I’m periodically reminded that we don’t always do a great job of letting people know what you can get for being a member. A lot of you all signed up when we made it official that we were removing display ads and video overlays for members. That’s awesome. It’s amazing that so many people saw the value in what we are doing and thought it was worth paying to see it without those kinds of ads. I’m eternally grateful and in awe of this community, as are many of our peers. If you haven’t become a member yet and would like to, click this link and consider signing up.
All that being said, there is stuff to be had for members at every level! One of the most important requirements that Beau, Jason, and David put on this when we started was that people who are members should feel like they’re getting a crazy good value. You’re willing to fork over hard-earned money for blogs and, while the blogs are great, we decided there has to be more than that. This means that our margins aren’t as high as other member-based businesses, but in our view, it’s totally worth it.
I’m going to go through each level and talk about what you get, with a link to each plan. Also, if you weren’t aware, you can gift annual memberships, so I’ll include that as well.
Cloth Membership ($50 annual, $7 a month)
This is our entry-level plan, and the annual version of the plan is our second-most popular. If you’re curious about the price difference between annual and monthly, it’s because we get charged a fee for every transaction, making a monthly plan more expensive for us.
What do you get for Cloth?
- No pop-over video player, no display/banner ads
- A member-only email newsletter (just today, we revealed more about our next project)
- Access to member-only posts like Tales from the Slack
- Special access within the Autopian Discord
Vinyl Membership ($100 annual, $10 a month)
It’s our most popular plan, and that’s because you get physical stuff in the mail! Specifically, you get the following.
- All the stuff mentioned in Cloth.
- An awesome bumper sticker.
- A sweet new custom t-shirt (and a new one every year if you renew).
- Special renewal gifts (lately we’ve been sending people pins).
Velour Membership ($250 annual, $25 a month)
It’s wild to me that there are Velour members, but there are a lot of you!
- All the stuff mentioned in Cloth and Vinyl, plus:
- An awesome grille badge for your car
- A special member drawing for a car that will come eventually, and then after the first year, an Apple II-generated piece of art from Jason.
Rich Corinthian Leather Membership ($1,000 annual)
This was a suggestion from our friends at Defector, who mentioned that there are people who will probably do it. This is a surprise to us every time, but it’s a wonderful surprise. As an RCL we have to make it extra worthwhile, so in addition to all the above, you get:
- A private tour of cars in the Galpin collection and, honestly, the random cars David keeps hidden at various Galpin offices.
- Random merch drops (btw, RCL members, keep an eye out for a package in the next 2-3 weeks, we just ordered something bonkers).
- Sometimes David will send you rust from his cars in a little vial!
Obviously, not everyone can support at this level or can afford to support at all. We totally understand that, and the goal is to make this place accessible to everyone forever. But supporting us through membership makes it a lot easier to make decisions about hiring people, paying for more freelance work you love, and otherwise keeping this place amazing.
Is this a long post? It’s feeling a little long. If you use the coupon code thatwaslong at checkout, I’ll give you another $5.33 off any plan (or upgrade, or reactivation). Thank you for reading and thank you for your support!
Can you explain more what the annual $$ gift is?I’m dumb, I get you’re gifting an annual membership now…..
So no option to logically sort comments with the oldest at top?
I’ve been griping about this ever since I found this site. It seems to fall on deaf ears.
Is there a way to purchase another bumper sticker? I’m selling the car I slapped it on.
I would love a flying DS. I have owned a ground-based DS as well as an SM, but the flying DS would be awesome. If it had V/STOL capability, I would be even happier!
I feel like you guys need occasional merch to purchase. Maybe partner with someone like Blipshift and have Torch drop a design or two every year?
Hm. Vinyl the 1st year for the swag, cloth after that.
Who do we contact about membership problems? I did not see a dedicated email for issues.
You can always email me matt at the autopian.
I’m selective about subscriptions, and I try to only have one at a time. This year, I chose the Autopian. C&D reducing the number of pages in the issues caused me to lapse the membership after 25+ years.
I appreciate the content here and the best way to show that appreciation is to pay for it. The biggest factor for me was the ad removal for being a member. I live a relatively minimalist life, so I don’t need swag. 🙂
Don’t forget the two Foreign Legion membership options for those readers who don’t live in the US.
I keep meaning to join, I promise, but as of next Friday I’m unemployed.
Maybe I could swap a membership for the story about the time I ignored company design standards and accidentally offset my lifetime automotive carbon emissions from just the material saved in a cylinder head?
Sorry to hear about the unemployment, but always excited to hear a new engineering story. Can you email me and David?
Honestly, there are two things that hold me back from becoming a paying member:
1. The lack of metric units. Any article that mentions measurements never seems to include metric. Considering that 99% of countries and 100% of the developed world use the metric system, this feels like a major oversight. Why not include both?
2. The VW obsession. The Volkswagen fixation runs a little too deep for my taste. Especially considering the history of the brand and it’s track record of not producing a single great car in entirety of its existence.
That said, the overall content is usually solid. Good work!
I was with you right up until 2., but then I am a VAG tragic.
VW are literally the worse German car brand. I get the beetle was charming, in a 2CVish way, and the Golf GTi was sometimes slightly better than the dozens of similar cars, but they are Germany’s Nissan or GM. I don’t get the love.
But I will put up with skipping over VW content if I get to see masses in kg.
Would more Skoda content persaude you to join?
What, no smug (even if futile) defense of clinging to useless units instead of just using metric?
You have a supercomputer in your pocket, which is also most likely connected to an artificial intelligence housed in a giant multi-megawatt server farm someplace, both of which could be used to divide by 2.2 if you so desperately want to know how many kg that weight in pounds is, or by 1.341 if you really need to know the power in kilowatts instead of horsepower, or multiply by 1.356 if you need to know the torque in newton meters instead of foot pounds…
But I suspect the metric units thing isn’t really why you don’t want to join. And if it is, you may not be the kind of person that will get the most enjoyment out of the content here anyway, given its ‘we are pro-car, let people enjoy things’ ethos that is literally written into the mission statement.
Thank you for entirely missing the point and your fundamentally incorrect assessment of me as a person.
Have a lovely whatever time it is where you are.
I think you underestimate how stupid the US units of measurement are.
Just another reason for the rest of the world to laugh at us.
Being based in the UK and therefore superior I always include both units. I also hate Beetles.
Not getting as many ads and helping assure y’all can pay Mercedes for her amazing articles was enough for me to dust off the CC. Now please recruit Murilee Martin with his amazing junkyard finds from TTAC. If you do, I will upgrade my membership and have my old saggy ass set on that awesome leather membership .Or at least some velour. I’m not sure what kind of COLA increase old farts like me will get yet, though. But you bring him on board, and I will find the means to move up from cloth. Vinyl maybe worst case scenario. Oh, never mind, I hate vinyl. I still have memories of having that VW vinyl upholstery in my uncles no AC bug burning that waffle pattern on the back of my thighs when setting on those awful black vinyl seats wearing teeny tiny swim trunks after being picked up from swimming lessons. having a wet suit and plopping down on that black waffle-y vinyl actually had my butt sizzling and putting off steam, and embedding a waffle pattern of burning flesh on my tender backside. Lets pray COLA will cover velour, OK? Don’t think I could do vinyl ever again after recalling that painful experience with vinyl in my long, long, gone youth.
I’m a member and still see ads. 🙁
Email me! You need to make sure you’re logged in, but sometimes old commenters have an issue. I can usually fix it realatively easily.
I recently upgraded and I really enjoy the site, and what I’m not into, I ignore. I’d love if you started selling merch. Specifically, I want one (well, three) of those license plate frames. Even more than that, I want to be able to log in without having to receive an emailed code. All in all, great work across the board!
You can’t fool me Matt! I know that the autopian branded swag is made by alien lizards that will implant your brain with a chip that will occasionally inject obscure car knowledge to distract you from the fact that they are hunting the wherewolves into extinction.
Better luck next time.
You’re going to be so much happier with the chip. I am.
Does the member area have actual, true opinions in the vehicle reviews?
The ones in the free area seem tainted with the “If I rag on this car, they won’t send us anymore” vibe.
You’re nearing “Consumer Reports” levels of subscription cost. I’m going to want to see more than, “It was a nice car” as a review.
My favorite thing about car reviews (and it’s been this way since the 1980s from multiple outlets and writers) is the review of the vehicle which replaces the one which had such incredible, glowing reviews when it was new – but now here’s a list of all the things they hated about the old one and never wrote anything about (and sometimes it was a lot)
Because what we didn’t learn until much, much later was that some manufacturers literally cut off advertising dollars, access to the press pool and all-you-can-eat-shrimp-cocktail because writers wrote bad reviews.
But hey: There’s hardly any new cars to review anymore anyway!
And the shrimp are thriving.
Because of our unique structure, I am fine with not getting press cars and I promise you that’s not a motivation. In fact, we’ve had automakers not invite us to stuff because they say we’re too critical. I hear the critique, though. The problem lately is that there are not that many truly awful, terrible new cars. As a reviewer, I wish there were! And the ones that are mediocre do not get car launches or get distributed as press vehicles as often for obvious reasons. We could probably make more of an effort to source those mediocre cars from other places.
OOO off the wall idea, an RCL perk:
Once a quarter you subsidize an RCL member rental of a vehicle off of Turo for an afternoon to write a review.
Of course they’re not terrible. Just not giving us (Autopians, I assume) something to get excited about.
You could also tell us which companies refused to give you a vehicle to review.
And based on the comments, we also have nits to pick:
These should not be buried near the end. We want it right up front.
Thank you for your attention on this matter!!
“…how to bypass the wires in an emergency.”
I have learned how to hotwire a Tesla which died in the middle of the highway so dead that the doors wouldn’t unlock. Le Sigh.
Great idea any way I can get the 215 notifications erased from my account? I can’t click on them they just ring the bell.
Same, but I can see them by logging in on my laptop. That might help.
I certainly enjoy the membership experience, although I’m still waiting for David Tracy to send me a box of rusty parts and Torch hasn’t gotten back to me about whether or not he’s willing to be my sexual advisor. All in all still 9.5/10, I do recommend.
Torch was unimpressed by your 10mm rating. Lol
*looks at topshot*
Woohoo, a hover-Citroën!!
I’ve always wanted one of those 🙂
More specifically, a rocket-hover Citroen.
I’m suddenly wonder what became of the one in the Muller Museum?