Will the LTFRB finally rid EDSA of colorum buses?

If we are going to believe the present leadership of the Land Transportation and Franchising Board (LTFRB), the promise made by its erstwhile head, Len Bautista, of reducing the number of buses plying the country’s main thoroughfare and finally unclog it may just get to be a reality.

DOTC assistant secretary Thompson Lantion, current LTFRB head honcho is reported to be working on this "dream" with the legit bus operators themselves. After all, it is the legitimate transport businessmen that are greatly disadvantaged by this unscrupulous practice, which has been going on unchecked for decades, not to mention the motoring public that’s most inconvenienced by a clogged EDSA. Ridding EDSA of "colorum" buses would present a more viable business scenario for the legitimate transport operators as it would mean a reduction of excess supply as against the actual demand.

But I suggest very strongly that the public should not hold its breath waiting for the dream to turn to reality. All we can probably do is hope and pray. But let’s give Mr. Thompson all the time he needs to prove himself worthy of his position. Where many others have failed, he may just succeed. But then again, don’t hold your breath.

Mitsubishi continues domination of Dakar Rally

How else can one consider Mitsubishi’s record-breaking 12th win in the team’s 25-year history of competing and a 7th successive victory in this year’s Dakar Rally other than awesome domination of what’s considered as the world’s most grueling and punishing off-road auto rally.

The French tandem of Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret of team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart won the event for the third time in four years aboard their Misubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution and beat their team mates and defending champions Luc Alphand and Gilles Picard by a margin of just 7 minutes 26 seconds after 15 days of bruising competition across Portugal, Morocco, Mali and Senegal.

But the winning team conceded that driving fast all the time would not necessarily always translate to victory in the Dakar Rally. "I was very nervous on the last big African special stage and I just drove slowly on the beach," said lead driver Peterhansel. "It was not necessary to do the show for the crowd and the television. When I won my first motorcycle race in Tunisia, I did not win a special stage, so in my head it was never a problem not to win a special stage on this Dakar race. It is not that important."

"Taking the overall victory in Dakar is the important thing. It is the best feeling. Our new MPR 13 is very good and very fast, but I’m sure that we can make even more improvements this year before we come back to try win the Dakar rally again in 2008," he added.

Out of a capacity entry of 185 cars, 247 bikes and quads and 85 trucks, only 109 cars, 132 bikes and quads and 59 trucks reached the finish in Dakar after a shortened route of 7,915 kilometers, of which 4,309 kilometers were competitive.

Our friends at Mitsubishi Motors Philippines, senior vp for marketing, Mel Dizon, avp for marketing services, Froy Dytianquin and Arlan Reyes, asst. manager for ad and promo, would have another reason to beat their breasts for such unprecedented feat. They can add this to the success that they are experiencing with their newly launched Mitsubishi Strada pick up, which incidentally would be placed under the very close scrutiny of the motoring media in a grueling test drive scheduled tomorrow at the almost finished highway connecting Clark to Subic. I’ll fill you in on this adventure in our future columns.

Congratulations to Mitsubishi for their Dakar Rally victory.

Eco Run with the Civic

In the midst of very successful record-setting and record-breaking performances registered by the Honda Jazz in recent Petron fuel eco runs, Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI) continues its demonstration of the fuel efficiency of their models as the Civic Fuel Eco event ran its second leg last Saturday, January 27.

"In times of fuel crises, it is imperative to be keen and observant with the amount of fuel consumed on daily trips. This effort includes applying the proper skills in driving," was how Mr. Arnel Doria, HCPI vice president for marketing explains Honda’s continued staging of eco runs utilizing their various models and showcasing the high fuel efficiency that they all demonstrate. And Arnel adds, "And of course, driving an i-VTEC engineered car adds greatly to one’s goal in saving gas."

In the second leg of its 4-leg series that was open to owners of 1.8 Civic with manual transmission, a fuel performance of 16.5274 kilometers for every liter of Total Unleaded gasoline was registered by Jonathan and Didi de Leon, who topped the list as champions of the event and was followed by Raymond and Jennifer Mena with a second place fuel performance of 15.8652 kilometers per liter and the tandem of Jantsen Ang and Melvin Cheng came in third registering 15.3065 kilometers per liter.

In the media category Dino Directo of Manila Standard Today and Ferdie Baja of DZXL topped their peers with a fuel performance of 14.9109 kilometers per liter.

The fuel efficiency competition flagged off at the Total Greenhills in Ortigas Avenue and was conducted under "city driving" conditions.

Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards Update

Petron has again confirmed its sponsorship support for this year’s staging of the Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards to determine the most popular automobile and motorcycle models in all their categories and ultimately the Automobile & Motorcycle of the Year. Ms. Charmaine Canillas, Petron’s Ad & Promo head honcho has only to schedule the official inking of the sponsorship contract with Petron’s dapper president himself, Mr. Khalid Al-Faddagh together with Mr. Joey Campos, its vp for marketing and STV, Sunshine Television, the organizers.

Meanwhile, JVC has agreed, pending contract-signing, to supply all the video hardware requirements of all the events that are part of the annual prestigious awards, namely; the official launch and display at the Alabang Town Center, the audio-visual Mall Tour at the SM Megamalls, the Satellite Displays and Test Drives to be held in San Fernando, Pampanga and Davao City and the culminating Grand Display and Test drive at the World Trade Center — bannered as "the most comprehensive auto show" with the participation of all the major players in the local automobile and motorcycle industries. This will mean that all the TV screens where the public can learn more about the different automobile and motorcycle models that can be voted on, which would show not only videos of these but their technical specs as well, will all be in living color and will all be JVC TV systems.

In our effort to create more awareness about the polls and to help the public get more informed about the different current automobile and motorcycle models that are presently available in the local market, a large audio-visual booth will have a tour of the different malls in the metro. Aside from the audio-visuals actual public voting will also be done right within the booth.

A huge turnout is expected during the 4-day Grand Display and Test Drive at the World Trade Center to be held from May 24 to 27. Both automobile and motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to make a bee line to the exhibition site to see up close current models of cars and motorbikes and the chance to test drive many of them. Firms of automotive products and services and those from peripheral businesses are expected to take the opportunity to display their wares to the crowd drawing show, vaunted to be "the biggest motor show of the year."

Sunshine Television is now accepting applications for exhibitors on a "first come, first serve basis" for the very limited number of display booths, which is expected to be gobbled up by auto insurance companies, tires and accessories firms, audio equipment, etc., the number to call is 633-4422 (c/o Sky or Stephen) or drop by their offices at the Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig City.

Features on the Premier Auto TV Magazine

Another hour exclusively dedicated to the automobile and the auto industry unfolds again as Auto Focus, the Philippine automobile show airs this Friday at 10:30 in the evening over at Solar Sports (Channel 13 for Sky and Home Cable TV and Channel 9 for Destiny Cable TV).

On the show’s Q&A segment questions from one of the viewers about the newly launched Isuzu Altera would be answered by no less than the senior vice president for business development of Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC), Mr. Art Balmadrid.

For the week’s auto features, in response to the numerous requests from viewers, we shall spotlight the Suzuki Swift and this will be in tandem with a treat for off-roaders by way of a 1960 Willys Jeep.

For our Technical Feature, we shall put on center stage Honda’s state-of-the-art robot — ASIMO.

Of course there’s the weekly update on the latest news and developments in the auto industry and its peripheral sectors including the latest automobiles released from all over the world completes the total weekly viewing package for the auto enthusiasts — Auto Focus.

Happy Motoring!!!

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