What happened to Tokico shocks?

10+ years ago Tokico was a common go-to for performance shocks. Now it seems like they have all but disappeared from the market, like their US distribution has completely collapsed.

You can find a few odd shocks in stock here and there but I can't find a US catalog newer than 2007 and most part numbers come back as NLA.

What happened to Tokico?

Basically, they no longer exist as a company. In 2004 they were bought by Hitachi Automotive Systems, which slowly moved them away from making aftermarket car parts and shifted their focus to their more sophisticated (and profitable) fuel dispenser and metering tech.

They were making OE replacement type shocks right up til about 2019, but that should have stopped by now. In 2019 Hitachi spun Tokico off into its own company and sold the ownership stake to an investment fund. Now they spend 100% of their time on making pumps for gas stations.

From a US point of view, there was a big change in US distribution that led to a drought for a while - then another change a year or two later that never came back online. 

They had some good options for our Miatas. It's a shame. 

I agree that it sucks. They made the best shocks for 90s Thunderbirds. Now there's no good options left beyond totally custom shock mounts.

Same for q45's.  My car has perfect tokico blue fronts, and i wanted to match the rears but they're gone

Seems like the decent mainstream damper options are drying up. I have not had good luck with newer Bilsteins (they rust like crazy, and Bilstein won't warranty corrosion, even when the chrome is flaking off the piston) and their availability for some applications is awful, and now Tokico is gone. I don't know enough about the newer stuff that's appearing from companies I've never heard of, but my innate crusty skepticism doesn't trust them without some sort of evidence of quality.

I hope my new Konis last for a while....

I guess this means that the KYB GR-2 is now the "sportiest" shock of reasonable quality available for a lot of 80's-90's stuff.

I had a set of Tokico D-Specs with STI "Pink" JDM wagon springs on my old 2002 WRX wagon, along wit a 20mm sedan rear sway bar. That was my favorite suspension setup ever; it was magical and perfect for daily driving and the twisties. This makes me sad. 

pointofdeparture said:

I guess this means that the KYB GR-2 is now the "sportiest" shock of reasonable quality available for a lot of 80's-90's stuff.

They aren't sporty though, just OE-equivalent trading on their brand name.

Gas-a-Just are actually somewhat sporty, but GR-2?  Nope.

I had Tokico Illuminas on my Maxima back in the day - those were the go-to for sporty shocks if you didn't want to spring for Konis.

These days I have Bilsteins on most of my cars - they're still very good and prices have stayed pretty level. 

I had adjustable Tokico Illumina? shocks with Eibach springs on my 2G Eclipse GSX . Terrific ride and handling mix. 

I can't blame these big companies for moving away from the OE-shaped aftermarket suspension damper market. It's just not cost effective to make these types of shocks any more.

You have to build all these different types of brackets for different fitments, design spring mounts for all these different shaped OE springs, and valve / test all of them individually. Big pain to do when your factories are set up to make thousands of each type of damper, not the few hundred per year that you are likely to sell.

Combine that with the fact that the market for lowering springs is pretty much dead due to the availability of low-cost adjustable height coilover kits (some of which are pretty good), it's tough to justify the manufacturing and tooling costs of making Illuminas and AGX's.

There are a handful of companies (Tein, Pedders) stepping in to fill the gap, but they're really only focused on popular cars. If you have an Impreza Wagon like Tony Sestito, you'll have no problem finding a modern replacement for the old Tokico D-Specs. But I think Patrick might have trouble finding a good substitute that will fit his Q45.

Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:

pointofdeparture said:

I guess this means that the KYB GR-2 is now the "sportiest" shock of reasonable quality available for a lot of 80's-90's stuff.

They aren't sporty though, just OE-equivalent trading on their brand name.

Gas-a-Just are actually somewhat sporty, but GR-2?  Nope.

Both are garbage honestly. The only difference is that Gas-A-Just is a monotube. KYB's quality took a huge slide and now they are the same level as Monroe, Gabriel, etc.

Here's a set of GR-2 (front) and Gas-A-Just (rear) from my Mazda5 with less than 20K miles and they are leaking.

In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :

GR-2s are 10-20% stiffer than OE for a lot of applications. It's not much, but it's an improvement. (At least, it was when they were made well.)

That's a shame. I've still got D-Specs on my S197. They've served me well, well enough it's the second set. I don't put many miles on it so maybe they'll be good for a while yet...

I used these in a 190 e2.6 I had. Combined with a new set of tires and they transformed the car. They were not on the level of koni but they were a step up from the OE. 

Hitachi now makes OE dampers for many vehicles. In the US they are on a lot of Fords (inc. Mustang and F150), FCAs, Toyotas, and Nissans among others. They are merging with Showa later this year too. I don't think aftermarket is supported anymore. They are more a commodity supplier now. 

boxedfox (Forum Supporter) said:

Combine that with the fact that the market for lowering springs is pretty much dead due to the availability of low-cost adjustable height coilover kits (some of which are pretty good), it's tough to justify the manufacturing and tooling costs of making Illuminas and AGX's.

I think that's the problem. I was talking to a Koni rep at the SEMA show last fall and his big concern was how to compete with the junk coilover stuff. People think it's better because it's adjustable and has adjustable preload (don't get me started), but it's mostly junk. Still, everyone seems to have to learn the hard way.

I took advantage of Tokico's warranty policy on the illumina's on my Mk2 GTI 16v.  I nicknamed them To-Leako's.  Eventually the vendor got tired of doing it for me and just swapped them out for a set of bilstein sports, which lasted forever and then some.

Keith Tanner said:

I think that's the problem. I was talking to a Koni rep at the SEMA show last fall and his big concern was how to compete with the junk coilover stuff. People think it's better because it's adjustable and has adjustable preload (don't get me started), but it's mostly junk. Still, everyone seems to have to learn the hard way.

You did a pretty awesome 17 minute rant on the problem with coilover preload last time somebody got you started, though. Maybe I can contribute to getting quality information out about cheap coilovers: I've got an unanswered email from Tessie too. Somehow I don't think they've got a kit for my '66 Dart, which doesn't have coil springs at either end. Hmmm.... I wonder if they have something that fits my newly acquired TDI Passat?

I have started searching for replacement dampers for my wife’s 140k mile old 2014 Accord, and other than GR2’s or OEM, I cannot find any other reputable alternatives.  So, I guess support of the damper aftermarket drying up is actually a thing.  Bummer.

That's going to get interesting if it becomes harder to find good replacement shocks for enthusiast cars and have to go to coilovers.

At least here in WV that requires a special inspection and get you a potential law enforcement attractor sticker rather than the normal inspection sticker.

I own a 1985 CRX. My only legit suspension option is a set of $2000 Teins or I have to stumble across a set of obsolete Konis. And the Teins only exist because the one aftermarket shop that supports these cars has them made.

I have a video coming up soon on "no, cheap coil overs are not really a good option at all. Get real shocks". 

BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:

That's going to get interesting if it becomes harder to find good replacement shocks for enthusiast cars and have to go to coilovers.

At least here in WV that requires a special inspection and get you a potential law enforcement attractor sticker rather than the normal inspection sticker.

Then you don't have an inspector that overlooks that E36 M3. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Strut options for BG chassis have all but dried up, with the exception of Monroe, and between the 5 models that make up the platform, there's still a fair number of them rolling around. It's frustrating.