Honda Cars vows to regain market share

Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) has vowed to regain market share by undergoing an organizational, marketing and production retraining to take advantage of the expected upturn in the automotive industry this year.

To spearhead Honda’s renewed and more aggressive attempt to regain market share, the current No. 3 Japanese car company publicly unveiled its 2006 redesigned Civic model.

According to HCPI deputy head of marketing division Arnel Doria, Honda is banking on the new Civic model to help boost HCPI’s sales this year.

Honda is projecting monthly sales of 800 units for the 2006 Civic, more than double the Civic’s previous sales of around 300 to 400 units a month.

HCPI, Doria said, has retrained its whole marketing and dealer network to better promote the car company’s products.

Honda is also opening up additional dealers in Metro Manila and in the provinces.

HCPI has also prepared for a production revitalization with the launch of the 2006 Civic.

At present, Doria admitted, HCPI’s production is a mere 9,000 units.

With the launch of the 2006 Civic, HCPI is hoping to utilize at least its current one shift capacity of 13,000 units.

The rated capacity of HCPI’s plant in Laguna is actually 30,000 to 35,000, Doria said.

The new Civic would be assembled locally, together with the City and the Honda C-RV.

HCPI imports the luxury sedan Accord and the compact Jazz.

The automotive industry, Doria said, is expecting an upturn in sales this year following the resolution of the used car issue by the Supreme Court.

In fact the industry, Doria reported, has already seen a drop in registrations of used vehicles.

The 2006 Civic will be sold at a base price of P767,000 for the manual transmission 1.8 liter model and up to P1.1 million for the premium 2.0 l automatic transmission model.

Honda president and general manager Takashi Sekiguchi had previously said that HCPI intends to focus on rebuilding and strengthening Honda’s existing car models, specifically the Civic and CRV.

Likewise, Honda will also develop the still unappreciated five-door hatchback model.

Sekiguchi noted that the Philippine market equates value with size and thus tends to favor the much larger American vehicles which, however, are not fuel efficient.

It is because of the Filipino preference for big vehicles that Honda’s first hatchback model, the Jazz, failed to sell as well as projected, Sekiguchi admitted.