I’m working on a number of other PhilFAQS blog subjects (perhaps one of my weaknesses, too many irons in the fire at once) but I couldn’t resist Bob Martin’s recent post about “Getting Around“.  Bob lives down there in the sunny Philippine Southland, Davao City, Mindanao, which is almost as far south as you can get in the Philippines.  I live in central Luzon, the northernmost major island, just outside Metro Manila.  The subject seems attractive to me because Bob and I share much the same choice of automobiles … the Mitsubishi Adventure.  Bob’s is older, but it’s given him real good service and mine appears that it will give me equally good service as the years and kilometers roll on.

One major difference is that Bob opted for the gas engine version while mine is the 2.5 liter diesel offering.  I looked at a number of comparable vehicles … and some not so comparable, including the Toyota HiAce van.  I really wanted a Toyota HiAce diesel, I drove one for years in Japan and liked it a lot … but Toyota has changed the vehicle to resemble and ugly, misshapen box, so I reluctantly had to look elsewhere.  Among other things the newer Toyota vans are much wider than before and trust me … in the Philippines you do not want a wide vehicle.  Threading your way through narrow openings and “insinuating” yourself into “gaps of opportunity” in traffic (”making singit” in the local vernacular) is a way of life, and wide always loses.  I also have no interest in a used vehicle and advise against it.  The Philippines is cursed with cast-off Japanese vehicles, imported in quantity and converted (with various degrees of skill) from right-hand to left-hand drive.  No matter what you think you already know about cars you know very little about these “beasts” because they are built to Japanese standards, not the US standards that Japanese cars in the US are, and among other things the electronic control systems will be a continual headache.

I finally picked my Mits because of the nearby dealer.  It’s important to me not to have to drive hours and hours in traffic just to get scheduled minor service done … so, anyway, that’s why and I’m happy that it made the choice I did.

Gas versus diesel?  I won’t go too deep into that question, it starts to reassemble a political or religious argument rapidly, but in a country where you spend most of your time stopping, starting and idling the low speed torque and tremendously better idling fuel consumption makes a diesel a good choice.  A diesel requires more frequent oil changes, bot a gas engine has more small maintenance items … it’s really a matter of preference but in the same vehicle a diesel will consume substantially less fuel over a long time span.  The automatic versus manual argument is also more choice than fact.  Stuck in traffic as often as you are going to be an automatic can be much more convenient.  Hot as it is here, though, I worry about heat buildup with an automatic.  A manual will consume less overall fuel in the lifetime of the vehicle as well, but again, it’s not worth a fight … either will serve you well.

I got a chuckle out of Bob’s comment also that $3.00 a gallon gas was more expensive than in the US … not in the US I know … here’s the latest government gas price postings from only a week or so ago and I see more plus $3 than sub $3 prices there.  My diesel uses 32.8 per liter diesel fuel at a rate of 12.4 km per liter.  Yes, that’s something else you are going to have to adjust to … the US is virtually alone in holding to the antiquated non-metric system and you are going to have to learn to “think Metric” or be forever converting.  I’ll do it for you this time ;-)  My Metro Manila-area diesel fuel is at this moment $2.83 USD per gallon and my overall average fuel mileage in mostly city driving is 29.8 miles per gallon.  This site will be of tremendous use to you in the future, I think.

So, hope that added a little to your overall how does it work and what does it cost there in the Philippines picture.

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