Your driver’s license should stay with you

The question of whether the security guards of exclusive villages or subdivisions have the right to take your driver’s license upon your entry into their private enclave keeps coming back to me "like an old song".

So to answer the question of one of our readers, Remy Sabale — I don’t think they have the "right" to get your license and I do not give my license. I give them an ID with my picture and if that doesn’t work and they would still not allow me to enter, I call the homeowner that I’m supposed to see and make a request for them to call the guard house to let me in. The reason for my adamant refusal to give my license is that these guards would not take the responsibility in the event that they misplaced my license and even if they would (although I can’t imagine how), I would still have to work on its replacement myself taking so much of my time and effort that I can use for something more useful other than paying for some guard’s stupidity.

Now, in the case of business parks, I just bite the bullet because I consider this another "Hail Mary" situation. Going into a business park would, more often than not, mean having a business purpose that can’t afford any kind of delay. If that were the case, leave your license and ask for proof of their receipt and just pray the "Hail Mary" that your license would not be misplaced.

Cats Motors now in Makati

With no less than its president and CEO for South East Asia, Dr. Rainer Thiel, flying in for the occasion together with its regional manager Mr. Peter Mackenzie and head for corporate communications, Mr. Helfried Scharf in tow, DaimlerChrysler AG must consider Cats Motors’ opening of its second sales and service facility in Makati that significant.

This new facility comes at the heels of the first, which was opened right after the official announcement of the appointment of Cats Motors as distributor responsible for all aspects of automotive sales and after-sales in the Philippines for selected DaimlerChrysler brands and products — Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge.

Friends and business partners Greg Yu, chairman and Felix Ang, president of Cats Motors had their hands full entertaining a whole slew of friends, clients and the motoring media who came for the successful opening of their new and very impressive showroom and sales and service outlet located along Pasong Tamo Extension.

The new Makati marketing and service facility has both larger showroom and service workshop areas compared to its EDSA outlet to accommodate more customers — six dedicated Service Bays, five Heavy Repairs Bays, six Bodywork Bays and five Paintwork Bays housed in a 770 sq. meter showroom area and 2,626 sq. meter service area.

Two promos came with its opening that can undoubtedly entice those still undecided to already make the move to take home the vehicle that has caught their fancy. There’s the "300C for 300K", which allows anyone to drive off a 2006 Chrysler 300C for just 300,000 peso-down payment with a monthly of only 30,300 pesos. There’s also a timely promo for this rainy season. Since the Dodge Durango can comfortably fit eight passengers and go through flooded highways and muddy roads with its tough 4x4 drive system, one can drive it home with a low down payment of 199,000 pesos with 50,000 pesos worth of free gas.

A Milestone of an AUV

Remember that 50,000th Adventure AUV that Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation (MMPC) proudly rolled out of their assembly line a couple of months back? It was promised by MMPC that they would give it away to a lucky Mitsubishi Adventure owner — and they just did.

The lucky Mitsubishi Adventure owner who was handed the keys of this historical AUV unit last July 7 by no less than top MMPC executives Mr. Kengo Takase, president and CEO and Mr. Yoshiaki Ichimura, senior executive vice president was Ms. Josephine O. Cunanan, a resident of Plaridel, Bulacan.

Five other lucky Adventure owners among the thousands who joined the promo that was part of the celebrations for the manufacturing milestone unit who won 50,000 pesos each include Ernesto Samano and Artemio Carandang both of Las Pinas, Manuelito Cura of Taguig, Andales Mercado of Cebu City and Erlinda Liongson of Navotas.

"One Mitsubishi Adventure after another will keep on rolling out of the MMPC manufacturing plant as our customers continue patronizing Mitsubishi’s very remarkable AUV," says Froy Dytianquin, avp for marketing services of Mitsubishi Motors Philippines.

"And at the rate the market is moving the 100,000th unit may not be far behind," added Arlan Reyes, MMPC’s senior manager for advertising.

ASIMO promotes further Philippine-Japan Friendship

With rains pouring and the classes in all levels already suspended for that stormy Tuesday last week a lot of children woke up disappointed for losing their rare opportunity to meet Honda’s very smart robot, ASIMO, "who" was scheduled to show them his new wares that day. But always doting, the parents made their own calls directly to Honda Cars Philippines almost begging not to cancel the event. But this was only after the guys from Honda had coordinated with nearby orphanages to have their wards ready to be picked up to meet ASIMO. But then it was a welcome problem for those from Honda because that would only mean that the children would not be disappointed at all and there’ll be a lot more of them to see ASIMO that wet, rainy day — logistic adjustments and hurried preparations notwithstanding.

This is the second visit of ASIMO to the country and this time it was aptly timed to be part of the celebrations marking the 50th year of Philippine-Japan Friendship. No less than the very friendly Ambassador of Japan to the Philippines, His Excellency Ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki was there to grace the media presentation of ASIMO at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

There have been several new "antics" that ASIMO has been developed to do and the most significant of these is his ability to recognize faces and objects. How? Don’t ask me, Arnel Doria, Honda’s deputy head for marketing in the Philippines (who, I heard from the grapevine had just been given a well-deserved promotion to a VP position) couldn’t also explain in detail how. But he can only be so glad that it’s the same technological minds that are working on the development of ASIMO that are behind the ever-advancing technology of Honda vehicles.

Pit Lane Notes

11 points for the Driver’s Championship and 10 points for the Constructor’s, that’s how close the contests are in the 2006 World Formula One Series after Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher won last Sunday’s German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, thus blowing wide open the dual championships.

A DNF for defending champion Fernando Alonso of Renault in any of the coming races, with Schumy maintaining his winning ways — three-time, back-to-back wins from the US Grand Prix to France and last Sunday in Germany can complete a genuine come back for the German multi-champion record holder and another constructor’s championship for the Italian race car maker.

A real sorry scene at the podium was that of pole starter Kimi Raikkonen who was visibly disappointed with his 3rd place finish that he didn’t even have the "animo" to spray his champagne during the traditional "champagne shower’ after what seemed to be car problems that considerably slowed him down at one crucial stage of the race causing the victory to slip from under his chassis. I remember hearing one of the commentators saying that it was all a waste of talent on "wanting" machinery.

It seems like we’ll have a real cliffhanger in this year’s series making all us Formula 1 enthusiasts look forward to every race day — the next of which is in Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix this Sunday.

Motoring Tip of the Week

More timely tips for our motorists regarding driving through flooded streets as we find ourselves in the midst of the rainy season and with the Metro streets prone to flooding, sometimes even after a short but heavy downpour.

Always maintain a high RPM while driving through floods to keep the water from entering the engine through the exhaust system. When you let go of your accelerator pedal and lower your engine’s RPM, water would almost surely be sucked in through the exhaust pipes and on to the manifold and straight to your engine. And this would cause your engine to cease and for your vehicle to stall.

When driving through floods — keep your RPM up.

Happy Motoring!!!

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