- Oh, it's moving so fast.
No, it's not.
But if you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe.
And if you're looking for aftermarket wheels,
tires, or suspension,
be sure to hit us up on,
(claps)
fitmentindustries.com.
(claps)
(laughing behind the camera)
- [Cameraman] (laughs) What is that?
- It's the thing with...
- [Cameraman] It's the thing.
- Yeah.
- The best part about living up north in Wisconsin,
which is probably a question that nobody ever asks,
but I'm going to answer it for you.
It's the fact that bugs stay small,
and the taxes aren't terrible.
Trust me. It's awesome.
You'll love it. It's fantastic.
Another plus, is that you get six months
of hiding your body,
and praying that however you went into winter,
is ultimately how you'll actually make it out of winter.
They call it, like, you gain an extra 15, 20 pounds,
it's not really the worst way to go,
but, maybe you feel a little bit better about it.
You look out there and you look at like,
states like California.
Okay. No way, Jose, you gotta have the car finished.
You got to have it looking good.
All the while, there are spiders the size of your hand,
just like, creeping around the garage floor.
And it's just not something I'm up or open to ever do.
It's just not something that I don't want to do.
Not today, not tomorrow.
So how does this ever, actually,
relate to a suspension company?
Well, it's kind of, like,
an ambiguous karate chop transition,
where we're going to talk about it, okay?
I'm Alex. Alex.FI on Instagram.
In today's episode of What Happened, karate kick,
we're going to be talking about the company,
that was just making waves,
in terms of, like, progressive technology.
Something that was just crazy, out of the bounds,
just different and something that just seemed to be like,
give you a little bit of a happy dance.
Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
went full Terminator-style, and absolutely disappeared.
We're going to be talking about exactly what,
exactly how,
and exactly what happened,
to AccuAir,
and if they're actually back.
- Now, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.
(upbeat electronic music)
- Seriously, though, Terminator is a great movie.
12 out of 10, the original is fantastic.
Everything else it's like lukewarm soda,
but if you haven't had a chance yet to subscribe,
be sure to do so.
We're trying to get to a million subscribers,
and it would mean the world to us.
And if you're looking for aftermarket wheels, tires,
or suspension,
be sure to hit us up over at fitmentindustries.com.
We actually have a lot going on right now.
We have a full build giveaway,
where you can win a Honda S2000 plus $10,000 in cash.
We have a quick delivery promotion going on, right now,
where we actually keep everything in stock.
So you can get wheel and tire packages, to your door,
in as little as seven days,
with our own wheels that we built for y'all,
called Artisa ArtFormed Wheels.
And we have Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions,
going on all month long, for the month of November.
So, if you've been sleeping on trying to pick up
a set of wheels, tires or suspension,
if there was a time, it's right now.
Like, if you wait, not much cool stuff happens in December.
I'm just letting you know.
And of course, let us know in the comments section below,
on what you'd like to see us talk about next,
in the next episode of What Happened.
We actually interact with every single comment,
and sometimes I giggle at what you want.
The W8 Passat is, getting,
going to get done in, like, four years.
We made plenty of videos,
of talking about AccuAir Control Systems,
over, probably, the past three years, or so.
From our original, The History of, series,
to build videos with their products.
We installed it on our very own BMW E30,
which was our very first Fitment Industries build,
and it's on the Ferrari F430 as well.
And even, we made a video last year,
after the news of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy,
that was announced, with the company.
It had us all a little bit deflated, all right?
What happened?
What exactly was the impact of the virus in it all, right?
And for some, why did it smell,
just maybe, a little bit weird.
And it's been one hell of a year and a half,
and here I am sitting back at AccuAir,
but in Florida, not California.
There's an alligator in the backyard, instead of a mountain,
which is a little weird,
but we're going to cue the exposition, okay?
Because this is important,
to touch base on just what exactly happened in the past,
so that you can look forward to the future.
So that you know exactly what we're talking about.
AccuAir Control Systems has been a brand,
that's been around for quite some time.
About 19 years ago, essentially,
by two brothers, that we know as Dustin and Reno Heon.
the then young brothers were involved in building a Blazer,
for their local automobile show,
which is something that we've talked about,
now, two or three times.
Essentially they wanted to build it with,
like the lovely, the Terminator-ish,
the controversial ness of, what was then,
the I don't want performance, air suspension.
Back then, air suspension was, predominantly, just for show.
I mean, outside of the commercial use,
it was a show-driven product.
And while the installation was relatively easy at the time,
it didn't necessarily meet their needs,
to have something that was a little bit more advanced.
I keep using the term Terminator,
but I'm not connecting the dots.
It was the fact that AccuAir built a computer,
Terminator, who's a computer, you get the point.
It was something that was much more dynamic,
than a simple air up and air down system,
And it needed to be a lot more advanced.
And so they ended up doing that.
They wanted a more real-time customization,
and as such, e-Level was born,
and within the next 60 seconds,
we're going to, kind of, get through all of the history,
so that we can get, eventually,
to the part that you're all truly wondering about,
but we needed a little bit more additional exposition.
It's kind of, like, an anime.
There's 900 episodes,
and 600 of them are filler.
AccuAir Control Systems, and their initial system,
sold about 1000 units,
in the first six years of being in development,
which was not really that much,
especially as you consider how wide and how large,
the audience actually is for this potential market.
And their intentional growth,
didn't really take off,
until the evolution of the e-Level System,
which could dynamically read the height of your vehicle,
in real time,
as the vehicle was moving,
and adjust the amount of air that was in the bag,
so that you could experience
real-time, dynamic, air suspension,
while driving your vehicle.
It was essentially based on the amount of weight,
and the road conditions that it incurred,
and, depending on how fancy the computer was,
at the time, was how fast it could read,
and adjust the pressure.
Now, in short, it bridged the gap between
conventional air suspension systems,
and, at the time,
instead of using pressure to determine height,
it used height sensors,
and an ECU to determine height in real time.
It was a more advanced system,
but could also be considered kind of, sorta like,
playing legendary Halo when, really,
you just want to snipe some, like, Grunts in medium,
and have fun and turn some skulls on,
but that's besides the point.
So, AccuAir Control Systems grew,
from 6,000, to 26,000,
and then a 76,000 sq. ft. facility,
which if you remember,
we actually visited in 2019,
when I had brown hair,
and a rental car that had a sport mode,
which I chased an R8 through the canyon roads,
and Mario got really scared because we almost flipped it.
Now during that time,
I filmed the video that truly touted
AccuAir Control Systems' quality,
their attention to detail,
their zero compromise mentality,
which prevented quite literally, anything,
from leaving their facility with a failure potential,
or so most thought.
And not even six months later, after that video dropped,
AccuAir Control Systems would go on
to declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
And this is where you would gasp.
Now bigger up to me, you know,
I'm just trying to, pretty much,
provide education on wheels, tires, and suspension.
And all we wanted to do,
was ensure AccuAir's team, the absolute best.
That if they ever needed anything,
we'd always be here,
and our opinion on that has still not changed.
So, why, just exactly what,
happened to AccuAir Control Systems, and why are they back?
Allow me to set the record straight.
AccuAir Control Systems is dead,
and the company history, the hierarchy, the mantra,
and the business focus for it, died with it.
AccuAir, without the two other words though,
is back and in name alone.
You see, AccuAir's assets were purchased,
by the bank, in September 2020,
by an air suspension company known as Arnott.
Now, Arnott,
is one of the very few OE+ air suspension companies,
in the United States,
that builds an absolutely incredible amount
of air suspension components, KIPS,
and coil swaps for air suspension vehicles.
They are the OE guys and gals,
when it comes to air suspension.
And as I sit here on a 22 acre playground,
with five or six buildings,
Arnott, is a three decade old business,
that just knows air suspension,
and knows how to build it well.
When Arnott purchased the AccuAir Control Systems' assets,
the only thing that came with it,
was what was at the physical location,
the intellectual property, and that's it.
AccuAir, shaving the last two words off of it,
had to come back with a new company model,
new staff, new product development,
and a new location in Florida,
as the Chapter 7, before it ultimately surprised the staff,
back in March of 2020,
ultimately led to the unemployment of all their staff,
and their location in San Obispo, California.
It left people bewildered, which is, like,
a nice word for it.
But one thing that Arnott did right away,
with this monopoly buyback program,
was to find somebody that knew the driving force,
of what AccuAir was supposed to be,
without some of its shortcomings.
In short, Ryan Rutledge,
the now Director of Controls for AccuAir,
really was brought in to build the brand back up.
And Ryan was a part of the unemployment group,
from the 2020 bankruptcy,
and ultimately had the opportunity,
to take the AccuAir name and evolve it into something new,
with an absolutely massive company behind it,
that had the strengths and the very weaknesses,
that apply at AccuAir Control Systems.
That is a proper way.
We're going to explain this. You with me?
So what did this, initially, mean for AccuAir,
the one that you see now?
Well, the first thing it meant,
was realigning what it offered.
Killing the CVT system, because of its unreliability,
and refocusing the brand,
towards developing systems that worked well,
and had a real quality to boot.
Not perceived quality, real quality.
Pair the technology and market need,
that AccuAir was filling,
with Arnott's operational and production capacities,
and you pretty much get a Tinder match.
The immediate introduction of AccuAir,
brought the new e+ Connect back,
to fix the issues with its predecessor,
and its wiring issues, returning back the VU4,
that was initially asked for, by the community,
for years and the ENDO-T and VT systems.
And even though I'm sad,
Ryan has a big beard and he's scary,
and said, without a doubt,
that the AccuAir team just doesn't feel confident,
pouring resources back into the CVT system,
and the product just doesn't align,
with the quality,
your expectations of the AccuAir brand.
Now it's hard to say,
but it is, probably, the right thing to do.
So what caused the AccuAir Control Systems to fail?
Now that's a question that lawyers, enthusiasts,
and forum pages were all trying to answer.
Now, whether that's over-focused on developing products,
that had way too much overhead costs, like the CVT,
or maybe it was the continuous pull of investors,
and founders clashing all the time.
Maybe it was because AccuAir Control Systems' supply chain,
was never healthy enough,
to maintain its vast dealer network consistently.
Maybe it was a little bit of it all.
I'm not sure, but what I know,
and frankly, all that I care about,
is what makes any business special.
And that's if AccuAir, truly,
gives a damn about its community,
which I can confidently say, after this trip,
is that it does.
Sure, there's no founders in AccuAir these days anymore.
It's just Ryan, and a few crucial others,
that are running AccuAir out of an office space,
in a small production facility,
but they give us the Facebook group,
where Ryan just responds to customer inquiries,
even if it's on AccuAir Control Systems products,
because it's just the right thing to do.
Or if it's going to at least one show every month,
to help reestablish AccuAir as an air management brand name,
that people can trust and begin to lean on again.
You can see it in what they're trying to do here.
And there's a little bit of bad blood, sure.
Between what happened between 2020,
and what's happening in 2021,
But that's irrelevant to people like you,
and people like me.
What we now know as AccuAir,
is in no way, the same as legacy AccuAir,
and that's not a bad thing.
AccuAir has, pretty much, put themselves on a playing field,
to move forward. It's become enthusiast-driven again.
It's become focused around making properly good products,
that you can actually buy.
It's become, to a lot of people,
it's become a genuine company again.
So for me, I see it as an absolute win,
but let us know in the comment section below,
and what you think about it.
And of course, if you're looking for aftermarket wheels,
tires, or suspension, like AccuAir suspension, let us know.
Of course, you can check it out,
over at fitmentindustries.com.
Drop a comment. I want you to think.
Of course, we truly, truly appreciate all the support,
every single time we've dropped the video,
talking about this.
We know that you guys and gals have wanted,
more and more information.
We're really excited to get this in front of you.
And hopefully, as we go into 2022,
you'll begin to see us talking,
a little bit more about what they're doing,
where they're going,
and, of course, you'll see the car at SEMA,
at their booth, no big deal,
but by the time this video drops,
that would have already happened.
So that's actually not even that important,
when you really think about it,
which completely takes out the entire outro of this video.
All right, we'll talk to you guys later. Peace!
(upbeat electronic music)