The Traviz: Isuzu’s genius move into new and old markets
With the recently introduced Traviz, Isuzu Philippines manages to enter a new segment, globally, and re-enter an old one, locally. With the Traviz, Isuzu expands their market to include 3-ton lightweight trucks notched…
Special Report: the elegantly disruptive Honda Mobilio
When they launched the Mobilio, globally in 2014 and in this market in 2015, it finally filled a glaring gap in Honda’s product line-up. Here, at last, was a three-row people-mover from Honda…
Quick note: Indigo does 11.25km/l in mixed city, highway and RACE mode
After 190km of several days’ practice in heavy city traffic; 90km on a ferry drive to the Subic staging point that had us in an hour-long traffic jam on NLEX followed by a…
Quick note: The not so random Indigo
She was the first car off the starting line on today’s STV Auto Rally Corporate Challenge (ARCC). Her turn at rolling off on the timed race was a random thing, but not how…
The Isuzu D-Max LS 2.5L 4×2 MT, at home in the city
BIG as the D-Max is, the iconic high-riding truck is still at home on city streets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQMr7ufqmTM&w=auto&align=center Rich torque for sprinting and short-shifting: With torque peaking early at 320Nm, this D-Max variant feels…
Taking Suzuki’s all-new Super Carry DOWN the Tagaytay-Talisay road
With a typical SUV’s seven-passenger loadout, we take the new Super Carry UV variant down dense downhill twisties, underscoring the importance of its rugged undercarriage under heavy load. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vrfiwu2l8U&w=auto&align=center Strong/stable front: Steering is…
Suzuki’s family-sized Swift, alias the Ertiga
Based on the Swift platform, it’s better to describe the Ertiga MPV as an evolution of the sub-compact hatchback. It’s like they tried to make the sporty Swift a more sensible people and…
Quick note: the new Super Carry is a big mini
She looks like her predecessors, those commonplace mini multi-cabs that are the 8th and 9th generation models of Suzuki’s classic kei-truck line reaching back to 1961, but she’s much bigger. Dimensions…
Quick note: call her the Diplomat, SsangYong’s top-spec Rodius
Not for nothing but the top-spec SsangYong Rodius, the full size MPV with a premium saloon’s rear-wheel-drive handling, an early boost turbodiesel mated to a fast-twitch Mercedes-Benz 5G-tronic automatic gearbox, a cavernous…
Quick note: the Super Carry’s tiny diesel, powerful enough for hills and highway
Anyone would be sceptical about the Super Carry’s remarkably small 0.8L two-cylinder diesel, even with its output boosted to 32hp / 75Nm by an inter-cooled turbocharger. As compact as it is, the Suzuki…
Quick note: the Suzuki Super Carry makes you feel like a ten-foot trucker
Suzuki’s Super Carry is just about the most common model exemplifying Japan’s pioneering Kei Truck concept. That’s true at least here in the Philippines where a decade’s absence of brand new units was…
Quick note: the Suzuki Ciaz short-shifts like a carpooling champ
Get past the impressive trim on this base model—get used to it as the new normal, actually—and you’ll be more impressed with the Ciaz GL M/T’s powertrain that mates the small but VVT-equipped…