The cars that will save the car industry

Las Vegas, NV, USA – It’s a chilly 50 degrees Fahrenheit in this fabulous gambling city located smack dab in the middle of the Nevada desert. I’m here for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held at the humungous Las Vegas Convention Center. (Although I’ll be back in the much warmer but still refreshingly cool Metro Manila by the time this column comes out.)

But despite being up to my neck with gadgets, gadgets, and more high-tech gadgets, I can’t help but be bombarded by news about the ailing American automotive industry. It’s all over CNN, Fox News, and all the other smaller news networks as well as all the broadsheets.

Big-shot CEOs begging for financial aid to government legislators tend to make the front page.

One notable article I saw on a news website there listed the 10 cars that were looked upon as the collective savior of the American car industry. These were the cars and trucks that would bear the brunt of what is shaping up to be another Great Depression.

In other words, without these cars (and of course without the federal financial bailout), the American car industry would disappear faster than you can say, “Chapter 11.”

Most of the cars and trucks listed, however, are not available in the Philippines. They range from the Toyota Prius hybrid to the Ford F-series trucks to the perpetually best-selling Corollas, Civics, Accords and Camrys. The reincarnated Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro muscle cars were even in the list, if memory serves me right.

So what do these have to do with the local car industry? Well, while our local CEOs and country managers haven’t had to beg for government financial aid (they have been begging for some protectionist policies and a few tax perks for what seems like ages), they too are feeling the crunch of the global economic crisis.

And while they’re in no danger of having to forsake traveling in their corporate jets (because they don’t have one in the first place), they’re certainly having to cut budgets and costs in preparation for a brutal 2009 sales year.

The Philippines is actually lucky in that projected unit sales for 2009 is more or less the same for 2008, which in turn even posted growth compared to 2007.

In contrast, the American car industry has posted double-digit declines year-to-year and is looking at a bleak 2009. Hence, numerous factory closures and layoffs.

The much healthier Japanese car industry is likewise having its share of problems, with industry leaders Toyota and Honda having to reduce or even temporarily halt production of its cars and trucks at some of its domestic factories due to plummeting demand.

Which brings me back to the local car biz. Which cars and trucks would shore up the car manufacturers’ bottomlines?

It really isn’t very difficult to figure out. Obviously, it should be a vehicle that meets the needs of the car-buying public and hence, generates strong unit sales. That automatically singles out two perennial best-sellers, the Toyota Innova and Toyota Fortuner.

Where would we be without those two ultra-reliable workhorses? More to the point, where would Toyota be without these two surefire revenue generators? Honorable mentions would be the Vios, the Corolla Altis, the Hilux and the Hiace.

If I could only choose two cash cows for each manufacturer, then Honda’s would be the Civic and the CR-V, with the City and Jazz taking honorable mentions.

Hyundai has one of the widest and most diversified portfolio of products. But it also has a couple of MVPs. In terms of volume sales vis-a-vis profit margin per model, these would be the Tucson and Santa Fe. Of course, honorable mention goes to the omnipresent Getz and Grand Starex.

In stark contrast to Hyundai, Isuzu has only three “consumer” models, but two of these are bonafide bread-and-butters: the Crosswind and the D-MAX pickup.

Kia is never out of the picture, and in this case, it’s the ingenious Carens MPV and the Sorento SUV that has helped pad the company’s bottomline the past couple of years. Honorable mention goes to more than two other Kia vehicles: the Picanto, the Sportage, and the Carnival.

For Mitsubishi, the head-turner may be the all-new and truly gorgeous new Lancer, but it’s still the commercial vehicles that are keeping the company solidly in the black. The no-brainer would be the Strada pickup, but I’m torn between the Pajero, the ever-green Adventure, the Outlander, the Fuzion MPV, and the superb new Montero Sport as my pick. I’d go out on a limb and pick the Montero Sport. The rest are the honorable mentions.

Nissan, combining the two local distributors, has a fairly wide product line as well. But I’d go for the Navara pickup and the X-Trail as the corporate saviors. Special mentions go to the Sentra, Urvan, Frontier pickup, and the new Grand Livina.

For Chevrolet, it’ll be the Optra sedan and wagon and the Captiva. For Ford, it’ll be the superb new Focus sedan and TDCi-powered 5-door hatchback and its always capable Ranger pickup. (The Escape and Everest play big roles, too.)

Mazda has the Mazda3 sedan and wagon and its new pickup, the BT-50. (The Tribute SUV plays a big role as well.)

Subaru is banking on its Impreza lineup and its much more widely appealing Forester SUV. Suzuki, meanwhile has its APV and Grand Vitara – even if its Alto is the volume seller. (The Swift would be the honorable mention here.)

There you have it – the car models (I left out the luxury car brands for this list) that have been star players the past few years but will take on an even more significant role this 2009 as their respective manufacturers and distributors bank on them to deliver a positive balance sheet for fiscal year 2009.

Here are some of your comments from last week regarding James Deakin’s “Running On Empty” piece…plus a little request to boot!

One hundred percent I agree with your idea. Unfortunately, no current politician will entertain it without sacrificing his political ambition. If all our leaders will think only of what is good for the country, then that idea is really good. – takuri

Mr. Alex Magno says the same thing in The STAR’s Opinion section. I hope our legislators read your piece. Actually, someone proposed the tax on gas in the US too. It’s not farfetched that they adopt it under Obama, in which case we can do our usual “gaya-gaya” and adopt it too. Something to hope for, eh, Mr. Takuri? – cmpacis

Had the same thoughts – exactly like yours since prices went up last summer. Completely agree with your arguments. – 09228889440

The Christmas streamers of some Quezon City politicians are covering some traffic lights. Can these civic conscious people remove these streamers? – 09209556109

Speak out, be heard and keep those text messages coming in. To say your piece and become a “Backseat Driver”, text PHILSTAR<space>FB<space> MOTORING<space>YOUR MESSAGE and send to 2840 if you’re a Globe or Touch Mobile subscriber or 334 if you’re a Smart or Talk ’n Text subscriber or 2840 if you’re a Sun Cellular subscriber. Please keep your messages down to a manageable 160 characters. You may send a series of comments using the same parameters.)