BMW Car Club holds fun drive with MVP BMW Alabang

BMW CAR Club members took a scenic fun drive from Alabang to Tagaytay on June 26.

THE BMW Car Club of the Philippines (BMWCCP) held its regular fun drive on the last Sunday of June from the MVP BMW dealer showroom in Alabang, taking a road trip to the scenic Tagaytay and the T House hotel and restaurant for a day of fellowship and a discussion session of the club’s recent activities and highlights.

The club is recognized by the International Council of BMW Clubs under the BMW Clubs Asia as its umbrella organization.

The club held its first meeting on October 28, 2001, and since then has grown from a small gathering of five BMW enthusiasts to over than 100 members today.

Its 15th milestone year coincides with BMW’s 100th anniversary this year, and being the official BMW car club in the country, its mission is to promote the BMW car ownership by giving it the proper brand prestige, enhanced driving experience and proper maintenance/performance tuning of its vehicles.

The club plays a key role in contributing to building brand equity of BMW’s “ultimate driving machine” tagline in the Philippines.

With the close partnership between BMW AG and BMW Philippines (and their dealers), the aim is to grow BMW as the No. 1 luxury car brand.

The club also makes an effort to educate and equip its members with enhanced (and safe) driving skills, plus to provide a technical repository of information for its members to ensure a deeper appreciation and proper understanding of BMW cars.

A number of its members are such brand loyalist that it is not surprising that they would own several BMWs.

According to Eric Ang, BMWCCP’s newly installed club president, “Our membership demographic is quite diverse. We have doctors, entrepreneurs, dentists, OFWs, 9-5 employees, engineers, business-suit types, gear heads, car nuts, lawyers, accountants, pilots, housewives, night-owls, brokers, secretive types, low-profile businessmen, young people, Filipinos, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Europeans, Americans.

“I am proud to say that we have all genders in our midst. We span at least three generations now because we have a grandparent among us, with a few that won’t admit it, too, and we represent a broad spectrum of humanity.

“The key factor for members is their love and fascination for BMW. We’re quite a friendly bunch. We may come off as exclusive, but we’re welcoming. If you see our club logo and name at an event, drop us a line.”

“As a bona fide club member for 10 years, and the club’s longest serving president from 2010 until 2015, what I love most about the club is the camaraderie that it fosters not just with its members but also with other people in the different industries.

“Many of the friendships that were created have turned into long-time partnerships that benefited the club members,” said BMWCCP’s past president Edwin Reyes, who was the club’s driving force for the last decade in making sure the club reaches out not only to BMW owners but to motoring enthusiasts as well.

FROM left: BMWCCP directors Moe Carandang, Manny Reyes, Nini Valenzuela, and Joey Brillantes; club president Eric Ang; and Motor Ventures BMW general manager Rodel Nob

Aside from the fellowship, MVP BMW Alabang also showcased the new BMW X3 for the club members to check out.

The X3 was loaned to this writer for a few kilometers of “test driving” on a short leg of the one-hour trip to Tagaytay just to see how the new generation of X3 fared with the previous generation.

Speaking about the dealership, MVP stands for Motor Ventures Philippines, and based on the company profile handed to this writer, this dealership is spearheaded by individuals with expertise in various fields.

The list includes Victorico Vargas as chairman of Motor Ventures, and who is also the chief transformation officer of PLDT; Patrick Gregorio as vice chairman is senior vice president for commercial amd marketing of Maynilad Water Services Inc., and Atty. Aristotle Batuhan, its president, is the counsel for Smart Communications Inc., Ayala Corporation, Maynilad and other multinational companies.

Looking at the powerhouse profiles of the gentlemen behind the MVP BMW Alabang dealership, the initials “MVP” is a curious coincidence with the initials of the chairman of the companies that the dealership’s directors/owners are affiliated with. TVJ