Stargazers, Wakanda warriors and secret events

IT was an interesting period in the auto industry last week since there were about four events that

I know of happening one after another in all five weekdays.

Tuesday, November 8, saw us joining Hyundai for the launch of their latest multi-purpose vehicle or MPV, the Stargazer, in a big event format. By big event, we mean a presentation in a ballroom/hall setting complete with hosts and performances to highlight their latest model.

The Stargazer launch was held at the Samsung Hall of SM Aura and was very impressive considering the setting was cosmic in theme. Mark Parulan and Carissa Castell sure got away with this big time.

The other event was held on Wednesday, November 9, when Lexus did a screening of the Marvel movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Of course, that particular Marvel franchise has always been a proud one for Lexus because the stars of the show all drove Lexus.

The late Chadwick Boseman had numerous visual references during the whole movie and, to be real, while not so exciting in terms of action based on a Marvel production level, the movie plot was pretty good in building up to creating the male successor to the Black Panther (I have said enough to be a spoiler so, I’ll stop here).

A pat on the back to the team of Raymond Rodriguez and Carlo Ablaza, especially my dear young “alaga” (like a niece to me), Jade Sison, for the wonderful movie experience at the SM Aura (seems we were there the whole week) Directors Lounge.

In these two events, the products were ably presented, the launch and the movie, and we did get a very good impression of the cars shown to us. Although quite traditional, it did give us the feeling that they were on their way to getting back to a regular way of life post-pandemic.

Then, of course, there’s the Mazda drive on Thursday, November 10, which I am not part of and a Toyota La Union event that I only found out through the grapevine. This also shows that some car companies still do events in small groups just to be safe.

Still, the coming weeks have filled my calendar already, all the way to January. This gives me the feeling that we are going to have a busy 2023.