Vehicle importers’ sales up 21% in June

Enthusiastic confidence marked this statement released by Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors’ (AVID) president, Ms. Fe Agudo with their group’s year-over-year sales performance in June registering a 21 percent increase, “Following its winning streak in the first half of the year, AVID expects to keep its sales track upbeat towards the end of the year as we continue to differentiate our brands towards increased customer satisfaction with our excellent product and service offerings and customer engagement initiatives.”

Industry figures show that last month, AVID registered total sales of 2,973 units, up from 2,447 units sold in June last year.  This led to first semester growth of 17 percent or a total of 17,902 units, driven by the marked performance of both the Passenger Cars (PC) and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) segments.

The PC segment saw its sales grow by 22 percent year-on-year in June to a total of 1,515 units, boosted by sustained sales from Mini, CATS Motors and Hyundai. This led to first semester sales growth of 16 percent or a total of 9,061 units.

On the other hand, the LCV segment continues to be in full swing, reinforced by the stellar performance of Chevrolet with 128 percent growth in its LCV sales for the month of June. LCV sales in the first half of the year totaled 8,841 units, up by 18 percent from the same period last year.

Optimistic industry observers say that with demand still in place, the automotive sector is seen to be buoyant by year-end as prevalent brisk vehicle demand and captivating product offerings solidify to support growth.

A graphic demo of City and Jazz advanced safety features

Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI) president Mr. Toshio Kuwahara may have saved the day for all the motoring journalists invited to experience first hand the advanced safety features of the City and Jazz last Tuesday. The original venue for the grueling test drive was Subic. But when the very amiable HCPI top honcho got wind of the projected weather condition, Kuwa-san wisely opted to just have it within the metro instead of having the media stay overnight in Subic with typhoon Glenda, poised for a Tuesday nigh appearance—and as we all found out later, destruction.    

The Honda City and Jazz VSA Safety Driving Experience highlighted the Anti-lock Brake System with Electronic Brake-Force Distribution (ABS with EBD) and the Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) systems, both state-of-the-art active safety features inherent in the top variants of the two models HCPI recently launched in the country, the City VX+, Jazz VX and Jazz VX+.

Mr. Kuwahara has time and again stressed that Honda has kept passenger safety its top consideration over the years. “Our cars have always been infused with the latest vehicle safety systems available on the market,” he said. “We are proud to be one of the first brands to include these high-end safety features in our affordable sedan and hatchback models. This makes the Honda City and the Honda Jazz two of the safest and most technically advanced vehicles in the subcompact class today.”

In the VSA Safety Driving Experience, 15 motoring press personalities were instructed to do three different driving exercises using both the City VX+ and the Jazz VX+, in order for them to experience the said safety systems at work. The first was Slip and Grip, an emergency-braking and full-acceleration exercise with one side of the vehicle on a slippery and wet surface, and the other on a high-grip and dry surface. It made use of ABS with EBD and the Traction Control feature standard on both top-tier variants.

The second driving exercise was Side Slip, which simulated a panic-braking situation in the middle of a high-speed turn. VSA limited the cars’ tendencies to plow and fishtail during such maneuvers, while ABS with EBD delivered stronger braking force to the wheels with more grip. These kept the cars on their intended path of travel.

The third hands-on driving exercise, Brake and Evade, involved simultaneous sudden braking and lane change over a slippery surface. Again, ABS with EBD and VSA were automatically deployed to maintain the cars’ balance and prevent them from completely losing traction throughout the maneuver. They also allowed the drivers to avoid an obstacle on the road despite the low-grip surface. And as in the previous exercises, the Emergency Stop Signal (ESS) feature flashed the brake lights to warn trailing cars of the sudden brake application.

Event organizer and veteran race driver, Georges Ramirez, personally demonstrated all these features to me as soon as I got out of may car arriving a little late for the test drive without giving me time to settle down. As he slammed on the brakes and roughly swerved left and right he described the objectives of the three driving exercises, “The last thing you would want as a driver is to be involved in an accident. These exercises illustrated how both the top variants of the Honda Jazz and the Honda City are well-equipped to give you confidence on the road in order to handle emergency driving situations.”

The graphic demonstration done by George saved me from doing it myself, as I got out of the demo car a little dizzy from all that rough handling but not a bit unconvinced. Written words may not be enough to describe the driving confidence one can get from actual experience. So I suggest you go and check out and test drive these Honda models at any of their dealerships located nationwide and see and feel for yourself what have been written.

Increased sales performance getting commonplace

Ford Group Philippines (FGP) recently announced an all-time best quarter, driven by a record-breaking performance for the month of June with retail sales of 1,697 units, an increase of 36 percent year-over-year.

According to FGP the record June sales also contributed to the highest second quarter performance in the Philippines at 5,172 units, a 45 percent increase over the same period last year. Year-to-date sales currently stand at 8,864 units, up 42 percent compared to last year and marking Ford’s best-ever mid-year performance in the country.

“Our outstanding second-quarter numbers indicate that we are well on track with our plans of delivering the right Ford vehicle to match our customers’ lifestyles,” said Kay Hart, managing director, Ford Philippines.

Ford Philippines further reports that monthly sales were led by continued demand for the Ranger, Everest and EcoSport nameplates, with Ranger and Everest both seeing their highest-ever June performances.

The Ranger pick-up had sales of 597 units in June, a 43 percent increase from the same time last year, bringing year-to-date sales up 64 percent to 3,283 units. Ford recently introduced three new variants of the Ranger in the Philippines, allowing customers even more options to find a Ford that suits their driving needs and wants.

Sales of the Everest have also reportedly soared 42 percent up to 272 units year-over-year in June, rounding total sales of the SUV to 1,645 units year-to-date, an increase of 30 percent compared to the same period last year.

The recently-launched all-new EcoSport, currently on its third month of deliveries, continues to be a sought-after urban SUV in the market with June retail sales reaching 482 units, bringing total units sold to 1,641 so far. 

Ford remains on track with its dealer expansion roadmap with the opening of the new Ford Alabang as well as additional provincial dealerships in Zamboanga and Baguio next month.  This will bring the total number of Ford dealers to 35 nationwide and contributes to Ford’s plan of having 37 dealers in the country by the end of the year.

More industry good news

Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation (MMPC) has its own success story to tell while it continues its positive streak as it closed the first semester of 2014 registering a double-digit growth of 17.8 percent. MMPC was able to sell a total of 25,066 vehicles far better than its 21,282 units sold during the same period last year registering a 23 percent market share maintaining its distinction of being one of the dominant brands in the industry.

In addition, MMPC reported its highest monthly sales of 4,535 units, beating the previous sales record of 4,410 units established just last February of this year.

MMPC’s June sales posted a 10.1 percent growth as compared to May sales of 4,120 units. This significant growth is attributed to the increase in sales of both Passenger Cars (PC) and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV). Last month, MMPC was able to increase its PC sales by 19.6 percent with 1,133 units sold while LCV is modestly up by 8.8 percent compared to May 2014 sales. LCV accounted for the majority of vehicles sold last month. A total of 3,054 units of LCV were sold in June. 1,584 units of Montero Sport were sold last month making it the bestselling midsize Sport Utility Vehicle and the number one LCV in the Philippines. Adventure and Strada sales also improved with 664 and 316 units sold respectively.

MMPC is confident that sales growth will continue to be strong for the remaining months of the year. It supports the latest CAMPI announcement, that the total industry sales forecast has been increased to 250,000 from the original forecast of 230,000 units.   “Given our remarkable and on-track performance for the first semester, it is definite that we will surpass last year’s total sales of 43,176 units.   Our goal is to sell more than 50,000 units this year in order to keep at least 20 percent market share”, MMPC vice president for Marketing Services Mr. Froilan Dytianquin said.

Indeed the local auto industry is on an unprecedented upswing!

Happy Motoring!!!

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