The Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors or AVID saw new car sales drop to 3,919 units compared to 4,862 units in July. This is a similar drop experienced by the automotive manufacturing group, the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, which saw sales decline 26.3 percent.

For AVID, all three segments—Passenger Car (PC), Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV), and Commercial Vehicle (CV) segments saw declines. PC and LCV sales dropped 18 and 19 percent, respectively, but CV sales plummeted 61 percent.

Last August, Suzuki led PC sales with 521 units sold, followed by Hyundai at 321 and Ford at 184. Meanwhile, in the LCV segment, Ford remained the undisputed leader moving 1,296 units. They are followed by Suzuki with 798, and get, this Geely in third with 350 units.

Compared year-on-year, AVID members still saw an 18 percent drop compared to August 2020, while PC sales getting hurt the most (down 44 percent). LCV sales are more or less resilient, dropping just 1 percent, while CV sales are down 18 percent.

Despite the gloomy market performance last August, AVID says year-to-date sales remain up compared to the same January to August figure last year. Cumulatively, the group moved 39,011 units to last year’s 29,363—a 33 percent improvement.

“The entire industry hit a pot hole in August due to the necessary health restrictions. Despite this, we at AVID choose to be optimistic as we approach the final stretch of the year,” said AVID President Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo.