Pimpin’ out rides for young kids (all under age 23) in the greater Los Angeles area. All customization work is done by West Coast Customs in Los Angeles http://www.westcoastcustoms.com/Home/Pages/index.htm. Their moto is “there is no limit to what we can do”. The show is hosted by Detroit rapper, Xzibit. http://www.mtv.com/onair/dyn/pimp_my_ride/series.jhtml
The typical story by the people who are having their cars “pimped” is that they are poor and cannot afford anything else. The people chosen for then show have the most unroad worthy cars ever! But they are all young, going to school, trying to make ends meet and these cars is all they have. So they ask MTV to “pimp my ride”. http://www.mtv.com/onair/castingcall/story.jhtml?id=1456280 The cars are stripped down to nothing and completely custom built, from tip to tail, inside and out.
Here are the typical improvements
A minimum of $15,000 worth of enhancements are added to each car. The typical range is between $20,000 and $25,000 are added to cars that are barely worth $1000.
Notable quotes:
Lyrics of opening song: “So you wanna be a player but your wheels aren’t fine. You gotta hit us up to get a pimped-up ride. Damn right.”
Here are some of the fun extras they add to the cars:
Here is the low-down episode by eposide:
1988 Diahatsu Hi-Jet
Some of the fun extra’s they added was a cooler in the back, a wrap-around couch, a wing, full sound system (inc. subwoofers), 6 DVD changer- so 3 different people can be watching 3 different movies AT THE SAME TIME. The radio is a Clarion and it has a built-in MP3 player. One of the special features of this one is a camera in the front grill so that the passengers in the back (who are sitting with their back to the road) can see what is in front of them.
1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
The Cutlass is car is a “ganster” car, its “getto”; “it is where the ‘hood is at” and deserves to be pimped. “This is a ‘hood rich car if you do it right”. One of the special feature is a karaoke set in the trunk with a 15” screen surrounded by blinking lights. At the end, the customizer says, “this car is like a mullet: all business up front and a party in the back” (referring to the karaoke machine in the trunk). It also has tinted windows and they added a sun roof. There is a playstation (PS 2) has been hooked up in the back. There is also an intercom system in the car (novel idea but why?) A center console has been added between the two front seats that had hook up a cell phone and/or a PDA. This car cost $20,000 in improvements! “In Cali, man, you have to have a chrome package” they said in reference to the tires and rims (a comment was made that those alone cost more than the car itself). At the conclusion, the owner says “my car has been transformed from rags to riches. Now I will get lot more respect when I pull up to those business meetings. Now that I have my car pimped, my career is gonna start off with a bang”.
1992 Honda Civic
At the start of this episode, Xzibit says “some people think a car is just a car; but for me, the cars are a way of life”. The female car owner uses the car just for utility: daily, she drives back and forth from school and she lives with her grandmother who regularly visits the doctor. “Without the Honda, Grandma and I would be takin’ the bus tight now. Without this car, we don’t know what we would do”. So it is more of a utility machine. They replaced the cassette with a CD and DVD player with a 10” flip down screen. They also gave her a playstation (PS 2). The female owner has two dogs so they also built in a flip down water dish for the dogs. Awe, isn’t that sweet? But the best is the Lamborghini doors! The boys doing all the custom work were happy to have a Honda because it is a good, solid car and easy to work with. They also added a sun roof (“as we like to call ‘blow the brains out’”) and turned the front seats in the massage chairs! The guys were bragging that no Mercedes or Roles Royce has this added feature but it is in the Honda Civic! They also added an alarm system with a custom voice done by Xzbit that says “Yo, yo. This is Xzibit. Back up. I’m warning you!” Improvements worth over $15,000. “We made this Civic bling”.
1990 Mitsubishi Mirage
“Cars always say a lot about the people who drive them”. The car owner, Antwon, says he can’t pick up any chicks because once they see his car, the girls are no longer interested. Thus, having a cool car = getting cool chicks. He’s a starving art school student who feels bad about the state of his car. He thinks that if he has a “tricked-out car”, then he will be “on par with his roommates, with my peers and get me lucky with the ladies”. West Coast Customs hooked hooked him up with an in-dash DVD player (10” flip-down) with a remote and a Playstation 2. They sunk $20,000 of enhancements into a $900 car. For kicks, they installed a fish tank, an 8 track player in the glove box, and a blue neon kit. At the end, Antwon says “the whole new look of my car helps my confidence and now I can roll with my homeboys and I’m not going to be the butt of the jokes and I’m can be respected for what I have”. He then warns the ladies that a new improved G-ride is coming to get them.
1967 Ford Mustang
A young, female college student, with a penchant for surfing, which has been passed through every member of her family. They painted it a light aqua candy color and did a light colored interior. They installed a flat 10” flush TV screen in the roof, but it is not a flip down screen. Instead, they made all the seats lay down like a bed so she could lie down and watch TV in the roof. For fun, they installed a flame thrower in the exhaust so when she steps on the gas, bright red and orange flames shoot out of both exhausts. But then it was pointed out that this was totally illegal and they had to take them out. Awe, that was the best part! This car rolled in worth $250 and WCC added $25,000 worth of materials and enhancements.
1985 Ford Ranger
This truck belongs to a 18 year old kid who ironically delivers auto parts for a living. They converted the bed of the truck to a ‘lounge’ with a couch and a Nintendo gaming cube. The game controllers are all wireless. A 23” monitor (“it’s the bomb”!) was added as well and a touch-activated DVD system. The system is rigged so one can watch a DVD and play Nintendo AT THE SAME TIME. The truck owner is a competitive sports-type so they installed a ping-pong table in the back. They added a tribal graphics all across the hood and down both sides, an idea borrowed from a trucker magazine. “This is an old school truck with a lot of new ideas. Let’s go make it happen”. They called this truck a “rollin’ trash can”. The interior is a mix of orange vinyl with tweed. “Back in the day, tweed was what all the mini-low rider trucks used to have”. They’ve taken all of the door handles off to streamline the overall look of the car and replaced it with door poppers that open with a remote, along with a Python alarm. The truck was lowered 3”. $30,000 worth of goods were added to this car. “Jared used to be totally out of the game. Now the car is gonna make him a player”. “In Cali man, a wheel is a very very big representation of your attitude”. A CD and MP3 player was added to the sound system in the truck’s cab. All the gages, interior door handles, floor mats and steering wheel was replaced with chrome. “My truck has gone from a pile to style. My truck will no longer be called “embarrassment” anymore. People will actually give me respect now”.
1981 Pontiac Trans AM
This is owned by a 21 woman who is a mentor at an inner-city school. Her friends call the car a “bucket” and her dad said they bought it to be restored but never got around to it. “Danielle is glamorous but that car is not”. Xzibit likes this car because it is a real “Smokey and the Bandit” kind of car. “This is a real muscle car that has not seen a gym in about 20 years”. Xzibit is on a mission to “make this phoenix rise once again”. Yeah, but this bird flew the coop. They replaced the ceiling light with a chandelier and to help her get through school, an espresso machine was added to the center console. They added 20” tires with pearly rims. Since this woman is always on the go, WCC added a “dressing room” to her trunk, with a sliding out make-up tray, a vanity mirror and a 7” monitor for Direct TV, a coat rack, and an actual working steam iron in the trunk for her wrinkled clothes. WCC added $30,000 worth of goods to this car. “This bird is ready to fly now”. “The guys at West Coast Customs turned this beast into a real beauty. This is one fairy tale that’s ‘bout to come true”. When Danielle had a look at her new CD/DVD player, she said “that is pamperish!” At the end, Danielle says, “I still get the look when I’m in the Trans Am but now I think it is for the right reasons”.
West Coast Customs
I also liked the look of the guys doing all the body work. Most of them were African American or Latino, and the white guys were trying (so-called ‘acting’) to be just like them. The show is hosted by a well- known rapper, Xzibit. All of them were men (no surprise there), covered in tattoos and piercings (ears, lips, eyebrow, etc.)
At the end of the show, there is a extra section where each guy from WCC shows off their “rides”.
As this New York Times article says:
"In a backlash against the showy, over-accessorized customization depicted on shows like MTV's 'Pimp My Ride,' a growing number of car enthusiasts are spending just as much money to outfit their cars with parts designed for Japan's domestic market and not intended for export to the United States. The result: a modern, minimalist style called J.D.M., short for Japanese Domestic Market."
Here is the June 17, 2005 article:
Street Ready, for Tokyo, That Is
By MICHELLE HIGGINS
JASON PHAM has spent about $30,000 and endless hours scouring the Internet for parts for his used Honda Civic hatchback. But there are no flames crawling up the side of the vehicle or multiple plasma-screen TV's inside to make it stand out. His goal was to make his car look like other vehicles on the road - in Japan.
"I didn't want a car everyone else was building," he says. Mr. Pham, a 20-year-old from Fairfax, Va., has swapped out everything from his headlights to his oil cap for replacements from Japan. Just last month, he moved his steering wheel from left- to right-hand drive to simulate the Japanese driving experience. He even has a Japanese driver's manual that he bought on eBay for $35.
"I can't read it - I just wanted to have it," he says.
In a backlash against the showy, over-accessorized customization depicted on shows like MTV's "Pimp My Ride," a growing number of car enthusiasts are spending just as much money to outfit their cars with parts designed for Japan's domestic market and not intended for export to the United States. The result: a modern, minimalist style called J.D.M., short for Japanese Domestic Market.
J.D.M. fanatics like Mr. Pham spend hours searching the Web for hard-to-get parts that often don't look much different from similar parts either made in America or made in Japan for the American market. Some of the more obvious differences include gauges that use the metric system and Japanese parking stickers that show up on rear windows. But from hoods to headlights, seats to shift knobs, there is no limit to the conversions enthusiasts will make to dress up their cars in J.D.M. style - no matter how subtle.
To the untrained eye, "it's very boring," said RJ de Vera, an automotive stylist in Los Angeles who often uses Japanese performance parts in his creations. Most people think it "just looks like a normal car," he said. For many enthusiasts, that's exactly the point.
"Only a few individuals recognize your taste," said Dave Allan, a 25-year-old middle school teacher from Summit, N.J., who has spent more than $20,000 to outfit his Acura Integra in parts from Japan, down to the lug nuts that bolt the wheels to the car. "You have to be in the know."
ALTHOUGH no one tracks J.D.M. as a stand-alone market segment, everyone from importers to car show organizers says that the trend is growing. Over the last five years, HKS USA, a subsidiary of HKS Ltd. in Japan, which manufacturers performance parts and accessories, has seen year-over-year growth of about 10 percent.
In the last three years, sales at the Motorsport Parts Division of Mackin Industries in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., which imports Japanese performance parts, have grown 10 to 15 percent annually.
In an effort to cash in on J.D.M.'s popularity, several Japanese parts companies, including Spoon Sports Ltd. and 5Zigen International, have teamed with American distributors or opened their own offices. Even major automakers are starting to cater to this market. Over the last few years, Nissan North America has been rolling out a new line of car accessories in the United States under its Japanese brand of high-performance parts, Nismo.
The category is beginning to expand on the car show circuit. The number of cars with a J.D.M. theme at popular import car shows, like Hot Import Nights, has almost doubled in the last few years, according to Andy Goodman, president of the National Custom Car Association, which judges the show competitions. "It's definitely more prevalent," he said.
The association has had a J.D.M. category in its contests since it began in 2001. But this year it broke the category into "J.D.M. O.E.M.," for vehicles with original equipment parts made by Japanese carmakers, and "J.D.M. aftermarket," for vehicles with parts that aren't original equipment but are still made in Japan.
Getting the parts is not easy or cheap and often requires a lot of patience, since the most coveted components are often found only in Japan. J.D.M. enthusiasts typically must order through an importer who has ties with shops overseas that can locate hard-to-get parts. If the part is in stock it can typically be shipped to the importer and on to the consumer in a week or two.
But most enthusiasts aren't that lucky. Parts often take months to arrive. Some used components can be found only by scouring junkyards in Japan. Also, to save money most importers wait until they have enough parts to fill an entire container before shipping it to the United States, which can lengthen the delay.
Jason Sierant, a 25-year-old college student from Kenilworth, N.J., waited three months for a bumper he ordered from an importer in California, and when he finally got the bumper, it was nicked on one side.
But Mr. Sierant didn't care. "I wanted to differentiate the car from everybody else," he said, and the hassle to get the part simply validated its rarity. "I knew no one around here had it," he said.
Some J.D.M. enthusiasts cut out the middleman by scouring eBay, the online marketplace. That's where Jack Dial found most of the parts for his Honda Civic del Sol. Mr. Dial, a 24-year-old refrigeration repairman from Seven Valleys, Pa., has spent at least $10,000 modifying his car to resemble its counterpart in Japan - the CR-X del Sol. He swapped out everything from the headlights to the floor mats to the sun visors. His gauges display kilometers instead of miles and his climate control uses Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. He has the Japanese owners' manual and Tokyo parking stickers.
Still, "people don't even usually realize it has as much stuff done to it as it does," he said. "It doesn't look like anything fancy."
The J.D.M. phenomenon has its roots in the early 90's in Southern California, where import cars had become popular with street racers. Honda Civics and Toyota Supras were replacing American muscle cars like Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros as the street-racing cars of choice, and enthusiasts sought out performance parts to go with those cars.
In Japan, major automakers, including Honda, Toyota and Nissan, all offer the models that are available in the United States but in different variations. For example, Nissan's 350Z is sold as the Fairlady Z in Japan. In general, differences are subtle but often include headlights, taillights, bumpers and engines.
Unlike some showy customizations, like tinted windows and booming sound systems, which are restricted in some places, most J.D.M. modifications do not run afoul of the law, athough Mr. Pham suspects his right-side steering wheel may bring him trouble from the local police. Still, he's willing to risk it. And besides, "a crazy paint job and lights stand out more."