Mitsubishi gets vote of confidence

A strong start for 2016, with January sales 14 percent higher than that of the preceding month of December 2015 and 50 percent more than that of a year ago—if that’s not a vote of confidence, I don’t know what is.

These were the figures announced by no less than the president of Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation (MMPC), Mr. Yoshiaki Kato in his welcome remarks in a recent event exclusive to the motoring media.

The specifics of the announcement included a total of 4,867 units sold last month, of which almost a third were that of the all-new Montero Sport with 806 units and the previous generation with 816. “In spite of the issues that hounded the Montero Sport last year, we were truly delighted with the outcome of total reservations received as well as actual sales turnout last month. It confirms the market’s confidence in the Montero Sport brand,” said MMPC first vice president for marketing, Froi Dytianquin.

The motoring media was further apprised that MMPC has started delivering the all-new Montero Sport to the more than 3,000 buyers who have reserved a unit.

“I believe that you cannot really put a good product down. We are also pleased that sales of the predecessor Montero model, which we intend to continue selling also sold 200 times more than last December. I believe that in spite of the introduction of the new generation model, they still find the GLX model to have outstanding value for money proposition” Froi added.

Indeed for Mitsubishi Philippines, after the continuous assault from some quarters in the media these figures are the ultimate vindication.

Peugeot supports Philippine tennis

For more than three decades since 1984, Peugeot has been synonymous with the Rolland-Garros Tennis Tournament or what’s also known as the French Open, the ultimate in clay court tennis and one of the world’s most prestigious tennis competitions. This is aside from its yearly major sponsorship of the Rio Open in Brazil and the Barcelona Open in Spain.

Following such tradition of commitment to sports development, Peugeot Philippines created the Peugeot Philippines Tennis Open (PPTO), a nationwide tournament to discover Filipino tennis champions who may, one day, represent the country in international competitions.

“Peugeot Philippines is committed to investing in more efforts to promote tennis and support Filipino tennis players in the country,” was the pledge made by Mr. Glen Dasig, the dapper president of Eurobrand Distributor, Inc., exclusive importers and distributors of Peugeot vehicles in the country.

The first tennis tournament fully supported by Peugeot in the Asia Pacific area, the PPTO is open to all Filipinos 13 years old and above, who shall compete in four divisions; men’s singles, women’s single’s, men’s doubles and women’s doubles with the champions in each division winning an all-expense trip to Paris to watch the 2016 French Open, among other valuable prizes including cash.

Regional tournaments were held since October in Cagayan de Oro, Nueva Ecija, Bacolod, Cebu and with that for the National Capital Region (NCR) ending last weekend. The finals are scheduled for March 14 to 20.

TDA marks 25^th year

It was 25 years ago when the Toyota Dealers Association was founded at the same time the operations of Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) started its operations in the country. Initiated by TMP as part of the franchise agreement that all dealers must join the association, the TDA represents the whole Toyota Philippines dealer network in addressing all dealer concerns pertaining to sales and marketing, customer service and satisfaction and product quality.

The TDA is presently being lead by Mr. Rene So, the very dynamic president with multiple Toyota dealerships in Luzon and other business concerns, with the following vice presidents representing the major areas in the country, namely; Mr. Cosco Oben for Luzon, Mr. Robert Uy for Visayas and Ms. Betty Lu for Mindanao. Other officers include Ms. Jonalyn Lim, treasurer, Mr. Lincoln Lim, corporate secretary, Mr. Eddie Jose, auditor and Mr. Alex Macapagal as director.

During its Silver Jubilee celebration the TDA handed awards to some dealer principals in recognition for being very distinguished founders and original incorporators, namely; Atty. Reginaldo Oben of Toyota Balintawak, Mr. Cesar Lee of Toyota Alabang, Mr. Severino Lim of Toyota Shaw and Mr. William Li of Toyota Commonwealth.

What came as a surprise to us, the very few members of the motoring media invited to the impressive “wagyu” dinner were the “Recognition of Distinction” awards handed out to Ms. Aida Sevilla of the Daily Inquirer, Ms. Pinky Colmenares of the Manila Bulletin, Mr. Ron delos Reyes of Auto Review, Mr. Al “Sir Paul” Mendoza of Business-Mirror and myself representing The Philippine Star and Sunshine TV,  “For being a foundation of inspiration in the automotive industry and being our stronghold of support” as inscribed in the prestigious plaque that was composed by Lexus-Manila president Danny “Sir John” Isla, who we learned from Mr. So was part of the conspiracy behind this awarding exercise.

As we all find this award not necessary, considering that we were just doing our jobs, may we say that it is very much appreciated. Very much appreciated indeed—thank you to the Toyota Dealers Association.

Are LEDs illegal?

Our email box has been quite occupied lately with letters from readers of our Motoring Today column and viewers of its TV counterpart inquiring, with some loudly protesting, the recent memo of instruction allegedly released by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to apprehend drivers of vehicles that are equipped with “wang-wangs” or sirens, LED lights and other modifications and confiscate such items as they are illegal to have attached into vehicles.

Many of those howling their protests are one in citing what has been, according to them, a law since 1964, which is Republic Act 4136, Article IV, Section 34, which does not disallow the use of LED lights.

The contention of many opposed to the said LTO memo is that it is so vague that the mere act of interpreting or mis interpreting it is a comfortable seat for corruption by unscrupulous law and traffic enforcers.

Well, with such public reaction, I believe the said memo indeed merits a deep looking into by the LTO.

Online viewing for auto enthusiasts

The TV show Motoring Today, which airs every Sunday afternoon at 4 o’clock on Solar Sports can be watched online anytime of the day together with all its past episodes on www.motoringtoday.ph

While Auto Focus, which airs Thursday evening at 10 o’clock also on Solar Sports can be watched online also with all its archived past episodes on www.autofocus.com.ph

Solar Sports can be viewed on Channel 70 on Sky Cable, Channel 35 on Destiny and Channel 55 on Cignal TV.

Happy Motoring!!!

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