Fanning the Madness

MANILA, Philippines - Over the past year, we at The Philippine STAR (specifically those of us involved in the Business Motoring section) have been continuously burning the midnight oil in an effort to gradually reinvent our various offerings. Not that there is anything wrong with reporting the latest news about car launches and dealership activities, mind you. We simply felt that expanding our horizons and focusing on other car related issues was also essential if we wanted to be continuously relevant. That’s how the idea of putting up a section about everything else that’s involved in the car ownership experience came about. That’s how Wheels Deals came about. And so to our weekly Business Motoring pages and our month-ender Wheels Monthly, we added another section…

But the initial problem with Wheels Deals was that we couldn’t find a loud enough story that would accompany its sort of soft launch. Several months removed from the said soft launch, we finally bagged the perfect story that would go hand in hand with Wheels Deals and practically explain what the section is all about. As Wheels Deals aims to educate the public about the car ownership experience, we thought that there can’t be a better way to start off than by focusing on a story that made starting off that ownership experience easier to begin with. Thank the high heavens for serendipity…

Yesterday, BPI Family Savings Bank (BFSB) formally launched the 2nd Nationwide Auto Madness program. For the uninformed, the BFSB Auto Madness program is the country’s first-ever countrywide car sales effort to include practically all of the major carmakers in the Philippines. As implicitly stated, the effort is spearheaded by a banking institution that comes from the private sector. Basically, what the Auto Madness brings to the table are value for money perks and ease in ownership as several flexible payment terms are offered to would be customers at their own turf and in a single venue.

Car enthusiasts might be familiar with the entire program, as it has actually been around for more than a decade, the first (local) Auto Madness effort being staged in Cebu as early as 1998. The important thing to note, however, is how resilient the program has been and how much it’s grown since its infancy stages well before the turn of the century.

The 2009 version of Auto Madness is much larger in scope than the initial one, of course. As it is a nationwide program this time around, the BFSB Auto Madness will be concurrently held until this Sunday, the 13th of September, at various key locations all over the country. And since it has grown in scope, there will be a whopping 16 car brands to choose from throughout the duration of the program. As a first, a unique tie-up with Cebu Pacific will earn customers who avail of car loans during Auto Madness free travel vouchers, which they can use at a later time. Several other key elements of Auto Madness remain, like the popular special madness rates, installment packages on insurance, auto debit arrangements for BPI and BFSB account holders, and even free Petron-BPI Mastercards are to be made available.

“Every time we stage a Madness event, we make sure that we have something unique to offer to the public and the Auto Madness event as a whole has so much to offer. The partnership with Cebu Pacific is a great example of how much more a customer can get just by availing an auto loan in the program as this unique offer is not available outside the promo period,” explains David Sarmiento, Jr., SVP of BFSB’s Auto/Motorcycle Loans Division.

We cannot help but agree with Mr. Sarmiento. Among the benefits also made available during Auto Madness is the amazing three to eight hours turnaround time for credit approval. That’s almost unheard of but then, BFSB started its auto loans business in the country way back in 1985, so we shouldn’t really be surprised. Personally, we also like the fact that the Auto Madness has been able to bring 16 major car brands under one roof for the duration of the Auto Madness period, among them: Audi, BMW, Ford, GM, Honda Hyundai, Isuzu, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota and Volvo. Quite a mouthful true… but that’s how pervasive a program Auto Madness has become.

After getting the briefing about this current staging of Auto Madness from Mr. Sarmiento, we went full circle and asked him why BFSB has been championing such an exhaustive effort over more than a decade. After all, it’s no joke trying to put together an event of this magnitude. He had this to say, “We thought of the Nationwide Auto Madness to have something bigger and better than our usual Madness events and be of help to the auto industry by making vehicle purchase of prospective car buyers an enjoyable and hassle-free experience. We are bringing to the car buyers everything they wanted in a single location because our clients deserve the convenience, affordability and the value for money that we can provide.”

Well, here’s hoping we see such enthusiasm from other sectors of society as well. Boosting the automotive industry can only be good for our economy (not to mention our general mobility). In the meantime, we doff our hats off to banking institutions like BFSB for coming up with such an extensive projects that share our dreams and goals for the growth of the local automotive industry. Bravo!