By Ashley Manabat / Correspondent
ANGELES CITY—Le Mans Stellar Motors Corp. inaugurated its first Mitsubishi dealership and service center in Barangay Cutcut here on Thursday, with Mayor Ed Pamintuan as guest of honor.
“We are very excited, and hopefully, the following days will be exciting days for all Mitsubishi owners,” said Alvin S. Dalida, vice president for sales and marketing. He said construction of the second branch in Sucat, Parañaque, will start this month and have its opening by December or the first quarter of 2018.
At 4,900 square meters, the Mitsubishi dealership has a showroom, as well as parts sales and full service.
Dalida said the facility has the new image of Mitsubishi with a big LED outside and two LEDs inside, including the LED lighted box.
“Our service will be one of the best high-tech service centers in the city or even in the province of Pampanga. We have our own body aligner and our own paint booth where we can service all body and paint requirements of our customers,” he said.
“Recently, we have been getting a lot of walk-in customers for our service parts and our showroom.”
“Angeles is basically one of the fastest-growing cities in the Philippines. You’ve seen the growth of infrastructure that’s been going on right now. So it’s been very progressive compared to the other cities, and we’re hoping that the Clark airport will develop further and improve our facilities here,” Dalida said.
“Per capita income wise, Angeles City is the best place to be in right now. You see other automotive companies coming in Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Isuzu, Nissan, Mazda and Ford. So it’s going to be a competitive and healthy rivalry among the automotive-industry stakeholders here in Angeles,” he said.
“We are also looking at our competitors who are starting to look at Angeles as one of the automotive hub here in Pampanga,” he said.
“It’s actually a big investment,” Dalida said, when asked how much was infused into the business.
“Peso wise, I wouldn’t want to divulge but we’re investing more on people because we are hiring or looking at competitive technicians, service people, competitive sales persons and also office personnel.” “So we are investing more on the people of Angeles City rather than ourselves,” he added.
Mitsubishi Angeles is currently staffed by 70 employees, excluding subcontractors.
“But we’re still increasing and we’re still looking at expanding our services,” he said.
“We would like to help Angelenos get the job that they want here in Angeles City,” he said.
Dalida grew up in the city.
“I worked for Mitsubishi Motors for 15 years and then I left in 2005 for the USA. When our president Mr. Joel Callao decided to set this up, he asked me to go back and help him set up this one,” he said. “Mitsubishi Laguna is our principal manufacturer. That’s where we get our vehicles. Sila po yung distributor ng Mitsubishi.”
“Right now we just joined the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) program,” he said.
The CARS program is being implemented in order to attract new investments, stimulate demand and effectively implement industry regulations that will revitalize the Philippine automotive industry as well as develop the country as a regional automotive manufacturing hub.
“We will be launching the Mirage G4 as the first vehicle that will be produced under the CARS program and then other models that will be built there – the L-300 chassis cab and the Adventure models. All the rest are coming from Japan and Thailand completely built units (CBUs). The Montero, Strada and Canter come from Japan and then some from Indonesia soon,” he said.
Dalida said the Pajero and Outlander models are CBU from Japan.