The days of going from one car dealership to another while deciding on what vehicles to buy are over. Now prospective car buyers can conveniently find them all together in one place for close scrutiny and the ever-important hands-on experience of a test drive.
Starting tomorrow, Thursday, November 12 up to Sunday, November 15 all of the country’s major automobile manufacturers and importers (Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, Jeep, Lexus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Suzuki, Toyota and Volkswagen) will have the best that they can offer lined up at the Concert Grounds of the SM Mall of Asia for the public to see real up close and test drive to its hearts delight during this year’s staging of the Auto Focus Pre Christmas Test Drive Festival.
Those who are rearing to sit behind the wheel of vehicles from the Ford Philippines stable that offer the latest EcoBoost technology will have the chance to drive the Fiesta, Escape, Focus, and the Explorer.
Honda Cars Philippines on the other hand will have their line of remarkable vehicles like the City, Brio, Amaze, HR-V, Mobilio, CR-V, Accord and the Odyssey waiting to be tried out for their outstanding features.
The All-New Tucson, i20 Cross Sport, Accent Sedan / Hatch, Grand Santa Fe, Sonata and the exciting Genesis Coupe sports car from Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. will all be ready for test drive in the 4-day event.
In the Isuzu Philippines Corporation tents you will find the latest upgraded models of the top-selling Isuzu mu-X SUV and the D-Max pickup, both with more powerful engines and amazing added technical features.
The Auto Nation Group will have its “Jeep galore” offering with the Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Jeep Wrangler all for “real up-close looking into” and exciting test drive.
Lexus-Manila will have for close scrutiny the Auto Focus 2015-2016 People’s Choice Automobile of the Year (Luxury category) the Lexus NX200t for the premium car enthusiasts.
Mazda Philippines is looking forward to have the public view and test drive its latest and award-winning Skyactiv Mazda2, Mazda3 and Mazda6 cars.
The best-selling models of Mitsubishi Motors Philippines like the all-new Strada pick up and the Mirage and Mirage G4 will all be there for the public to appreciate and have hands-on experience.
From Nissan Philippines come their most exciting vehicles including the New Almera, X-Trail, NP300 Navara and the newly launched Juke.
Peugeot Philippines has quite an array of premium vehicles in its line up for test drive like the Peugeot 3008, 5008, 508, 301 and the Peugeot 208GTI.
Suzuki Philippines has its spotlight centered on the new Suzuki Swift SI, a sporty look limited version of the well-loved Swift with 1.2 liter 4-cylinder VVT engine as well as the Alto, Grand Vitara, all-new Celerio, Ertiga, and Jimny.
Toyota Motor Philippines will have the Innova, the best-selling Vios, New Avanza, all-new Hilux, Wigo and the Auto Focus People’s Choice 2015-2016 Automobile of the Year (Standard Category), the Fortuner.
While Volkswagen Philippines will proudly have on display and for test drive the Polo Sedan, Polo Hatchback, the iconic Beetle, Touran and the Tiguan.
Like in the past staging of this multi-brand test drive event, a well-designed test drive course shall be laid out right in the middle of the very accessible venue where most of the bannered features of vehicles available in the market like riding comfort, safety, stopping power, maneuverability and handling may be tested. This is without eliminating the option to drive in the public roads around the venue within the Mall of Asia to get to know further the vehicles being tested.
In order to give office workers a better chance to test drive despite the time consuming traffic gridlocks in the metro, test drive hours within the venue will be, like before up to 9 o’clock in the evening.
This biennial event (one in summer and another just before Christmas) organized by Sunshine TV is always much awaited by most of the major players of the industry as it’s a better and more effective way of getting together possible car buyers than having it done by them individually—more cost efficient, simpler to organize and more optimized.
But with the industry’s widening acceptance comes the problem of space limitation. From the start of the concept participation has always been on a “first come, first served” basis as the venue’s limited space can only accommodate so many number of participants. And with car companies having more models in the market, each needs more space to have their models for test drive.
Faced with such challenge, STV may just have to look for a bigger venue but meantime participants may just have to reserve posthaste for the next one. But then there will always be a way to serve everybody.
Happy Motoring!!!
For comments: sunshine.television@yahoo.com / motoringtoday-star@stv.com.ph.