(reposted from Armand dean Nocum, FB page)
by Armand Dean Nocum on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 10:13am
Journalists, like priests, take something like a vow of poverty. There is no money in journalism so journalists must be ready to live on idealism at the expense of personal and family comfort. Journalists cannot have fame and fortune; that is a fact.
Journalists who go into business like me are the rare exception. We are among the few who get our cake and eat it too. I can only thank my brother Joey Nocum, owner of the Zamboanga City Used Card Display Center, for introducing me and my wife into the used car business early in my career as a poor and struggling investigative reporter of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
We started supplying Joey with used cars from Manila and we are happy to say as that as the pioneer used car dealers in Zamboanga, we helped switch the driving pattern of people there from using motorcycles and owner-type-jeeps into cheap start-up cars like the old 2000 model Kia Pride and 1980s box-type Mitsubishi Lancers. We were lucky to introduce these cheap cars there just when everybody was disposing them at bargain prices in Manila around 1998.
We were hardly able to meet numerous orders then and you could say we are still being blamed for clogging traffic in that old Spanish town – what with its roads originally designed for horse-drawn kalesa – by convincing people to shift from dirt bikes, the popular mode of transport then, into cheap cars.
Business was so good that eventually many other used car outlets sprouted years later. Fortunately we have by then shifted to Manila and set up an outlet among other used car dealers at the Mega-Expo Used Car Display Center along EDSA. Lately, we have shifted operation to Quezon City.
Thus, the used car business is not just a business for us but a passion we are grateful to. That is why it pains us to see the industry getting hit by killers and carjackers as shown by the killings of fellow used car dealers Emerson Lozano, his driver; and the young Venson Evangelista. We used to deal cars with Venson's dad Boy.
If experienced and seasoned car dealers like them get victimized, we dread to think about the vulnerability of car owners who simply want to sell their cars. Ms Monica Atienza, her 60-year-old relative, and her six-and seven-year-old children are so lucky to have been left alive by robbers who took their car during a test drive in Bulacan during the week Lozano and Evangelista were killed.
In the order to help people sell their cars in a safe manner and to help save the used car industry, I have listed a few tips which I hope will be useful to those selling cars:
1. When contacted by buyers by phone or through the internet, always make the effort to get their address or their telephone numbers which you can call back and verify to see whether they are who they claim they are. Checking their names on Facebook or other social sites would be helpful.
2. When meeting them at your house, always get some people to witness the meeting. Although having their faces captured on a CCT camera is ideal – if you have one – getting someone to photograph them secretly during the meeting would be no harm (It is your house anyway). Well, doing so would make you look paranoid but it is better to be paranoid than dead. While they are inspecting the car, you can take pictures of them doing so by explaining that you are just taking picture of a car you hate to miss soon.
3. When they insist on doing a test drive, insist that they leave government identification cards like license, SSS, PhilHealth, gun license and other cards which cannot be faked. If they come by car, insist they leave it behind and check if it is really registered under their name and not a stolen one. If they come by two, ask one of them stay in your place.
4. The test drive should be done only be within your subdivision or places you are familiar with. These must be places where people abound. Watch out if there are vehicles following you. Always do the test drive at daytime. Meeting them at night or outside your home is out of the question except if you are acquainted with them.
5. If you really must meet them outside of your house, do so in a place you know have CCTC cameras and have a companion in a back-up car take their pictures. Always bring a back-up car to tag you along and make them aware you are bringing one. Again, this is a paranoid act, but better paranoid than sorry.
6. Lastly, in these dangerous times and if you have a choice, sell your cars to friends and acquaintances and not to total strangers to lessen the exposure and risk. We always tell clients that in the used car business, it is the trust that matters more than the cars.
There, I hope these few tips will be of help to you and if you have some tips of your own, feel free to send them to me at my emails armanddean@deanandkingspr.com or zamboyo66@yahoo.com.
But should you have additional questions, please contact my wife Ann at 09175208013 or 3522313 and 5718997 because she is a better used car expert than me.
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