It’s been a long week. We’ve had some folks out, my wife and I have been caring for crying newborn and moving homes at the same time, I had to drive a Vector M12 yesterday because I’d be a fool to pass that up, I’ve been trying to help edit a book, and that’s all on top of my job as editor. But now it’s Friday, and it’s time to take a few minutes to reflect — not just on this week, but on the site overall and on our future. So, dear Autopian readers, let’s talk!
I always enjoy our “let’s chat’ sessions in which you not only tell us how you’re liking (or not liking) The Autopian, but also just generally talk about what’s going on in your car-worlds. Consider the comments section here a great place for both feedback and car-related discussion with fellow Autopians.
I’m about to drive to U-Haul to pick up a 6ft x 12ft trailer to tow with my 1989 Chevy K1500 because I’m too cheap to get the box truck (which has a per-mile fee) and also too cheap to hire movers. This weekend is going to be rough. I’m still trying to figure out how to transition from “single dude who did everything himself” to “married dad who hires things out.” The number of projects at this new house – plus all the cars I own (though I’ll whittle that down soon) — means I’m going to have to fundamentally change my mindset should I want to spend time with baby-Delmar (and I do; that’s my #1 priority).
So that’s what’s on my mind right now. What’s on yours?
The Autopian is now over three years old. We’ve gone from being literally just an idea into a site that outperformed The Drive back in March. That’s wild! And we have you to thank for it. As we look ahead at ways we can not only improve (we just cut autoplay videos for paying members!), but expand in different directions, we’re keeping our ears open to you, dear readers. How are we doing? How are you doing?
I am also starting a move in a couple of weeks. I can’t imagine doing it with a newborn. I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of flexibility in when the move happens and should be able to get a lot of small stuff moved in my truck, but I’m seriously considering a moving company for the big stuff. I’m not getting any younger, and neither are any of the people who helped me move 15 years ago, and I’d rather not be responsible for someone’s back surgery.
Still loving the site. About the only thing that could make it better is if you somehow manage to lure Kristen Lee over here. 🙂
I’m pretty good, thanks for asking! You guys are great, keep it up please!
DT are you making this up about getting a trailer from UHaul? Last time I tried to rent one, they basically told me unless you have a <5 year old 3/4 ton or bigger we’re not renting you a trailer because your truck is too old.
They rent me trailers regularly to tow with my 19 year old half ton pickup.
Find a different UHaul dealer. I’ve rented a car hauler/dolly to go behind a 30-year old truck. For a utility trailer I’ve been fine with my little car. I was told that they don’t recommend I use my minivan to pull a loaded car hauler (though they didn’t say they would refuse to rent me such a trailer).
Ask around. Folks put rental trailers behind old vehicles every day. Uhaul even sells & installs hitches for this exact purpose, so they can equip your old car for renting their trailers.
What I like:
The random high-quality stuff you guys come up with on a daily basis.
The fact you guys seem to actually give a crap about us, our comments, and your content in general.
And how 95% of the articles on here are completely free.
What I don’t like:
The seemingly endless tampon ads I get for no good reason. All I do all day is look up cars, video games and memes! Why the heck do I get so many tampon and makeup ads here!?
WHAT IS THE INTERNET TRYING TO TELL ME!?!?!*
It’s telling you to pay so you don’t see ads.
This echoing comment will certainly get lost in the mix of others, but I really want to point out how AUTHENTIC your brand feels and is conveyed. In a world where that is lacking more and more, it’s truly nice to be part of. Well done, and congratulations on all the good things going on your lives!
I’ve got a ton of house projects as well that I have been putting off or just not had the motivation to do. I’m hoping that I can get some help from a couple friends around to give me a hand, but scheduling anything as a bunch of 30+year olds is rough to say the least.
My biggest thing is trying to solve the no crank no start issue on my 85 Mazda RX7 that I got handed down from my late mother. It started and ran ok to get it inspected and then wouldn’t start once it got into my driveway when I got home. I’m hoping it’s as simple as the crappy old battery cables, but we’ll see I guess.
I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more tail lights!
I wish you guys did some more racing coverage. I know that is more of a beat, but as a fan of IndyCar, I find a true lack of IndyCar coverage anywhere else aside from Marshall Pruett.
Fox and Penske are putting together some solid coverage this year, and this year’s Indy 500 qualifying was INSANE. I hope you guys have a good write up on that tomorrow because yesterday and today were fantastic.
Also, I’d love to see a feature on Solar Car racing. The World Solar Challenge is coming up at the end of August in Australia, and there are truly some incredible cars that run, with all the teams being young engineers from colleges and universities worldwide.
I’m with you on that. I guess it’s hard to cover racing unless you go all in, and I think Racer does that pretty well, so it would be hard to jump in that pool. I’d love to see a bit of coverage here on things of note though, like Indy 500 qualifying which is just about the best thing that happens in racing all year!
The Real conversation from the top shot.
Come on guys! Let us out! Pretty devious to take us to that taco joint first.
Just give us the bank card pin and we all walk away.
I’ve only REALLY moved once in my life – from my post-college apartment to my first house, 25 years ago. I hired movers. Best money I have ever spent in my life. Prior to that, I never really had more stuff than would fit in a car.
I’ll be doing it again when my new house here in FL is finished. And the new house is literally next door to the old one! Large strong men are key.
When I bought my current place in FL, it was fully furnished. So all I “moved” initially was what fit in the trunk of an M235i, as I kept my place in ME for summers. More stuff has migrated south over the years, and some stuff north, but just by the station wagon load during annual migrations.
Congrats on the kiddo!
The Autopian is a nice diversion when I need it. I have ideas for cars that don’t exist, maybe I’ll share them someday. I’d like to meet Jason, he seems really cool. I’m too disabled to drive, but I’ll always call shotgun.
Real talk? I’m an hour or less from four major hospitals, I have good health insurance, especially considering I’m on SSDI. I actually have decent money for being on SSDI. And yet, actual real healthcare for me basically doesn’t exist. I have a condition in my left leg that is incredibly easy to deal with if treated properly (lymphedema, basically fluid retention and swelling) that I can’t get treated and it’s taken over my life.
No, really. I have *stories*, man.
I’ve been tryina get this dealt with since the initial infection in mid-March 2022. You aren’t paid enough to play talk therapist. The real talk therapist retired in 2020. I was one of the last clients he saw before he left. I’d been seeing him since I was probably 6, I’ll turn 39 later this year.
You wanna talk cars? I’m a computer nerd who thinks computers need to get the H-E-double-whotsit out of cars and that if you can’t pass emissions with a fuel toilet and careful tuning, you aren’t trying hard enough. But I’m also quick to point out that I’m an armchair grease jockey. My father did his own maintenance for years, often literally right in front of me, and one of my biggest regrets is that every last bit of that was wasted on me. I’m all theory and no practice, and where I live, I can’t learn.
But, hey, I’m still here. Maybe someday I’ll actually be worth the oxygen I use up. Would be kinda nice.
Hey man, sending best wishes from across the sea. Hope you’re able to get the treatment soon.
If, as people say, the past is precedent, I’ll be dead for a century before American healthcare is that good again.
Where are you, roughly? Maybe we can do a reader meetup in your area!
I’m down the road from you like 30min. Siler City. Back before UNC screwed me over and made it look like it was my fault they were tossing me out for it, and back before the local public transit got so bad as to be literally unusable, that gravel lot you use for meets at the edge of Chapel Hill is a place I’d pass at least once a month. Now I’m literally homebound, can’t even get out of my own apartment.
Extra points for “fuel toilet.” I love them too, and I am stealing your lingo.
I stole it from Kevin at Junkyard Digs and Dalton at Pole Barn Garage. YouTube has better TV than TV does these days.
Are you looking to expand your base of international contributors? I quite like the different perspectives from Lewis in Australia, as well as Tycho’s China-centric features. More of those would be great.
My Jeep WJ recently completed the automotive walk of shame and had to be towed home. It suffered from a seized caliper while I was picking up dinner. In my 20ish years of driving it’s the first and only time I have not been able to limp a vehicle home. I guess there a first for everything.
Keeping with the brake theme of my response I have a question.
I want to know about caliper locations on cars. On a majority of cars we see the front caliper sit rearward of the disc with respect for forward motion. But on the rear axels I feel like I classically have seen calipers that were positioned to the front of the rotor with respect to forward motion. But now, I’ve seen calipers both fore and aft on the rotors and at varying angles to boot. Is this solely to give clearance for connection points of the rear suspension or is there something greater at play here? So if anyone is looking for content ideas I can promise that this article would garner at least one page view. I can also promise to click on all of the ads for good measure if that’s helpful.
I believe that, where possible, most performance auto makers try to mount calipers closer to the cars center of mass. Obviously some packaging constraints may prevent them from mounting them towards the center of the car.
That makes sense. I had thought that performance cars considered angular momentum effect on suspension compression/expansion. I believe that is moot compared to weight transfer under heavy braking. Something that made me a fan of shaft drive motorcycles, hard acceleration raised rear suspension, engine braking lowered it. Chain or belt are opposite. It’s something you have to be aware of when banking corners, as it affects the center of gravity.
I’m a little worried about my mental state because I made a comment recently that was worth the pixels to display it, but otherwise things are as they were when I summarized my current status in a comment reply not too long ago, so I won’t bore or appall anyone by repeating it. When I have an income that will let me justify it I very well may restart my paid membership, although I’m certainly looking forward to the day when I can grouse that I was an Autopian back when it was still cool.
Hang in there.
I’ve been making similar lifestyle changes to you, on a similar timeframe, David. And oh my God, hiring out tasks is one of my favorite pastimes now.
2025 has been pretty rough, and apparently I’m not alone. Starting with an offer for the fed job I’ve been working my ass off for for years and a long awaited pregnancy, to that job being rescinded and a miscarriage. Now my wife and I both could lose our fed contractor jobs any day, and our expensive health insurance is fighting us to start IVF before we get further into “geriatric pregnancy” realm. Meanwhile, my poor S2000 needs an EGR fix and probably a new timing chain tensioner, but can’t justify paying someone to do it, though my “free” time is being consumed by keeping poison ivy from taking over our yard.
All that said, this site has been an excellent way to escape from the ever-present existential dread, so keep up the good work!
You’re not alone. We’ve gone through several of the things you’re experiencing. I don’t have any magic advice for you. But do know…you’re not alone. Your pain is felt.
Deeply enjoying the Autopian, so much I joined as a paying member, which I almost never do for anything.
I my automotive world I am trying to sell my current daily and spend the rest of the summer driving my “fun” cars before entering into another poor automotive decision for my daily driver. Projects for my fun cars currently include cobbling together parts to be able to fit 6 piston Brembos from a CTS-V to my 85 C10 pickup, and install a new apple car play head unit into my nb Miata. No shortage of projects to go around.
Great site!
My new Autopian “conspiracy” theory is that Jason’s been “not his/her real name”-ing his family for years but just not hanging a lampshade on it. “Sally” liked that alias well enough to start a web-based business using it and “Otto”‘s real name is Aiden/Jaden/Brayden or something like approximately 70% of boys born circa 2008-12.
JT, a fellow long-term hospital warrior, isn’t gonna name his kid any of those names. Unless he’s friends with The Fresh Prince, which is definitely possible, lol.
Ehh, back then I could realistically see him doing Aidan with two “a”s, if only in a parallel universe where he’s exactly the same except his background is Irish Catholic instead of Ashkenazi Jewish.
The kid is really named “The Fresh Prince”
I love this site, keep up the awesomeness! I also appreciate the work that has been done to clean up the ads. This site is so refreshing compared to others that use every pixel possible for advertising space.
I also love reading about everyone’s projects, both writers and commenters. It makes me feel better about the problems with my 350z Roadster
pile“project” (and, daily driver- two roles that really shouldn’t mix):– The convertible top leaked so badly last week that the passenger footwell had an inch or two of standing water.
– Runs like garbage after filling up on gas
– Throws two codes that never go away despite my efforts to fix the suspected problems
– The convertible top has been practically non-functional since I bought it in 2023
– Gets 13 mpg (This may be due to the driver’s generous use of the throttle.)
– The windshield is so heavily scratched that driving at night gives me an artificial astigmatism…
But hey, she’s a pretty color. And I get the illusion of being quick. 🙂
edit: Maybe fix the embedded bullet system- using the bullets causes issues where all the text just ends up in one big paragraph rather than in bullets after refreshing the page.
Perfect timing Delmar Parental Unit. I just mention in passing you don’t need to hire people to move when you have people who rely on you for their well being, oops I mean people you work with who love and care about you. I just noticed today while trying to view the video of yours about the shield under an SUV I had two watch 2 ads before the video started and then 8 seconds in a 3rd ad started. I have no problem with ads. In fact I find let them play while I refill my glass or emptying my bladder and my phone doesn’t go to sleep. But 3 ads in 15 seconds of video is beyond my threshold
I’m loving the site, and am happy my membership renewed last month. Got the new T-shirt a couple of weeks ago.
The staff is excellent, the articles are entertaining (where else can we learn about GAS HAM?) and the community is for the most part wonderful. Someday maybe Fancy Kristen can join the party, and Autopian can be even more complete.
As for me, I’ve got two more days on my “thou shalt not lift more than 20 pounds” restriction post gallbladder removal and am now way behind on yard work, but all in all life is good. It truly helps having a place like this to make me smile multiple times a day.
I just started my “thou shalt not lift more than 10 pounds” restriction! (Different procedure). It sure makes life different, doesn’t it.
Yes it does!
Any tips or tricks? I worry I’ll stop being mindful too soon and injure myself.
For me, it incisions provided all the reminder I needed. My gallbladder was located farther to the right than normal, so I ended up with five cuts. The “big”one (like two inches long) was right under my rib cage, and things like coughing, laughing or any sort of lifting would cause it to complain. Early on, very loudly.
Now about two weeks in, and all of that is pretty much gone.
My advice is if you pause a bit before doing something and the question “should I risk this?” pops into your mind, the answer is an automatic no. The longer you hold off on doing things, the sooner you’ll be able to back to normal.
Ouch. Thanks for the advice.
Had my gallbladder out about six years ago. Went back to work after a week. That was a mistake.
My surgery was on a Monday, and I went back to work the following Monday. It’s a work from home desk job, so not very physically taxing. I had to get up and walk around a bit quite frequently and I was exhausted by the end of the work day, but the incisions weren’t severely bothered.
If the job requires any kind of physical effort, yeah, I’d recommend taking a full two weeks. Otherwise you’re risking tearing the incisions and delaying recovery.
Since you are taking comments from the peanut gallery:
The biggest thing you could do to improve the site is to order the comment section logically from oldest to newest. Oldest comment on top and the newest on bottom – replies threaded of course.
I’m not sure who thought it would be a good idea to have readers scroll all the way down, then back up to find the 1st comment, then read down the replies on the thread, then scroll up again to the second comment, read those replies, then scroll up again……
It isn’t the days of dial up modems when it took minutes to load a page so the newest comment in a message board was on top.
Dark Mode is #2
Yes to both of these ideas, please.
+1! Literally my biggest gripe about this site. Really, my only gripe.
You are all doing great. You continue to keep thigs a little weird and pretty informative and I think that’s what sets you apart. I can’t imagine how hard it is to try to keep the soul of this site intact. I think a big part of doing that is you all seem to enjoy not just the topics you cover but also each other. Tales From The Slack is great and even though it is edited it lets you see the interactions involved with articles and how quickly things go off topic. Some of the best places I’ve worked and surprisingly, places where the best work got done were the places where the team was all-in on the hijinks and willing to jump down some rabbit hole or another together.
The other positive here is the community. It’s a group that comments and polices itself. It seems rare to see a group that is willing to put some beliefs aside and focus on the topic at hand. It’s refreshing and gives some hope that maybe, someday, we (in the U.S. anyway) can get back to polite discourse.
I’ve never paid a moving company, either, even when I moved from NC to NJ in 2003. The last time I moved was in 2017 when my wife and I were finally able to buy our first house. If things work out the way we hope, we WILL be paying someone for our next move, as all our crap will be loaded into containers so we can get off this wretched mainland USA.
I’ve been in the car business for the last 15 years. Whilst it has certainly (at times) provided monetarily for my family, the current economy is literally screwing me. I’m feeling emotionally bankrupt and sick of the Northeastern US. My job leaves little time for family time and personal endeavors (to say nothing of lawn work), so I’m a little numb, to be honest.
That being said, I love this site and all the information and entertainment it provides me during the day. No matter where we end up, I’ll still come here as often as possible. Aside from going home to my family after an often frustrating day, this place is one of the bright spots in my life.
So, thanks for that.
Wait you moved from the south TO New England? I thought only the other direction was happening lol.
There are times I miss New England, but then I remember the last couple years we were there of winter and blizzards in October, and the taxes, and am like we can visit.
Tis a long story, but yes, I realize I went backwards! 🙂 Most of my coworkers in Raleigh were from here.
That being said, it wasn’t until I moved up here that I got married, had kids (and grandkids), so New Jersey has been good to me. I’m just sick of the traffic and being taxed to death. Although I grew up in Chicago and am perfectly fine with changing seasons, my aging back is getting too old to want to deal with shoveling snow out of my driveway.
If you’re near the finish line hang in there, secure your future so family will have somewhere warm to visit during holidays.
You are doing great, me not-so-much. Thanks for helping keep my spirits up during these trying times.
Oh no! Here’s a virtual hug, Parsko! I get you, too. There have been many bad days recently, but still more sunny days than rainy ones. We’re happy to be a good note in your day!
Thank you!!!