01GreyStangGT
Member
I did.
Is Autogeek/Autopia moving?
- Thread starter 01GreyStangGT
- Start date
I did.
Setec Astronomy
Well-known member
Um...isn`t this the old Autopia forum? I mean sure, this is a conglomeration of Detail City/Autopia Forums, Autopia.org, and Truth in Detailing...but it`s now/still Autopia.org...I mean it`s always been Autopia.org, the other forums got folded into this one.
EDIT...oh wait, maybe you`re right, maybe everything got folded into Autopia Forums, because my join date is from that, not my Autopia.org join date, which was 2004.
Billy Baldone
New member
Isn`t most of the McKees, and PBMG stuff made by B+B blending in Denver?
What do you mean by "deader"???
Is it the lack of car-care product manufacturer representatives/spoke`s person participation or the seemingly endless re-cycling of the same detailing topics over and over or my repetitious (Captain Obvious) questions, quotes, and links to very old (AKA obsolete or no-longer-pertinent) thread links??
Just curious... inquiring detailing minds want to know (See what I mean, Captain Obvious!)
Re: Is AutoAutoGeek ownershipgeek/Autopia moving?
LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - November 02, 2016) - Vision Investments, LLC, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Palm Beach Motoring Group. PBMG stocks thousands of car care products on site from more than 150 companies including its own brands: Pinnacle Natural Brilliance, Pinnacle Black Label Collection, Wolfgang Concours Series, Speed Master, The Belt, BLACKFIRE, McKee`s 37, McKee`s RV, and Marine 31. The company provides quality products for distributors, detailing professionals and auto enthusiasts. PBMG has a family of websites including Autogeek.com and Autopia-carcare.com that are high transaction e-commerce sites and leading sources of instructional detailing guides, forums and videos.
The new entity will operate under Palm Beach Motoring Group and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Vision Investments. PBMG is a high growth company and has achieved great success in past years. Customers will continue to receive the same high quality products, excellent customer service and education which they have come to expect and value from PBMG.
Vision Investments owner Tony George first met PBMG owner Bob McKee at the SEMA Show in 2009. Their relationship has further strengthened through the years including Autogeek`s involvement with Ed Carpenter Racing during the 2016 season. "I`ve admired Bob`s ability to grow the business and build strong relationships throughout the industry. He`s built a quality organization made up of proud brand ambassadors." The timing of the acquisition was strategic for both parties; Mr. George was looking to grow his auto-related portfolio (Vision is the exclusive US importer of the German SONAX car care brand), and Mr. McKee was looking to transition out of a business owner role.
Mr. McKee will remain in the industry focusing on the continued development of the McKee`s 37 and McKee`s RV brands. Terry Angstadt has been appointed Managing Consultant of PBMG. "I`m looking forward to the further development of this group of brands and activities," said Mr. Angstadt. "There is a strong and experienced team in place including Meghan Poirier, Jason Sierra, Mike Phillips and Nick Rutter. There are exciting things going on at PBMG -- including the second season of their television series `Competition Ready.`" Mr. Angstadt`s background includes tenures at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as Vice President of Marketing and at INDYCAR as President of its commercial division. (End of press release)
Obviously, some business "things" have changed since then and are continuing to transpire before us.
Yes it was. Here`s the press release of that business transaction.
LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - November 02, 2016) - Vision Investments, LLC, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Palm Beach Motoring Group. PBMG stocks thousands of car care products on site from more than 150 companies including its own brands: Pinnacle Natural Brilliance, Pinnacle Black Label Collection, Wolfgang Concours Series, Speed Master, The Belt, BLACKFIRE, McKee`s 37, McKee`s RV, and Marine 31. The company provides quality products for distributors, detailing professionals and auto enthusiasts. PBMG has a family of websites including Autogeek.com and Autopia-carcare.com that are high transaction e-commerce sites and leading sources of instructional detailing guides, forums and videos.
The new entity will operate under Palm Beach Motoring Group and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Vision Investments. PBMG is a high growth company and has achieved great success in past years. Customers will continue to receive the same high quality products, excellent customer service and education which they have come to expect and value from PBMG.
Vision Investments owner Tony George first met PBMG owner Bob McKee at the SEMA Show in 2009. Their relationship has further strengthened through the years including Autogeek`s involvement with Ed Carpenter Racing during the 2016 season. "I`ve admired Bob`s ability to grow the business and build strong relationships throughout the industry. He`s built a quality organization made up of proud brand ambassadors." The timing of the acquisition was strategic for both parties; Mr. George was looking to grow his auto-related portfolio (Vision is the exclusive US importer of the German SONAX car care brand), and Mr. McKee was looking to transition out of a business owner role.
Mr. McKee will remain in the industry focusing on the continued development of the McKee`s 37 and McKee`s RV brands. Terry Angstadt has been appointed Managing Consultant of PBMG. "I`m looking forward to the further development of this group of brands and activities," said Mr. Angstadt. "There is a strong and experienced team in place including Meghan Poirier, Jason Sierra, Mike Phillips and Nick Rutter. There are exciting things going on at PBMG -- including the second season of their television series `Competition Ready.`" Mr. Angstadt`s background includes tenures at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as Vice President of Marketing and at INDYCAR as President of its commercial division. (End of press release)
Obviously, some business "things" have changed since then and are continuing to transpire before us.
wannafbody
wannafbody
There was a time when you`d check Autopia and there would be hundreds of members logged on. Not any more. It`s busy if 5 threads here are updated. Product discussion and arguing were the norm. The who made what for who threads created a sense of drama and intrigue. All the fun is gone. Vision Investments has no vision for this forum.
Setec Astronomy
Well-known member
Respectfully, "Vision" has nothing to do with the decline of this forum, or forums in general. Some of us gave up on this forum after David B sold it because of the IT mismanagement of the subsequent owners (some of us got nasty computer viruses from the forum), and because of the tone that was present during that ownership. Think of how many detailing forums there used to be, and how slow AGO is in comparison to what it once was, or MOL. All of these forums had slowed down well before the sale of PBMG.
Desertnate
Active member
Maybe that is why the traffic is down because of that? I came here because of the quality and openness of the discussion and to specifically avoid all the drama and intrigue. If it devolves to that again, I`ll be gone.
While I would enjoy more activity/traffic here, I`ll always trade quality for quantity.
Forums as whole are in decline as people move to other platforms. I know of other forums which were generating massive amounts of traffic 10 years ago and ghost towns with only a few die hard members. Everyone seems to have moved to Reddit or Facebook. Sad, because if nothing else the way forums are organized makes it easier to manage information and topics vs a more chaotic, unstructured format of the other platforms.
PoisonTheWell
Member
Most forums I`m on have slowed down a lot over the past few years. Social media, etc. have seemed to have become and alternate avenue. I`m relatively new to this forum and I`m thoroughly enjoying the amount of information and dedication to the artform.
wannafbody
wannafbody
I wasn`t aware of the virus thing. I left for a while so I wasn`t affected. All forums are a bit slower due to facebook popularity.
theamcguy
I like mine to shine!!!
Boiling this thread down so far
PBMG (Auto Geek & Autopia) are moving to a new building they are building a few miles from their current location
Bob McKee (McKees 37) is moving into the building currently occupied by Auto Geek & Autopia and owned by Bob McKee
Mike Phillips is leaving Auto Geek (this is huge) I wonder where he is going?
PBMG (Auto Geek & Autopia) are moving to a new building they are building a few miles from their current location
Bob McKee (McKees 37) is moving into the building currently occupied by Auto Geek & Autopia and owned by Bob McKee
Mike Phillips is leaving Auto Geek (this is huge) I wonder where he is going?
Oneheadlite
New member
Mike’s post from AG:
Wow!
It was really nice to read all the kind words. My normal self would use the "multi-quote" feature built- into vBulletin and answer or comment to everyone that has also posted a comment but that would take forever!!!!
I must say, it`s been nice doing my swim workouts in the sunlight instead of O`Dark Thirty in the morning!
This was last week...
Here`s this morning...
I submitted a formal resignation on Wednesday, July 7th. I`ve been with Autogeek for 11 years as of July 10th. I was also at Meguiar`s for 11 years. No connection between the time spent at both companies but after giving my future a lot of thought and after coming to the conclusion that for the most part I`ve done everything I can do here at Autogeek including,
- 2 TV shows.
- Guest expert on multiple TV shows.
- Hundreds of YouTube videos.
- Over 1000 articles/reviews on for the most part every topic under the sun (the majority of my reviews are also how-to articles).
- Multiple multiple classes including, car detailing, boat detailing, wetsanding.
- Written 5 how-to books
- And then over 50,000 posts as I type for the most part answering questions and having fun with this online community.
I have always detailed cars on the side as I enjoy taking a diamond in the rough and turning it into a glistening gemstone. I also enjoy showing others how to do this thing called "detailing".
I`m not leaving the industry, but I am going to take some time off and relax as well as get back into good physical shape. I`ve always been into fitness and like the old saying goes,
If you don`t use it you`ll lose it...
Andre has been my assistant for my classes for the last 5-6 years and he`s basically a walking, talking copy of me. He`ll be a great asset to Autogeek moving forward.
I wish everyone here great success as well as all my friends at Autogeek!
:cheers:
I, personally, do not miss the drama , "she-said-he-said", and name calling detailing-moron-who-doesn`t-know-what-your`re-talking-about (Yes, that "moron-blah-blah-blah" would include myself, AKA Captain Obvious).
I would hope that whoever owns and operates PBMG and hence, this Autopia Forum, would see fit to continue its existence and let those who oversee and manage this forum to continue it as-is. That is not to say that their cannot be improvements to the forum, but its current format and the rules governing it are extremely beneficial to detailers and their purchases of car-care products and equipment from PBMG, contributing to their business`s bottom line. It is a great marketing tool, in my opinion.
As I have stated many times, it is the forum members and their posts and pics that contribute so much to my hobbyist`s detailing experience and enjoyment for which I am truly grateful for.
That said, I also realize that, yes, detailing thread discussions seem to redundant and repetitive and dominated by the same Autopian members. Quite frankly, I don`t mind. Maybe "boring" to some. But there are tidbits of information from their detailing experiences that make my participation a lot of fun. This forum is my "social media" and talking about detailing or sometimes detailing-unrelated topics is an outlet to communicate with like-minded detailing enthusiast and individuals. This forum not "dead" to me. Or as Mark Twain said after the misinformed publishing of his obituary in the USA while touring in England, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."
Accumulator
Active member
-AND ESPECIALLY-
Heh heh, the above is so similar to my views that I could`ve posted it!
Bill D
Hooked For Life
I just find that Autopia isn`t like how it was in the old days. I miss the days of high traffic and numerous detailing discussions per day. This used to be the detailing discussion destination.
But I guess mainstream social media outlets have stolen away traffic from here. I`m not one to ever have social media. Here and AGO are my social media. I just hope it doesn`t continue to decline here because there are some things mainstream social media can never replicate that a forum like this one has.
But I guess mainstream social media outlets have stolen away traffic from here. I`m not one to ever have social media. Here and AGO are my social media. I just hope it doesn`t continue to decline here because there are some things mainstream social media can never replicate that a forum like this one has.
01GreyStangGT
Member
I too miss the high activity. It was entertaining at times and I learned a lot.
RTexasF
Pay Attention Boy...
I haven`t detailed in years but I still come here and AG daily to learn about new products etc. I`ve no idea how I could have missed that Mike is leaving (or already gone?) AG. It saddens me a bit but in turn makes me happy for Mike. When you feel that you have accomplished all that you can then it`s time for change. I wish him only the best.
acuRAS82
New member
I enjoy here and AGO. Hope they remain, and some people are getting so sick of social media and the trolling that goes on their, maybe there will be another surge in traditional forums down the road. Or maybe not, but I’ll enjoy the quantity that does exist AND the ability to search tons of old threads for information that is still very relevant.