Cars of Guam (COGs) - Ep 2 - New Vehicles

 

3/29/2022 - I know what you are thinking, if this ep is titled new vehicles, why of all the photos to choose from did you take a photo of a Prius? This one in fact as I stated from a previous post is our host families new car, and to drive for ride hail you need a fairly new car based on expectations of the stroll service.  The thing that has stood out to me here on Guam is most of the vehicles on the island are in US terms an import. Technically all things are imported on the island, as no vehicles are made here, but lets use the term "import" to mean external to the United States manufactures. This is a trend I see in both used and new vehicles, a large majority are from Japan. This has led me one to ask the question why is this the case, but also is there a way to get some data to back up what I am seeing? (what does a good engineer do to back up a claim, build a database) The next few images below are data tables, maybe less fun to read, but bear with me as I believe there are some neat learnings here about the people of Guam. 

I have thought long and hard about how to get some data to show what the distribution of vehicles looks like here on Guam, I looked for data through US economic reports to see if I could find Guam related sales figures, I looked for import logs, no luck.  Finally what I came up with was looking online at dealer websites to get a count of new cars sitting on the lot. There are only 6 dealers here, so putting a database together was a little work, overall it wasn't too bad. So, this isn't perfect measure, and it is only of new cars, but my hypothesis is that what is selling on the island the dealers will have a larger supply of. 

The first data table helped confirm what I was seeing out on the road, I felt like every direction I turned there was a Japanese import on the roads. On dealers lots, in Guam on 3/11, there were 969 vehicles, and 74% of them were a Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi or Subaru import. While this reflects what I am seeing, the question of why was hitting me. So I dug a bit deeper and looked by brand to gain more insight. 

One more layer down you can see that Nissan, Toyota, and Mitsubishi hold the largest number of new vehicles on lots here in Guam as of 3/11. I was shocked by Nissan, thinking Toyota would be 1, but as we drove by the dealer one day I saw a sign for Nissan factory rental service. So the high number makes sense as the cars on lot can either be sold or quickly pulled for rental service and then sold as Used. My guess is Mitsubishi has good sales based on very low cost vehicles, basic need of transportation on the island at low cost. The Toyota data aligns with the company being one of the largest manufactures in the world, and  with Guam's proximity to Japan, I can only guess that there is also a cost element here too for shipping. 

As an aside, I am really proud to see Ford as the highest US manufacturer on this list. As I looked online the number of Bronco Sports was 9 on the lot, and each day I seem to see more and more on the road. future post, I saw the first Bronco on the island where Joan works. Really cool, not that I am biased. :)

Ok, but what about Cars vs SUVs vs Trucks, my initial thought was I see a large number of used and new cars, so that was my guess for where the majority lied. Here is a look at how the new vehicle on the lot we're distributed. 

So, new vehicles on the lot here in Guam are 52% SUVs, 36% Cars, and 12% Trucks as of 3/11. The SUV trend is in line with much of the globe as a large percent. Cars as number two is very much a Guam specific trend, and I think this comes down to vehicle and fuel cost. Trucks are about right for what I see on the island, the main usage of a medium to large size truck is contracting with the US Military. There are new bases going in on the north side for both the marines and the army not too far

Last Table, and this drives home the why I am seeing so many Japanese vehicles on the road. If you see a new car, its over 90% likely to be made in Japan, and if a new SUV, then about 75% chance. 

What does this tell us about the people of Guam?

The first thing that stands out to me is there are about 1k vehicles on the lot for a population of 169k people. Now I don't know the turnover rate of sales, is it 5x or is it 10x of what's on the lot in a year? Either of those numbers mean that a very small percentage of the population buying a new vehicle. One factor that might drive new cars sales is the two major industries here on the island, Tourism and Military. Joan and I see many military families (usually one parent is in camo uniforms) in newer vehicles driving around, and what I have learned is that the military stations families here for 2 - 3 years with base pay and housing covered. This leaves room for buying of a large SUV to carry the kids around, also usually of USA Make. Tourism on Guam, while slow during the pandemic, attracts many visitors from Asia Pacific countries. New vehicles are not likely to be sold to these visitors on one hand, but rentals are almost always new vehicles, and likely to be more in line with their home country region. (seen with the Nissan numbers) This also drives a nice used vehicle market, which is how Joan and I got our Mazda 3 (future Cogs article). 

Lastly, the cultural element here is very important. Yes, Guam is a territory of the USA, but so many of the people here consider themselves Pacific Islanders. Factoring in this piece with 93% of the population being either Chamorro (Native Guamanians, at 37%), or from an Asia - Pacific nation, the bias towards a more locally - home built product very much exists. This is why I believe that Japanese imports are so high here in Guam. Japan is also closer than Hawaii is, cost of shipping or just getting the product here is feels like major piece of what is on lots and what is purchased.

What you will see if future eps will be a large number of Japanese built products, other location will be  shown too, but with the goal to represent what is here and what is unique to Guam.