The All-New Volvo V40, a modern expressive car, with characteristics from larger Volvos wrapped in a sleek, compact package, is now in the Philippines. This 5-door, 5-seater luxury hatchback combines trendsetting design with class-leading driving dynamics.
Chevrolet sold more than 1.18 million vehicles around the world in the first quarter of 2013 achieving its 10th consecutive quarter of record global sales on the strength of products like the Cruze compact car which recently surpassed the 2 million mark in total global sales since its launch in 2009.
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.
One wouldn’t expect Audi to just let Mercedes-Benz and BMW take the lion’s share in the premium compact sedan market without churning out a model that can rival those made by the two German auto giants. Of course not. Not to be outdone by its archrivals, Audi has recently launched its own entry-luxury compact sedan, the A3, at the Shanghai Auto Show last April 20.
No races allowed, only solo runs. Heather Lutz, vice president for sales and marketing of the Nascar Racing Experience, bared in an e-mail to Inquirer Motoring that their final agreement with businessman Paul Monozca was just for a racing experience, not an actual race.
Most Filipino drivers are taught by their dads, uncles, brothers, manong (the family driver) who were also taught by their dads, uncles, brothers and their manong. Unlike in developed countries where driver education is part of the school curriculum and have stringent standards, Filipinos depend on the information passed on from generation to generation by auto maintenance urban myths, driving styles and bad habits.
The streak continues for the country’s No. 1 automotive firm. Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) has recently posted a 33-percent increase in sales for the first four months of the year, compared to the same period last year.
Any cynic will say that a Bentley is such an over-indulgent vehicle to drive through a country with a vast majority of its 1.3 billion population still wallowing well below the poverty line. There is indeed truth to that, as I and my colleagues from Asean were thinking about the night of the unveiling.
We live in exciting times. At no other point in motoring history have we paid as much attention to an automobile’s Human Interface as we do today. GPS Navigation? Check. Bluetooth Car Kit? Check. Back-up Video Cam? Check. These are just a few of the innovations that have become standard features in many of today’s car models.
Tires screeched. Engines roared. Speed was served for lunch.
On May 11, the INQUIRER.net, the online arm of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, carried a story filed by Inquirer motoring reporter Tessa Salazar detailing problems encountered by the Philippine team that was supposed to participate in the Nascar Racing Experience in North Carolina.
