Car Features - Brands That Filipinos Bought in 1994

They said that in September 7, 1994 the world would end. Who was that guy who made a big embarrassing failure of predicting? Harold Camping. Yes, he would make a prediction that in May 21, 2011 the world will end but still, your Ultimate Used Car Guide is still alive and kicking. But today, with a rapture that was supposedly to occur, we'll go back 18 years ago to the failed doomsday.

In the year 1994, the economy was booming under the administration of Fidel Ramos and with that in mind, for the first time the formal car industry sold 103,471 vehicles, and the first year to accomplish the six digit figure sales. I do not have any per model sales but rather, a pdf file from the Philippine Institute of Development Studies would show us what car brands sold well in 1994. With just barely 11-13 brands available, we would be presenting the top five best selling brands.

The top selling brand of 1994 is Toyota, which sold 31,803 vehicles wearing that badge with a 24% increase. Shown above is probably the bestseller of Toyota, which is the Corolla.

Second place goes to Mitsubishi with 28,999 three diamond star vehicles leaving its showrooms, up 15%. Majority of the sales come from the Lancer (shown here) and the L300 vans.

Occupying the third spot is Nissan (with two different distributors namely Nissan Motors Philippines and Universal Motors Corporation) which sold 15,786 cars and trucks with a 7% increase.

With the bulk of sales coming from the Pride, Kia was fourth best selling brand with 9,989 sales and posting a huge sales increase at 160%. Very impressive figures to say, especially that Columbian Autocar Corporation made hay with this people's car.

With just two models available during that year (Civic and Accord), Honda was at the fifth position by selling 9,000 flat vehicles, an increase of 29%. This was the last time the Japanese H brand sold in four digits with the following year achieving 10,000 plus sales.

Other brands that sold well during that time included Mazda (2,399 sales, but this lacked the passenger car sales but still, they stay in the sixth spot), Daewoo (selling 2,239 units with majority of them are Racers), Hino (1,541 trucks and buses are driven off), and Isuzu (1,233 cars found an owner).