My long and winding road

This is not my first column for this newspaper, but this is my first column as editor of this motoring section. I’ve got big shoes to fill. Not just big, but plentiful. I hear that my predecessor, Dong Magsajo, has over 80 pairs of shoes.

Thankfully, I don’t need to match his imeldific collection. What I do need to measure up to, however, is the expectations of all STAR readers, as well as that of the industry that I cover. This is a serious business, after all. And I believe that a deep-rooted passion—and of course, lots of hard work—is what it would take to do justice to a well-educated and well-read public as well as the many people who make a living working for one of the most competitive industries in the world. 

Cars incite passion that no other man-made product can ever hope to emulate. Have you seen anyone whip out an imported chamois cloth to lovingly polish his or her iPhone or iPad—or even a P250,000 55-inch flat-screen TV? People actually bond with their cars washing, waxing and detailing their prized rides on a Saturday afternoon.

I felt the first seeds of car enthusiasm at the age of 13. That was 1979, the year when a local car magazine by the name of Auto International came out. I begged, cajoled, and begged some more for my father to get me a subscription—which he did.

By the time I was 16, which was when I learned how to drive, I was already addicted to Road & Track and Car and Driver, the two leading car magazines in the U.S. 

From 1987 to 1989, I ran a paint shop in Katipunan Ave. while in college. I joined Sophie de los Santos’ Transhow (the precursor) of the current Trans Sport Show, back when it was still held in Philcite.

The highlight of that was when I entered a 1968 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 in Transhow in 1988. The US-based owner left the car unused in his Wack-Wack residence for over ten years. It wasn’t running but the body was complete. The only thing missing was a side mirror. The owner told me I can have the car for body restoration and enter it in the show if I can source a side mirror by myself. I went to his house the next day and gave him a side mirror. This was 1988, many years before the internet or eBay. By the time I towed it to my shop, there were rats nesting in the trunk.

For a 22-year-old, learning how to restore a rat-infested handmade aluminum-bodied Italian work of art is a character-building experience. I can’t tell you how proud I felt when the spotlights were turned on and trained at the gleaming Pininfarina body at the show. It took 30 days’ worth of sleepless nights just to get the car ready. Needless to say, I flunked half my subjects and dropped the other half that semester. 

Fast forward to 1990, when I landed a job for a Nissan dealership. The job ad said “So you think you know about cars? Join us!” I ended up heading the newly formed customer relations department of that dealership. And I’m proud to say that it became No.1 in Nissan’s internal Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) four years out of my five years working there. (It was 2nd place for one year.)

While we all know how it feels to be car owners, the experience at the dealership taught me how it feels to be on the opposite side of the fence. I’d get calls—or worse, visits—from irate customers. Thankfully, they weren’t too many. And if anything, it helped polish my people skills. I’d also get demands to get a so-called “lemon” car replaced just because there was a blown fuse for a cigarette lighter. You meet all kinds.

I also did a one-year stint in Nissan Motor Philippines’ (NMPI) ad & promo department. I have to say that I learned more in one year at NMPI than in five years at the dealership. I wrote speeches for the Japanese expats. I monitored and clipped ads and press releases of our competitors. I helped conceptualize marketing campaigns for the various Nissan models. I had endless meetings with our advertising agency. I proofread print ads and brochures before they came out. I made up the names of the paint colors. I even delivered a brand new Nissan Altima test car to a TV host by the name of Butch Gamboa. And I got to visit Tokyo Motor Show for the first time—and as a trade delegate, not as media. That was all in 1993.

As if that experience was enough for a car guy, I worked for an ad agency after Nissan. It was a small ad agency, but one that handled the distributor of no less than five brands at that time: Columbian Autocar Corp. Until the late ‘90s, they handled Kia, Mazda, BMW, Subaru, and Daihatsu. I wrote copy, handled accounts, and sometimes even did some media planning. I hated the times I had to go to the Adboard because our ad was accused of violating some advertising code or something. (The client tended to name their competitors—instead of referring to them as Brand X—in comparative ads.) But what I hated even more was having to go to DTI to get a permit for a promo. Now that’s government red tape for you! 

This was also around the time I’d started writing about cars. I became a contributor at Automotion, the only local car magazine at that time. The very first car I test drove and wrote about was the 1996 Suzuki Esteem wagon. Two years later in 1998, I became a news director and technical writer for Butch Gamboa’s then-new TV show, Auto Focus. That was also the year I first wrote for a broadsheet, Manila Bulletin.

The turning point came in 2000, when I started writing for The Philippine Star. (That was also the year I became editor of a technology magazine—but that’s a different story.) And I haven’t turned back since. Writing for the STAR has been a privilege—and I thank the publishers and management for trusting me to head the section that covers an industry that’s closest to my heart.

The beat has allowed me to indulge my automotive passions that other car enthusiasts only dream of: from racing around Sepang in a Porsche 911 and AMG Mercedes C-class; visiting the BMW Museum in Munich (not once but twice); blasting around in a Fiat Abarth Michael Schumacher Edition in Barcelona’s F1 track; visiting car shows in Detroit, Tokyo, Melbourne, Singapore, Shanghai, and Bangkok; driving through the Australian Outback; watching live F1 races, being guested in hospitality suites and interviewing the drivers and team principals; watching state-of-the-art robotics in high-tech manufacturing plants in Germany, Japan, Korea, and America; driving yet-to-be-launched cars along picturesque roads in countless foreign locales…it’s simply a dream come true.

And it’s a privilege that I treat with utmost respect and care. It’s a dream job, alright, but it also carries with it a world of responsibility. And I intend to fulfill it in the absolute best way I can.