I was driving along a scenic tree-lined avenue somewhere north of Manila when the infotainment system started playing “La Vie En Rose”. “Perfect!”, I said to myself. The French song seemed apt for the drive since I was cruising along in a French car. Although the music playing in my vehicle was American singer Grace Jones’ 1981 disco version and ...

If you’ve been to the malls lately, you must have seen the Chery Tiggo 8 Pro “World of Luxury” display at SM Aura (July 1-7), SM Megamall (July 14-20), Eastwood City (July 29-August 3), Estancia (August 12-18), and The Block at SM City North Edsa (August 25-31). If you haven’t, you can still catch it at SM Mall of Asia, ...

We had our day planned: First, we will all go get our renewed passports from the Foreign Affairs office, which we weren’t able to renew in time because of the pandemic. Then, we will go to the mall to get new cases for our home computers. If there’s a watch strap shop in the mall, I’ll get a leather strap ...

Nissan Philippines (NPI) took out all the stops when they introduced their last innovative electric vehicle (EV), the 2022 Nissan Kicks e-Power. On July 12, 2022, they invited members of the motoring media to the Clark International Speedway in Clark, Pampanga to experience the power and torque of the Kicks e-Power around the race track. Then, on August 1st, they ...

One of the joys of being a motoring journalist is that we get to drive the latest vehicles that are available in the Philippine market. The test unit is often delivered to us with a full tank of fuel and left with us for a couple of days for us to evaluate and enjoy. Of course, when we enjoy driving ...

“I can deliver the T-Cross on April 13. Hope you’re free”, read the message I got on Viber. It came from Stacey Vasquez, who handles media relations at Volkswagen Philippines, under the Automobile Central Enterprise, Inc. (ACEI) branch of the Ayala Group of Companies. She was referring to the 2022 Volkswagen T-Cross 180 MPI SE, which I’ll have the privilege ...

The news these past few weeks were downright scary: The price of crude oil has skyrocketed to nearly $130 per barrel after oil producing and exporting countries (OPEC) decided to cut down production. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine curtailed the delivery of oil to Europe, which further limited global supply and increased the prices. Gasoline prices here in the Philippines breached ...

In November 2020, our good friends at Maxus Philippines scheduled a weeklong test drive of their Maxus G10 passenger van during the week that coincided with my wife’s 50th birthday. The 4-row 9-passenger van allowed me to drive several family members, along with some balloons, party décor, cakes and flowers, to our favorite steakhouse for a heavy lunch and a ...

The 4th-generation Suzuki Jimny debuted in 2018 to such high expectation and huge demand around the world that when it was launched here in 2019, the automobile arm of Suzuki Philippines, Inc. (SPH) announced that there was a one-year waiting list. Suzuki Auto had just one media test drive unit, a Kinetic Yellow 2019 Jimny GLX 4AT but because of the ...

It’s a well-known fact that everything has to evolve to remain relevant in this ever-changing world. Automobiles, for instance, evolve with the times and the tastes of the market. Some car models, such as the Nissan/Datsun Sunny/Sentra, start as small subcompact sedans and eventually grow to become compact or midsize sedans, or even crossover vehicles. Some car models keep their ...