Yulon launches used car flagship store in central Taiwan

Taipei, July 11, 2003 (CENS)--Taiwan's Yulon Group recently set up the flagship store of its MyCar used car sales chain stores in central Taiwan's Taichung.

Yulon invested over NT$100 million (US$2.9 million at US$1:NT$34.4) to construct the new flagship store, making it the largest used car auction point in Southeast Asia. The group plans to set up at least 30 such sales points throughout Taiwan, making MyCar the largest used car distribution mechanism on the island within the coming two years, with an estimate annual transaction volume of over 20,000 second-hand automobiles.

Yulon is the largest automaker in Taiwan. The company, which produces Nissan and Mitsubishi car models, has been diversifying into auto repair and maintenance chains, used car sales, and travel information.

Huang Chao-chih, president of Sinjang Corp., which is responsible for Yulon's used car business, said that used car sales in Taiwan have grown by 10% to 15% per year in the past few years, and the rate is expected to climb higher in the future. In the first half this year, Huang said, about 360,000 used cars were sold, a 15% increase from the same period last year. He predicted that the annual volume would reach 700,000 units this year, about two-fold that of new car sales.

Yulon set up Sinjang three years ago. Since then the group has set up used car auction sites in northern Taiwan's Taipei and southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung. The group also introduced an advanced used car pricing system, called "SAVE", from Japan last year. Yulon claimed that its used car business became profitable last year.

Huang said that the new used car auction center in Taichung, which is scheduled to begin operation in late this month, could simultaneously handle about 400 vehicle transactions. He predicted that the new center in Taichung would greatly expand Sinjang's used car sales.

In order to expand in the lucrative segment, Sinjang plans to cooperate with the Itochu Group of Japan to jointly introduce a used car transaction mechanism from Japan, Huang said.

Huang claimed that Sinjang would simultaneously develop used car sales to both businesses and individuals and provide the best pricing services to both sellers and buyers.

Huang added that the MyCar chain stores are expected to trade over 1,000 used cars this year and the volume would jump to over 20,000 units in late 2005 after all of the 30 sales points are established.