The Story Behind The Figaro Shop
There are businesses built on opportunity, and then there are businesses built on love. The Figaro Shop, known to thousands of owners worldwide simply as TFS, belongs firmly in the second camp. Born from a genuine fascination with one of the most distinctive cars ever to come out of Japan, it has grown over more than fifteen years into something that no other company in the world can quite replicate.
The business was founded by Tobyn Brooks, whose name has become almost synonymous with the Nissan Figaro itself. The idea was straightforward and beautifully simple: create the very best Figaros on the market, and provide owners with everything they could ever need to keep them running and looking their best. What followed was anything but simple.
A car like no other deserved a business like no other
That community needed a home. Servicing a Figaro requires specialist knowledge. These are now well over thirty years old, parts are not manufactured in large volumes, and the mechanical quirks of a small turbocharged engine paired with an automatic gearbox are not something every garage encounters. TFS was built to fill that gap, and to fill it exceptionally well.
A team that grows with the cars
Today, The Figaro Shop is a full team of dedicated specialists based at Rich’s Sidings in Didcot, Oxfordshire. Tobyn is joined by Christian Brooks, who serves as Director, along with a workshop, bodyshop, parts department, and support staff who have between them accumulated over fifty years of combined experience working specifically with Figaros. That is not an incidental detail. It shapes everything about what TFS does and how it does it.
The breadth of what is on offer under one roof is remarkable. The workshop handles everything from routine servicing and MOTs to full engine rebuilds. The bodyshop, equipped with two professional body repair booths, undertakes work ranging from accident repair to full resprays and bespoke custom colour builds. The parts department is, by any measure, the most comprehensive Figaro parts operation anywhere in the world, holding stock of both new and quality used components available for delivery globally.
Going further than restoration
Restoration alone was not enough for TFS. The team has consistently pushed the boundaries of what a Figaro can be, developing entirely new parts where original components are no longer available or where modern engineering can simply improve on a thirty-year-old design. Their custom ECU replacement, manual gearbox conversion upgrade, and a growing catalogue of new-manufacture components speak to a team that does not merely maintain these cars, but actively invests in their future.
The bespoke build programme takes this further still. Customers can work with the team to commission a Figaro built entirely to their own specification, covering colour, interior, mechanical upgrades, and more. And the Figaro Remastered 2025 represents perhaps the boldest statement of all: a fully restored and re-engineered Figaro that aims to be the definitive version of the car, built for the road today.
Recognised for what it does
The quality of TFS’s work has not gone unnoticed. The business has won awards for its restorations, and its parts department recently received a Feefo Platinum Award, one of the highest customer service ratings available, as well as an Exceptional Service Award. These are not the kinds of recognition that come from simply being the only option available. They reflect a team that genuinely cares about the experience of every Figaro owner who comes through the door or places an order online.
It is that care, as much as the expertise, that has made The Figaro Shop what it is. There are plenty of garages in the country. There is only one TFS.
