A deadly double standard on safety
By Aida Sevilla MendozaIs there a deadly double standard in car manufacturing when it comes to the safety of entry-level vehicles built in emerging-market nations?
Is there a deadly double standard in car manufacturing when it comes to the safety of entry-level vehicles built in emerging-market nations?
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.
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). [...]
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.
Since Volvo Car was purchased by China’s Geely Holdings Group from Ford Motor Co. in 2010, it will soon be China-centered, right? Wrong. On the contrary, Volvo will continue operating as a strong, independent carmaker with a multibillion-dollar program ongoing in its plants in Sweden and Ghent, Belgium, to develop a new Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) and Volvo Engine Architecture (VEA) that will cover most of Volvo’s next-generation cars.
If you’re dazzled by all the high-tech innovations found in new cars today—such as Bluetooth, Blind Spot obstacle detection, Active City Safety, Active Cruise Control radar, Collision Warning with full auto brake and pedestrian detection, Attention Assist to detect drowsy driving and Active Park Assis—get ready to be dazzled some more.
When I was in South Korea for five days last month, I noticed that very few European and American cars were on the road in Seoul and Keosu. Ninety-nine percent of the motor vehicles were Korean brands.
Have you ever heard of Otobursa? Neither had I, until Inquirer Motoring was invited to find out what it’s all about. Otobursa Tumplek Blek, Indonesia’s largest and most comprehensive automotive bazaar, is unknown in Southeast Asia although it has been held annually since 1999. So the organizer, Otomotif Group, the country’s biggest automotive multimedia conglomerate, invited journalists from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines to attend the 13th Otobursa last Saturday and Sunday at the Gelora Bung Karno Plaza & East Parking Lot. The Inquirer was the only Philippine media invited.
Is the 2012 Chevrolet Orlando a multipurpose vehicle or a crossover? Whichever, it is built on the same GM Global Delta Platform by General Motors Daewoo in South Korea, as the Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan has the same 1.8-liter Ecotec engine as the Cruze.
The unintended sudden acceleration problem that plagued Toyota in 2009-2010 and Mitsubishi last year has resurfaced in the United States and here. Last week, a lawsuit filed in Washington by a nongovernment automotive safety firm accused the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of withholding documents and videos that might depict an acceleration incident caused by electronic systems in a 2003 Prius instead of by the floor mats or pedals covered by Toyota’s recalls of more than eight million vehicles worldwide three years ago.
HONG KONG—In this bustling megapolis, China’s free port and host city to global trade and commerce, “creative” or illegal parking is as much an art, and a problem, as it is in Metro Manila. According to an article in the Sunday Morning Post, suggestions offered by the police to solve the traffic problems caused by [...]
What better way to start the New Year than to report on a little hatchback that is not only frisky and frugal in fuel consumption, but also costs less than P450,000? No, it isn’t a Chinese car but a Suzuki, the Japanese brand recognized globally as a leader in producing good-quality minicars and subcompacts aside [...]
