Auto expo ends on high despite early jitters

JAKARTA (JP): The nine-day Gaikindo 11th Auto Expo 2001 ended on Sunday with total sales expected to surpass Rp 400 billion (US$40 million), matching last year's level.

Chairman of the expo's organizing committee Danny Budiharto said that, up until Friday, transactions had reached Rp 303 billion.

"Visitors usually buy cars approaching the end of the expo, after they have finished looking around," Danny told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a ceremony held to officially close the country's most prestigious auto expo.

He said that 2,308 cars had been sold at the expo as of Friday.

He added that South Korea's Hyundai car was "the star" of the expo, booking the highest sales.

Danny said that Hyundai received 230 purchase orders, beating big Japanese brands such as Toyota and Honda, which only received 90 and 80 orders respectively.

"It's no wonder Hyundai books more orders than others. The cars are less expensive and also look good," he said.

Indonesian Association of Automotive Industries (Gaikindo) chairman Bambang Trisulo was relieved that the auto expo could be held without being disrupted by last week's presidential election, which some experts had initially predicted could trigger conflict.

"Thank God that we have successfully completed the event after such an uneasy period," Bambang said.

"The success certainly helped raise confidence in the economy," he added.

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country's top legislative body, elected Megawati Soekarnoputri as the country's new President early last week, several minutes after dismissing Abdurrahman Wahid. The latter had earlier made a futile attempt to suspend the Assembly and the House of Representatives. The presidential election ends a standoff between Abdurrahman and lawmakers which has endured for months.

Danny said that the political event had affected the number of visitors at the expo, particularly during the first four days, as tension in the capital rose in the leadup to the MPR Special Session.

He said that visitors had only reached 120,000 people by Friday, far lower than last year's 250,000 visitors.

He said that the total number of visitors was expected to reach 150,000 by the time the expo had concluded, which is only half the organizer's initial target of 300,000.

The venue for the auto expo, the Jakarta Convention Center, is only a few hundred meters away from the MPR building where lawmakers held their session, and is heavily guarded by the military and police.

At the expo, Hyundai displayed several car models including the 1,600 cc Matrix mini-multipurpose van (MVP), 1,500 cc Accent sedan, 2,000 cc and 2,700 cc Trajet vans, 1,000 cc Atoz city car, and the 2,400 cc and 2,700 cc Santa Fe sports cars.

From the 230 orders received by Hyundai, Matrix booked 98 orders, Accent 83, Trajet 21, Atoz 16 and Santa Fe the remaining 12. The price of a Matrix starts at Rp 157 million.

Meanwhile, the newly launched Corolla Altis, with 67 sales, dominated Toyota's sales at the expo, followed by the popular Kijang van with 15 sales.

Another Japanese maker, Honda, which launched its new Civic early this year, did not receive many orders for the new car.

The Honda City sedan was the star performer at Honda's stand during the expo, with 32 cars ordered.

European cars such as Renault, Jaguar, Volvo, VW and Audi recorded low sales due to their high prices.

Renault led the European car sales with 38 purchases, Jaguar with 32, Volvo 20, VW 11 and Audi 8.

Gaikindo estimated that car sales in the country would hit around 280,000 units this year, lower than last year's sales of about 300,000 cars.

As of June, national sales stood at 148,000 units, an increase of 15 percent from the 128,000 cars sold in the same period last year.(05)