Introducing 'May I Drive Your Car?'
What to expect at May I Drive Your Car? –it’ll be a fun ride!
This is the first post, but there’s much more to come—from car reviews to opinion pieces, photography, infotainment and music / car audio content.
1. OMG, Michael, another newsletter…?
Yeah! I’ve been working on MIDYC for a while now, and it’s not just a newsletter—it’ll be my new home on the internet for sharing all sorts of automotive stories.
From deep research pieces to test drives of vehicles, it’s where my automotive coverage will live. If you’ve been following (or reading) for a while, please hop into the comments and let me know what you’d like to see me cover, feature, or drive—past or present.
2. Community time
The platform I’m using to publish MIDYC, called ‘Substack’, is rapidly becoming a key destination for writers and the communities that support us. So chime in anytime, or simply reply to any email to share your thoughts.
That said, you’ll soon start to see my work as part of a YouTube channel I’ve been working on / sitting on / evolving, by this same name. More video embeds with my face in them are in our future…
3. Mor€ d£tail$
I run into trouble when I promise that I’ll post X on day Y. I want to post here at MIDYC 3-5 times per week—be it older feature pieces I’ve been working on, videos of new vehicles I’m testing, or extended commentary on current automotive events.
Free subscribers will get most of the benefits of paid members, however, after a few weeks the posts will automatically slip behind a paywall.
Similarly, I’m much more excited and devoted to actual paying supporters. Despite what you may believe, as an independent writer it really isn’t easy earning regular subscriptions and payments (especially in the automotive space where everything is free).
I test drive vehicles; these still need charging, fuel, washer fluid, and so on, at my cost. The filming and editing equipment I’ve slowly built up over the years, including microphones, audio recorders, iPad, GoPro were also not free—I’ve invested in my craft and it’s now time to start pumping out new stories.
Between subscriptions here and eventual monetization on YouTube (please Like and Subscribe), one day I may finally purchase the sub-$5,000 hatchback of my dreams 😆…
4. Optional extras
Along with the writing and videos, I’m also building a database of what I drive this year. Viewable at the ’Test data’ page on MIDYC, I’ve created a shared Google spreadsheet containing relevant info for everyone to parse through.
Similarly, I’ll be sharing up-to-the-minute reporting on my Twitter, @banovsky.
Once I plan and arrange additional vehicles, I’ll add those so we’re all able to get excited for what’s next!
5. Let’s goooo!
What’s next? More than any of us can know. But if you have a comment, suggestion—or a car for me to drive—get in touch!
-M
