Sales of imported cars up

The Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors Inc. (AVID) reported Thursday that it was driving industry growth with increased sales in the first eight months of 2012.

AVID registered a 24-percent growth in total sales with 19,875 units sold in the first eight months of the year versus 16,020 units in the same period last year.

January-August 2012 also saw growth in the passenger car segment.

The segment drove overall sales up by 50 percent to 12,049 units sold compared to 8,047 units sold from January-August last year, AVID said in a statement.

The demand for AVID members’ best-selling passenger cars is expected to accelerate sales performance toward the end of the year, when remittances from Filipinos living and working abroad usually increase due to the Christmas holidays.

Top three contributors to positive sales were Mini Cooper distributor British United Automobiles Inc., Chevrolet distributor The Covenant Car Company Inc. and Hyundai Asia Resources Inc.

“With our beefed-up portfolio of products and services, AVID is more than ready to respond to the ever-growing clamor for our products,” AVID president Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo said.

AVID also showed a year-on-year sales growth of 1.8 percent in August, with unit sales reaching 1,858 from 1,825 units sold in August last year.

Besides British United Automobiles Inc., The Covenant Car Company Inc. and Hyundai Asia Resources Inc., other AVID members are CATS Motors, Scandinavian Motors and Motor Image Pilipinas Inc.