ENOUGH of talk about 2020’s poor showing, sales-wise. We don’t need a Wharton alumnus to tell us that the Covid-19 was the culprit. Even a Grade 4 pupil knows that from the heart.
But one last time.
If we sold nearly 500,000 units in 2019, we’d be lucky if we disposed even half of that number in 2020.
The virus didn’t just dampen the urge to buy cars, it killed, almost literally, our appetite to acquire that dream car of ours.
If Rommel Gutierrez, the Campi president, could only have his way, he’d stop counting the units sold last year, puny as they were. He wouldn’t admit it, but the obvious stares him eerily in the face: a mangled canvas of unsold vehicles, almost decaying at the parking lot.
Hurtfully, indeed, 2020 had put our plans, predictions and prognoses in shambles. Nobody ever saw the pandemic coming. So ugly was the motoring landscape in its aftermath that even the most rabid of car buffs avoid looking at it like the bubonic plague.
The following are the pandemic-inspired views of two of the best, most respected, captains of the industry.
Steven Tan, President and CEO, Mazda Philippines
“EVEN with the approval of COVID vaccine, it will likely take more than a year to vaccinate the entire population, so therefore 2021 will remain, for the most part, a familiar king of rolling quarantine.
“Demand for personal mobility will continue to be strong, held back by flat or very low economic recovery and access to credit financing.
“The decongestion effect to Metro Manila traffic, as a result of the opening of Skyway 3, will provide motivation to middle and upper income households with coming-of-age young drivers to acquire new cars—that could provide some growth to an auto market that is expected to be flat or with little growth.
“Metro Manila is the largest auto marketplace in the country, accounting for at least 70 percent of the total new vehicle purchase. Average new car prices will still remain depressed in 2021, good news to consumers, but will start to creep up from middle to the end of the year when excess inventory dries up, and prices normalize.
“It is a great time to pick up premium vehicles while the distributors are reducing their stock.”
Vince S. Socco, Chairman, GT Capital Auto Dealership Holdings
“What’s in store for the new year? That’s the eternal question at the end—or start—of every year. It might make for an interesting tale to revisit one’s own previous projections to discern how much the person got right. Or not. That will have to wait for another time.
“Here go my three wishes.
“1. Like everybody else, I wish that the pandemic fades out and the corona virus becomes something that future generations can only see at the Museum of Natural History or some such archive. I don’t think anyone needs to expound on the matter. With the increasing roll-out of vaccines around the world—under emergency use authorization—the tide of hope rises. Whether it gets to Philippine shores sooner or later is not important; as long as it gets here the soonest it can.
“2. I also wish that we all have something to show for all our pains and sorrows in the last 10 months. It would be so sad if we emerge from quarantine pretty much where we left off when it all started, like time stood still. Surely, there are lessons to be learned and kept. To me, the biggest learning, if it can be called that, is the importance of personal hygiene and the primacy of collectivism. It’s amazing that it took a pandemic to make us realize how the seemingly most trivial of things like washing hands, distancing, disinfecting or wearing masks could—literally—be a matter of life and death. What’s more, we learned that we have to do it all together; an individual’s effort becomes meaningless and irrelevant if everybody else does not do the same. Other more apparent lessons-to-go are: (1) work-from-home works; (2) digital and online-living is real; (3) personal mobility is essential in crises and even more so in the aftermath; and (4) necessity is, truly, the mother of invention—Zoom! Let’s make those lessons count towards building not just a new normal but a genuinely better one.
“3. My third wish is that we get to drive and go places again—freely. No more PCR swab tests, Police clearances, Baranggay Passes. I have truly missed the liberty of just being able to get on a car, bus, jeep, motorcycle, bicycle or scooter as and when you feel like you want to. I sincerely subscribe to the notion that man is basically created—engineered even—to roam. This is the ultimate expression of the indomitable spirit of human beings—to conquer new frontiers, ride into the horizon, discover places and have fun along the way. There is something particularly satisfying about being able to get behind the wheel or in the front seat or the third row of your ride and know that you’re on your way to somewhere. With all the new highways and tollways being completed and opened, I know there are journeys that beckon, destinations to visit or revisit, memories to be made.
“This whole pandemic episode is a sorry, sorry chapter in humankind. It underscores the fact that we can never really, truly be prepared. We just have to keep rolling.”
PEE STOP After Steven and Vince come their colleagues. Oh, there’s a plethora of them. Till next week then…Happy New Year!