Today, we’d like to introduce you to Ali Goulet.
Hi Ali, we are so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My Automotive Affliction started in the mid-90s when I was a professional Snowboarder. I was mixing car culture with snowboard culture and serving it up to the masses through my exposure in snowboarding magazines and videos. I was fortunate enough to be making a good living from snowboarding and young enough to have plenty of expendable income.
I squandered that expendable income on a 1991 Audi Coupe Quattro build, which I conceptualized and implemented by 2Bennett Audimotive of Davis, California. Audi was featured in many magazines and websites in the early 2000s, with its greatest exposure being European car magazine, which was the premier US-based European car magazine at the time. That exposure, my attention to detail, and my aesthetics propelled me to significant Audi cultural fame that is recognized to this day. Fast forward two decades to being a family man with plenty of responsibility and limited, expendable income but with a renewed passion for cars.
I start seeking out undervalued European vehicles that strike my fancy, and start learning how to work on them myself. Part of this journey involved cultivating the YouTube channel “Auto Afflicted“ to share my knowledge and passion with the rest of the world. The passion continued to snowball, and soon, I needed a place to work on my vehicles. With limited expendable income, it made sense to open Auto Afflicted to the public for service and modifications to support older chassis of all makes and models; thus, Auto Afflicted also became a garage.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The start has not been smooth, unlike the condition of our city roads. New business always has its challenges, when starting from Ground Zero, with no past history as a mechanic in the region, it can be daunting.
Developing the day-to-day repair business that keeps the doors open is the real challenge. Using the robust social media accounts that have developed both through my personal endeavors and my YouTube channels has proved a great marketing tactic.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
While I do play mechanics to implement my ideas within a specific automotive build, I see myself as more of an artist. I take existing cars and modify them in a way that speaks to others and sets new trends. One of my greatest. Recent accomplishments was reviving a 1988 Mercedes-Benz coupe that had sat in the bay area for eight years.
I restored this coupe to its former glory and then heightened it. I did what modern enthusiasts didn’t believe could be done: turbocharging the engine using the existing fuel management system. I made a full build series on the process for my YouTube channel. This propelled me to fame within Mercedes-Benz channels as the M103 turbo guru… M103 being the designation for the 3-liter six-cylinder engine that I modified.
Any big plans?
As I look to the future of Auto Afflicted as a garage and YouTube channel, the goal is to continue to build interesting cars of all makes and models, fueling the passion of others and growing this local business supporting lovers of 1980s through early 2000s vehicles.
Pricing:
- Shop Rate: $160.00 Per hour
- Auction Site listing: $500
- Full Paint Jobs: $8,000 – $15,0000
- Oil Change: $90-$200
- Brake Job: $500-$1500
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Instagram.com/autoafflicted
- Youtube: YouTube.com/c/autoafflicted
- Other: https://g.co/kgs/YmyF5kJ
Image Credits
Brad Albert and Jeff Potto
