Flytoyz

I cant believe this!! One of the largest tuning companies takes a dive!! This is insane, I never thought I would see this company go down.

“The market for aftermarket parts from Japan has been declining for well over five years, due in part to decreased demand both at home and abroad and the rising rates of Chinese knock-offs and other inexpensive (and dubiously built) components.

Today, one of the world’s largest performance parts companies, known as Trust in Japan and Greddy here in the States, declared bankruptcy. According to various reports, Trust is approximately $60 million in debt and, after reporting a serious decline in sales since February 2008 and amassing $43 million in loan payments, filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo District Court.

Trust has been around since 1976, employs almost 200 workers and had been dealing in everything from CARB-legal exhausts to turbo systems when Greddy Performance Products was founded in the U.S. in 1994. There are several firms that will step up to fill the need of enthusiasts, assuming that Trust doesn’t try to reorganize, but with the aftermarket industry down overall, we suspect this won’t be the last time we’ll hear about a large tuner going under.”

1 word. WOW!

Comments?

Hey everybody!! welcome to The Automotive Corner! Now usually I do an article about whats going on in the news with cars from across the world, but i think this has more importance to be honest, and it effects ALL OF US!! Its an article I stumbled upon this article on gas prices from the new york sun and thought I would share with all of our fans!
“Get ready for another economic shock of major proportions — a virtual doubling of prices at the gas pump to as much as $10 a gallon.

That’s the message from a couple of analytical energy industry trackers, both of whom, based on the surging oil prices, see considerably more pain at the pump than most drivers realize.

Gasoline nationally is in an accelerated upswing, having jumped to $3.58 a gallon from $3.50 in just the past week. In some parts of the country, including New York City and the West Coast, gas is already sporting a price tag above $4 a gallon. There was a pray-in at a Chevron station in San Francisco on Friday led by a minister asking God for cheaper gas, and an Arco gas station in San Mateo, Calif., has already raised its price to a sky-high $4.62.

In Manhattan, at a Mobil gas station at York Avenue and East 61st Street, premium gas is now $4.03 a gallon. Two days ago, it was $3.96. Why such a high price? “Blame the people at STOPEC (he meant OPEC) and the oil companies,” an attendant there told me.

These increases are taking place before the all-important summer driving season, signaling even higher prices ahead.

That’s also the outlook of the Automobile Association of America. “As long as the price of crude oil stays above $100 a barrel, drivers will be forced to pay more and more at the gas pump,” a AAA spokesman, Troy Green, said.

Oil recently hit an all-time high of nearly $120 a barrel, more than double its early 2007 price of about $50 a barrel. It closed Friday at $118.52.

The forecasts calling for a jump to between $7 and $10 a gallon are based on the view that the price of crude is on its way to $200 in two to three years.

Translating this price into dollars and cents at the gas pump, one of our forecasters, the chairman of Houston-based Dune Energy, Alan Gaines, sees gas rising to $7-$8 a gallon. The other, a commodities tracker at Weiss Research in Jupiter, Fla., Sean Brodrick, projects a range of $8 to $10 a gallon.

While $7-$10 a gallon would be ground-breaking in America, these prices would not be trendsetting internationally. For example, European drivers are already shelling out $9 a gallon (which includes a $2-a-gallon tax).

Canadians are also being hit with rising gas prices. They are paying the American-dollar equivalent of $4.92 a gallon, and they’re being told to brace themselves for prices above $5.65 a gallon this summer.

Early last year, with a barrel of oil trading in the low $50s and gasoline nationally selling in a range of $2.30 to $2.50 a gallon, Mr. Gaines — in an impressive display of crystal ball gazing — accurately predicted oil was $100-bound and that gasoline would follow suit by reaching $4 a gallon.

His latest prediction of $200 oil is open to question, since it would undoubtedly create considerable global economic distress. Further, just about every energy expert I talk to cautions me to expect a sizable pullback in oil prices, maybe to between $50 and $70 a barrel, especially if there’s a global economic slowdown.

While Mr. Gaines thinks there could be a temporary decline in the oil price, he’s convinced an overall uptrend is unstoppable. In fact, he thinks his $200 forecast could be conservative, and that perhaps $250 could be reached. His reasoning: a combination of shrinking supply and increasing demand, especially from China, India, and America.

Mr. Brodrick’s $200 oil forecast is largely predicated on a combination of pretty flat supply and rip-roaring demand. Other key catalysts include surging demand in China and India, where auto sales are booming, and major supply disruptions in Nigeria and also in Mexico, our second-largest source of oil imports, where oil production has fallen off a cliff.

More factors include the ever-present danger of additional supply disruptions from volatile countries in the Middle East that are not our allies, and the unwillingness of SUV-loving Americans to trim their unquenchable thirst for foreign oil. Likewise, for the first time, emerging markets this year will use more oil than America.

To Mr. Brodrick, it all adds up to an ongoing energy bull market. His favorite plays are the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund ; United States Natural Gas Fund LP; Apache Corp.; Occidental Petroleum; Anadarko Petroleum, and Schlumberger.”

Source: The New York Sun

ok now with gas the way it is, It took my $48.00 to fill my 12 gallon tank.,..talk about insane!! anybody rollin in the big V8′s, i feel sorry for your wallet lol I hope you found this article interesting as I know I did!! I hope this might help you on your next car purchase too, because if this is what we are looking at then we are in for a very expensive future!!

Well I hope you all return back for the mod shop Thursday, we love giving our fans what they need to know to stay in the know!!

This is the automotive corner, and you are now IN THE KNOW!!

I found this on The Press Enterprise-PE.com and thought it was interesting

By JESSICA LOGAN
The Press-Enterprise

“Riverside police may have put a dent in local street racing Friday when about 100 officers raided a parking lot on Valley Springs Parkway, where suspected racers are known to congregate.

Police from Riverside and other agencies shut off the exits to the lot to inspect more than 150 vehicles. Officers wrote a similar number of citations, including 48 for illegal modifications common to street racing, according to a police news release.

Twenty vehicles were towed from the scene as part of a crackdown funded by a $503,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, according to a police news release.

Police spokesman Steven Frasher said officers had been monitoring illegal activity in the lot for weeks. The large number of people who received tickets for illegal modifications common to street racing confirmed officers’ suspicions that the lot was a hotbed of street racing activity, he said.

“Almost every vehicle that was there, even if they weren’t street racing, they were … an audience,” Frasher said, adding that the lot was full of skid marks left behind by racers.

Neighboring business managers at Hooters Restaurant and John’s Incredible Pizza are glad the problem was addressed. At times, they said, cars speed through their parking lots, threatening the safety of others and scaring away customers.

“They seek a big parking lot and ours is huge,” said Jim Finigan, director of operations at John’s Incredible Pizza.

He was seconded by Chris Guillet, manager of the Riverside Hooters Restaurant, who said problem drivers speed through his lot, barely avoiding collisions. While he was grateful for the police intervention, “I think it just moves the problem to another area,” Guillet said.

Police organized a similar raid in 2006 at the Target store on Tyler Street. They believe street racing has killed at least two people in Riverside in recent years, including Reyna De Leon, 38, in 2006, and 14-year-old Carlos Cisneros in 2007.

“By its nature, (the street racing problem) can get up and go someplace else,” Frasher said. He added, however, the problem may at least be solved at the Valley Springs Parkway location. “We were able to send a strong message that … we are cracking down on this activity and we won’t tolerate it,” Frasher said.

He added that police will continue the fight against street racing, but he declined to give details.

On Friday, cars ranging from broken-down Hondas to shiny, new Ford Mustangs and BMWs lined up for the police inspection. Some car owners were ticketed for replacing a small exhaust pipe with a larger one that makes the car run louder.

John Ferrier got a “fix-it ticket,” he said, because his car’s exhaust system was too noisy. And yet the 21-year-old Moreno Valley resident said he was happy the police were cracking down on Honda drivers. He blames them for reckless maneuvers such as “burning out” and “doing doughnuts.”

“That’s what attracted the police attention,” Ferrier said. “I’m glad they’re here to stop people before they do something stupid.”

Michael Calderon, 22, of San Bernardino, stood in the parking lot as his 1995 Honda Civic hatchback, which he bought for $600, was loaded onto a tow truck.

Police impounded his car because officers believed some of its parts were stolen.

Calderon said he bought the parts from a reputable business.

“It’s devastating,” said Calderon, who spent $20,000 on car improvements. “That’s my soul right there. This is the worst night of my life.”

And it wasn’t over yet. He still needed someone to pick him up — but first he had to find a friend whose car passed inspection.”

Ok, This article…. I can understand their want to crackdown street racing, But when they are towing cars away because they “BELIEVE” parts were stolen only because he cannot produce a ticket is absolutely asinine!! I can’t product a ticket for the mods on my car, ya know why?? I Bought Them From Former Focus Owners!!! which a lot of time’s is what happens in the car world, a friend wants to sell his car but its modded, well he wont get a lot of money that way so he sells his parts, so CAPD wants them to write up a friggin receipt or something??

I can see if the group is causing trouble and doing dough-nuts and driving wreck-less in parking lots, there is no need for that at all, but to go after a bunch of people just because their cars are modified because they fit the “street racer” category is ridiculous…

I pulled this excerpt from thenewspaper.com

Nine police agencies in Riverside, California sent more than one hundred police officers to surround a gathering of automotive enthusiasts. Owners of imported sport compact cars had gathered at the Canyon Crossing shopping center on Friday night to swap stories, talk about their passion for cars and show off the latest enhancements to their rides. At around 11pm police surprised participants by blocking all exits with fifty police cruisers. Officers then began a warrantless search and interrogation operation of the 150 vehicles that were present.

“If you’re not into street racing, why would you need that?” Riverside Police Traffic Sergeant Skip Showalter asked an enthusiast during a similar crackdown last year. “Why would you want more power going to your car?”

Police issued a total of forty-eight tickets for “engine modifications” with police accusing the owners of the parked vehicles of being street racers. Another fifty tickets were issued for paperwork violations, dark window tinting and lack of a front license plate. The most revenue, however, will be generated from the fees imposed on twenty vehicles that were confiscated. Despite labeling the parking lot raid as taking place at a “street racing venue,” Riverside Police offered no evidence that any street racing actually took place.”

Ok, I went BOLD happy for a reason, all those things are reasons why today’s youth gets into a lot worse things then modding their cars, at least they have a hobby or a passion, i mean c’mon 9 Agencies?? 100 Cop Cars?!!? you would think they were going after a major drug lord or a sending in unit’s because of a riot!! Also note “parked vehicles, warrarntless search and interrogation,NO EVIDENCE” im sorry but I would be finding a damn good lawyer and I would be Riverside Police’s biggest annoyance in their wallet’s.

Oh And Also “If you’re not into street racing, why would you need that?” Riverside Police Traffic Sergeant Skip Showalter asked an enthusiast during a similar crackdown last year. “Why would you want more power going to your car?“

Maybe because its a hobby!! Here is another question I would’ve asked him after being deemed a street racer when actually not, “So being all women have vagina’s, does that make them all Prostitutes then?, because if the same rules apply to that as us, you have a lot of work to do!!” Guys and Gals, you know I bring you the mod shop weekly and Im big on modding your car to how you want it, but I guess if you live in Cali and you modify, you better be ready to lose your ride. This is apparently to help stop street racing, no wonder kids in Cali street race, their going to lose their cars anyway, so why not say screw it and enjoy the adrenaline while its there. I myself do not condone street racing at all, I too am against it, I say take it to a track, but for the officials in this state to act like this on modded cars? Is beyond ridiculous.

What do you all think about this? Please hit us up with your opinion’s on this! For I Am honestly quite mad about this.