The Hagerty print magazine just got a tuneup
For those of you who have seen it, I hope you noticed the new name on the front cover of the March/April issue of our magazine: Hagerty Drivers Club. If you received the magazine in the mail, you are already a member of the club. If not, well, it’s time to sign up. Confused? Let me explain.
Over a decade ago, Hagerty launched Hagerty Plus, a special program for policyholders that provided roadside assistance and the quarterly Hagerty magazine. Hundreds of thousands of you signed up. To expand upon that success, we have renamed Hagerty Plus the Hagerty Drivers Club.
The Drivers Club still includes our best-in-the-business roadside assistance and a subscription to the magazine (now mailed six times a year), but you also enjoy discounts on automotive goods and services, access to Hagerty events and livestreams, and unlimited use of Hagerty Valuation tools. And there’s more to come.
A key advantage of the Hagerty Drivers Club over Hagerty Plus is that anyone can join the club, not just Hagerty policyholders. Even if you sell your car, you can continue to receive the magazine and the other benefits. You’ll find all the details at hagerty.com/drivers-club.
We’re opening the doors of Hagerty Drivers Club to members beyond our policyholders because, as CEO McKeel Hagerty laid out two years ago, Hagerty exists to save driving. Autonomous cars are coming, although they’re further away than experts have predicted, and numerous companies are investing billions to put robots behind the wheel.
Hagerty understands and welcomes the benefits that autonomous vehicles will provide. Commuting is not driving and, let’s be honest, there are a lot of bad drivers on our roads who would help the rest of us by letting a computer whisk them about. We’re not trying to slow progress (a fool’s errand), but we think those who want to drive themselves should always be able to do so.
Saving driving will take a huge collective effort from everyone who cares about cars. We need your help. We’re about to launch a new media and community website to provide a space for enthusiasts to connect. If you haven’t already done so, please create an account and join the conversation by commenting on our articles and lending your expertise via the forums. It’s free, and we need to pass our passion to the next generation and show them how to enter our wonderful world.
Neil Peart, the drummer for Rush, was a lifelong car enthusiast. When he died in January, I remembered the band’s 1980 song Red Barchetta, which he wrote. It describes a future where driving is outlawed and the protagonist spends his Sundays driving and evading the authorities.
My uncle has a country place that no one knows about…
But down in his barn my uncle preserved for me an old machine…
A brilliant red barchetta from a better, vanished time
We’ll fire up the willing engine responding with a roar
Tires spitting gravel, I commit my weekly crime.
That song was my high-school anthem. My favorite line? “Every nerve aware.”
The dystopian future Peart described may be science fiction, but we’re closer to it now than we were in 1980. Let’s make sure Red Barchetta remains a work of fiction.
The article first appeared in Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Click here to subscribe to our magazine and join the club.
