AutoClubs.Ca

As most of our visitors are aware, AutoClubs.Ca is not a business. We are a hobby site that provides our viewers with a visual coverage of automotive events.

While most events we cover are within Manitoba, we do get outside the province. Still, the accumulated costs of running the site continue to climb every year. 2008's worst hit was fuel costs increasing, but that's only part of the story.

It costs, obviously, to run the site and get out to shows. But we also have to invest in camera gear to take the images, and computers to post-process the images and generate the Web pages.

To help offset these costs, we take on the sponsors you see listed on the site. While this helps, it in no way comes close to covering all our costs. Our visitors are welcome to assist us in meeting our costs by purchasing prints, AutoClubs.Ca gear, and making cash or PayPal donations.

Autoclubs.ca along with Costco presents their 1st Annual Show & Shine for the United Way.
Monday Sept 6, 2010 at the St. James Costco, 1315 St. James St. 11 am-4 pm. Open to all makes and models. Registration at 9 am. Entry fee: $10 per car. Admission by donation. Food and refreshments available on site. Door prizes for competitors. Silent auction. Prizes for Peoples Choice, Best Antique, etc... For more information or to pre-register please contact Candace @ 774-5414 or 510-9409 or by email. W057pho@costco.com. All net proceeds going to the United Way.

Recently we've seen a lot of media attention directed towards Sunday Night Cruising.

While this round appears to be more in favour of the "Cruisers", there are still a ton of issues to be addressed. For now, let's leave aside the issue of the inspections, and concentrate on what we can control. And that's us, "cruisers" as a group.

Some areas of the city have become notorious as problem areas. They seem to attract the largest number of what most of us consider undesirable. And this generates a poor images for all of us.

Speaking with residents and merchants in one of the more affected areas, Portage Avenue at Wall Street, there appears a common theme. Litter and noise. Some individuals feel the need to create excessive noise on residential streets next to where cruisers are known to congregate. Some of those lots wind up with a large amount of litter left behind by inconsiderate visitors.

The reality is that these shouldn't be issues at all. There really isn't the need to create excessive noise anywhere. Never mind residential streets. In fact, why even go down them if you aren't going to or from your own home? As for litter, it's really not that difficult ot walk a few feet over to a garbage can to make a deposit.

So please, folks, let's be as considerate as we can be during our Sunday Night Cruising. If you see something wrong, address it. Let those that are causing problems know that you don't want to be associated with them. Ask people to pick up their litter, stop revving engines, turn down stereos, etc. It does work, we've witnessed it.

If we can show that we can moderate ourselves and not be a problem, then others won't take steps to try to stop us from being out there. They won't have a reason to.

We're putting money into the economy, but that alone does not authorize us to be a problem for others. While probably less than 1% of "cruisers" are actually causing the problems, we, as a group, should take on working towards a solution. It's called responsibility. Let's try it. Let's step up as a group and let the rest of the population know that, as a group, we're responsible mature adults.

While it's true that it's already late in the season, it's also true that there is never a better time to start than now. Please keep this in mind this upcoming Sunday.

Some time back, we called "BS" on the Manitoba Safety Council's claim of a new facility that would potentially allow a portion of that facility to be used by hobbyists. We felt at that time that that MSC (now Safety Services Manitoba) was simply taking advantage of a contravertial incident that had occured, in order to get some "free publicity".

We wound up on air on CJOB, and Mike Waite from MSC joined us. Throughout the on-air time, he very proudly outlined the new plans, and the potential uses. Off-air, he spoke of how many weekends the facility could/would be rented out to corporate use. The math didn't add up at the time. There just didn't seem to be enough weekends in the summer to allow public use of the facility.

Still, we decided to wait and see. We've waited. We've seen nothing. And our emails go unanswered.

September heralds the end of the car show season in Winnipeg. While the standard Sunday venues go as late as the first weekend in October, September is the season we wind down. While we hope for a balmy fall, many have their cars in storage before the month is out.

For many, the last "real" show is the Garden City Show, September 12th. This show is the last day of a phenominal 3-day event put on by the Fab 50's. If you're reading this, you've probably already seen the poster above.

It's been another year of ups and down, with the weather being the last to impact us. Many have felt the pressure of the MPI/WPS inspections, and have abstained from visiting shows and from cruising.

The worst thing that we can do is to put our concerns into storage with our cars, waiting for next season. Perhaps there can be some way over winter to address concerns from both sides so that we can start a truly new season next year.