When the FOTON Toano high-roof passenger van was first introduced to the Philippine market, we heard some talk about it being an “imitation” of the second generation Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. In spite of the fact that the Sprinter has been sold under various nameplates aside from Mercedes-Benz like Dodge, Freightliner, and Volkswagen (as the VW LT and VW Crafter), some ...

While driving the latest iteration of the Honda CR-V, I was reminded of my long association with Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI) as a motoring journalist. You see, one of my first test drives was that of a first generation CR-V, which was introduced in 1995. The second generation CR-V was introduced in 2002 and I was one of the ...

A month ago (March 28-29, 2019), Suzuki Philippines, Inc. (SPH) invited us to drive the all-new third-generation Suzuki Swift from their Suzuki Auto Kalookan dealership to Bagac, Bataan, spend the night at the Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar resort, and then drive back to Metro Manila the next day. During the drive, we observed that the “… Suzuki Swift has ...

From November 18 to December 10, 2005, I rode a Yamaha Sniper 135 around Indonesia along with a convoy of riders from other ASEAN countries – Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines – mounted on similar motorbikes for the Yamaha Pan-ASEAN Touring series. During our ride, which started from Jogjakarta in Java and ended at Medan in Sumatra, ...

Science has proven that siblings share about 50 percent of the same DNA on average. Each brother gets one half of his DNA from each parent, since the father and the mother only donates half of their DNA. The shared DNA can produce some similarities in the appearance of the siblings, like – in the case of celebrities – the ...

It seems just like yesterday when we picked up our brand-new 2014 Suzuki Ertiga 1.4GLXi A/T multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) directly from the Suzuki Philippines, Inc. (SPH) factory in Canlubang, Laguna. After we did a cover story on it for Power Wheels Magazine, we fell in love with the first-generation Ertiga Life Utility Vehicle (LUV), as SPH was marketing it then. On ...

On a relatively cold Friday afternoon in March, I found myself driving on the “wrong” side of the road in a 2019 Nissan Leaf hatchback, one of the earliest mainstream electric cars from an established and major automaker. I was in Hong Kong for the second round of Nissan Futures thought leadership discussions in the Asia and Oceania region, and ...

“You’re in luck, sir”, chirped Shane Delgado, the lady PR specialist of Legado Motors, Inc. (LMI), the Philippine distributor of GAC Motor. “The vehicle you’re about to drive was ridden in by the current reigning Miss Universe, Catriona Gray. She was driven around by Mr. James Deakin.” “Ah, yes”, I thought to myself. “A reigning beauty queen gets driven around ...

Apparently, the age-old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” does not apply to the engineers at Porsche AG in Zuffenhausen, Germany. Take, for example, the Porsche Macan: It is probably the quickest, best-driving compact sport utility vehicle (SUV) in the world and the company’s best-selling model. Did the engineers at Porsche just sit back and rest on their ...

After having successfully marketed their product line of family-oriented 3-row 7-seat multi-purpose vehicles (MPV), Bayan Automotive Industries Corporation (Bayan Auto), the Philippine distributor of BAIC Automotive Group Co., Ltd., introduced their first crossover sport utility vehicle (SUV), the 2019 BJ20 on September 28, 2018. A few days later, on the 8th of October, Bayan Auto invited a select group of ...