Passenger car sales zoom 117% to 2,025 units in Feb

The Association of Vehicle Imports and Distributors, Inc. (AVID) said Monday higher sales of Hyundai, Chevrolet, and Mini vehicle models offset declines in other brands to boost their group’s sales by 46 percent to 2,881 units—2,025 of which were passenger cars. AVID said passenger car sales of 2,025 represented a 117 percent jump from 934 units sold in February 2011. “On the back of continuing positive consumer outlook, favorable macroeconomic landscape and aggressive marketing campaigns, we expect our strong sales performance to be sustained in the next quarters," said Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo, AVID president.   Hyundai Asia Resources Inc., the Covenant Car Co. Inc., and British United Automobiles posted enough gains to overcome the sales decline of the firms that import models of Subaru, Mercedes Benz, Porsche and Volvo.  

Vehicle Brand	Feb. 2011 Unit Sales	Change	Feb. 2012 Unit Sales
Hyundai	1,538	+831	2,369
Chevrolet	170	+148	318
Mini	13	+3	16
Subaru	104	-31	73
Mercedes Benz	85	-25	60
Porsche	36	-11	25
Volvo	25	-5	20
TOTALS	1,971		2,881

  "All bodes well for consumer spending, with overseas Filipino remittances reaching an all-time high of $20.1 billion in 2011, Philippine banks being given a “stable” outlook by Fitch Ratings last February 2, inflation at a low point of 2.7 percent, and an additional 25 basis point reduction of the BSP key policy interest rates in March," Agudo said. — ELR, GMA News