Tag: Aries B. Espinosa

THIS IS certainly a great week for meaningful birthdays. For one, it’s Velocity’s anniversary week. For another, I will be observing (yes, not “celebrating,” thanks a lot, social distancing tyrant Covid-19) my own birthday.

WHERE there’s smoke, there’s fire. And where there’s fire, there will most likely be a red Isuzu fire truck hard at work dousing the flames.

NO ONE was probably holding their breath when the joint sales figures of the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) and the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) for 2019 came out.

GOING ON a trip from Manila to the “City of Pines” has never been faster. What used to take upwards of six hours now can be done in as short as three, owing to the vastly improved national roads and the completion/interconection of the North Luzon (NLEX), Subic-Clark-Tarlac (SCTEX), and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union (TPLEX) expressways.

NISSAN PHILIPPINES, INC. (NPI) has made the #GoAnywhere statement stick to its big three LCVs (light commercial vehicles): the Terra midsize SUV, the Navara pickup, and the Patrol SUV.

ITS SCIENTIFIC NAME is Lansium domesticum. In English and in the vernacular, it’s called lanzones or lansones. In Thailand, it’s called longkong. In Japan, its equivalent is the much more expensive biwa (How expensive? Try P2,500 per kilo).

IF THE summer months mean weeks-long fiestas for Pinoys, for the motoring media it has also meant three- or four-day-long road trips with the country’s leading automaker and distributor, Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP).

NASTY NUMBERS are registering in our heat indexes this summer of 2019: 41 degrees C, 51 degrees, and these temperatures are exacerbated by the “urban heat island” effect, wherein a metropolitan area is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities or from the man-made modification of land surfaces.

WHEN Honda Cars Philippines sent us local motoring media on a ride-and-drive of its 5^th generation diesel-powered 7-seater CR-V from Manila to Bataan province early 2018, we got to appreciate for a day the power, stability, and drive technologies of the top-of-the-line diesel CR-V, the SX Diesel 9AT AWD powered by the 1.6-liter i-DTEC turbo engine on both well-paved highways and on dirt roads.

TO OUR pleasant surprise, our group not only survived, we found that we enjoyed the entire experience, with some participants (even the non-cyclists) even noticing some unexpected health benefits. It certainly helped that our expert vegan chef Edilberto Villamor of Greenery Kitchen (a quaint restaurant along Kalayaan Avenue in Makati City recently voted by international vegan experts as among the world’s 50 best vegan eats) concocted some of the tastiest Pinoy favorites that he veganized using his tried-and-tested recipes, with Quorn vegan mycoprotein goodies on the side, and the freshest vegetables, fruits and spices bought from the local markets.

IT’S that time of the year to go outdoors and enjoy the summer sun. While many have opted to go to the beach this year (water troubles in the Metro may have had a hand in this choice), our group of cyclists turned our sights northward and upward, and decided to do something no other recreational and weekend warrior bikers have dared done before.

CALL it coincidence or divine providence. The belated arrival in 2018 of the Nissan Terra, Nissan Philippines, Inc.’s (NPI) first entry in the local midsize SUV category, may have served as the crowning glory of a banner year for the Japanese car manufacturer in the country.

FILIPINOS are used to having women lead the way. We’ve already had two female presidents, two vice-presidents, and two chief justices. And then there are the countless other female civic leaders and corporate captains of industries.

JUST a week after the Jan. 23 introduction of the second-generation Suzuki Ertiga compact MPV, Suzuki Philippines, Inc. mounted a ride-and-drive activity using the new model.

THE usually placid headquarters of Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC) at the Laguna Technopark in Biñan, Laguna province was abuzz with activity on the morning of Jan. 26. And it wasn’t just because of the daily “rajio taiso,” or the morning stretching exercises Japanese companies use to wake up the sleepy muscles of its staff.

WHEN South Korea’s oldest and second-largest selling car brand Kia went “dark” in the Philippines early this year, the industry groped for answers, and restless speculation of a takeover by a corporate giant ran rife.

HYUNDAI Asia Resources, Inc.’s (HARI) “Christmas gift” to the Filipino motoring public was a glimpse of what could likely be their immediate future, and the official distributor of Hyundai vehicles in the Philippines couldn’t have done it in a grander way -- through a combined launch held on December 6 at a convention center in Pasay City.

Text and photos by Aries B. Espinosa THE Mitsubishi Xpander MPV was launched in the Philippines early last March, and the ensuing eight months was...

I REALLY wouldn’t know if Ford Philippines consciously intended the ride-and-drive activity of its inside-and-out-new 2019 Ford Ranger Wildtrak held on Nov. 6-7 to play with the concept of pairs, doubles and of the number 2. But there it was, the pattern unmistakable, and too uncanny to pass unnoticed.

IN what could arguably be its busiest stretch yet, Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC) added five notches to its milestones -- all within October.

Text and photos by Aries B. Espinosa WHAT more does this pioneering subcompact SUV need to prove, when in all these four years since its...

IT could have been that our lucky (three-pointed) star was shining down at us in the middle of the country’s storm season, especially since we were blessed with clear skies and gentle winds on the two days that the Auto Nation Group -- distributor of Mercedes-Benz in the Philippines -- held on Sept. 19-20 the “#HungryForAdventure” experiential drive featuring the Mercedes-Benz GLC 200 Exclusive and the GLC 220d 4Matic AMG.

WHAT do you do with a compact SUV with a big engine? Make it play harder, of course.

OUR only concern was that it was the monsoon season, and that heavy rains would render provincial roads impassable. Other than that, we were raring to go on a northern sojourn with the new Toyota Vios on Aug. 8-10.