"Dream EDSA" a reality soon?

I hope it won’t really have to take a "budget less" LTFRB before the populace would get to realize the dream of having the Metro’s main thoroughfare less clogged with more than 80% of buses plying it day in and day out with majority of them half empty during most of the day finally taken away.

Word has it that the Senate stalwarts led by its former president Senator Franklin Drilon and legal luminary Senator Joker Arroyo are irked by the inability of LTFRB chairperson Elena Bautista to make good her promise to reduce the number of buses plying EDSA from 5,000 to 1,000.

I have maintained since before that one of the major reasons (among a number of others) why EDSA is always clogged even on "lean times" is the presence of too many buses competing for a much reduced number of commuters compared to the "peak hours". And it will not take a mathematical genius to determine this. All one has to do to prove this observation is to stay in EDSA at "off hours" and see these half-empty of half-full buses (whichever, it means the same thing — more supply than demand) jockeying for space to get to the limited number of commuters. Now, the sheer numbers of buses that ply EDSA coupled by the rude and inconsiderate manner that most of their drivers maneuver their behemoth buses to get the commuters contribute to the mayhem in EDSA.

The added thorn to the already bothering scenario is that most of these buses are confirmed by the LTFRB head to be colorum or without franchise and shouldn’t be there in the first place — EDSA clogged or not.

Many have faith in the leadership of USec Bautista and are confident that she would meet her self-imposed deadline of reducing the number of buses in EDSA to 1,000 or to the adjusted 1,800 before or by the end of this year and of ridding our streets of colorum vehicles that aggravate the present near anarchic road situation in the Metro.

"Early Birds" of the Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards

Three premium slots have been reserved this early for 2007 Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards Grand Display and Test Drive to be held for the first time indoors at the World Trade Center in Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City.

The "early birds" who made sure they would get their preferred slots were Motor Image Pilipinas, the country’s exclusive distributors of Subaru, Isuzu Philippines Corporation and Honda Cars Philippines.

Nicky Mariano and Ariel de Jesus, general manager and marketing manager respectively of the newly established Motor Image distributorship in the country consider their joining the Grand Display as another way of saying "Hey, we’re now here and we’re here strong!"

While if you’ll remember, Isuzu Philippines had quite a share of this year’s awards starting with the "Automobile of the Year — People’s Choice" for their Crosswind, the D-Max for the Pick-up of the Year, the Alterra for the Large SUV of the Year.

On the other hand, Honda Cars Philippines romped off with Compact SUV of the Year Award for their CRV and the Accord for the Midsize Sedan of the Year Award.

Other members of the local auto industry are still working on the October 31 deadline for their preferred slots.

It treats the engine, not the oil

A new automotive product has just been introduced into the Philippine market and its full of promises — increase engine life, increase horsepower, improve fuel economy, improve overall performance, provide protection during cold starts, reduce friction, reduce operating temperature, reduce wear, reduce engine noise and vibration and protect metal surfaces from galling when lubrication is lost — and it’s called X-1R.

The product lineup was recently launched at the Manila Speed Zone by the company known as Quantum Global and it’s bruited to treat the engine rather than the oil, which separates it from the rest of the other products that claim to give the same benefits to motor vehicles.

Quantum Global president Harold R. Ledda said during the launch, "These lubricants are designed and formulated to cleanse any and all combustion engines of harmful deposits that reduce engine performance. These lubricants, when added to motor engines, become part of metal, penetrate into the metal component and smooth out their natural roughness to deduce friction, wear and the damaging metal to metal contact every time you start your engine."

The marketing thrust of the X-1R product line is "savings" with their use — in terms of fuel consumption, repair costs and overall maintenance of your vehicles. They’re probably worth the try. With the ballistic rise of costs of everything related to having and operating motor vehicles — anything that can make people save on costs is always worth a try.

Honda does a "two-in-a-row"

Two events for the motoring media courtesy of Honda Cars Philippines (HCPI) were marked last week — the Honda Jazz Media Challenge last Saturday, October 14 and the 8th Honda Media Golf Tournament earlier in the week, October 10.

Last Tuesday, what started in the early morning as a perfect day for golf at the Alabang Golf and Country Club ended with the scraping of scores for some of the holes as rain poured by lunchtime. But the rain-drenched journalists who teed-off by mid-morning and couldn’t continue due to the heavy downpour that prevented them from seeing the green or the flag were happy for the opportunity of having two showers, with one at the fairways, compared to those who started early who only settled for one, which was at the clubhouse. But the unexpected rain did not spoil the expected camaraderie among the media golfers and the HCPI executives lead by its well-mannered president Takashi Sekiguchi and marketing top honcho Arnel Doria together with their associates and sponsors (Total’s Alexine Parreño was as usual her alive and bubbly self) that has always been shared since the tradition started.

Here are the winners of the Honda golf tourney:

Class C — Pompeo Navarro of Bandera

Class B — Ronnie Pimentel of Total Philippines

Class A — Jong Arcano of Inquirer

Last Saturday, it was the racing buffs in the motoring media that were feted by Honda Cars Philippines by way of the now institution, Honda Media Challenge. The venue was the Carmona Racing Circuit where the Honda Jazz VTEC was again subjected to racing abuse by motoring journalists who just used to write about racing events but now are deep into insights of the sport on a "first-hand’ bases, citing own experiences.

The event not only pits individual talents but team spirit as well with first leg winners Philippine STAR Team, (Jeff Reyes, Manny delos Reyes, Andy Leuterio and Lester Dizon) happily settling for second place in the veterans category to the Bulletin/Manila Times Team, (Anjo Perez, Aris Ilagan, Brian Afuang and Aaron Favila) if only to make the event more exciting and not solely dominated, that is, if I understood right what my motoring editor and STAR team manager Dong Magsajo said after the awarding ceremonies to cap the second leg — after all it was The STAR’s Jeff Reyes who again registered the leg’s best time.

In the novice category the Top Gear Team made their mark again topping this leg just like the first, upending the C-Magazine Team, which settled for second.

Next leg of the Honda Jazz VTEC Media Challenge is scheduled on November 18.

Happy Motoring!!!

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