Too many u-turns waste a lot of fuel
The present scenario of having an unabated and seemingly unending rise in fuel prices only strengthens the need to lessen the unnecessary u-turns in the Metro.
For one to go a farther distance just to make a left turn undisputedly wastes more fuel than waiting in traffic. And that’s the irony of the whole thing – the u-turns were designed to produce a smoother flow of traffic, which they don’t but instead vehicles cramped the u-turn slots that impede the flow of traffic and also in the process caused a lot of unnecessary accidents and the u-turns were bruited to diminish traffic congestion, which never happened but instead caused further gridlocks and to top it all “reversed” the internationally-accepted norm of having faster vehicles on the inner lane while the slower ones on the rightmost.
The government, as it takes serious account of the almost weekly increase in fuel prices, with more projected increases in the days to come, should take stock of all those that cause its unnecessary consumption – including the failed u-turn traffic scheme that’s visibly a wasteful experience.
Sounding repetitive – let’s not beat a dead horse.
It’s broke, it needs fixing!
Cheers to Columbian Autocar
Our good friend Mr. Felix J. Mabilog, Jr. has been humbly secretive about the distinction that was recently afforded to Columbian Autocar Corporation, exclusive manufacturer and distributor of Kia vehicles in the
Columbian Autocar was cited for its “professionalism of the highest degree and best overall sales performance in the Asia-pacific region”. Being president and COO, Mr. Mabilog no doubt equally deserves such honor for steering Columbian in besting other countries in the region.
Mr. H.K. Lee, senior vice-president and chief operating officer of Kia Motors presented the award to Felix himself as the opening highlight of the 2008 Kia Global Distributors’ Convention held at the China World Hotel in
Kudos to our friend, Felix and keep it up. Except that with all these, how can they allow you to retire?
Pit Lane Notes
After Robert Kubica’s maiden win in the recently held incident-filled Canadian Grand Prix, a lot of attention has streamed toward the team BMW Sauber, which is technically only on its second season and of course the presently shinning F1 driver who actually took over Jacques Villeneuve’s seat in the team in 2006.
The 24-year old first ever Polish F1 driver was born July 12 in
Although coming from a former eastern-block state that had little motor sports tradition, Robert Kubica showed early leanings toward his future vocation by persuading his parents to buy him his first car – a miniature petrol off-roader – at age four.
He soon grew tired of racing round bottles in their family’s front yard so he trooped to the nearest karting track, which was 150 kilometers away only to be disappointed as the rules had it that competitors should at least be ten years of age. After years of practice and upon reaching the required age he quickly dominated the Polish karting series. After which more of the laurels came.
In 1998 he became the first non-Italian to win the Italian Championship, which he repeated the next year after winning the prestigious Monaco Kart Cup. His karting career culminated with a 4th place finish in the 2001 World Karting Championship.
After karting he graduated to Formula Renault in 2001 and to Formula 3 Euro in 2003 and 3rd driver for BMW Sauber in 2006 – and the rest is history.
Before it gets out of hand
A regular reader, who chose not to be named in this column, called to express his apprehension over figures of fuel performance that have been coming out lately especially from newly launched automobile models.
Taking exemption from those “eco-drives” that have been duly supervised by independent organizations or those of automobile companies that have been institutionalized after having organized and documented results on a yearly basis, the observation is that considering that fuel efficiency rates high nowadays in a car buyer’s decision-making process, some automobile companies have been coming out lately with fantastic or perhaps even ridiculous figures that are even bordering on the preposterous.
This is a thought that’s worth pondering. And a follow up may be in order.
There’s a need to register again
If you intend to cast your votes for your favorite vehicle model so that it can be given the distinction of being one of the most popular automobiles, if not “the” most popular in the Philippines for this year via the Petron 2008 Auto Focus Automobile of the Year – People’s Choice Awards, you need to register one name and one e-mail address and you can vote once every day.
We have a re-registration going on in our voting website www.autofocus.com.ph and anyone who votes stands the chance of winning valuable prizes.
Starting this June up to November, we shall have an electronic draw of all the names of people who cast their votes and every end-of-the- month ten lucky voter stand the chance to win a “loot bag” of fantastic goodies from Goodyear Philippines and an over-night stay at Vistamar Beach Resort & Hotel located in Anilao, Batangas.
So if you have registered and cast your vote before June, all of your past votes were already tallied and registered but you need to register again now to be included in the raffle and your vote to qualify.
More votes mean more chances of winning prizes monthly.
Motoring Tip of the Week
Considering that the main concern of all motorists nowadays is the soaring prices of fuel, I would go through some of the fuel-saving tips that have seen print in this column in the past years.
First and foremost in having fuel efficiency is to improve on one’s driving. “Jack Rabbit” starts or the bad habit of popping the clutch to have a jump start that dramatically produces screeching tires (pa cry, cry tires) is never part of the equation for fuel efficient driving. Not only much fuel is unnecessarily consumed, much rubber from your tires is uselessly left on the pavement.
The other important thing is having the right anticipation. Like if you see an intersection ahead with the traffic lights on red, it would not be prudent for you to still press on your gas pedal. Instead back-off or release your accelerator and just allow your vehicle to reach the intersection on an idling engine.
Another important thing to do is to always have a plan or a list of things that you need to do or buy for the day. Having a planned itinerary prevents you from going around in circles, back and forth when you could have just taken a straight route. And a list of things to buy helps you from going to and from the grocery or supermarket for things that skipped your memory.
Happy Motoring!!!
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