Car dealer sees sales revving up this year

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu’s affluent market is seen to continue boosting car sales amid projections the market will rebound this year after an industry-wide slump in 2018

Noli Timogan, service manager at Cebu City-based car dealer Toyota Mabolo, said that customer traffic continues to increase at their shop, owing to the rise of interest in car ownership.

The vehicle industry saw sales slump last year due to the imposition of new taxes and soaring inflation.

In 2018, car sales nationwide dropped 16% to 357,410 units.

But despite this, Timogan was optimistic sales will continue to be robust especially this year, citing the boost from the affluent market.

"We remain to be upbeat for the rest of the year. We are boosting our marketing schemes," he told The FREEMAN in an interview.

"Our direction now is to reach out to the rest of the market," he noted, citing the business process outsourcing (BPO) workers as among the targets as they are known to be earning big.

Toyota Mabolo, owned by Cebuano furniture maker Coast Pacific, opened in 2017 and has since increased its monthly sales, he said.

He added the facility has gained the status of a medium dealership, having been able to hit an average monthly sales of between 200 to 400 units.

"Business has been doing good. We surpassed the targets set by TMP (Toyota Motors Philippines)," he said.

TMP Corp. had reported that it expects vehicle sales to bounce back this year as it targets a 5% growth.

Toyota Mabolo is among the six Toyota dealerships present in Metro Cebu.

The Mabolo one-stop shop facility carries a huge service bays (for repairs and other vehicle servicing), showroom and stockyard.

It also has a kiddie room, a premium café overlooking the showroom, VIP lounges, a clinic and lactation room, and a massage/spa room, to give their clients a good time while either waiting for their cars to be serviced or waiting for their brand new vehicles to be released..