Arizona Mazda Club (AZMC) is not very happy with Hot Import Nights/Nightshift
As the President of AZMC I have been working on HIN for a good portion of the year. I have passed out hundreds of flyers for the Phoenix, AZ show. I have HIN on the main page of my myspace page. I have HIN as part of my friends list on myspace. I am registered on their website. I was a 2 time returning customer. One of our RX-8's took best Mazda last year.
This year I negotiated with Avondale Mazda and we worked a deal with them for Sponsorship. They offered to repay for 10 registration fees into HIN after the event.
One week before HIN, I was put into direct contact with a marketing director for HIN about a club participation event at HIN.
Thanh Phan
Automotive Marketing Director
PH (949) 789-7439 x27 FX (949) 789-7444
He said he wanted to showcase Arizona Car Clubs. He wanted to know how many cars were going to have entered. At the time we had 3 cars registered. He told me that the Scion Club had 40 cars and AZ350 Club had 30 cars registered. Thanh said that If I could get 15 cars registered he would reserve 15 spots for AZMC.
With only having 3 cars registered I went on our club forum and sent out over 200 Private Messages. With in 24 hours AZMC had 11 cars registered. By the end of the week we had all 15 cars. I called Thanh Phan back and informed him that we would have 15 cars at the event. He said he had a space reserved for us near the Mazda Stage.
HIN wants everybody to drop off their cars on Friday night and leave them over night. Since we are a state wide club we have people traveling from all over the state. I asked if AZMC could do a roll in on Saturday. He said yes that we could all roll in at 9 AM when the gates opened.
We were there as asked at 9:00 with 14 cars. The other car, Danny's, (white Miata track car) was pre-staged on Friday night. After about 30 minutes we were told to move to the next parking lot which was the "staging" lot for show cars. We lined up and other cars lined up next to us.
We were told even though they had said roll-in would be at 9:00, it wasn't until 10:00. The next excuse after delays was that the fire marshal was enforcing the 1/4 of gas rule even though it was an outdoor event. So as a result, those of us with more than a 1/4 tank idled our cars trying to burn gas off for 3 hours. I know Tim and Shaun had their A/C blowing full power for 3 hours trying to burn down to a 1/4 tank.
After Xavier, Chrissie and the rest of the guys from Avondale Mazda got there with the Speed3 ( shipped specifically from Mazda N.A. in Irvine, Ca), a Speed6 and a CX-7, he found out they were short on volunteers and that's now what was taking so long for roll-in. HIN did have four guys doing check-ins for the cars but they basically were a couple rude, unprofessional kids playing around on a golf cart. More on that later.
The Scion club was lined up to go ahead of us because even though we had arrived first, they had approximately 40 cars showing so it kind of made sense they would enter them first.I asked for information on our club roll-in and basically the guy said we could probably roll-in after the Scions. But, other cars starting getting into the Scion line, approximately 7 cars. I then had Todd , who was in the rear of our line with his RX8, block any others from getting in behind the line and we moved our cars up one at a time.
We got up to about the main gate where cars were entering the show and the line basically stopped. In the meantime, AZ350 club and other individual cars were entering at a very fast pace from the parking lot we had been told to exit at 9:00 AM.
Then, after security arrived, one of the aforementioned golf cart guys made the announcement via megaphone that the show was "at capacity" and no more cars would be allowed in. This immediately resulted in a lot of four-letter words from our club and those others also waiting outside. The staging parking lot was also locked so no more cars could get in, locking Sabrina's Focus and Will and Heather's 6 also.
We argued with the guy making the "show is full" announcement about how we had been there waiting for 5+ hours in the parking lot, the money spent to get there, the members who had driven from California, Tucson and etc. We weren't the only people left outside the fence either,at least 40 other cars were sitting next to us.
He said we could add our name to the list for a refund. We told him we wanted immediate refunds since we had paid immediately upon registering and that we had shown up immediately. They said checks would be mailed out instead.
After we informed the guy about our contacts with Thanh Phan and about how we had been told to be their at 9:00 and have spots for 15 cars. He didn't seem to believe us immediately but then he seemed interested. We told him we wanted to talk to Thanh since he was in charge of all cars at the event.
While he made minor attempts to call Thanh and those in charge, we complained about the number of cars that had entered while we were told to wait, about the number of vendor spots and vendor cars that were taking up space for enthusiasts.
The guy kept saying he couldn't get a hold of anyone or he didn't know where they were but we kept telling him to use his radio to call them. Finally, he told me to meet Thanh by the stage. Jeff (Best Mazda HIN Vegas) and Xavier ( Avondale Mazda Manager) went to "negotiate" with him.
Thanh told now told us that he couldn't reserve spots for us. He told us that the fire marshal made them move the show cars in 20 feet because of the weather. He told us that he could maybe fit one or two of our cars into the show and refund the rest. We told him we were a team/club and that it was all or nothing. I reminded him of his promises about showcasing Arizona Clubs. He ignored my comment and said he had to go make some calls.
He had a printed map of the venue and there were two spots on the map reserved for AZMC. Looking at those spots they were filled with 350 Z's and miscellaneous cars that cut in front of us.
When he got back to us after his calls, we told him the proper thing to do is ask those cars that cut in front of us to leave. They were in fact in our "reserved" spots. Thanh said he could put us in front where the public would enter. I wanted to see the spot first.
He showed us the spot in the dirt, gravel, mud with standing water. I mumbled, "I just spent 16 hours detailing my car with a $4,000.00 paint job to park in the mud?" Being positive I said it was better than nothing.
We came back with news that we had a spot by the entrance and it was also on gravel. We moved the cars through the venue to this spot. We lost the CX-7 and the Speed-6 at this point since Xavier sent them home due to the show being full. He and Chrissie stayed with us, being just as angry for being to lied to.
The spot we had gotten was a dirt/gravel lot in between the ticket purchasing area on one side, the Bondurant asphalt surface on one, trailers from set up on one side and more dirt on the other. Jeff talked to one of the workers that had followed us back there and got us a smaller but better spot past the ticket purchasing area but still not in the show. Throughout this move, they offered us spots for 3 or 4 and finally 6 cars several times but the group came together and said all the cars or nothing. We had all registered as AZMC, Thanh knew we were coming, we all staged together, be damned if we weren't going to show together. They had also mentioned a refund still if we took this spot.
While we figuring out parking in the new spot, a worker had approached and ask what we doing there and we weren't supposed to be there. Jason informed him we were told to be there. Funny how there was no communication between workers even though this one also had a radio.
We squeezed our cars in by moving fences back. We lost several cars from the club because they were sick of the B.S. and the wasted time. 5 hours in the alternating heat and rain with nothing but more B.S. and lies at the end makes it a really stressful, hard day. Xavier also had to take down his Avondale Mazda banner, per the workers.
We got the cars parked in and got setup for the show. We were worried about dust from pedestrians since we were in between where spectators bought tickets and entered the actual show. As spectators started to arrive, the worst part of our spot was revealed, not only did all the foot traffic kick up dust and rockers, cars entering the Bondurant parking lot which was used for the show, drove right past us on an uphill about 20 feet away and then continued on a path about 10 feet away. Each car kicked up clouds of dust which flowed all over cars and us but even worse was the uphill path which some cars spun their tires trying to climb and of course the occasional showoff who spun their tires on the gravel, just because.
Once the show actually got started, the official HINcity film crew came through to take video of the cars. The guy hosting said to the effect of "Arizona Mazda Club, VIP guests of HIN" and another guy made sarcastic comment about how their idea of "VIP parking" was a gravel lot outside.
Each time our members actually went into the show, we had to be patted down and empty our pockets. This got old after about the 5th time.
Somewhere around 7-8 PM, two judges came out to look at our cars. He was a nice guy but he told us he had been selected to judge at 1 PM and he hadn't gotten his car into the venue. After talking to Jeff about his RX8, he asked Jeff which class he wanted to be in and he wasn't sure. He suggested the "street" class because Jeff drives it everyday, even though the "street" class was not mentioned on any of the rules or promotional material. The only classes listed were Mild, Wild and Elite.
Sabrina did get one of the models to come out and pose with the AZMC cars. Also Anthony from Bell Road Mazda brought one out.
Our display at the show was pretty good with the amount of cars we packed in to the little area we had to fight for. I guess we made do with what we had. But the bottom line is this, we were screwed by HIN plain and simple. We weren't in the show and we should still be entitled to a refund. Our cars were basically an extension of the parking lot and it should be noted we parked on gravel while even a majority of spectator parking was on the Bondurant track surface which was paved.
HIN was a very big let down. It was a let down for us, for Mazda, and for Avondale Mazda of which all of us have put in a lot of time, money, effort, and energy into making something work. We never asked for special treatment, we never asked to be by the Mazda stage. We only asked not to have to bring our cars on Friday night. Instead we were promised the world and none of it was delivered. THAT, speaks more to the integrity of HIN, Nightshift, and the people who put the event together. Sure, we can't help the fire Marshall changing things around even though I'm still confused as to why this was done Saturday...what would have happened if everyone came Friday night?
The fact that it "appears" special consideration was given to other clubs for whatever reason...kickbacks, money, etc. is what makes me not want to come back. If we cannot get any kind of pull without flashing around cash or having to buck the system then I don't want any part of that. When I'm told HIN wants to showcase Arizona Car clubs but instead settles on 40 Scions and 30 some 350z's, that isn't showcasing much. It's great that these clubs have been as successful as they have, but I stand behind my product and no one is going to tell me my Mazda is worth any more or less than a Scion or Z in this circumstance.
To add insult to injury, Bell Rd Mazda had a booth and cars inside.We did notice that they only gave out two of the three possible trophies for Mazda?
Is that because they only considered the two Mazda's that were actually inside the venue?
Big congrats to AZMC for working through a long, tough, dusty day and making lemonade when HIN handed us a ton of rotten lemons.
I'd like to see HIN refund all 15 registrations for AZMC, give us a discount and a guaranteed spot in next year's event with a tent.
Respectfully,
Bill Russell
Arizona Mazda Club- President
www.azmazdaclub.com
