Toyota’s impressive media event ‘down under’

The regional media event was dubbed as "The Toyota Great Multipurpose Vehicle Adventure" in which motoring journalists from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were flown from their respective countries, first to Sydney, the largest city of Australia for a well-thought of and highly informative media presentation centering on Toyota’s wide array of MPVs (Multi-purpose Vehicle) and IMVs (Innovative International Multi-purpose Vehicle) and then to the Gold Coast, the Commonwealth’s largest tourist resort known worldwide for its 70 kilometer-coastline of seemingly never-ending beaches for a series of exciting test drives of these benchmark-setting vehicles. Of course, in between were leisure activities with the familiar Toyota brand — well planned with a penchant for detail, lavish that’s bordering on the spectacular and undoubtedly difficult to top and indeed hard to forget.

Despite being in the midst of preparations for simultaneous activities like the Michelin Auto Focus Automobile of the Year Awards with its grand exhibit and test drive/ride and proclamation at the Fort scheduled in April and the SPMJ 2nd Invitational Golf Cup Tournament, our "golf-for-a-cause" project that’s also slated next month, the invitation coming from Danny "Sir John" Isla, First VP for marketing of Toyota Motor Philippines for a 4-day respite in Australia was just irresistible. Part of the incentive was that the 10-journalist contingent from the Philippines would be taken care of by Toyota’s media whiz kid, Ariel de Jesus. With "Anak" on the reins, and knowing his innate drift for fun, excitement and the nightlife, it must be an exciting foray.

And indeed no regrets for me and I’m sure this feeling was shared by all the other journalists in our group as we found out upon arrival at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel located along Elizabeth Street in Sidney that the grand media event was put together by no less than Vince Socco, a one-time top honcho for marketing of Toyota Motor Philippines, who resigned intact with his pride when he couldn’t see eye to eye with the then president of TMPC. Vince is now based in Singapore, working as General Manager of the Marketing Services Department of Toyota Motor Asia Pacific earning a king’s ransom as an expatriate while that past president is no longer connected with Toyota. Moral of the story, Mahirap banggain ang magaling na Pinoy!

Well, the purpose of the media event was for the invited motoring journalists to know more about a whole slew of Toyota’s multi-purpose vehicles including those that belong to their much-vaunted IMV benchmark project.

As many of you may already know Toyota has now reached new heights in its global automotive existence being currently the second largest automobile company in the world next to General Motors, which is still acknowledged as the biggest in terms of total sales. But recently released data show that Toyota however holds the enviable distinction of having registered better profits than that of GM.

Now, with the production of the present generation of MPVs that have been designed to meet the diverse demands of vehicle users all over the world and the advent of Toyota’s IMV Project, which is aimed to create an optimized global manufacturing and supply system for pickup trucks and multi-purpose vehicles to satisfy market demand in more than 140 countries worldwide, keen industry observers are saying that the prospect of Toyota being number one in the very near future is not at all remote.

As clearly explained during the media briefing in Sydney by Mr. Yoshio Shirai, managing officer of Toyota Motor Corporation, these new generation MPVs and IMVs from Toyota represent a whole package of a vehicle that represents what worldwide use requires.

On the other hand, Mr. Shigeru Takayanagi, senior vice president, marketing planning division of Toyota Motor Asia said that, "Using the IMV Project as a benchmark, a new era of global projects is beginning, and the growth will bring to the people and the countries involved will also help Toyota to grow as an automobile manufacturer."

The IMV project is an unprecedented vehicle project for Toyota. It is being conducted almost entirely outside Japan, including purchasing, manufacturing and logistics. One of Toyota’s ultimate goals in the production of IMV models is to procure nearly 100% of vehicle components from sources outside Japan.

Toyota’s IMV project has its own local impact as it calls for diesel engines to be made in Thailand, gasoline engines in Indonesia and manual transmissions here in the Philippines and in India for supply to the countries charged with vehicle production.

For vehicle assembly, Toyota will use plants in Thailand, Indonesia, Argentina and South Africa, which will supply the five all-new IMV vehicles namely, the Innova, the Fortuner and three variants of the Hilux to Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, Latin America and the Middle East.

More about our Australian sojourn with Toyota next week.

Precision driving with a Mazda

Several weeks back, March 3 & 4 to be more specific, a bunch of motor sports inclined motoring journalists — including myself and Pocholo Ramirez, the "living legend of racing" and long time co-host of our TV show Motoring Today — readily accepted an invitation from Mazda Philippines for a test drive of the Tribute, its SUV all the way to Subic. According to the invitation from Tonette Lee, the test drive would be climaxed with a hill climb drive competition.

The prospect of competitive driving and the company of Mazda Philippines’ amiable managing director, Dave "Mr. Mac" Macasadia were more than enough to get me out of bed early for an 8 o’clock breakfast and assembly at Mazda Greenhills located along EDSA prior to the long drive or ride to Subic.

In the evening before the drive, which the whole group spent at the Grande Island Resort, wholesomely marked by singing by most if not all of the motoring journalists, including a forgettable duet by Mr. Mac and myself (a bad local version of the Everly Brothers or a very good impersonation of the Reycard Duet — whatever), it was announced by Dave himself that the event just may be the last one by Tonette for Mazda as she has been rewarded for a job well done in Mazda Philippines with a much-coveted multi-model assignment in Ford. It actually set a mood of mixed emotions as the guys from Mazda felt their impending loss while thanking Tonette for her much appreciated contributions to Mazda and congratulating her for her promotion.

Well, the hill climb drive went well with Mike Black of Top Gear Magazine registering a perfect time for the Tribute 3-liter and myself coming up with the best time for the Tribute 2.4 variant.

Awards were given last Monday at the National Sports Grill in simple but fitting ceremonies ably emceed by Ford Philippines’ Hazel Ludovice (boxing can really make you lose weight, right Hazel?) with the best Team Award going to the group composed of Iñigo Roces, Chris Van Hoven, Apa Ongpin and Aris Ilagan. The top three drivers were Mike Black, followed by Aris Ilagan on second with myself third.

There were also awards given to adjudged best articles written about the event, which went to Tessa Salazar of the Inquirer, 1st followed by Aris Ilagan 2nd and 3rd was the article written by Brian Afuang of the Manila Times.

You guessed it right Pocholo, the "racing legend", registered the fastest time in the 2.4 variant while Anjo Perez of the Bulletin zoomed past everybody in the 3-liter model.

Pit Lane Notes

All the other Formula 1 teams should beware, because Ferrari means business this time. Their new car was originally scheduled to debut in Spain, but the team decided to use it this weekend in Bahrain instead. Although the F2004 was the car that won 15 of last season’s 18 races, Renault has shown so far that it is in a class of its own. Can the F2005 keep up with Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso, or has the power in Formula One really shifted from scarlet to blue? I guess it’s safe to say that Ferrari finds Renault’s domination quite alarming, thus their decision to speed up the unveiling process. Let’s see if their gamble will pay off. One person who is not at all threatened by this new development is Renault’s top F1 honcho Flavio Briatore. In fact, he reportedly said that he would welcome the competition.

Poor Jacques Villeneuve — people are already speculating that he won’t be finishing the 2005 season because he will either, a) be axed, or b) quit to avoid further humiliation. The Canadian said that he isn’t too comfortable with his car yet, but his detractors of course said that he was just making excuses. There are talks that the former World Champion might soon be replaced by BAR test driver Anthony Davidson.

So how do you guys like the new rules so far? Think they made the races more exciting and unpredictable? Which teams and drivers are benefiting from the changes the most? I’m still on the fence on that one, and I’m not really sure if we have the new rules to thank for the far from predictable grands prix we’ve had so far. All in all, I would have to say though that this is definitely one of the most exciting seasons in recent memory. Feel free to send me an email to tell me all about what you think.

Motoring Tip of the Week

So, it could be one of the most exciting (hopefully spiritually meaningful too) Holy Week vacations you had and that long countryside drive and that trip to the beach was indeed rejuvenating.

Now that you have settled down and just reminiscing some of the thrilling memories, it’s time to think of your automobile — the workhorse that helped you go places.

The least you can do, especially if you had gone to the beach or anywhere near the sea, is to give it a good bath — an over and under car wash. Get all the dust and soil and mud that may have accumulated in the under chassis and also give it a good wax over.

Love your car and it’ll take you far.

Happy Motoring!!!

For Comments: (E-Mail) motoring/[email protected]