|
|
THE HOUSE OF FINE VEHICLES |
| Northern Motors, Inc. |
After World War II, the Yutivo Sons Hardware Co. obtained a contract from General Motors to assemble cars and trucks in the Philippines. To distribute these new vehicles, Yutivo Hardware setup up Northern Motors, Inc. to cover the island of Luzon, and Southern Motors, Inc. to cover Visayas and Mindanoa. Yutivo had also arranged with independents to provide sales to cover the remainder of the country. Sometime in the mid 1960's Northern Motors, Inc. built a huge dealership and service building in Makati City. This was the flagship of their operation in metropolitan Manila. Even by today's standards it is gigantic. In 1969 Northern Motors, Inc. had 960 employees and the corporation had P83,455,527 pesos in gross sales. In US dollars that would represent about $17,000,000. My first impression regarding the ongoing Camaro saga in the Philippines was that this was not really a major story. The corporation photos in newspaper ads were not very representative of the true scope of the operation. After visiting the Philippines, I soon realized this false assumption. The following pictures will put this in prospective. Here in Los Angeles where I live, is Galpin Ford. This is the largest volume Ford dealer in the world. The sales and service operation covers about 1 city block, an area measuring 315 feet x 650 feet. In comparison, Northern Motors, Inc. in Makati City, covered and area of over 2 city blocks, measuring 400 feet x 1025 feet. It is truly a very impressive operation. Although no longer in business, the building remains as a legacy to the business men that prospered during the final years of independence before martial law was implemented in the Philippines in 1972. This brought to close a chapter of classic car history in the Philippines.
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
| Aerial view of NMI. | Newspaper picture of NMI. | Photo of Galpin Ford. | Aerial view of Galpin Ford. | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| View from the corner of Buendia Ave. and Nicanor Garcia. | Looking east along Buendia Ave. | Front entrance. | Looking west along Buendia Ave. | View of the main building with service area in the background. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| A view of the east end of the main building. | More view of the main building. | View of the east side of the main building. | ||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Rear view of the main building with the impressive skyline of Makati City in the background. | Another view of the rear of the main building. | View looking west along Juniper of the service area building. | View of the service area building from Juniper | Looking at the south west corner of the service area from Nicanor Garcia. |
Summary
What does this all mean? Northern Motors, Inc. was a truly gigantic Chevrolet dealership during the late 1960's. It was world class by any standard. In shear volume, it had gross sales in 1969 of $17,000,000 US. This translates into about 3000 vehicles a year sold by this dealership. It had 412 service bays. By comparison, during the year 1969, 15,000 cars and 9,000 trucks were sold in the Philippines.
No Yutivo Motors production figures are available. We do know that in 1969 the Yutivo Corporation employed 493 people. The company had P79,934,096 in sales, or about $16,000,000 US. If an assumption is made, that the vast majority of the corporations income came from the assembly of GM automobiles, and the average cost of a vehicle in 1969 was $3000, we can estimate that it produced about 5000 cars and trucks a year.
