David, Jason, and some of the other staffers should set up an Autopian YT channel. If even half of us follow you over, you can not only upload the videos of your podcasts, you can also find a home for David’s wheeling and junkyard misadventures. I’m sure other staffers could make other contributions too. Once you get a good subscribership there, you can do livestream sessions, which get a high volume of donations from the viewers. As an added bonus, you get reciprocation of channel subscribers coming back over to the mothership site and possibly enrolling as members. FWIW, I know I’d subscribe, so there’s one down.

    Anyway, you’re welcome! 😉

  19. I’ve been pulling for you since there was the faintest suggestion of a collaboration between the Two Goofiest Automotive Dudes™ on the Internet. Truthfully, I’m not surprised The Autopian is still here 8 months later, because I know that you, and your carefully-curated crew, work your asses off for us, the readers. Thank you for all you do. Because words aren’t enough to convey our gratitude, I plan to support this fine publication.

    The Autopian: of the car people, by the car people, for the car people

  22. NGL, this is higher than I was expecting.

    Magazine subscriptions, $20-30/year, cool car articles worth reading, right?

    Yeah, I get they have advertising, , but also it was printed with ink on paper in physical form, and shipped to my house, which costs a lot of money. Doing a site like this must be cheaper than printing and distributing physical content, right? So now you’re coming at me with a price over 3x higher than I was expecting.

    Then I look at the benefits:

    I don’t want a shirt, and I don’t think anybody here wants a ‘bumper sticker’. I saw commenters asking for diecut vinyl decals for a rear window tho! Bumperstickers make your car look like trash. Cmon dudes. Subscription level is vinyl. Make vinyl decals.

    Events are irrelevant because I’m not in Cali or Detroit.

    That just leaves me with a newsletter, open chat (I can ping any of you on twitter already?), be featured, and early updates.

    I still want to contribute, but that’s a hard sell.

    My suggestion: Offer a “global” plan that excludes events that people will never attend, no t-shirt (saves you money on producing/shipping), and maybe just a vinyl decal.

    2. Yeah, if there were something more along the lines of $24 bucks a year, that would be more in line with what I want. No shirt, maybe a bumper sticker or window decal and the digital content of Vinyl level.

    3. I feel same way, I don’t want/need stickers or T-Shirts or badges , or “special events” etc.
      Just offer a low cost “No frills” membership. Say $5.00 a month. The lower the price point on a product or service the more you are going to sell. You can still offer the current other plans.

      TLDR: A membership For Every Purse And Purpose!

    4. Definitely agree on missing the vinyl decal/vinyl level tie-in, plus having a removable window decal is much more appealing than a bumper sticker

    5. I’m in the same boat. When I heard they were announcing this the number in my head was $5/mo or $60/yr that I would pay no question with no benefits. For $100/yr ($135 for Canadians) it’s a tougher pill to swallow….

  23. I’m in – it’s great to be a part of the best place on the internet! Going forward are you all planning some NPR-style pledge-drives? Hearing DT and Torch do an Ira Glass style PSA about the absolute kick-ass necessity of rusty-wrenching, obscure taillight makes, and what the best available dashboard to spread Great Value Cream Cheese on would be absolutely delightful. Also, is this also the beginning of new profiles? My old one doesn’t seem to be around anymore and I’m being instructed to add an avatar image at Gravatar.com.

  25. So . . . How ’bout a “Shitbox Rally”?
    Contestants (two-member teams) start in Detroit with their own tools and $2,000 (or some such amount).
    It’s the ultimate in LeMans starts: they have to buy a car and drive to LA.
    Best combination of arrival time and dollars saved will be judged overall winners, with additional bonus awards for style; most awesome ‘score’ (unusual vehicle purchased); worst rust; etc.
    (Your liability insurance co. will love it!)

    3. Many years ago, two AutoWeek writers (cant’t remember who) challenged each other to drive to each other’s cities – one in LA, one in Detroit – for $1000, including the car. It was such a great article that I still remember it 30+ years later.

      Maybe I should pitch Gossin and me trying something similar? Have to wait for summer, though…

    4. The Lemons Rally encourages precisely this type of “arrive, find, buy, and hope for the best” behavior, with bonus points for vehicles that will probably struggle to finish and even more bonus points for vehicles that will probably struggle to leave the starting line.

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