It’s easy to get carried away by the hype of an all-new vehicle launch. And that’s what car brands want you to feel after seeing their latest offering roll onto the stage. Let’s take the all-new Mitsubishi XForce, for example. Sure, it looks appealing, has a handsome design, and even a well-endowed feature set. But what if we said Mitsubishi ensured its latest offering had some other tricks up its sleeve for good measure? At a Mitsubishi product conference Autofun Philippines attended on the sec

Aside from the pending launch of the Toyota Yaris Cross, Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) may have another vehicle waiting in the wings for its time in the spotlight. A 2024 Toyota Alphard unit was spotted in a parking complex in the southern part of Luzon, presumably in the Bauan port in Batangas. It indicates that the Japanese automaker wants to launch the all-new version of the luxury MPV soon but has yet to reveal any official launch dates. With that said, we can look to other markets where th

As the updated 2023 Mitsubishi Xpander Cross is set to be unveiled at the end of this month, it brings with it a whole slew of notable mechanical, exterior, and interior changes. While the exact specifications of the local unit have yet to be announced, one of the major updates that our local spec unit reportedly won’t get or fail to have is a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). If inputs from our dealer sources are correct, the 2023 Mitsubishi Xpander Cross will be unlike the one that was

The first time the Nissan Grand Livina entered the Philippine market in 2008, it was a three-row hatchback based on the Nissan Tiida platform. It was ahead of its time in many ways, as it offered car-like handling and seating for seven. Typical of what crossovers provide today. As head of the marketing team of Nissan Motor Philippines, Inc (NMPI) at that time, I was tasked to find ways to slot such a strange vehicle concept into the MPV-crazy consciousness of Filipino car buyers. The 2008 Nissan

(Images from WAP Car and Toyota PH) The Toyota Veloz is the clone of the Avanza. It is a clone and not a sister or brother because it literally came from the top-tier of the latter. Now being a clone, it would share some of the same features of the Avanza. In this particular case, it is the same oily bits under the hood. The Veloz, like the Avanza, has an inline 4-cylinder, 16-valve DOCH engine with Dual VVT-i. This produces about 106 horsepower and 138 Newton meters of torque. The engine is pai

No doubt about it, the family car can be likened to one magic carpet ride transporting a bunch load of people from point A to B in a matter of seconds. While this metaphor sounds greatly exaggerated, it’s a known fact, however, that family or commercial vehicles (CV) truly do a wonderful job not only of hauling up families on long trips but they can also become reliable work fleets for storing up supplies or other loads as well. So far, Toyota, KIA, Ford, Suzuki, and Honda are the big-name car g