Tuffy Completes Purchase Of Car-X

TOLEDO, Ohio, July 8 -- Tuffy Associates Corp. ("Tuffy") announced today that through a newly formed subsidiary, Car-X Associates Corp., it has completed its acquisition of substantially all the assets of SMK Speedy International Inc.'s Car-X business in the United States.

Tuffy Associates Corp. is a privately held corporation based in Toledo, Ohio operating more than 250 franchised and company owned automotive service centers in 17 states under the name "Tuffy Auto Service Centers."

The Car-X business consists of substantially all the operating assets of both Car-X Service Systems, Inc. ("CSSI"), a franchisor of 185 automotive repair stores in the United States, and all but 12 of the stores of Discoverer Services, Inc. ("DSI"), which operates 50 of the 185 CSSI franchised stores. The Car-X franchise is concentrated in 10 mid-western states in the United States and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Tuffy plans to manage the two businesses as separate brands to the consumer, while still leveraging the strength of the combined entity for the benefit of the franchisees and the customers of both brands. Car-X Associates Corp. will conduct their operations out of the existing Chicago offices.

Combined, Tuffy and Car-X now operate more than 430 automotive service centers offering a broad range of automotive services including the repair of brakes, exhaust, ride control, air conditioning, tires, heating and cooling and starting and charging systems. Other services include regularly scheduled maintenance, oil changes and alignments. For a list of locations, please visit www.Tuffy.com and www.Car-X.com .