Welcome to The Garage on The Drive

The car scene’s changing a lot at this moment in history, and The Drive is your best automotive news source to stay up on what’s happening next in the world of wheels. Now, we’re excited to announce a new section focused on practical tips, project cars, buying advice, and other info you can apply as a car owner and enthusiast today. The Garage is open for business.

Why We’re Here

You’re probably getting tired of hearing horror stories about high car prices and slim pickings in the new and used market. If you’re an enthusiast who has finally scraped up enough funds to buy something you’ve always wanted to drive, you may also feel a little bummed seeing once-affordable modern classics get snapped up by richer folks and then hoarded or traded like stocks. Well, it’s true that you aren’t finding a $1,000 BMW E30 in anything approaching “desirable” condition anymore. Heck, it also seems to largely be the end of dealers offering discounts on cars, whether they’re classic or basic.

But that doesn’t mean cars as a hobby, or utility, are completely out of reach for normal people just yet. We’re here to help guide you through this challenging market as prudently and practically as possible, whether you’re searching for a new passion project or just need a ride to work.

Or maybe you don’t want to deal with the car market at all. I don’t blame you! Perhaps you’d like some insight on how to keep your current car running as long as you can. Also possible: You’ve already gotten to know your car well and want to optimize it in meaningful ways. We’re here to help with those ideas, too. Repairs on modern cars can be significantly harder than their older predecessors (read: more annoying to service for a DIY mechanic). Once again, that’s why we think a great resource like The Garage will quickly become valuable to you as a reader.

For those of you who appreciate the art of keeping aging cars alive, this will be a place of camaraderie. We’re here to entertain and enlighten on all things automotive and do our damndest to bring as many people into our world of cars as we can with no lame gatekeeping or taking ourselves too seriously.

What we’re talking here about is known in the media biz as service journalism. The Garage will be all about news you can use, tangible advice, and information that helps you as a consumer and a citizen. Some of it will be driven by current events; some of it will be designed to stay relevant more or less forever. And yes, we’re going to have some fun along the way.

The Garage’s Mission

As explained by Editorial Director Patrick George: This is the section of The Drive that steps away from the immediate daily news grind and offers answers to the questions readers have now, and almost always will have. It’s the place where our adventures in and around cars can be turned into helpful advice and lessons that improve your (readers’) lives — and draws you even deeper into the hobby we love.

We’ll be here to answer a lot of “how” and “why” questions from the automotive space while inspiring and entertaining you with our own experiences (good and awful) with our personal project cars.

The Garage on The Drive is all about examing the challenges of modern car ownership in a practical sense for all the reasons we laid out above—vehicles are getting more expensive, more complicated to repair, and being kept on the road longer. Plus, despite all that, there are still people out there (including everyone on the team here) who are still passionate about cars as projects and want to keep finding ways to keep celebrating our scene. We want all those folks to have the knowledge they need to squeeze every ounce of fun and usefulness out of what they drive.

What To Expect Here

The Garage will be stocked with the following, in no particular order:

Cast of Contributors

I’m heading up editorial efforts here and writing on The Garage in a new role as Editor-at-Large at The Drive. Contributing Writers Chris Rosales, Kevin Williams, and Peter Nelson will be in the mix working mostly on explainers and advice pieces with the help of Senior Editor Tony Markovich. Commerce Managing Editor Jonathon Klein will take charge of buying guides, deal news, and many other consumer- and prod topics; his team includes Editor Kara Snow, Copy Editor Linsay Thomas, plus Contributing Writers Robbie Bacon and Hank O’Hop.

Every single person on that list has personal experience in car repair, automotive journalism, deep research, and technical writing. As a team, we’re in a great position to educate, inform, and entertain you on all things automotive.

How We Got Here

Those of you who recognize some of the names above might also have recently enjoyed Car Bibles and Guides & Gear — The Garage is essentially a combination and evolution of both those projects.

Our parent company Recurrent Ventures now has a healthy breadth of automotive talent. And while The Drive has daily news locked down, our efforts on the informational and educational fronts have been spread out. Bringing a few crews together at The Garage is simply the best way to get all our great stuff under one roof and onto your screen.

So What Do You Want To See in the Garage?

Now that you’ve heard the pitch, let us know what you think. We’re here to help keep your car on the road, get you great deals where we can, and safeguard your sanity when you’re struggling with an overwhelming project. So if there’s anything, in particular, you’d like to learn more about, speak your piece! With that, I invite you to hang with us in The Garage starting today.