S.Y. Guerrero

"Our experience with vehicle sales during Ramadan in the last three or four years has been uniformly good," said S.Y. Guerrero, general manager for sales and marketing at Al Futtaim Motors, the local dealers of Toyota.

"There is still a momentum in the car market here, and with longer showroom hours during Ramadan, the industry can reasonably expect higher traffic and sales.This month will be a crucial period in the retail calendar."

Al Futtaim Motors, which is just coming off from what has been its best month when sales crossed 2,800 units, is offering a music system with every purchase during the promotion.

Other automobile agencies are coming up with their own packages, especially given that a whole lot of new models for 2003 were rolled out in the past few weeks.

The 15 per cent increase so far is indicative of that," said S.Y. Guerrero, general manager for sales and marketing at Al Futtaim Motors, the Lexus dealership.

The company has now launched the Lexus' sports coupe, the SC 430, priced at Dh220,000.With this, the brand has a full line up, including four-wheel drives and saloons, in these markets.

"In spite of the relatively firmer yen in recent months, we are confident that the momentum for Japanese makes will be carried forward," said S.Y. Guerrero, sales and marketing manager at Al Futtaim Motors, the dealership for Toyota.
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"For 2003, our estimates are that the market will not experience any elaborate growth - at best it will be about 2.5 to 3 per cent," said Guerrero. "Unless something extraordinary occurs, Japanese makes should outpace the industry growth rates."

Meanwhile, Al Futtaim Motors has introduced the latest version of the Toyota Camry, which is the market leader in the upper middle car category.

Available in two engine specifications - the 2.4 and 3.0 litre - Camry is priced at upwards of Dh58,000. "The redesigned Camry allows us to market it at the younger generation and will help us further extend our market share in the upper middle saloon category," said Guerrero.

The actual percentage growth has been more than what we were expecting of 3 to 4 per cent," said S.Y. Guerrero, sales and marketing general manager, Al Futtaim Motors.
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"This year, most Japanese makes have had a good run in the local market, and it stands to reason that growth rates would stabilise some time during next year," said Guerrero.