Happy Honda Days!*
We sent a version of this out to members yesterday as an email, but we thought everyone should see it because we’re grateful for all of you. In a year of increasing media uncertainty, our members and readers have been manual-Volvo-240 reliable. The Autopian’s churn rate is 1%, or, put another way, 99% of members stay members. That’s essentially unheard of in the media world.
The Autopian also has the best community – automotive or otherwise – on the web. We’d like to thank our commenters for helping keep this a great place to hang out, even when not everyone agrees (the timing belt v. timing chain debate has continued into 2025!). As if the comments weren’t enough, our Discord (which is open to everyone, FYI, should someone ask) is where the party never stops. A huge thanks to everyone there, and especially our volunteer moderators, who keep the vibes on point basically 24 hours a day (thanks in part to the large number of Australians who pitch in).
As you may know, our co-founders and senseis, Beau and Jeff, also have a small sideline concern called Galpin Motors, and everyone there provides a huge amount of support. We’re so grateful to the crew at the various dealerships, offices, GAS, The Horseless Carriage (the best restaurant in LA), accounting, legal, HR, and Galpin Media.
You may never interact with Jill, but Jill is one major reason why this entire organization hasn’t accidentally fallen into the ocean. We love you, Jill, and couldn’t do this without you! Also, Jill once worked for Chris Bangle, and she’ll let us tell that story one day.
Like a 4.0 Jeep inline-six, this site never stops running, and that’s because of Jazel. If you’ve ever had a tech issue and emailed Matt, and he couldn’t figure it out, it’s the team at Jazel who fixed it. They turned Jason’s drawing into a website, and we’re forever grateful that they get it when we suggest things like adding a “glovebox” or “night panel” to the website.
There are all sorts of other people working behind the scenes to make The Autopian a growing and going concern. All those great t-shirts and stickers that get mailed to you? That’s the wonderful team at Inkcentric. They do both the production and the increasingly complicated fulfillment (also, a big thanks to Stephen, who figures out the complicated web of apps to make our databases work). If you need anything printed, you should give Inkcentric a call. And if you need a pin like one of our amazing member pins, that’s the incredibly talented Leen Customs. Toys? Everyone likes toys, and Candy Lab Toys has become our partner this year on this crazy adventure into this brand-new world. We’re so grateful for all of them.
We have so many partners who have helped us create some wild projects. Thank you to XPEL, eBay Motors, Copart, and Hagerty for their support this year.
Do you enjoy reading this site? That requires writers. We want to thank everyone who shared their stories with us, especially frequent contributors like Mark, Huibert, Tycho, Brandon, Laurence, The Bishop, SWG, Emme, Alanis, Adrian, Travis, and Andrea.
Honestly, this could be 19 more paragraphs long. As challenging as the media landscape is right now, we are the luckiest people in the world, and are so excited to do it all again next year. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Mail Stuff!
Our amazing friends at Inkcentric got this year’s member shirts done a little early, and Leen Customs was early with the renewal pins, so Inkcentric is calling in some extra shifts to try to get as many welcome gifts and renewal gifts out as possible. As always, if you move, change credit cards, want to upgrade your plans, change your shirt size, et cetera, please you can do it right here.
We’re also mailing stuff out to members as we have swag. If you’re Cloth member, we could also use your address, though if you get randomly selected, I’ll make sure to reach out to you. We’re sending out a fancy radio-control car to a Cloth Annual this week. It’s random!
Happy Holidays!
– Your Autopian Crew
*Or Lexus December To Remember, Toyotathon, Texas Truck Month, Autobianchi Mega Saturnalia, or whatever you celebrate.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS AMAZING COMMUNITY!
I am always happy to see the people here and on discord and it truly has become like a second family to me. From the running jokes and the antics to coming up with multiple games and counting to 3650 (thanks Milk!!!), I’ve never been more proud to be part of a group as I am now.
I am truly grateful for the site staff and the chance to help make our server and site great!
Also, to keep up with the account gimmick: 5/10, no yellow cars but I love getting to see y’all’s lovely faces.
Thank you for this site, and I’m happy to be a member. For the record though, I did not get an email from you
yesterdaytwo days ago…Thank you for the continued quality content offered by your staff & writers, it’s always a pleasure to come to this great community daily. All your pledge efforts have paid off on my part, since I’m now also part of your happily paying members!
I thought “Bishop” was his last name, so you should’ve thanked “The” as one of the frequent contributors. Stay consistent!
But seriously, I thank you all. This is one of the (or just the) last websites that still feels like the “Internet 2.0”, which is funny considering you started in March 32, 2022… But you got all the vibes of the old, purpose built websites I used to visit before the Great Enshittification. The community is truly great, on/off topic balance is perfect, and even the pagination is a nice break from the usual infinite scroll of doom everywhere else.
It is refreshing to know this is a place where content isn’t catering to the likes of Facebook and Google. No need to censor content to the point of incoherence just to cater to The Algorithm. No sir, I’m proud to be part of a community where all incoherence is intentional!
And now, just because I can, I’ll end this comment with words that will make Zuckerberg clutch his reptilian pearls: ass, nipples, poop and antitrust laws.
AND FUCK THEIR AI AND THE HORSE IT RODE IN ON!
Too late to edit this, so I’ll just talk to myself: The Autopian is an aircolled, manual seven seater website on an internet of over styled drive by wire cramped SUV “coupes”. But we’re still have disc brakes on all wheels because we’re not savages!
It should just be “Bishop” like Sting or Madonna, or at least like Sting or Madonna when they were actually cool.
Not to give Jill short shrift but this site can’t fall into the ocean. With the team spread out as it is, at a minimum it would have to fall into the Atlantic and Pacific simultaneously, not to mention the Tasman Sea, Lakes Michigan and Ontario…
Very happy holidays to the entire crew.
Q. Are Autopian members Autopainians?
Autopianites?
Oh don’t be silly, it’s just like the plural of moose. Autopianses.
I read it to fast and thought you said Autopenises. I have no regrets.
It’s actually Autopianists, except for me and SWG, who are Autoguitarists. And Peter, who prefers the keytar.
Thanks, now I can’t get those Autoharp flashbacks out of my head. Do you believe in magic…