Anybody getting tired of South Main Auto?

I watch DIY Automotive school, as i just find pete funny. He cracks me up. I don't know much about body work so he may be a hack, but its entertaining.
 
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Are you getting Eric O (SMA) confused with Eric The Car Guy?

I've never noticed Eric O being arrogant at all, and of course he tries to change things up occasionally to keep things a bit interesting to regular viewers
I also watch his live streams which can be fun too. Sure like any job it can get boring at times...I Like Eric O because he admits when things are going a little rough for him.

The only car repair channel I don't watch at all is Scotty Kilmer.
 
Originally Posted by AC1DD
Are you getting Eric O (SMA) confused with Eric The Car Guy?

I've never noticed Eric O being arrogant at all, and of course he tries to change things up occasionally to keep things a bit interesting to regular viewers
I also watch his live streams which can be fun too. Sure like any job it can get boring at times...I Like Eric O because he admits when things are going a little rough for him.

The only car repair channel I don't watch at all is Scotty Kilmer.


I am about done with Eric The Car Guy his channel is more about the Fairmont now, and different things to it.. more a hot rod enthusiast now. It used to be about different cars like Acura but the channel seems dry and geared at the 50 plus crowd now.

South Main Auto has some good diagnoses I like the channel and recently like how he figured out bad injectors on a Corvette, I like his channel better where the guy has like a Veris or some sort of ultra expensive tool most of us do not have, the amount of auto repair videos on YouTube is on the rise.
Want entertainment, look at Tavarish or Hoovies Garage and whatever projects they get into. Hoovie sold the russian Bentley GT to Tavarish and I have not watched either in awhile.

The only car channel I do not watch at all is Doug Demuro.
 
Another good mechanic channel for repairs and improvements is "Humble Mechanic", he specializes in VW and Audi but some of his videos will have good information that applies to all makes and models. Great guy too.
 
Originally Posted by HangFire
Yes, he gets a cut of the advertising revenue from the ads you see. You gotta get a LOT of viewers to get enough to matter.

He's good, but I'd put my local mechanic against him any day.


Say what? Your local mechanic is better than Eric O? Really?? Eric O is probably in top 1% of the all mechanics and you have found a better one than him? I don't believe you.
 
Originally Posted by Vikas
Originally Posted by HangFire
Yes, he gets a cut of the advertising revenue from the ads you see. You gotta get a LOT of viewers to get enough to matter.

He's good, but I'd put my local mechanic against him any day.


Say what? Your local mechanic is better than Eric O? Really?? Eric O is probably in top 1% of the all mechanics and you have found a better one than him? I don't believe you.


I agree.

He may not be the best, but at least 'on air', he's got to be in the top 10% of Techs in terms of what he's willing to do and the level of time and care he seems to put into it. Given the age and mileage of the vehicles he works on, I have to *assume* he doesn't charge a ton either.

All that and the occasional visits from Mrs. O. What more could you ask?
 
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I think Eric O has accidentally stumbled into a very successful viewing formula (no sleight against him) that's auto related. I don't know if he even realizes it, that somebody else couldn't have done what he's done if they tried.
Seems the big studios have been working on TV viewership for decades, but can't figure out a formula for marketing to people who literally have unlimited freedom to click away. If anybody could have done it you'd think it would be them.

I mean how can anybody even get to 100,000 subscribers talking not really about how to do a repair?
Him, Ivan, Keith (the genius), and now a few others I've learned of through their mentions. So much better content than what I grew up with (and what the studios' formulators would have put on).

That said, I think he's realized he has an audience, not a bunch of peers. That's a bit lonely.
 
Originally Posted by Vikas
Originally Posted by HangFire
Yes, he gets a cut of the advertising revenue from the ads you see. You gotta get a LOT of viewers to get enough to matter.

He's good, but I'd put my local mechanic against him any day.


Say what? Your local mechanic is better than Eric O? Really?? Eric O is probably in top 1% of the all mechanics and you have found a better one than him? I don't believe you.


I don't know who Eric O is, But top 1%??......I don't know how you would quantify such a thing??
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson

"Eric the Car Guy" quit doing actual repair work, i.e. running his repair shop, and does YouTube videos as his full-time job. He does have 1.2 million subscribers though....


Eric has a lot of dead weight subscribers then. 90% of his videos barely break the 75K view mark with many below 50K views for like the last year and a half if not more. He burned a lot of his viewers out on his Fairmont project that even now is still a basket case of a car. Eric is a nuts and bolt mechanics and his electrical/electronic diagnostic work and content is next to nothing. At least with Eric O. of South Main, he has a healthy mix of the nuts and bolts work sprinkled in with the diagnostic work.

Eric the Car Guy has been eclipsed by way better and more knowledgeable content creators and is living off his legacy content for being one of the first dedicated car repair channels but has been stagnant the last 2-3 years while he works whatever project he wants which is his prerogative I guess.
 
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Originally Posted by Hootbro
hallstevenson said:
Eric the Car Guy has been eclipsed by way better and more knowledgeable content creators and is living off his legacy content for being one of the first dedicated car repair channels but has been stagnant the last 2-3 years while he works whatever project he wants which is his prerogative I guess.



It's sad to see ETC falter like he has...but it is his channel and he can do what he wants. Lots of his subs consider him to be like family because they've been with his channel since the beginning.
 
Originally Posted by AC1DD


It's sad to see ETC falter like he has...but it is his channel and he can do what he wants. Lots of his subs consider him to be like family because they've been with his channel since the beginning.


I would not say it has faltered, just his type of content has shifted in a different direction. I have been a subscriber of his also for almost 8 years and his early work when he was in the small garage before the place he is in now, was a lot more relate-able to the average home DIY'er. A big part of that was he actually was doing paid work and the content varied plus he did not have a lift and everything was jacks and jack stands. Nowadays, unless you are into whatever he is into project car wise, it is a scroll pass on a lot of his newer content.
 
Originally Posted by Hootbro
Originally Posted by hallstevenson

"Eric the Car Guy" quit doing actual repair work, i.e. running his repair shop, and does YouTube videos as his full-time job. He does have 1.2 million subscribers though....


Eric has a lot of dead weight subscribers then. 90% of his videos barely break the 75K view mark with many below 50K views for like the last year and a half if not more. He burned a lot of his viewers out on his Fairmont project that even now is still a basket case of a car. Eric is a nuts and bolt mechanics and his electrical/electronic diagnostic work and content is next to nothing. At least with Eric O. of South Main, he has a healthy mix of the nuts and bolts work sprinkled in with the diagnostic work.

Eric the Car Guy has been eclipsed by way better and more knowledgeable content creators and is living off his legacy content for being one of the first dedicated car repair channels but has been stagnant the last 2-3 years while he works whatever project he wants which is his prerogative I guess.
ETCG has a [censored] attitude and no sense of humor. SMA is fun to watch even doing monotonous tasks because he is fun.

ETCG is in it for the money moreso than SMA it seems. As soon as his channel got big he changed his content to something more convenient. Remember the paid repair videos?
 
Originally Posted by maxdustington
ETCG has a [censored] attitude and no sense of humor. SMA is fun to watch even doing monotonous tasks because he is fun.

ETCG is in it for the money moreso than SMA it seems. As soon as his channel got big he changed his content to something more convenient. Remember the paid repair videos?



Yeah, I remember his paid repair videos. To be fair though, that was back in the day before Youtube really got monetized and he still was working a regular job before going full time Youtube.

Eric and SMA really have an inverse relationship even though they both provide vehicle repair content. Eric is full time Youtube and does whatever he needs to keep that income going. Eric O. and his SMA channel does not really need the Youtube money as he still has a working shop he owns and runs.

I do not begrudge Eric or channels like ScannerDanner that have both Youtube content and paid offsite premium content. You either find it useful or not to buy into the premium content they provide.
 
I really enjoy the South Main Auto videos. There are a LOT of arrogant mechanics on youtube, but Eric O is definitely not one of them. I also find his impressions of Scotty Kilmer to be hilarious. While I don't think Scotty is a hack mechanic like some of his videos may lead people to believe, I do think he is a bit behind the times. You can't possibly answer everyone's question with the same "go buy a 25 year old Toyota Celica" response and think it will be relevant to viewers.
 
Originally Posted by Hootbro
Eric the Car Guy has been eclipsed by way better and more knowledgeable content creators and is living off his legacy content for being one of the first dedicated car repair channels but has been stagnant the last 2-3 years while he works whatever project he wants which is his prerogative I guess.

I wasn't defending him in any way and have seen the "change" in his channel over the years. He used to be one of the go-to channels for anything related to Hondas or Acuras. I was more making the point that it seems many folks here don't understand about YouTube (for some channels) - there is big money to be made with video content and there's a system behind it that has to be followed for the maximum return (i.e. cash flow). These guys tailor their videos to fit that system.

As for the whole Ford Fairmont thing, I'm at a loss. A Ford Fairmont ? I'm not a muscle car type but he should have built up a Mustang or Camaro or something more mainstream at least. Is there something sentimental about Fairmont's ? I know he has videos about working on his dad's truck, which I get more than a Fairmont. Also, with the Fairmont, I've only seen video titles but it seems like he's turbocharged it, fuel injection, and so on. I assure you, YouTube and his viewers/subscribers have subsidized this 100%.
 
Originally Posted by maxdustington

ETCG has a [censored] attitude and no sense of humor. SMA is fun to watch even doing monotonous tasks because he is fun.

ETCG is in it for the money moreso than SMA it seems. As soon as his channel got big he changed his content to something more convenient. Remember the paid repair videos?



SMA is in for the money as well, rightly so. Hard work should be rewarded. Putting yourself out in the open like that, investing time and money into making and publishing these videos is not an easy and quick task. It takes time, dedication, ingenuity. It's easy to sit behind a computer screen and criticize, as if you knew them personally. You don't, not matter how many of their videos you watch.
 
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Originally Posted by KrisZ


SMA is in for the money as well, rightly so. Hard work should be rewarded. Putting yourself out in the open like that, investing time and money into making and publishing these videos is not an easy and quick task. It takes time, dedication, ingenuity..


That's what intrigues me about SMA. Making the vidoes and putting them out there takes a lot of time and has to slow down the job he's doing dramatically. It's advertising for the shop, but I believe it's only him and another guy? Is the revenue from online advertising that good?

I know the area in NY he's in. It's rural with a lower cost of living. I'm sure that helps.

Regardless, the way Eric O is willing to tear into and replace a bearing on a Hyundai/Kia viscous coupling that's supposed to be tossed out and replaced with a whole new unit amazes me. I know if no shop that would be willing to do that.
 
Originally Posted by JTK
Originally Posted by KrisZ


SMA is in for the money as well, rightly so. Hard work should be rewarded. Putting yourself out in the open like that, investing time and money into making and publishing these videos is not an easy and quick task. It takes time, dedication, ingenuity..


That's what intrigues me about SMA. Making the vidoes and putting them out there takes a lot of time and has to slow down the job he's doing dramatically. It's advertising for the shop, but I believe it's only him and another guy? Is the revenue from online advertising that good?

I know the area in NY he's in. It's rural with a lower cost of living. I'm sure that helps.

Regardless, the way Eric O is willing to tear into and replace a bearing on a Hyundai/Kia viscous coupling that's supposed to be tossed out and replaced with a whole new unit amazes me. I know if no shop that would be willing to do that.


With youtube monetization policy changing like weather it's hard to predict just how much each youtuber makes, but SMA has just shy over 300k subscribers, he's got a pretty healthy number of views on each video, and he posts several videos a week and does live streams, so I think he's bringing in a decent chunk of change.

I hardly doubt he would do all of that just to advertise his business, although there is no doubt that it does. I think it's pretty clear that whatever he makes off of youtube, he doesn't feel is enough to abandon his core business, which is repairing vehicles.

ETCG, ScittyKilmer and many others, generated enough subscribers and interest that they could monetize their channel very well and that gave them the freedom to pursue other avenues.
 
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