Lighthearted moments and personalities in motoring

ALTHOUGH I wrote my last motoring column seven months ago (“Time to change gears,” 6/27/15), I still hang around the motoring beat, partly because of the lighthearted moments it sometimes provides and the personalities I get to meet.

 

The lighthearted moments are a welcome relief from serious automotive issues and controversies, the latest being the sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) accusations that have been revived versus the outgoing model Mitsubishi Montero Sport SUV.

 

One lighthearted moment I won’t forget happened at a Toyota Christmas party some years ago. Instead of the usual raffling of prizes, the staff of Toyota Motor Philippines called randomly selected members of the media onstage to participate in parlor game-style contests. The participants, win or lose, were given prizes.

 

One of these games required the male participants to take off their pants and sweep the floor of the stage with a broom, dancing in sync with the music.

 

It was hilarious, watching friends, including motoring editors like Mon Tomeldan, in their underwear dancing onstage with a broom.

 

Incidentally, the audience got to see which men have skinny legs and who has nicely muscled legs.

 

Another lighthearted moment—or rather moments—occurred at a media test drive of the Ford Escape in Cebu many years ago when Maricar Parco (now the president of Asian Carmakers Corp., the distributor of BMW) was still with Ford Group Philippines.

 

The Ford dealership in Cebu was owned by the Borromeos, who organized a dinner party at the Villa Alegre Beach Resort outside Cebu City, which had individual cabanas with a Jacuzzi in the bathroom.

 

It was open bar at the seaside resort, and the famous Cebu lechon was chopped and ready for picking.

 

Morning after

 

The next morning, Aris Ilagan of Manila Bulletin showed up for breakfast without a shirt. He said that his shirt went missing after he took it off and left it on an outdoor table in order to take a dip in the sea, beer bottle in hand.

 

Aris also left his cell phone on the table, which was no longer there when he returned to shore.

 

Another story had some partygoers stumbling along in the dark in the cabana area after the party, looking for the cabana they had been assigned to.

 

James Deakin says he fell into some bushes beside the pathway and was rescued by a resort staff member who guided him to his cabana.

 

There was a story that a partygoer woke up to find somebody beside him in bed (he had entered and fallen asleep in the wrong cabana).

 

Another partygoer found someone sprawled, snoring, in the jacuzzi of his bathroom.

 

Where was I all this time? Not being a beer drinker, I left the party early to go back to my cabana, and was soundly asleep.

 

Placing bets

 

Another lighthearted moment, at least for me, occurs whenever I’m test-driving a pickup truck and reverse-parking it into a parking slot of a mall or supermarket.

 

Sometimes the chauffeurs of parked cars would gather round, watch in condescending amusement, and place bets among themselves that I would fail.

 

Of course, they would all lose—even when I reverse-parked a full-size Chevrolet Silverado, which is one of the longest pickup trucks manufactured in the United States.

 

Writing a motoring column gave me the opportunity to meet interesting personalities in the automotive industry.

 

Sincerest personality

In my experience, one of the sincerest, most unpretentious personalities in the automotive industry is Danny Isla, the president of Lexus Manila.

 

Even when he was first vice president of Toyota Motor Philippines, Danny was always the complete gentleman aside from being an efficient executive and effective manager.

 

Danny takes the time and effort to respond to your text messages and e-mails, even when he is traveling in Europe or Japan. When your publication urgently needs advertising support, he will deliver.

 

Danny is well-liked by the motoring media because he is a regular guy. He has a keen sense of humor, worships the Beatles, chain-smokes cigarettes, plays golf on weekends, and enjoys good Scotch whiskey.

 

While men dominate the top ranks of the Philippine automotive industry, three women created a big impact on its development and progress.

 

The dynamic Ms Lee

One of the dynamic three is Elizabeth H. Lee, president of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) from 2005 to 2011. She was concurrently the chief operating officer of Universal Motors Corp. (UMC), then the local assembler and distributor of Nissan light commercial vehicles.

 

When Beth Lee headed to UMC marketing, the Nissan Frontier was the best-selling pickup truck in the Philippines for four consecutive years.

 

She was chosen as one of the Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) in 2007.

 

In 2006, Beth Lee inaugurated the Ur Van, Ur Business program that helped customers maximize their use of the Nissan Urvan.

 

The program doubled sales of the Urvan, making it the leader in the commercial vans segment.

 

It was Beth Lee who promoted public awareness of Campi and convinced its board to organize the chamber’s own auto show, the semi-annual Philippine International Motor Show.

 

In 2004, when she was Campi vice president, the organization obtained a presidential order and a key Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban on imported used vehicles.

 

At that time, 61 percent of new Land Transportation Office registrations were from the “informal sector” or smuggled cars.

 

The SC ruling enabled Campi to eventually grow its market share to 75 percent by 2010. Campi members sold 168,490 vehicles that year, surpassing the previous record high in 1996.

 

Sudden resignation

 

So the industry was surprised when Beth Lee suddenly announced her resignation from UMC and Campi in July 2011. Speculation ran rampant that she was going to be the next Bureau of Customs chief, but this was promptly denied by the Aquino administration.

 

In May 2013, Beth Lee registered with the Board of Investments a new venture, E-Motors Inc., the country’s first manufacturer of electric tricycles with an initial investment of P107 million for its assembly operations. The first partner of E-Motors Inc. is Air21, which will use Zum electric trikes.

 

Going back to 2010, It was on the last day of that year, on Dec. 31, 2010 to be exact, that the resignation of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (Hari) from Campi took effect.

 

Ms Fe of Hari

 

At the same time, Hari president Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo announced the creation of the Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (Avid) with Hari and two other companies chaired by Richard Lee, Scandinavian Motors Corp. (Volvo) and The Covenant Car Co. Inc. (Chevrolet) as the initial members.

 

The scuttlebutt was that Ms Fe was opposing the Motor Vehicle Development Program’s moves, favored by Campi, to grant more tax incentives to local manufacturers and lower the excise taxes on Philippine-made vehicles. Hari contended that these would come at the expense of vehicle importers.

 

Of course, the keen rivalry between Ms Fe and Beth Lee was a topic of much interest to both the industry and the motoring media.

 

Ms Fe gained attention when her marketing acumen pushed Hyundai to third place in overall sales among Campi members in 2010, toppling Honda from that spot. It was the first time that a non-Japanese brand joined the magic circle of top three sellers, after Toyota and Mitsubishi.

 

Ms Fe introduced CRDi (common rail direct injection) diesel technology to the Philippine market powering an array of attractive new vehicles such as the Starex minivan, Tucson compact SUV, Santa Fe midsize SUV and Getz mini compact car. Actually, Isuzu was the first to sell CRDi vehicles in the Philippines, but the company did not maximize that fact.

 

90-percent increase

 

Hari sold more than 20,000 vehicles in 2010, a 90-percent increase from the previous year and faster than the 28-percent growth forecast of Campi for the entire auto industry.

 

At present, there are 11 companies in Avid’s membership roster, representing 20 brands. The latest to join Avid are Ford and Suzuki. The brands represented in Avid aside from Hyundai, Volvo and Chevrolet are Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Rolls-Royce, BMW MINI Cooper, King Long, FAW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Subaru, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Foton, Ford and Suzuki.

 

Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo remains as president of Avid. Ironically enough, it was Ford, Avid’s newest member, that dislodged Hyundai this year from third place in the overall sales race.

 

 

The successful Ms Hart

Kay Hart, the managing director of Ford Philippines, optimized the introduction of five new Ford models this year via aggressive advertising in all the media, including the social media and via numerous media test drive trips locally and in Thailand and Australia.

 

Ford has made it a habit of inviting motoring and lifestyle media to the annual Bangkok International Motor Show. Hart herself usually accompanied the media on these trips and tours, whether local or foreign.

 

At first seemingly aloof, Hart warmed up to the local media, cheerfully chatting and joking with them at product launches and other Ford events. On media trips, she would invite journalists to have drinks with her after a long day of touring and driving. She was known to be partial to white wine.

 

Led by Hart, Ford increased its total sales in October 2015 by 48 percent year-over-year to 2,892 units, bringing year-to-date sales to 19,573 units, a 19-percent growth compared to 2014. This catapulted Ford to third place in the annual race for sales with 8.33-percent market share.

 

Ford’s rise was fueled by its best-selling pickup truck, the Ranger, and its popular SUVs, the Everest and the EcoSport subcompact. In this context, Ford had an edge over Hyundai, which does not manufacture pickup trucks.

 

Ford Philippines’ sales performance in 2014 and 2015 during Hart’s tenure impressed the Dearborn, Michigan-based higher-ups so much that no less than Elena Ford, the great, great granddaughter of founder Henry Ford and Ford vice president and the director of global marketing and sales operations, recently promoted her to a new, higher position in Dearborn. This was a surprise, since Ford executives appointed to managing directorships in foreign markets usually stay for at least three years, and Kay has been in the Philippines for only two and a half years.

 

What to watch for

 

Meanwhile, the year-to-date sales of Hyundai in the third quarter of 2015 slowed to 16,703 units, 6 percent less than the 17,693 units sold year-to-date in 2014. This slowdown came despite a 13-percent quarter-on-quarter sales increase in the third quarter for Hari.

 

In comparison with Ford, Hari launched only two new models this year: the i20 compact crossover/SUV and the facelifted 2016 Tucson. At its Christmas party last week, Hari unveiled the all-new 2016 Elantra which will be displayed in dealerships’ showrooms next month.

 

Thus, don’t count Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo out. What she will do next year to regain third place for Hari bears waiting and watching.