at the California location hired just before the debut on Pimp My Ride, co-founded a Mexican franchise with Friedlinghaus' blessing in 2009. A television show with a similar format to the American version called Tunéame la nave was first broadcast on August 14, 2009, by Azteca shortly after the opening of the new business. According to Hernández, who became the host of the show, the franchise was opened with a "high" fee paid to Friedlinghaus to use the brand. The show continued for six seasons on Azteca, but it is unclear if there will be a 2017 season and where it will air. This is because on May 24, 2016, during airing of season six, Hernández announced that he was abandoning the "West Coast Customs" brand and company in favor of his own brand, PacifiCoast Customs. In an interview with TuningMex, Hernández stated that the new company had hired 20 employees, had an initial investment of MXN 2.5 million (), and would be based in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico, describing the name change as similar to cutting "an umbilical cord." In a separate interview, Hernández stated that when people in Mexico think of West Coast Customs, they think of him and not Ryan Friedlinghaus, thus hinting that he does not believe that the change in name will hurt business. Hernández stated that the new company is projected to work on only twenty cars in its first year, thus guaranteeing quality and that employees will not be overworked. Never opened franchises A Japanese franchise is mentioned on the official WCC website, and a website announcing that it was "coming soon!" became available in 2009, and was online until March 13, 2012, but by April 13, 2012, the server hosting the site began returning a 403 error, and after November 7, 2012, the server hosting the website of the Japanese franchise went offline. In a 2013 video released by HP interviewing Friedlinghaus, the Japanese franchise's logo was displayed as , despite the fact that no such company existed at the time. An address was never provided, no Japanese media wrote about the opening of the franchise, and no further information about it has been forthcoming from WCC, so it can be assumed that the Japanese franchise never opened. In 2010, Dana Florence traveled to St. Petersburg, for a question-and-answer session at the "Active Open Air Show Cars", according to The Village. A Russian