The establishment of Gencars Inc. came about in the late 1970s. It was one of the three companies that he was proudest of at that time. The other two were Eternal Gardens and Fortune Life Insurance and Surety Company, the original insurer that became Fortune General Insurance Corporation and Fortune Life Insurance Company.
Before Gencars, however, he was briefly involved in Supercars, the No. 1 dealer of Ford automobiles in the Philippines. The Supercars plant and showroom were located along Quezon Boulevard in Quezon City.
Unloading Supercars, he organized Gencars on October 16, 1978. As Nick Joaquin writes in A Saga of Success, the Ambassador’s biography, “Gencars has General in its name because it has generals in its roster. It came into being when several of Tony’s military colleagues asked to organize a company they could invest in.”
“Those friends of mine from the military – some of them retired, others still active – raised the capital among themselves while I organized our project into a corporation. Among my partners were General Espina, General Teruel, and General Mangonon. Because of them I decided to call our agency General Cars, or Gencars. There were other officers who invested, like Colonel Brazil and Colonel Manlongat,” the Ambassador told Joaquin.
Gencars began its journey to success as one of the most trusted and reliable distributors of Isuzu’s powerful vehicles with the very first dealership at the corner of Dela Rosa Street and Chino Roces Avenue (formerly Pasong Tamo) in Makati City. Back then, Gencars was a franchised dealer of General Motors Philippines, Inc. (GMPI) for Isuzu Gemini and Opel cars.
Isuzu’s operation in the Philippines was briefly interrupted. But upon its resumption in 1989 as Isuzu Motors Pilipinas, Inc., Gencars once again became its franchised dealer.
Right on cue and with renewed vigor and dynamism, Amb. Cabangon Chua passed the baton to his son and now Isuzu Gencars’ CEO and President, D. Edgard A. Cabangon. From then on, the founder’s son continued his father’s commitment to provide the consumers a wide variety of quality vehicles. He was able to maintain the status of Gencars as one of the highly-competitive automotive dealers in the country up to the present.
Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC) took over the business operation from Isuzu Motors Pilipinas in July 1996, and, due to its outstanding track record, Gencars was awarded a franchise as one of its dealers.
In November of the same year, Gencars opened its second dealership in Barangay San Roque, Sto. Tomas, Batangas. The very first expansion of the company provides for the vehicle requirements and the motoring service needs of motor vehicle owners living in the Southern Tagalog Region.
The company adopted the trade name Isuzu Makati, with Gencars, Inc. as its corporate name, in 1997.
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