If you live in Northern Luzon and are in the market for a brand-new Toyota vehicle, you’ll invariably end up going to a dealership owned by the So family. Rene So opened his first Toyota dealership in Dagupan, Pangasinan in 1995 and the family has since opened three more: Baguio City; Bauang, La Union; and Candon, Ilocos Sur. A fifth is scheduled to open later this year in Ilocos Norte.
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Rene’s son Richmond now helps run the dealerships as general manager. While the younger So is no doubt kept busy by the day-to-day demands of running a business, he is also the man behind the largest all-Toyota car collection in the country. Adjacent to the main showroom in Bauang, R Garage is a museum that houses his personal collection of classic Toyota vehicles. It officially opened in 2022 and, as of today, is currently the largest collection of Toyota vehicles in the world outside of Japan.
R Garage is open to the public for a minimal fee. Inside, there is an assortment of Toyota cars going back to the 1960s, including an A60 Supra and the AE86 model that was made popular by the classic Japanese anime Initial D. Both these cars are the foundation of the collection and, unsurprisingly, are two of Richmond’s personal favorites.
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Kieffer Carrascal
The collection itself becomes even more impressive when you consider that Richmond didn’t develop an interest and fascination with cars until later in his life.
A brand love affair
“Growing up, I didn't really have any appreciation for cars,” he tells Esquire Philippines during a visit to R Garage. “I just (saw them) as our business and as something to sell. When my dad told me to come join (the family business), in the beginning, I really didn’t want to.”
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PHOTO: Kieffer Carrascal
Richmond graduated with an economics and business management degree and had initially considered a career as a consultant working overseas.
“But my dad talked to me and told me, ‘You know, your siblings are already working outside (the country). Who's going to take care of our business? I'm getting old.’ So, reluctantly, I came home to the province because I really grew up in Manila and really didn’t like the province life.”
Thus began Richmond’s immersion into the Toyota brand. He was given the opportunity to go to Japan and visit the car giant’s dealerships and museums there.
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“That’s when I really fell in love with the brand,” he says. “That's when I started to realize that, okay, this isn’t just a business that I have to manage. It's a passion that's slowly growing inside me.”
Later on, it occurred to the young car enthusiast to buy an old Toyota car and make it his pet project to restore it. He gravitated toward the A80 Supra, primarily because he was into the Vin Diesel flick The Fast and the Furious. He scoured the market at the time but didn’t find any that was for sale. His next choice ended up being the AE86, because of Initial D.
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“And, the funny thing is, I think it was around eight years ago, when I first said I was looking for an AE86, someone just happened to be selling it,” he says. “So I talked to the seller and then it went to a bidding. Then, I guess you can call it destiny, we ended up getting the car.”
About a month after scoring his first old car purchase, he stumbled onto an A80 Supra that was for sale and he ended up getting that one, too.
“I guess everything just fell into place.,” he says. “I was telling myself, if I get these two cars, then we'll slowly build a fleet of classic Toyota cars. That's where everything started.”
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In the beginning, the goal was to complete the line of Supras and Celicas. Richmond says he looked at the history of Toyota and realized that, if they acquired everything the brand ever built, they would run out of space pretty quickly. So he and his team decided to concentrate, at least initially, on sports cars and coupes
“So, for example, we get Corollas but we don't get the four-door ones, we only get the two-door Corollas,” he says. “In our mind, if we're going to complete the line, it would’ve been too much, it’s not realistic. So, we just specialized on specific vehicles.
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The challenge, however, was that a lot of the vehicles he wanted were never sold in the Philippines, which made it all the more difficult to find units that he could acquire. But slowly and painstakingly, he started building the collection. Eventually, more classic Supras and Corollas and Coronas, arrived. Eventually, other pieces started making its way in the collection, including a Hi-Ace, Tamaraw FX, Land Cruisers, and the more modern iterations of the 86 and Supra.
“The funny thing is, and I also talked to my wife about this and she doesn't approve of it in general because it takes up too much space—but every time we get a new (old car), I tell her this is the last, or this might be the last. But when we get that one and it's finally here, the joy…the joy. And I know my wife also sees that.
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“Just seeing it up close and in the metal, that, I believe, kept me going and really trying to slowly but surely source out these classic Toyota cars.”
A bigger space
Eventually the time came when the warehouse where Richmond was keeping all of his precious cars began to get a little bit cramped. He then asked his father if they could build a bigger warehouse just for the collection.
“He said, ‘If you're going to build a warehouse, why don't you just consider building a museum so that it's not only us who appreciate what we have?’”
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In 2019, work started on the bigger “warehouse,” but the pandemic delayed completion until 2022. It was in November 2022 when R Garage, a full-fledged museum of classic restored Toyota cars, formally opened its doors.
As many as 50 cars are displayed at R Garage at any one time, although more are housed in private garages where they are undergoing restoration work. Richmond says, in addition to it being a museum where enthusiasts and curious visitors can come and admire the cars, R Garage is also a space for education and hands-on experience for students and young people.
A nobler purpose
“When we were conceptualizing the reason for the museum's existence, we realized that we needed to have an impact in the province of La Union and hopefully, eventually, in the whole of the Philippines,” he says. “We wanted to help the next generation of leaders.
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“So we partnered with schools and universities so that we can teach the students not just the rich history of Toyota, but show them the opportunities of future mobility, and at the same time, really help them where they are,” he adds.
Richmond explained that many young people need guidance and inspiration particularly about where they’re headed and what to do with their lives. The idea is to create a space where these students can come and hang out, learn about how things are done and offer them options about what to do after they finish school. R Garage also offers scholarships with partner schools to help deserving but less fortunate students.
There are also plans to expand the space to include more than just cars.
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“Our goal is to have a section for art, car art, so we can tap the artists here in La Union,” Richmond says. “We can collaborate with them, design art with them, and they can even showcase their art here so we can help them market themselves and, of course, help them earn.”
As for the cars themselves that are the highlight of R Garage, Richmond says the collection is far from complete. The focus now is on acquiring more SUVs and pick-ups, particularly the Land Cruisers, because the initial push was for sedans.
Given how much the family’s entire business, and perhaps even their lives, revolve around a single automotive brand, it seemed counter-intuitive to ask Richmond if he’d ever consider expanding his collection to include other brands or models that aren't in the Toyota umbrella. But we asked him anyway and his answer was definite and straight to the point.
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