Social Media For Car Guys, A Look At My Classic Garage

In our ever-evolving digital world we’re subjected to all manner of social media and the ever-changing tide of trends for sharing information. For auto enthusiasts there hasn’t been a social media outlet that seems to fit car culture specifically. While we can create galleries, collections, broadcast info about builds, or cry for some help in just about any social media forum–all too often those posts are often muted by the endless stream of selfies, food photos, and cat videos.

That’s where My Classic Garage comes into play. You have probably seen us cover MCG’s build and future giveaway of a custom built resto-mod Mustang Fastback where voters decide on many of the build’s options. There’s far more to MCG than just a website that’s building and giving away a cool car.

In the simplest terms My Classic Garage is a full platform of online features for car enthusiasts. MCG’s featues include: a marketplace, forums, blogs, a social network, knowledge-base, expert panel, trivia and a full car management platform. The site allows you to do much more than simply allow you to post pics of your latest barn find, or parts installs. MCG is the online platform that any enthusiast from the late model performance fan to the chalk-mark original junkie can utilize.

Part of the sign up process includes creating a virtual garage and picking a dream car. Given your editor’s affinity for Fox body Mustangs this seemed appropriate.

Setup

Creating an account with MCG is fairly simple. After logging in and verifying you’re a human being you can begin to create your own garage. You can add as many of your own vehicles, or dream vehicles as you like to the garage. You can also enter details on each car, this can be as detailed or vague as you like, and you can share your car with other MCG users or have it simply remain private for your eyes only. “The garage feature fits everyone from the casual enthusiast to the serious collector,” says MCG’s Director of Marketing, Paul Tecci.

With a car account created you can also enter reminders about maintenance, as well as copy documentation about repairs, modifications, or service as you see fit. You can even upload photos or copies of your receipts. This develops your cars provenance, critical to authenticity in the collector car realm, and valuable to anyone looking to sell their car. “The garage tools allow you to track every aspect of the vehicles you own from costs, to calendar functions, even logistics of where cars are located,” says Tecci.

Social Experience

All MCG users get a free blog. If you want to document your restoration step by step you can upload photos and write about the work you’re doing. Use the blog to talk about car movies or other car topics that interest you and may interest others. Users can also use the blog to rant about something in the hobby that they love or hate. “A lot of users use the blog to talk about road trips, race outings, their current projects, it’s a great platform to share what’s going on in your car life with other users,” says Tecci.

MCG has hundreds of channels that you can subscribe to, there's something for virtually any make or model car produced here. Anything you choose to follow or subscribe to will show up in your social feed as well.

You can also choose to follow the blogs of other MCG users. As those blogs are updated they’ll show up in your MCG social feed. You and your MCG friends can also do general social status update as well. There’s no snarky algorithm here to determine what the computer thinks you might feel is important. Users, blogs, feeds, and channels that you choose to follow will show up when you enter the social feed, and conversely those following you will see everything you post publicly. “When you follow a channel or a person, any time they do an update that’s what you’re going to see,” says Tecci.

You can post about a cruise you went to last night, a hard to find part you’re looking for, or a “what the what is this?” question. Anything car related goes and the feed is only limited by what you choose to follow.

Manage Everything

The beauty of MCG is that you can manage just about every aspect of your car or project. You can enter the information for every part, every receipt, and track exactly how much money you’ve invested in a car. Having this provenance is handy for a variety of reasons. First, it allows you to know how much you paid for a particular part or service on the car. Second, it allows you to show proof of purchases should you need to for insurance or for selling the car. “By keeping all this information in one place the car’s provenance is easily accessible and owners can show proof that work has been done and who performed it,” says Tecci.

We used MCG’s tools to enter data on Project Rehab and put it into editor Creason’s MCG garage.

It also allows you to track just how expensive that small hobby or “easy” project has become. While that information can be overwhelming in some instances, in others, it helps with planning the next project you undertake or for aiding in selling your car.

You can also manage your car’s calendar. Using the MCG garage feature you can set a to-do for any car. This can remind you to order parts, get an oil change, pretty much anything to do with that car. Let’s say you live in the mid-west and you need to remember to check the anti-freeze in your classic before the first hard freeze of the year, set a reminder and never forget. Or maybe there’s a show coming up that you don’t want to forget to take this car to. Plug in the info from that flyer left on your front seat at the last cruise night and you’ll be sure to have all the details.

With the car officially in editor Creason’s Mustang garage we can go about managing the car from documentation, receipts, list modifications, and if we choose sell the car for free in the MCG marketplace.

Expert Advice

MCG also offers an expert panel as part of user experience. These aren’t just some faceless guys you never heard of sitting behind a monitor. The panel is made up of some of the industry’s most respected and trusted experts in their fields. Many of them own shops and have access to data that was lost to most of the car hobby decades ago.

Posting here is like posting to any web-based forum. You simply ask questions of the appropriate expert. Most of the time the panel members will give you a reply within 24 hours. Experts offer everything from advice on restorations, to help with wiring diagrams, parts identification, and more.

Buy and Sell For Free

With only a few exceptions the car hobby is a fluid one. Many of us buy and sell various cars and project vehicles every few years. Free classifieds ads are available for all MCG users. These aren’t your run of the mill online ads where you can expect random phone calls or text messages in the middle of the night. The classifieds are populated by other enthusiasts looking to buy or sell their cars. Don’t think that these are full of only high-end restorations and resto-mods either. Browsing MCG’s classifieds we found plenty of prime project car material at prices that would made us gasp at how easily some of them could be acquired.

Within each channel on the social media side of MCG is a cars for sale segment. When you enter the classifieds section on MCG cars posted for sale in the channels you subscribe to will automatically show up in the listings displayed. You can search deeper on your own, but this is a quick way to find cars that might be of interest to you.

The classifieds section has several other cool features as well. Through their partners MCG offers users appraisal, or value look-up information, as well as financing options. If you bought a project car that’s too far away for you to haul home yourself MCG can also help you secure transportation for your new project, or acquisition as well. You can even send your listing to eBay motors, although not free it does expose the listing to an even wider audience.

Once you’ve purchased or sold a car the provenance and other critical information about the car being sold can be transferred to the new owner’s virtual garage through MCG’s patented system.

My Classic Garage has taken the concept of a complete automotive social media experience and successfully made it a reality. Whether you’re looking to document your next project, keep track of your current one, browse what’s for sale, get expert advice, and so much more, MCG is an immersive experience essential to the modern enthusiast looking to maximize what they get out of their projects and collection.

About the author

Don Creason

Don Creason is an automotive journalist with passions that lie from everything classic, all the way to modern muscle. Experienced tech writer, and all around car aficionado, Don's love for both cars and writing makes him the perfect addition to the Power Automedia team of experts.
Read My Articles

Hot Rods and Muscle Cars in your inbox.

Build your own custom newsletter with the content you love from Street Muscle, directly to your inbox, absolutely FREE!

Free WordPress Themes
Street Muscle NEWSLETTER - SIGN UP FREE!

We will safeguard your e-mail and only send content you request.

Street Muscle - The Ultimate Muscle Car Magazine

streetmusclemag

We'll send you the most interesting Street Muscle articles, news, car features, and videos every week.

Street Muscle - The Ultimate Muscle Car Magazine

Street Muscle NEWSLETTER - SIGN UP FREE!

We will safeguard your e-mail and only send content you request.

Street Muscle - The Ultimate Muscle Car Magazine

streetmusclemag

Thank you for your subscription.

Subscribe to more FREE Online Magazines!

We think you might like...


fordmuscle
Classic Ford Performance
dragzine
Drag Racing
chevyhardcore
Classic Chevy Magazine

Street Muscle - The Ultimate Muscle Car Magazine

Thank you for your subscription.

Subscribe to more FREE Online Magazines!

We think you might like...

  • fordmuscle Classic Ford Performance
  • dragzine Drag Racing
  • chevyhardcore Classic Chevy Magazine

Street Muscle - The Ultimate Muscle Car Magazine

streetmusclemag

Thank you for your subscription.

Thank you for your subscription.

Street Muscle - The Ultimate Muscle Car Magazine

Thank you for your subscription.

Thank you for your subscription.

Loading