I can’t believe it’s been over two years since that fateful day: March 32, 2022 — launch day for the humble auto website you’re reading right now. The Autopian. Lots has changed since then, lots has stayed the same, and lots is currently in flux. One thing that will forever remain is our site’s desire to get feedback from you, dear readers. You are what make this site work. You motivate us every morning to crank out the most Double-E articles (Entertaining, Enlightening/Educational) we can think of, and we are forever grateful. Anyway, let’s chat!
It’s been far too long since we’ve done one of these “Let’s Talk” articles with you wonderful readers, so we’ll try to do them more frequently moving forward. If you want to tell us what you’ve enjoyed about our site, what you loath about it, what you’d like to see improved, or if you just want to hang out and learn more about us authors or tell us more about yourselves, please head into the comments and bang on those keyboards.
Jason is in the hospital trying to figure out what’s going on with his recurring fevers, Matt and I are recovering from a huge week at Pebble Beach and Willow Springs Raceway (where Matt worked with our video guy Chris to organize the most epic shoot involving the 2004 Ford Shelby Cobra Concept (Codename: Daisy), a Dodge Viper, a C6 Corvette ZO6, and an original Shelby), and Mercedes is gearing up for her first international trip ever! Thomas is hopefully… you know what, lemme just ask Thomas. He always has cool stuff going on, often involving the ultimate duo: Good Food And Good Cars. From Thomas:
Oh gosh, my weekend plans involve writing some road tests, going for milkshakes at one of Toronto’s oldest ice cream shops, catching the Italian Grand Prix, figuring out what pieces I want to enter for the annual AJAC journalism awards, and possibly driving an original Series 1 Lotus Elise.
What do you have going on this weekend? What feedback would you like to give us? Let’s talk!
Busy weekend, cut lawn, help the kid swap the brakes on his X5 for M series ones, install an oil catch can system, bleed the brakes and flush the cooling system on his Toyota Soarer. BBQ, sleep in.
Had to Google Toyota Soarer, that looks cool!
Sorry, goofed on the name, it’s a Cresta not a Soarer we are working on this weekend. Its also a great car and crazy fast too, has a built 1JZ twin turbo. He has a large collection of JDM cars Toyotas, Nissans, Honda’s and Mitsu’s and I often get to help him work on them. It’s the best of all worlds, I get to wrench on cool rare cars and don’t have to go through the heartache and expense of ownership.
Problem is, I’m starting to yearn for a new toy of my own.
This place makes me seem incredibly well researched and educated in the auto industry. I work in an auto adjacent industry and I typically know more about the current state of the industry and what’s coming than anyone else in my company. So thank you, you’ve literally assisted my career.
Sounds like you owe Autopia et al a portion of your paycheck.
Taking two vehicles for my twin grand nephews. Not as complex as you imagine. They are almost 5 now and the vehicles are RC trucks.
Hopefully you charged the RC car hauler!
Just get rid of that annoying video in the top left corner, and I’ll be happy
Dropping the gas tank on the K5 as something seems to have eaten the wiring to the fuel sender. Hopefully it fixes gas gauge weirdness at the same time!
Other then that, beer and bbq.
Escaping the heat outside by spending some time the basement. There are some hundreds of model cars (1/43, mostly) and thousands of car brochures waiting to be sorted and arranged on my recently bought shelves (well, „recently“ – last February).
PS: Mercedes, I wish you a great time abroad! Waiting for the stories you‘ll bring back.
Oh you bet! Apparently, I’ll be flying a 787 (ooooh) to Germany, then a CRJ900 (YES) to France. Yes, I am quite excited to fly on a CRJ900! I haven’t been on one of those in a couple of years!
Happy to have you here in Germany, even if it‘s for a short time. Enjoy your time in Europe. Looking forward to read about your impressions.
No car weekend plans. I currently have a rental 2024 Jetta because the Q3 is in the body shop getting a dent repaired and its been extra long. The insurer recommended first to have the dent pulled, body shop said no way we want a replacement fender. Insurer had to come out and re-assess. They recommended a recycled fender. The recycled fender arrived and it was not in good enough condition that the body shop wanted to use. Insurer had to come out and re-assess. Insurer recommended now a new part. We are going on week 2 and they haven’t started the repair yet
That’s BS, but sounds like the shop has your back, though, which is nice.
I wonder how much money they’ve technically spent sending the assessor out versus just buying a new bumper?
They definitely wasted their time and money doing that, but what am I paying them for if not that lol
Any article with a more technical/ dig into the weeds is appreciated. Way to much moto fluff out there. The current trend for “automotive tech” is geared for non car folk. I think I can safely say you’ve got a load of gearheads here.
Have a great Labor Day.
Well simple weekend plans-
Hook up the rear end lights lights on the ’65 f-350 dump truck for a dump load
Move the ’04 quadrasteer to the garage and test to see if it needs a new battery.
Lastly move the sad ’75 chevy c-30 full of junk parts and scrap so I can get a load of that ready to go.
Probably will get the other inner tube in on the ’99 timberwolf rear if I have time as well.
And I need to start pulling the ’98 forester engine to stop the leaks and ‘adjust the crossmember so it doesn’t rub on the up pipe.
Oh and yeah look at “downsizing” the fleet 😉
Whatever happened to the Jeep kitties? Haven’t heard anything about them for a while.
Whatever happened with the promise to drive the Aztek for a month and live in it for a week? I renewed my membership and I feel ripped off that there hasn’t been an article on this exploit yet, unless I somehow missed it.
this!! ^
Oh that’s still happening. We got the Aztek registered and then immediately drove it to Pebble Beach (we crashed a supercar show; more on that soon!), then took it on the track at Willow Springs Raceway during our film shoot for Daisy.
In a couple weeks, I’ll have a full 7 days to camp out of that tent AND air mattress — which I got brand new in box!
David all I can recommend is bring a battery pack jump starter if you will be solo camping. Good luck
This is solid advice.
I paid for a car. I never said nothing about a comfy air mattress.
It’s a factory air mattress!
Hey, we don’t want any more trench foot issues and whatnot. Jason being down is bad enough – we need a healthy David to keep things moving along.
Maybe we have somewhat of a devil’s bargain on our hands. We can never have both of them 100% healthy at the same time. And now that David has gone Hollywood, it’s Jason’s turn to pay his dues.
It’s been a little (well, a lot) too hot in So Cal to be tent camping in your car!
Not all of you were at Jalopnik when I was there, so I have to ask: who farts the worst?
(I’ll be at WEC’s Lone Star Le Mans at COTA all weekend. Come hug a Puffalump and see cool Le Mans cars.)
These are the important questions.
My bet is the Jeep cat, because that gives David an explanation for the mysterious smell his Frankenstein project of all the best Jeep bits will inevitably have.
You. Undoubtedly you. I know you’re not on the staff here, but I think you still probably hold that record. Mostly because you still owe me a response.
I need to send my old hard drive off for recovery. :'( Absolutely devastated that some dumb little piece breaking might’ve just tanked a decade’s worth of photos. Bring back film, I guess.
Oh that sucks! Sorry to hear that.
Caulking the leaky glass roof panels on my Flex tomorrow. This is the most “wrenching” I have the patience/ability for these days!
I don’t have this issue yet but when I do I now know who to turn to!
Oh, caulk. </James May>
Surely you should be using Flex Seal instead of caulk?
That stuff did an incredible job on the rowboat I accidentally cut in half.
I used that crap under water and it still gripped and sealed. pretty impressive. But wear gloves
Hello people of Earth!
We’ve had content on trains, planes, automobiles and motorcycles. I purpose we include content on the humble bicycles! It’s a such a fun wacky world. Full of tight outfits and crazy ideas to go marginally faster.
I’m literally working on a bicycle piece right now… and it’s big
Is is about penny-farthings? Those are pretty big.
Oh, are we talking about the hottest topic in cycling, fork width! I have very strong feelings about a void between tire and fork. And I’m prepared to die on that hill!
I didn’t name mine “Reliable Transportation” for nothin’. (My cars break. A lot.)
I see your bike is not SRAM equipped.
I have been wondering about how much readers would be interested in bicycles! I do not ride bikes whatsoever, but ebike companies keep offering me ones to test. I feel like they’re sending me a message. 🙂
I’d be in to that!
Take them up on it. Also golf carts – we have a huge number of them running around town as Neighborhood Electric Vehicles. I’d like to know more about them.
Mowing the lawn, Bike night at the local AAA baseball game, and doing an oil change on the motorcycle for a 1000 mile in 24hr motorcycle ride on the 7th
Didn’t even see this post until now! We were having lunch at a local brewpub. Had a spectacularly yummy calzone and a pint of good amber lager.
Weekend plans: Tomorrow we’re driving to Lewes, DE to catch the ferry up to New Jersey to visit my wife’s cousin, and coming back in the evening. Sunday will probably be mostly working around the house, preparing for a housewarming party in a few weeks. Lots to do still. And Monday, it’s back to the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
I participate in a lot of the chat discussions here, including your questions of the day, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much reason to do so. I know on the old site, comments get recycled into listicles, but I’d love to see more engagement with or reason to use the comments on any given article. Also I think notifications about follow-up comments are broken
Yes, the notifications are a bit wonky!
We try not to do that whole listicle thing, but we try to be in the comments and the Discord regularly. We’re always open to suggestions about engagement. 🙂
Yes, please no listicles. Coincidentally enough, the first notification I got in weeks was your reply. Maybe it’s working now.
I was supposed to be doing a hillclimb this weekend, but the event got postponed, so my annual shot of high-test adrenaline got put off. Instead of prep work, I’ve been busy researching the paperwork to import my next car in a couple months and scheduling cars to drive in England while I’m doing the car deal. I’m driving a Reliant Robin while having a known history of flipping small cars. It’ll be fiiiine!
Whatchya bringing back?
Seriously, don’t leave us hanging, what’s coming over?
An exceedingly uncommon Italian I’m buying off a friend
I don’t even know what it is and I’m jealous in a good way.
Already loaded the utility trailer with fallen foliage and clippings to bring to the municipal compost tomorrow morning. Hoping to finally finish going through my editor’s suggestions on my second kid-appropriate book before he gets on my case to start going through the third one and get in some kayaking and/or biking. Recovering from a gum graft a few days ago, so taking it easy on food (dammit).
Was going to show 3 high-end properties to a new client tonite – but they had to reschedule due to work conflicts.
So I’m going to an art opening tonite with friends instead – but putting the roof up when I park so I don’t have a repeat of the rainstorm-flooded Mercedes incident from earlier this week…
(It’s mostly dried out after a couple sessions with the shop-vac and some 95-100 degree heat in the garage and out & about these past few days – and all the error codes but one have self-corrected)
More in-depth histories/backgrounds on cars found on the auction sites would be fun.
And less Influencer/CT clickbait please.
Oh – and while we’re at it:
I’ve noticed that we have a lot of readers who are not located in the continental US.
How about more coverage of cars sold in Europe/Asia?
Great idea. I’d esp. love to hear about Japanese auto culture from an autopian who’s actually there. We all know the caricature version of it from pop culture at this point, but I’d love to balance that with stuff from the real world.
I’d love to know how many countries are represented here.
Another site I’m on has a map, which is fun. (Model collectors.)
Agreed – It was quite different living there in the early 90’s when Vippu style and drifting became a thing.
Drifting wasn’t doing donuts in parking lots/empty intersections or hoonig on race courses. It was racing up and down narrow public roads with minimal shoulders up in the mountains outside Tokyo – bare rock wall on one side and an unguarded cliff face on the other.
That sounds right up my alley!
Not much to say. I will report back that load times on the site are way up for some reason. It takes several seconds to get a page to load. Its tolerable for humans but I know it affects your SEO. Comments seam a little screwy too where marking a comment as read doesn’t actually change its status. Just a few things I noticed recently, other than that love the site.
We tried to do a major platform upgrade last night and it didn’t really go over that well. Uh, let’s say the site has a cold right now. We’ll give it some antibiotics!
A cold is viral, antibiotics won’t help. Just give it rest and plenty of fluids.
Jason finally decided to upgrade to a Commodore 64?
I look forward to the speed improvements!
I am doing a bunch of front end work on my first gen Tacoma to prep it for sale soon. Not stoked for anything regarding CV axle grease, but what can you do? Might also do a canyon run with some friends in the AM with my NA Miata.
Side notes: The notifications button is frustrating, as the notifications disappear once you check the first one. It would also be cool to have a place you can check on old comments and upvotes (Cars and Bids has a pretty good system for this). Some of us put wayyy too much stock into what other people think of our humor/sarcasm.
Great point re the comment notifications…I have the same problem. I have to remember if (in rare cases for me) there’s more than one, so I can read them all.
Ditto
Me too.
I hope “Trade-In Tuesday” comes back. I loved that concept.
Keep up the great RV content! I love it when Mercedes gets into the deep dive into the history of things.
Matt’s TMD are always so informative with great insights on the state of the industry. Really quality reporting!
Looking forward to the SWG Jag article.
Hope Jason feels better soon. Love the weirdness he brings to things (in a good way).
I know I didn’t mention everyone, but it’s all really good.
The Discord is a ton of fun too.
I have no significant plans for the weekend. It’s my first one home in a while, so I might do some garage re-organization and a few more mods to the NC.
Deep in the carhole 🙂
Yep, gotta freshen up the carhole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhbJnlIvfyc
The Morning Dump is a must during my, uh, *points back to start of sentence.*
I enjoy pretty much everything here. Mercedes and RVs. Torch’s tail lights. SWG fixing up unwanted old Chryslers. Funky photoshops, DT’s adventures, the list goes on. Every now and then there’s a technical article that gets a little too deep for me, but those are still interesting.
Compared to the old lighting site, which has gotten worse than ever, I very much appreciate that you make an effort to stay away from blatant political clickbait which only serves to turn commenters against each other. We can go other places for that crap.
I second this comment. Especially the part about the commenters. We have a great community here and I appreciate the staff’s efforts maintaining that, but also my fellow commenters.
Way to keep it cool everyone!
Well said! That type of community is what drew me to the old site way back (I’m talking Murilee Martin days) as I loved the “we like cars for cars’ sake” vibe. But then I lost interest when things there, er, changed as The Mark hints at. So I was cautious but intrigued when autopian was founded, and while sure, the stories turned out to be top-notch, the readership did too!
I explain it to non-us people like this: it’s basically a subscription to a car magazine that’s delivered every day, and one where you get to not only read about the stuff you like but also discuss it with other readers (and even occasionally get berated by a British person, which as an American, I’m seemingly predisposed to kinda enjoy?). What’s not to love?