Forget hybrids and small, fuel-frugal cars when you’re in Texas. The Lone Star State, where I spent five days last week, loves big, gas-guzzling pickup trucks. The number of trucks of various nameplates and ages seen on the road or parked at shopping centers is so ubiquitous that I just had to go around taking snapshots of them.
Talk about class! Landing at Dulles International Airport (IAD) to visit my ailing brother Eddie in Gaithersburg, Maryland, I was picked up by an airport limousine sent by my sister-in-law Rorie. The limo was a black Lincoln Continental driven and owned by Liz Reynolds.
What do you think of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, more widely known as the MMDA? Is it effective? Ineffective? Basically clean? Corrupt? Trying hard? Or overwhelmed by the megapolis it is supposed to manage?
There is a long-held dogma in the auto industry that truck-based sport utility vehicles do not and cannot offer a comfortable and refined ride like car-based ones. Now the 2013 Chevrolet Trailblazer has demolished that dogma by offering best-in-class ride quality matched by superior offroad capabilities. In other words, Chevrolet has struck the perfect balance with the second-generation Trailblazer and in the process vindicated the value of its midsized SUV.
Sport utility vehicles, including car-based ones, are usually more known for their practicality and spacious passenger and cargo room rather than smooth driveability. But when it comes to the 2013 Toyota RAV4, I would say that its most attractive quality, compared to other compact SUVs or crossovers, is its incredible smoothness.
Last weekend, for the first time in history, two auto shows were simultaneously drawing crowds in Metro Manila. The 9th Manila International Auto Show (MIAS) was open April 4-7 at the World Trade Center, widely publicized as the biggest showing yet with 300 cars on display.
Sometimes you wonder why a little budget car like the Mitsubishi Mirage was tested on a big racetrack like the Bira Circuit in Thailand half a year before its launch on the Philippine market. The low-tech, low-cost, lightweight Mirage is by no means a high-performance car or sports car whose power, speed and agility needs to be proven on a racing circuit.
Enjoy driving with E5 gasoline in your fuel tank while you can. Starting April 1, which happens to be both Easter Monday and April Fool’s Day, gasoline fuel sold and distributed by every oil company in this country should contain 10 percent bioethanol, thanks to the go signal of the National Biofuels Board (NBB). [...]
The bestselling Lexus model for many years now has been the RX 350 crossover, but when it comes to off-road capability combined with luxury, the GX 460 beats it hands down.
Equipped with a Mugen front grille, a Mugen wing-type rear spoiler and Mugen 17-inch racing wheels, the Honda CR-Z 3-door hatchback can easily be mistaken for just another showoff, gas-guzzling sports car. But wait! Underneath the enormous “CR-Z” letters painted in black on the doors are the words: “Hybrid Advanced Sports.”
My car’s tires are cool—not because they shod expensive aftermarket rims, but because they are inflated with pure nitrogen. Filling nitrogen in tires helps to keep the insides of the tires cool, even at high speeds. Thus the valve caps of my tires are green, indicating cool, eco-friendly nitrogen content that enhances fuel efficiency.
When motoring journalists from seven countries including the Philippines tested the all-new, fluidic-sculptured subcompact Hyundai Accent in Dubai in February 2011, many of us asked when a diesel version would be offered in our country. Evasive answers didn’t give us much hope.
