The "Tuner" Scene- Is it evolving or dying?

[Nemesis]

I got into a discussion about this with a few people and here is the question.

Is the "Tuner " Scene of yesteryear changing or dying? I mean, take a look at late 90s, early 2000's, to now. Things are no doubtedly different from the way they used to be. The people that were into cars back then are either moving on or no longer into it anymore. However, a few of us (not strictly IA talk) are still around. Im almost 26 now and Ive been into "modding
" since I was 16. I dont live at home with my parents and I have an income that can support my life and my habits. Im educated and have a job in the career I chose as well.

Some people think the scene is dying out because of the gas crisis, or the economy, or the lack of interest anymore. Do you think that as well?

Personally, I believe that the old days of the car scene are long gone. Hell take a look at Nopi being a prime example. But personally, I see a paradigm shift in modding and the car scene. A switchover to "clean rides", the introduction of the new "muscle cars", "drifting", etc. Drag racing is no longer the cool thing to be involved in anymore. Coming from a time when altezzas were cool and your next mod was what set of StreetGlows you were going to buy was your top decision, I believe that there is an evolution of what people want in their cars and how they want to build them. The only bad thing Im noticing among the "scene" these days, is the lack of comradery among tuners. At car meets, people segregate themselves. Hondas park next to other Hondas, Subaru owners park next to other Subaru owners, Domestics park next to other domestics, etc etc. That may have always been in one fashion or another, but personally I think everyone should do their part to make this a better place and not welcome that type of mentality.

Either way, thats my Monday morning soap box session.


DISCUSS.

[Sammich]

EVERYTHING as a result of the economy is taking a hit. its gona slow down like all other things..whether it builds back..is due to economy..in my honest observation

[Sport1.3]

wall-o-text

[AirMax95]

Seems to me the show seen is dying. People are getting into more of the motorsports (autox, road racing, drag, drift....). Much of the show scene is now filled with teens with bad taste. The 23+ crowd still has some tastefully modded cars.

Modding cars is still around, but the bodykit and neon days are gone. Most people are adding functionality to the top of the list, aesthetics last.

I am personally more focused into road racing. Actually learning the proper driving techniques and the enhancing skill.

[Sport1.3]

its evolving

[Miranda]

George,

Car types always grouped together... that's been that way since the Subie Brats and dune-ready Jeeps... long before I'm sure... I wouldn't consider all the Hondas clustered together weird... If nothing else, Nopi pushed us into that mentality. You remember when all the "regular" entries (by that, I mean the cars not sponsored by a major player in a booth) were all clustered by year, make and model? I think that's just habit.

As for the car scene itself, of course it's evolving. Let's face it guys... we're not the nicest bunch of folks. We're incredibly intolerant of people less "automotively advanced" than ourselves, and we tend to run off kids that are into the same **** we were into ten years ago. There's a young crowd out there freaking over which set of altezzas would look better on their old civic, but they'll grow out of that too.

Then there's also the state of the world right now. This current gas crisis in Atlanta should be a great piece of evidence about how ridiculously dependent our nation is on oil. And the unfortunate fact of the matter is: oil-producing countries could pull the plug anytime. Or more, the oil could run out... anytime. A bunch of people are getting wise to it. That's why I traded an STi for a Prius (well, now I don't drive anything). Even now, I'm living in a country where gasoline is $12 A LITER. That opens your eyes.

I guess it'll be easier to be into cars again when cars are made for the world we're living in, instead of the world we wish we were still living in.

[FlipKing]

I've just recently gotten into the scene to be honest, so I have no view of the past, however back in Warner Robins, and down here in Statesboro I've been able to meet a good amount of people that are intrested in cars and are opned minded about the different kinds of cars.I can't say if its changing or dying, i just know for now, its still there.

[AnthonyF]

I'm going a 3million color LED UFO kit in the next week or so.

But I believe the scene is dying. People are more interested in racing now. You can still build a sexy ass car and still race it. The past was great. I know here in ATL we used to have great meets with friends, no1 doing stupid **** or if they were no1 cared. Some sh*t was allowed back in the day. Even in the old days (50's) burnouts and revving WAS the cool thing. I wish I grew up in those times. I love those cars, the society, the scene, everything.

-Ant.

[MistaCee]

Definitely dying. Everyone wants to look the same and if you don't your considered a "ricer".

[bandydesign]

We are in a low spot for sure. Its not just the oil crisis, but that plays a big part. Right now may be the lowest point that we will hit for a while or maybe it is in a couple of weeks or something, but we are near the lowest point. Soon, the scene will do something to come back. IMO, that we mean a huge change. What was popular yesterday and what is today will not be in this new scene developing in the next couple of weeks or months.

Come five years from now, the car scene will be great! We will have a new form of the 60-70s muscle cars. Fuel, in whatever form, will appear readily available in the eye of the American consumer. We will have amazing cars and an awesome scene.

Ricers etc. hopefully will be suppressed. I believe that this separation going on now between the makes and models will aid in suppressing the tasteless cars to some degree. Someone will always go the extra mile to ruin a car.

We are approaching exciting times! I can only hope that my work in the automotive industry will aid in the progress toward an evolved and improved future for the car scene as well as the industry.

[rrutter81]

Its evolving. I think seeing modded prius-type hybrids are next in the mix. The days of crazy wild looking rides is more for promotional reasons now. And as other guys have stated the economy isnt helping.

[AnthonyF]

Definitely dying. Everyone wants to look the same and if you don't your considered a "ricer".

EXACTLY!!!!!!! The scene used to be about originality.

Neons in all different colors, different taillights, different color paints, different wheels, suicide doors, lambo doors, etc...

now its: NO NEONS!! OEM or blacked out tails ONLY, used to be ROTAS only, now it's all "old" school BBS style or mesh style rims, etc...

I miss seeing body kits (that were painted), some wings didn't bother me (if they were used sensably (sp), I LOVE neons (if tucked away), etc....

-Ant.

[Nemesis]

Car types always grouped together... that's been that way since the Subie Brats and dune-ready Jeeps... long before I'm sure... I wouldn't consider all the Hondas clustered together weird... If nothing else, Nopi pushed us into that mentality. You remember when all the "regular" entries (by that, I mean the cars not sponsored by a major player in a booth) were all clustered by year, make and model? I think that's just habit.

I guess you are right. Yet another thing to thank Nopi for.

As for the car scene itself, of course it's evolving. Let's face it guys... we're not the nicest bunch of folks. We're incredibly intolerant of people less "automotively advanced" than ourselves, and we tend to run off kids that are into the same **** we were into ten years ago. There's a young crowd out there freaking over which set of altezzas would look better on their old civic, but they'll grow out of that too.

I kind of agree, but on the other hand, I think we are less intolerant of the "idiots" in the car scene. There are plenty of nice guys/girls out there that have poor taste in modifications, but dont arrive at a meet revving the 1.8L's and burning out when leaving. Taste differs from person to person, but idiocy is or should be universal for everyone.

Then there's also the state of the world right now. This current gas crisis in Atlanta should be a great piece of evidence about how ridiculously dependent our nation is on oil. And the unfortunate fact of the matter is: oil-producing countries could pull the plug anytime. Or more, the oil could run out... anytime. A bunch of people are getting wise to it. That's why I traded an STi for a Prius (well, now I don't drive anything). Even now, I'm living in a country where gasoline is $12 A LITER. That opens your eyes.

Even though I do agree on the oil dependecy issue, I do disagree on the part of getting rid of your current car for a fuel efficient vehicle; especially at the cost of one. Doing that is a small bandaid on a bigger cut. I dont dicount the fact that the cost of living is much higher in terms of fuel prices, but getting rid of a car for a fuel efficient vehicle just isnt a realistic alternative for most.

I guess it'll be easier to be into cars again when cars are made for the world we're living in, instead of the world we wish we were still living in.

I can agree to that.

[alpine_aw11]

I think it's evolving, but the way it's evolving is what's killing the car scene overall. Everyone gets crucified for doing their own thing now, it's all about every car looking the same with the same themes. If nobody has any incentive to be different, it's going to suffer. The car scene is always going to be changing and moving to new things, but I think the new movements are degrading it overall if anything. But then again, this phase is going to end sometime. You never know what it will grow into. In ten years people might be calling their super JDM ballin' rides they once had rice, which is honestly what I hate about imports. I mean look at all the retarded "ricer" threads people post. The import scene is generally a bunch of douchebags now. That's why they all get the term "ricer" from domestic guys. The domestic scene never really changed like that.

[Sammich]

some people are going to puddle lights...in teh VIP scene

[Elbow]

The only things that die are the people who are the fanboys, in it for the trend kind of guys. I have been in cars since I was basically born, I can NEVER leave the scene. It's my life. I think people like this will never leave, trends will change, types of cars, etc. I don't think the tuner scene will die, I think things will change. It may not be as mainstream, something else may come up, a new generation might come up with something different with the F&F lol. Time will tell for sure.

[Sammich]

i'd do VIP to my maxipad..esp since its a slushbox anyway...its pretty expensive to VIP tho..so ill just drop get my oem cf tails to match my a.e. headlights smoke my front sides and call it a day

[bandydesign]

The generation above me (my parents generation) grew up with muscle cars and have no appreciation for import tuners. However, we both have an appreciation for proper craftsmanship among all of the automotive scenes.

I did not develop the connection with the muscle cars, because I only see them in a revived/restored form. They were not an everyday that no longer exists. These cars are being restored to remind them of the days when they roamed the earth.

Saying this, I do not believe that when the civic are no longer a mainstay that I will want to start restoring civics and making them "retro jdm" or "retro rice", but who knows. I believe that unlike the late 70s, 80s and up till now when the current car industry was shadowed by the cars in the 60s and 70s, coming up shortly is a time like the 60s and 70s. SOON! We will have cars that will overshadow those of the recent past. Save your money, because the modding scene will move towards this new vehicle that is coming into the market.

These are the footsteps to exciting times; be prepared!

[Miranda]

Even though I do agree on the oil dependecy issue, I do disagree on the part of getting rid of your current car for a fuel efficient vehicle; especially at the cost of one. Doing that is a small bandaid on a bigger cut. I dont dicount the fact that the cost of living is much higher in terms of fuel prices, but getting rid of a car for a fuel efficient vehicle just isnt a realistic alternative for most.

Um... if you saw my prius, you probably wouldn't say that. It's a hunk of **** (you should remember).

Anyway, you're absolutely right about people being unable to trade cars... but there are a lot of people that have switched to alternative transportation to work/school... leaving their cars as weekend warriors.

[Nemesis]

Um... if you saw my prius, you probably wouldn't say that. It's a hunk of **** (you should remember).

What are you talking about. That thing was ballin out of control.

[ksniperfox]

i think NOPI and other companies are having a tough time competing with all the new brands/manufacturers, especially ebay ****, and independent people fabricating quality parts.

[Vteckidd]

and independent people fabricating quality parts.

*cough*hi*cough*

LOL

Heres my 10 cents,
The "scene" is dying. Its going through a RADICAL change and my predictions are going to be kinda radical too.

1) The scene PEAKED really fast and unfortunetly corporate greed along with disorganization along with the wrong people running those organizations caused it to fail.

2) BIG events will cease to exist. No more NOPI Nationals, no more HOT IMPORT NIGHTS, no more FORMULA D. I predict they all are gone by next year. If not the following year. With gas prices, lack of interest, lack of payouts, lack of sponsors, its just not worth going for ANYONE.

3) Drifing was ALWAYS a FAD. It will start to dissappear from the professional level. As a BUSINESS , which is what it needs to be to survive and grow, it is a HORRIBLE model.
A) Drifting shares almost NOTHING in common with other motorsports in terms of accessability and marketability. Where do you go drifting on a saturday night? Friday night?
B) Its too expensive to drift. at the rate you go through tires, even if you are in some ricer midnight club drifting team, you gotta have tires.
C) For the tire companys it sucks. I mean look at Falken, Maxxis, Bridgestone, etc. Do you really think that spectators at a DRIFT event are thinking "wow im going to go buy their tires to drift on!" Hell no. So essentially their sponsorship dollars are being wasted. Why advertise if your demographic isnt going to buy your product. you know how many times i sold a Maxxis Tire at B***ground? ZERO. you know how many DRIFT CARS we built, ZERO. Whose paying $175 per tire to go **** it up in 5 min? Whose building a $10,000-15000 car to run it into a wall?

So what you essentially have is this motorsport, that is judged on opinion, and has no model for bringing in revenue. Eventually the companies will start to see that and it will dry up. Why spend $150,000 on a motorsport that gives you no return?

At least in drag Racing you see people that will go buy Skunk2, Competition clutch, Ferrea, Edelbrock, etc based on what they see, etc. You can go to a track on a friday night anywhere in the country an practice. Hell even street racing is still around.

In Short: Drifting dissappears in the next 2 years TOPS.

4) The Greatest Illusion in the Sport Compact Industry. China. Period. EVERYTHING IS MADE OVERSEAS, if its not, that company will NOT LAST.
I see friends going out of business every week cause they are fighting over $15 sale for an AEM part or something. Its a joke. The AMerican companies had this illusion that their products were made in house, developed, etc its all bullsh!t. Everything is outsourced overseas and brought in, repackaged, and marketed.

What happened was these american companies got greedy. They didnt control the market. They made EVERYONE with a SSN a "dealer" and didnt enforce pricing rules. so now you have 1000 AEM Dealers that are all selling the same product competing against each other so what do they do? they have to have the "lowest price" . So they atart cutting it by $5, $10, $50, $75 until you meet the EBAY guy. The guy that has no shop, no overhead, no employees, so what does he car if he only makes $5, $5 is $5 to him. To a shop, with overhead, its not worth the phone call.

So the Ebay people killed the Sport Compact Market parts and the Companies did NOTHING about it.

And why should they? in their eyes they had a feeding frenzy over a product they had $10 in, and their 1000 dealers were paying $250 for it and trying to fight over a 1% markup. The only one making money was the company.

Well then the dealers die out, cause they dry up, go out of business, cant make any money. etc. you just lost alot of your Wholesale program, an now you are going out of business.

Expect to see alot of wholesalers go under. Which means access to parts is limited and prices go up.

So the comments i hear about Ebay **** and CHINA ****, newsflash, 98% of all your high dollar JDM parts are made in a factory by a Chinaman thats fact.

There will be a proliferation of people that start going exclusively to Overseas manufacturing. theres just too much money in it. Custom will become a thing of the past as efficiency and availability will come first. Cost is low, profit is high. its very attractive and everyone is moving that way. Look at CHinas numbers in the last 15 years.

Expect your favorite name brand whatever to be knocked off or replicated. Everything from Gibson Guitars to Volk wheels are being made in China RIGHT NOW. The Chinese are getting GOOD soon youll never be able to tell the difference between your $4000 wheels and their "$100 wheels" in terms of quality and contruction.

5) The rebeginning. Youll start to see stuff go back to how it was 10 years ago. Small little meets, little hang out spots, little localized events, little car shows. Itll get back to just having fun, little to no payouts etc. Corporate sponsorship will all but dry up for the most part. So that means people will be back to spending their own money GASP!
Expect street racing to grow again, as more an more people hanging out it usually leads to that anyway. Even last night i was coming home and was going down 138 and i saw 30 cars at the old QT i used to go to. APparently they are still racing.

6) Expect forums to grow in participation, users. Just an outlet for people.

7) Expect internet advertising to drop in terms of cars and car parts. Companies will realize its just not worth it in this time right now, UNLESS they are selling parts i mentioned.

8) Performance market is dead, expect it to continue to die out as gas increases and people start heading toward the NEWER CARS. lets face it the popular cars 5 years ago were EG hatches, EFs, 240s, etc. They are almost 20 years old now! They will start drying up very soon along with their motor supplies. Forcing people to move into the newer chassis which cost more to mod, and cost more period. So i expect this trend of "make my car JDM first, go fast second" to last for a few years before people start figuring out how to crack the OBD2B+ cars.

So yeah, major restructuring, major changes are in store IMO

[Z33_kid]

its changing people are broke everyone wants jdm and jdm= overated parts

[DeeAOne]

good thread, interesting responses.


i am not really sure what to think. i have noticed, and im sure the rest of you have too, that people are growing increasingly one-sided. that means if its not what everyone else is doing then its not cool.

[Elbow]

*cough*hi*cough*

LOL

Heres my 10 cents,
The "scene" is dying. Its going through a RADICAL change and my predictions are going to be kinda radical too.

1) The scene PEAKED really fast and unfortunetly corporate greed along with disorganization along with the wrong people running those organizations caused it to fail.

2) BIG events will cease to exist. No more NOPI Nationals, no more HOT IMPORT NIGHTS, no more FORMULA D. I predict they all are gone by next year. If not the following year. With gas prices, lack of interest, lack of payouts, lack of sponsors, its just not worth going for ANYONE.

3) Drifing was ALWAYS a FAD. It will start to dissappear from the professional level. As a BUSINESS , which is what it needs to be to survive and grow, it is a HORRIBLE model.
A) Drifting shares almost NOTHING in common with other motorsports in terms of accessability and marketability. Where do you go drifting on a saturday night? Friday night?
B) Its too expensive to drift. at the rate you go through tires, even if you are in some ricer midnight club drifting team, you gotta have tires.
C) For the tire companys it sucks. I mean look at Falken, Maxxis, Bridgestone, etc. Do you really think that spectators at a DRIFT event are thinking "wow im going to go buy their tires to drift on!" Hell no. So essentially their sponsorship dollars are being wasted. Why advertise if your demographic isnt going to buy your product. you know how many times i sold a Maxxis Tire at B***ground? ZERO. you know how many DRIFT CARS we built, ZERO. Whose paying $175 per tire to go **** it up in 5 min? Whose building a $10,000-15000 car to run it into a wall?

So what you essentially have is this motorsport, that is judged on opinion, and has no model for bringing in revenue. Eventually the companies will start to see that and it will dry up. Why spend $150,000 on a motorsport that gives you no return?

At least in drag Racing you see people that will go buy Skunk2, Competition clutch, Ferrea, Edelbrock, etc based on what they see, etc. You can go to a track on a friday night anywhere in the country an practice. Hell even street racing is still around.

In Short: Drifting dissappears in the next 2 years TOPS.

4) The Greatest Illusion in the Sport Compact Industry. China. Period. EVERYTHING IS MADE OVERSEAS, if its not, that company will NOT LAST.
I see friends going out of business every week cause they are fighting over $15 sale for an AEM part or something. Its a joke. The AMerican companies had this illusion that their products were made in house, developed, etc its all bullsh!t. Everything is outsourced overseas and brought in, repackaged, and marketed.

What happened was these american companies got greedy. They didnt control the market. They made EVERYONE with a SSN a "dealer" and didnt enforce pricing rules. so now you have 1000 AEM Dealers that are all selling the same product competing against each other so what do they do? they have to have the "lowest price" . So they atart cutting it by $5, $10, $50, $75 until you meet the EBAY guy. The guy that has no shop, no overhead, no employees, so what does he car if he only makes $5, $5 is $5 to him. To a shop, with overhead, its not worth the phone call.

So the Ebay people killed the Sport Compact Market parts and the Companies did NOTHING about it.

And why should they? in their eyes they had a feeding frenzy over a product they had $10 in, and their 1000 dealers were paying $250 for it and trying to fight over a 1% markup. The only one making money was the company.

Well then the dealers die out, cause they dry up, go out of business, cant make any money. etc. you just lost alot of your Wholesale program, an now you are going out of business.

Expect to see alot of wholesalers go under. Which means access to parts is limited and prices go up.

So the comments i hear about Ebay **** and CHINA ****, newsflash, 98% of all your high dollar JDM parts are made in a factory by a Chinaman thats fact.

There will be a proliferation of people that start going exclusively to Overseas manufacturing. theres just too much money in it. Custom will become a thing of the past as efficiency and availability will come first. Cost is low, profit is high. its very attractive and everyone is moving that way. Look at CHinas numbers in the last 15 years.

Expect your favorite name brand whatever to be knocked off or replicated. Everything from Gibson Guitars to Volk wheels are being made in China RIGHT NOW. The Chinese are getting GOOD soon youll never be able to tell the difference between your $4000 wheels and their "$100 wheels" in terms of quality and contruction.

5) The rebeginning. Youll start to see stuff go back to how it was 10 years ago. Small little meets, little hang out spots, little localized events, little car shows. Itll get back to just having fun, little to no payouts etc. Corporate sponsorship will all but dry up for the most part. So that means people will be back to spending their own money GASP!
Expect street racing to grow again, as more an more people hanging out it usually leads to that anyway. Even last night i was coming home and was going down 138 and i saw 30 cars at the old QT i used to go to. APparently they are still racing.

6) Expect forums to grow in participation, users. Just an outlet for people.

7) Expect internet advertising to drop in terms of cars and car parts. Companies will realize its just not worth it in this time right now, UNLESS they are selling parts i mentioned.

8) Performance market is dead, expect it to continue to die out as gas increases and people start heading toward the NEWER CARS. lets face it the popular cars 5 years ago were EG hatches, EFs, 240s, etc. They are almost 20 years old now! They will start drying up very soon along with their motor supplies. Forcing people to move into the newer chassis which cost more to mod, and cost more period. So i expect this trend of "make my car JDM first, go fast second" to last for a few years before people start figuring out how to crack the OBD2B+ cars.

So yeah, major restructuring, major changes are in store IMO

I must admit that was a very good read

[bandydesign]

I must admit that was a very good read

x2, its always good to hear the from the viewpoint of an industry professional.

[Vteckidd]

oh I forgot to say that i think time attack and autox/scca/nasa will see a big increase in patticipation . It really is a "peoples sport" and caters ftp the amatuer novice and proffesional. I see a good trend there

[Elbow]

^That I don't think will happen. JDM time attack maybe some more racers, autocross a little, club racing def. not. Most ricers can't afford it, and half the JDM t1ght guys will quickly realize their JDM parts and Tein stuff won't cut it.

[Vteckidd]

Oh its expensive but I hear from drag race guys that are getting older that its more fun to run at road Atlanta than it is to go to commerce

[Elbow]

Well yeah it is (I have never ran at Commerce but do at Road Atlanta a lot, so I guess and can imagine) But I can't see many younger not die hard real car guys road racing or even spending the money to try. Not to mention when you wreck at Road Atlanta you wreck.

[PSINXS]

Mike you hit that dead on. My brother said the exact same thing you said but in 03. Just wait its gonna die out soon.

[RL...]

Ehhh change while hard to adjust to at first, turns out to be best most of the time...

[Julio]

Do A search on here.. I called it back in 03 or 04....

lol.


Is all about the nice, sporty, luxury cars now... Atleast for me.. I guess it comes with age...
I love cars.. But i realize, you can buy something ready to go or something that will need very little to make it a little more "appealing to me"

[MINI]

It seems to just be a cycle. The guys of the old scene are getting old and are looking to get different things out of newer cars or get out of the scene completely. This will allow a new scene to develop.

Hell i dont know what im talking about, lol.

[0p7!mu5]

*cough*hi*cough*

LOL

Heres my 10 cents,
The "scene" is dying. Its going through a RADICAL change and my predictions are going to be kinda radical too.

1) The scene PEAKED really fast and unfortunetly corporate greed along with disorganization along with the wrong people running those organizations caused it to fail.

2) BIG events will cease to exist. No more NOPI Nationals, no more HOT IMPORT NIGHTS, no more FORMULA D. I predict they all are gone by next year. If not the following year. With gas prices, lack of interest, lack of payouts, lack of sponsors, its just not worth going for ANYONE.

3) Drifing was ALWAYS a FAD. It will start to dissappear from the professional level. As a BUSINESS , which is what it needs to be to survive and grow, it is a HORRIBLE model.
A) Drifting shares almost NOTHING in common with other motorsports in terms of accessability and marketability. Where do you go drifting on a saturday night? Friday night?
B) Its too expensive to drift. at the rate you go through tires, even if you are in some ricer midnight club drifting team, you gotta have tires.
C) For the tire companys it sucks. I mean look at Falken, Maxxis, Bridgestone, etc. Do you really think that spectators at a DRIFT event are thinking "wow im going to go buy their tires to drift on!" Hell no. So essentially their sponsorship dollars are being wasted. Why advertise if your demographic isnt going to buy your product. you know how many times i sold a Maxxis Tire at B***ground? ZERO. you know how many DRIFT CARS we built, ZERO. Whose paying $175 per tire to go **** it up in 5 min? Whose building a $10,000-15000 car to run it into a wall?

So what you essentially have is this motorsport, that is judged on opinion, and has no model for bringing in revenue. Eventually the companies will start to see that and it will dry up. Why spend $150,000 on a motorsport that gives you no return?

At least in drag Racing you see people that will go buy Skunk2, Competition clutch, Ferrea, Edelbrock, etc based on what they see, etc. You can go to a track on a friday night anywhere in the country an practice. Hell even street racing is still around.

In Short: Drifting dissappears in the next 2 years TOPS.

4) The Greatest Illusion in the Sport Compact Industry. China. Period. EVERYTHING IS MADE OVERSEAS, if its not, that company will NOT LAST.
I see friends going out of business every week cause they are fighting over $15 sale for an AEM part or something. Its a joke. The AMerican companies had this illusion that their products were made in house, developed, etc its all bullsh!t. Everything is outsourced overseas and brought in, repackaged, and marketed.

What happened was these american companies got greedy. They didnt control the market. They made EVERYONE with a SSN a "dealer" and didnt enforce pricing rules. so now you have 1000 AEM Dealers that are all selling the same product competing against each other so what do they do? they have to have the "lowest price" . So they atart cutting it by $5, $10, $50, $75 until you meet the EBAY guy. The guy that has no shop, no overhead, no employees, so what does he car if he only makes $5, $5 is $5 to him. To a shop, with overhead, its not worth the phone call.

So the Ebay people killed the Sport Compact Market parts and the Companies did NOTHING about it.

And why should they? in their eyes they had a feeding frenzy over a product they had $10 in, and their 1000 dealers were paying $250 for it and trying to fight over a 1% markup. The only one making money was the company.

Well then the dealers die out, cause they dry up, go out of business, cant make any money. etc. you just lost alot of your Wholesale program, an now you are going out of business.

Expect to see alot of wholesalers go under. Which means access to parts is limited and prices go up.

So the comments i hear about Ebay **** and CHINA ****, newsflash, 98% of all your high dollar JDM parts are made in a factory by a Chinaman thats fact.

There will be a proliferation of people that start going exclusively to Overseas manufacturing. theres just too much money in it. Custom will become a thing of the past as efficiency and availability will come first. Cost is low, profit is high. its very attractive and everyone is moving that way. Look at CHinas numbers in the last 15 years.

Expect your favorite name brand whatever to be knocked off or replicated. Everything from Gibson Guitars to Volk wheels are being made in China RIGHT NOW. The Chinese are getting GOOD soon youll never be able to tell the difference between your $4000 wheels and their "$100 wheels" in terms of quality and contruction.

5) The rebeginning. Youll start to see stuff go back to how it was 10 years ago. Small little meets, little hang out spots, little localized events, little car shows. Itll get back to just having fun, little to no payouts etc. Corporate sponsorship will all but dry up for the most part. So that means people will be back to spending their own money GASP!
Expect street racing to grow again, as more an more people hanging out it usually leads to that anyway. Even last night i was coming home and was going down 138 and i saw 30 cars at the old QT i used to go to. APparently they are still racing.

6) Expect forums to grow in participation, users. Just an outlet for people.

7) Expect internet advertising to drop in terms of cars and car parts. Companies will realize its just not worth it in this time right now, UNLESS they are selling parts i mentioned.

8) Performance market is dead, expect it to continue to die out as gas increases and people start heading toward the NEWER CARS. lets face it the popular cars 5 years ago were EG hatches, EFs, 240s, etc. They are almost 20 years old now! They will start drying up very soon along with their motor supplies. Forcing people to move into the newer chassis which cost more to mod, and cost more period. So i expect this trend of "make my car JDM first, go fast second" to last for a few years before people start figuring out how to crack the OBD2B+ cars.

So yeah, major restructuring, major changes are in store IMO

as a bad comparison it sounds like the matrix meets fast and furious. Personally i saw this comming. i mean its sad that right when i jumped into this the scene i grew up admiring is dying. But then again it kinda needs to. Too much corruption and not enough people doing what they like just copying everyone else. I admit i'll be stubborn and wait it out but Im not goin to lie that rsx is lookin a lot better than integra's right now. One thing you forgot to mention that scooters are starting to rise in trend as well and from what i seen it may not be so bad hell 2k for a brand new scooter vs. 10x that for a car? Not to mention easy to mod. I kinda want to see how that turns out

[blaknoize]

Thats exactly what those folks of yesteryear that used to mod muscle cars, then saw our lil 4bangers and thought they we're losing out. I believe its just evolving and I'm personally one of those who cant wait really. All the new types of motors and locomotion, somethin like Top Gear 3000. So I'm not complaining, I cant wait.

Thats also why I'm grabbing a CR-Z

[DrivenMind]

I think it's dying too. Alot of us were born after the glory days of the muscle cars, and care free street racing, but the consequences of being irresponsible are much more severe than they used to be. Look at California, they are crushing peoples cars in California for racing on the streets.

I think the economy is partly to blame, and the other problem lies in the fact that the demographic that modifying cars appeals too isn't exactly known for their responsible behavior. It's an expensive hobby, and it's not one that bodes well for people who can't avoid temptation. I'm deliberately trying to avoid getting back into a car that excites, or even interests me, because it tends to consume me, when there are other things I should be trying to focus on. I'll end up spending hours browsing car forums instead of reading, or doing something more rewarding.

Although I'm not entirely against trying to convert a slow ass diesel into a biofuel car so long as its still boring, and doesn't entice me.

[FasTech]

Down here in Macon, its actually starting to grow again. Back in the late 90's early 00's it was so big, Like the whole Wal-Mart parking lot filled with cars until like 3 and 4 in the morning... But now maybe 30-to-50 cars show... But I kinda like it this way! Not alot of ricer punks and the cops aren't everywhere like they use to be. But its getting bigger, every week new people begin to show.

[Killswitch Performance]

*cough*hi*cough*

LOL

Heres my 10 cents,
The "scene" is dying. Its going through a RADICAL change and my predictions are going to be kinda radical too.

1) The scene PEAKED really fast and unfortunetly corporate greed along with disorganization along with the wrong people running those organizations caused it to fail.

2) BIG events will cease to exist. No more NOPI Nationals, no more HOT IMPORT NIGHTS, no more FORMULA D. I predict they all are gone by next year. If not the following year. With gas prices, lack of interest, lack of payouts, lack of sponsors, its just not worth going for ANYONE.

3) Drifing was ALWAYS a FAD. It will start to dissappear from the professional level. As a BUSINESS , which is what it needs to be to survive and grow, it is a HORRIBLE model.
A) Drifting shares almost NOTHING in common with other motorsports in terms of accessability and marketability. Where do you go drifting on a saturday night? Friday night?
B) Its too expensive to drift. at the rate you go through tires, even if you are in some ricer midnight club drifting team, you gotta have tires.
C) For the tire companys it sucks. I mean look at Falken, Maxxis, Bridgestone, etc. Do you really think that spectators at a DRIFT event are thinking "wow im going to go buy their tires to drift on!" Hell no. So essentially their sponsorship dollars are being wasted. Why advertise if your demographic isnt going to buy your product. you know how many times i sold a Maxxis Tire at B***ground? ZERO. you know how many DRIFT CARS we built, ZERO. Whose paying $175 per tire to go **** it up in 5 min? Whose building a $10,000-15000 car to run it into a wall?

So what you essentially have is this motorsport, that is judged on opinion, and has no model for bringing in revenue. Eventually the companies will start to see that and it will dry up. Why spend $150,000 on a motorsport that gives you no return?

At least in drag Racing you see people that will go buy Skunk2, Competition clutch, Ferrea, Edelbrock, etc based on what they see, etc. You can go to a track on a friday night anywhere in the country an practice. Hell even street racing is still around.

In Short: Drifting dissappears in the next 2 years TOPS.

4) The Greatest Illusion in the Sport Compact Industry. China. Period. EVERYTHING IS MADE OVERSEAS, if its not, that company will NOT LAST.
I see friends going out of business every week cause they are fighting over $15 sale for an AEM part or something. Its a joke. The AMerican companies had this illusion that their products were made in house, developed, etc its all bullsh!t. Everything is outsourced overseas and brought in, repackaged, and marketed.

What happened was these american companies got greedy. They didnt control the market. They made EVERYONE with a SSN a "dealer" and didnt enforce pricing rules. so now you have 1000 AEM Dealers that are all selling the same product competing against each other so what do they do? they have to have the "lowest price" . So they atart cutting it by $5, $10, $50, $75 until you meet the EBAY guy. The guy that has no shop, no overhead, no employees, so what does he car if he only makes $5, $5 is $5 to him. To a shop, with overhead, its not worth the phone call.

So the Ebay people killed the Sport Compact Market parts and the Companies did NOTHING about it.

And why should they? in their eyes they had a feeding frenzy over a product they had $10 in, and their 1000 dealers were paying $250 for it and trying to fight over a 1% markup. The only one making money was the company.

Well then the dealers die out, cause they dry up, go out of business, cant make any money. etc. you just lost alot of your Wholesale program, an now you are going out of business.

Expect to see alot of wholesalers go under. Which means access to parts is limited and prices go up.

So the comments i hear about Ebay **** and CHINA ****, newsflash, 98% of all your high dollar JDM parts are made in a factory by a Chinaman thats fact.

There will be a proliferation of people that start going exclusively to Overseas manufacturing. theres just too much money in it. Custom will become a thing of the past as efficiency and availability will come first. Cost is low, profit is high. its very attractive and everyone is moving that way. Look at CHinas numbers in the last 15 years.

Expect your favorite name brand whatever to be knocked off or replicated. Everything from Gibson Guitars to Volk wheels are being made in China RIGHT NOW. The Chinese are getting GOOD soon youll never be able to tell the difference between your $4000 wheels and their "$100 wheels" in terms of quality and contruction.

5) The rebeginning. Youll start to see stuff go back to how it was 10 years ago. Small little meets, little hang out spots, little localized events, little car shows. Itll get back to just having fun, little to no payouts etc. Corporate sponsorship will all but dry up for the most part. So that means people will be back to spending their own money GASP!
Expect street racing to grow again, as more an more people hanging out it usually leads to that anyway. Even last night i was coming home and was going down 138 and i saw 30 cars at the old QT i used to go to. APparently they are still racing.

6) Expect forums to grow in participation, users. Just an outlet for people.

7) Expect internet advertising to drop in terms of cars and car parts. Companies will realize its just not worth it in this time right now, UNLESS they are selling parts i mentioned.

8) Performance market is dead, expect it to continue to die out as gas increases and people start heading toward the NEWER CARS. lets face it the popular cars 5 years ago were EG hatches, EFs, 240s, etc. They are almost 20 years old now! They will start drying up very soon along with their motor supplies. Forcing people to move into the newer chassis which cost more to mod, and cost more period. So i expect this trend of "make my car JDM first, go fast second" to last for a few years before people start figuring out how to crack the OBD2B+ cars.

So yeah, major restructuring, major changes are in store IMO

I agree in the most part. But.. While obviously Drifting is a huge waste of money, explain to me how it survives in Japan. There are still large companies building cars, etc. There are a lot of sports that are based on judging, and they survive.

Drifting is not really dying locally. It may be on a professional level, but there are 2-3 events locally every month and they get filled. Just like an AutoX event would. I think the excitment level of the events is what draws people in. The smoke, the high revving, etc. Honestly, drifting is one of the more exciting motorsports to watch.

So I don't think it will die. Just my opinion.

Tyler

[DrivenMind]

I see how drifting is a terrible business model, but you don't have to have a lot of money to buy some junk tires, and slide on them. If you're able to go drifting and not take it super seriously it's a damned good time, and I also think it's better for learning how to drive a car, since a person becomes accustomed to not panicking once the limits are exceeded.

I always thought competitive drifting was a bit of a silly idea, because it costs so much to get into it, and returns so very little. Plus like you mentioned the entire competition is based on showing off, and the end results are founded on opinion.