Did you know that the world’s biggest Toyota car collection—outside of Japan—is right here in the Philippines?
In an exclusive interview with Esquire Philippines, R Garage founder Richmond So tells us how he started his car collection, what else is missing in the lineup, and if he’d ever consider acquiring other cars that aren’t Toyota.
In an exclusive interview with Esquire Philippines, R Garage founder Richmond So tells us how he started his car collection, what else is missing in the lineup, and if he’d ever consider acquiring other cars that aren’t Toyota.
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00Hopefully, we can complete the line so we can honestly tell the world that we have
00:08the best Toyota collection in the whole world. That's the goal, actually. That's the goal.
00:13Hi, I'm Rich Monceau. My day-to-day job is to manage our Toyota dealers here in Region 1.
00:32Specifically, I'm based here in La Union, but of course, I also come here in our garage
00:38to just look at the place and appreciate the Toyota vehicles here.
00:44My dad, even from the start, they were already, they have this small shop. It's an auto supply.
00:56So back then, he was really interested in vehicles. And he was always telling me that
01:03owning a car was just a dream. But you know, when Toyota Motor Philippines took over the Toyota
01:11management in the whole country, and they opened the opportunities to become dealers,
01:17my dad and my uncle tried to apply. But they had to wait for five years, I think,
01:23before TMP called them and told them that, okay, we're ready to open one in Region 1,
01:31specifically in Pangasinan. So that was 1995, when we officially opened our first dealership
01:40in Pangasinan, in Dagupan specifically.
01:46Growing up, I didn't really have any appreciation for cars. So aside from the fact that we sell
01:55cars because it's our business, when my dad told me to come join Toyota, I just see cars as our
02:02business and something to sell. As part of the tradition of Toyota, if you're a new team member,
02:10no matter what position you have, you have to go through the whole history of Toyota.
02:17When I underwent that training, and eventually, when we were given the opportunity to go to Japan
02:24and visit the different dealership and museums of Toyota in Japan, I really fell in love with
02:30the brand. That's where everything started. That's when I started to realize that, okay,
02:35this is not just a business that I have to manage. It's a passion that's slowly growing in there.
02:41Then later on, I was just thinking to myself, what if I just buy one old Toyota car?
02:50I was looking at the cars and my favorite really was the A80 Supra, primarily because I'm into
02:58Fast and the Furious, and it was there. But I was really looking at the market and it's not really
03:06for sale. So I told myself then, okay, the next best thing, the AE86, because it's the one famous
03:15in anime in Initial D. So still, nothing for sale. So there, and I was thinking to myself that
03:24if I just manage to get a hold of these two cars, then I'll slowly build a collection of
03:32classic Toyota cars. You know, the funny thing is, I think it was around eight years ago, someone
03:40was just selling the AE86 out of nowhere. So I had to really talk to the seller and
03:49you know, it went to a bidding. It was already a close deal, then it went to a bidding.
03:55Then, you know, maybe we say it's destiny that we got the car. And just a little over a month after
04:03that, someone was selling the Supra, the A80 Supra. Everything fell into place. Then as I was telling
04:12myself, if I get these two cars, then we'll slowly build a fleet of classic Toyota cars.
04:23Actually, it was not part of the plan. It was just like, okay, we'll just get one,
04:30and another one. Then as we get one, you know, when we buy cars, it's not all nice and pretty
04:37already. We really had to restore some, and to source the parts is hard. But you know, we enjoy
04:48it. You know, from the very start, there's always this option to have the expert shops who does
04:56restoring to do it for us. But you know, I talked to the team, and we decided that we'll just do it
05:06ourselves, even if it doesn't look good. So I can honestly tell you guys that the first car we
05:12restored from the last car we restored, there's a big difference on quality. But you know, we're not
05:20saying that all the cars here are the best. But we're proud because a lot of these cars, we really
05:28did the restoration. So basically, after we got the first two cars, the goal was first to complete
05:40the line of Supra and the Celica. I was just looking at the history of Toyota cars, and I just
05:47told myself that if we're gonna get everything, we have no place to store everything. So basically,
05:55the decision with the team was just to acquire cars, sports cars, and coupes. So for example,
06:04we get Corollas, but we don't get the four-door Corollas. We only get the two-door Corollas.
06:09So those things, because in our mind, if we're gonna complete the line, and it's too much,
06:15we really won't. It's not realistic. We just specialized on specific vehicles. But the
06:22challenge was, these vehicles were never sold. Most of them were never sold in the Philippines.
06:27So it was really hard to source these vehicles. And up to now, we're still finding some.
06:32And hopefully, we can complete the line so we can honestly tell the world that
06:41we have the best Toyota collection in the whole world. That's the goal, actually. That's the goal.
06:47You know, the funny thing is, I also talked to my wife about this, and she doesn't approve of
06:52it in general because it's too much space. But you know, every time we get one, I tell her,
07:00this is the last. This might be the last. But when we get one, and it's finally here,
07:07the joy. The joy. And I know she also sees that. The term, this is the last one, and seeing it,
07:16it's nice, even if it's really broken down. But you know, just seeing it up close and in the metal,
07:25that I believe kept me going in really trying to slowly but surely source out the joy of
07:32really trying to slowly but surely source out these classic Toyota cars.
07:42That was not my idea. I store most of these cars, actually not most, all of them in our warehouse
07:52at our workshop in Toyota. So it was getting overcrowded, and it was really hard to bring
07:59in more cars, customers, because our warehouse is quite full already. So I just asked for my dad,
08:08can you just build a warehouse just to store these cars? Then my dad told me,
08:14if you're gonna build the warehouse, why don't you just consider building a museum,
08:19so that it's not only us who appreciate what we have. So we can share to the public, and we can
08:25also build really the brand of Toyota, because this is not just our business, but this is a brand
08:31that we really love. So we just share with everyone the rich history of Toyota. It was his idea, not
08:36mine. This was year 2019, one year before the pandemic. We opened November 11 of 2022. That's
08:46when we inaugurated our garage. So it really took so much delays. It was supposed to be finished by
08:52year 2020, but so much delays because of the restrictions of COVID.
08:59We realized that when we built this place, we didn't want it to just be a museum.
09:07Because being a museum, it's just a place where people go and just appreciate the cars. But you
09:16know, not everyone is into cars. We realized that our existence needs to be much more than that.
09:23We need to have an impact in the province of La Union, and hopefully eventually in the whole
09:29of the Philippines. When we were conceptualizing the reason for existence, we realized that we
09:36needed to tap the next generation. We wanted to help next generation leaders. So right now, the
09:46main reason for existence of our garage is really to partner with as much schools and universities,
09:55so that we can teach the students the rich history of Toyota, the opportunities of future mobility,
10:06and at the same time, really help them where they are. We realized talking to these students
10:14that a lot of them, they don't know where they're headed. They don't know their plans, their goals.
10:20So it is something that we saw that, okay, maybe we can fill this space just to journey with students.
10:31Our goal is really to bring students in. So we offer scholarships with our partner schools.
10:37So aside from that, we really bring them in so that they can appreciate cars, and at the
10:44same time, we involve them in Toyota operations. So as early on, they can learn about how things
10:51are done. We are creating a space here where students can just come and hang out, and in the
10:57process, we just help them, teach them life. So any given day, we have at least 50 cars in the
11:08garage, and we're still restoring a lot of cars. One of the things that we're also planning is an
11:15expansion. In that expansion, our goal is to have a section for art, car art, because our goal is
11:24really to reach the next generation and to tap, for example, the artists in La Union, and we can
11:30collaborate with them, design art with them, and they can even showcase their art here. So we can
11:36even help them market themselves and, of course, earn. So basically, we just want our garage to be
11:42a platform where we connect people, and where we help people reach their full potential.
11:48Because our team here, we intentionally built a team with different specializations. So
11:56there's someone into education, there's someone into art, into photography, into marketing,
12:02engineering. So we're building a team so that we can grab as big of a pie when it comes to
12:10the students, and we can relate with them and help them. Because basically, that's what we see
12:17for the future of the country. We have to help the next generation see what is right,
12:24stand by what is right, and do what is right.
12:31Usually, when we bring them in here, we bring it out, but not so much anymore. That's why
12:37my dad tells me whenever we acquire something new, not new, but old, because these are old cars,
12:44don't put it in first. Because if you put it in, I cannot drive it anymore.
12:49But you know, the reason is, we cannot control what happens outside.
12:54And a lot of these cars, the parts are very hard to source already. So if some unfortunate event
13:02happens, then it would be heartbreaking for us because we can't return them to the condition
13:08it is in right now. But we do drive, like my dad is telling me already, I'm gonna get this,
13:15because some of his cars are here. So he's telling me, you just borrowed it,
13:19but how come you never return it anymore? Yeah.
13:28Yeah, so it will be the Land Cruisers. Because from the start of our garage,
13:32we were focused on sedans. But it's only recently that we went into SUVs, pickups,
13:40so we're catching up on that side, basically.
13:49Short answer, no.