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My father, a man born during the Quezon administration, always espoused three things: Be upfront about who you are and what you have to offer, lost time is lost forever, and there’s nothing quite like an American car.
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Opinion: Chinese cars are here to stay. Are we ready?
© Provided by Top Gear Philippines
Never mind that the heyday of the American automobile has long since passed. Never mind that the American cars in our market today aren’t always built or designed in the United States. Never mind that American manufacturing has already fallen from grace. If a car has a badge from Detroit, you can bet it piques his interest.
A large part of it boils down to upbringing. Where kids my aged worshippped JDM icons like the Skyline GT-R, the NSX, and the Supra, his bedroom posters had words like Thunderbird, Impala, and Coupe De Ville printed on them. If I got excited about the new Type R, he would just nod in polite indifference before changing the subject to the first-gen Mustang. I could argue 2JZ until I was red in the face, but all I ever heard was how cool a small-block V8 was.
But more than the imprint of childhood nostalgia, he still vividly recalls when Japanese cars were considered an appliance at best and an underpowered motorcycle with doors at worst. Mention that you bought your car from the Land of the Rising Sun, and you opened yourself up to pity and judgement in the same breath. My father has since owned many Japanese cars over the decades, just like every other Filipino, but the perception of American four-wheelers trumping all others persists to the present day.
These days, Japanese automotive supremacy is a fact of life and has been for as long I’ve been alive. But have you ever wondered what the future might look like? While I don’t have any children yet of my own, I get the sense that my father’s grandchildren will be giddy about cars from a different nation. One that sits further east of Japan.
The influx of Chinese cars in recent years has hardly been subtle. From a few select brands, Filipino buyers are now spoiled for choice. So much so that a guy like me—whose job it is to keep track of these things—now often gets confused between all the new makes and models in our market.
This phenomenon was never more evident than in the recently concluded You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., where the main hall was saturated by brands from the People’s Republic. One carmaker that truly turned heads—in its local public debut, no less—was You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.. The Chery subsidiary presented products like the Dashing, a compact SUV, and the aptly named Ice Cream, a P699,000 tiny electric vehicle that looks like something out of a cutesy anime. The booth turned heads and wallets alike—the four-day exhibit netted the brand nearly 2,000 leads and over 100 units in sales.
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Jetour© Provided by Top Gear Philippines
PHOTO BY Jason Tulio
But MIAS was but a fraction of Jetour’s plans for April. We flew with the brand to witness first-hand its exhibit at the biennial Shanghai International Auto Show, a motor show so large and influential that it now arguably trumps the once-prestigious Tokyo Motor (now Mobility) Show. There, we saw in the metal cars like the Traveller and its new T-3 concept. A lot of the design elements on those, one could argue, are borrowed from American and European competition. Imitation is flattery, right?
Our trip included a tour of Chery’s production facilities at its Wuhu headquarters. Here, we witnessed firsthand the well-oiled machine behind the hundreds of thousands of units the brand and its subsidiaries sell each year. Machines do the bulk of the assembly and heavy lifting, while the human employees take care of the fine motor details like welding and interior assembly. Seeing the machines operate in unison, free from human interference, is akin to watching an orchestra in perfect harmony without a conductor.
It’s a process that Chery has down to a science. Putting together a mass-produced car at the brand’s factory takes just over two hours, with one car rolling off the production line every minute. To borrow from the Sinatra classic, each chartered course, each careful step along the production byway, is planned and seen through without exemption. It’s tough to imagine how some other countries could keep up with this kind of efficiency and volume.
With the ability to produce units in droves and with a dealership network firmly in place, brands like Jetour seem set to take over the Philippines in the coming years. But the biggest hurdle remains: market acceptance. While Filipinos have shifted slowly towards accepting and buying from these newcomer brands, perceptions and memories of shoddy Chinese cars of old remain. The products themselves have improved leaps and bounds since that era, but the mental hurdle for many buyers remains—the same hurdle that keeps my father fond of American cars. The same hurdle that sees people my age and older still preaching that the country with a red dot on its flag has, does, and will continue to do it better.
Then again, Japanese brands once faced those same problems.
FROM: TOP GEAR PHILIPPINES
For me, I will always stick to the Japanese makes.
You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.
Opinion: Chinese cars are here to stay. Are we ready?
© Provided by Top Gear Philippines
Never mind that the heyday of the American automobile has long since passed. Never mind that the American cars in our market today aren’t always built or designed in the United States. Never mind that American manufacturing has already fallen from grace. If a car has a badge from Detroit, you can bet it piques his interest.
A large part of it boils down to upbringing. Where kids my aged worshippped JDM icons like the Skyline GT-R, the NSX, and the Supra, his bedroom posters had words like Thunderbird, Impala, and Coupe De Ville printed on them. If I got excited about the new Type R, he would just nod in polite indifference before changing the subject to the first-gen Mustang. I could argue 2JZ until I was red in the face, but all I ever heard was how cool a small-block V8 was.
But more than the imprint of childhood nostalgia, he still vividly recalls when Japanese cars were considered an appliance at best and an underpowered motorcycle with doors at worst. Mention that you bought your car from the Land of the Rising Sun, and you opened yourself up to pity and judgement in the same breath. My father has since owned many Japanese cars over the decades, just like every other Filipino, but the perception of American four-wheelers trumping all others persists to the present day.
These days, Japanese automotive supremacy is a fact of life and has been for as long I’ve been alive. But have you ever wondered what the future might look like? While I don’t have any children yet of my own, I get the sense that my father’s grandchildren will be giddy about cars from a different nation. One that sits further east of Japan.
The influx of Chinese cars in recent years has hardly been subtle. From a few select brands, Filipino buyers are now spoiled for choice. So much so that a guy like me—whose job it is to keep track of these things—now often gets confused between all the new makes and models in our market.
This phenomenon was never more evident than in the recently concluded You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., where the main hall was saturated by brands from the People’s Republic. One carmaker that truly turned heads—in its local public debut, no less—was You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.. The Chery subsidiary presented products like the Dashing, a compact SUV, and the aptly named Ice Cream, a P699,000 tiny electric vehicle that looks like something out of a cutesy anime. The booth turned heads and wallets alike—the four-day exhibit netted the brand nearly 2,000 leads and over 100 units in sales.
You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.
Jetour© Provided by Top Gear Philippines
PHOTO BY Jason Tulio
But MIAS was but a fraction of Jetour’s plans for April. We flew with the brand to witness first-hand its exhibit at the biennial Shanghai International Auto Show, a motor show so large and influential that it now arguably trumps the once-prestigious Tokyo Motor (now Mobility) Show. There, we saw in the metal cars like the Traveller and its new T-3 concept. A lot of the design elements on those, one could argue, are borrowed from American and European competition. Imitation is flattery, right?
Our trip included a tour of Chery’s production facilities at its Wuhu headquarters. Here, we witnessed firsthand the well-oiled machine behind the hundreds of thousands of units the brand and its subsidiaries sell each year. Machines do the bulk of the assembly and heavy lifting, while the human employees take care of the fine motor details like welding and interior assembly. Seeing the machines operate in unison, free from human interference, is akin to watching an orchestra in perfect harmony without a conductor.
It’s a process that Chery has down to a science. Putting together a mass-produced car at the brand’s factory takes just over two hours, with one car rolling off the production line every minute. To borrow from the Sinatra classic, each chartered course, each careful step along the production byway, is planned and seen through without exemption. It’s tough to imagine how some other countries could keep up with this kind of efficiency and volume.
With the ability to produce units in droves and with a dealership network firmly in place, brands like Jetour seem set to take over the Philippines in the coming years. But the biggest hurdle remains: market acceptance. While Filipinos have shifted slowly towards accepting and buying from these newcomer brands, perceptions and memories of shoddy Chinese cars of old remain. The products themselves have improved leaps and bounds since that era, but the mental hurdle for many buyers remains—the same hurdle that keeps my father fond of American cars. The same hurdle that sees people my age and older still preaching that the country with a red dot on its flag has, does, and will continue to do it better.
Then again, Japanese brands once faced those same problems.
FROM: TOP GEAR PHILIPPINES
For me, I will always stick to the Japanese makes.
