A mix of the new and the old—for a long time
With the advent of the newly designed plates, it will definitely take some time before we can have a uniform format of letter and number combinations for the country’s vehicle registration plates.
The latest report has it that according to LTO (Land Transportation Office) executive director Atty. Alfonso Tan, Jr., all those who would renew their vehicle registration would be required to apply for the replacement of plates and the new plates for those who will renew their registration will have the same letters and numbers as their old ones.
I guess this pronouncement of maintaining the vehicles’ plate numbers is in line with an existing law dictating that a motor vehicle’s registration plate number shall stay as the said vehicle is still in existence, operating or not—not even in death will they part.
What this means is that the millions of vehicles that have been registered prior to the implementation of the new alphanumeric combination, which is three (3) letters and four (4) numbers will still have the old combination of three (3) letters and three (3) numbers although in an altogether new registration plate size with all the added security features. This is of course until the time that all the prior-registered millions of vehicles would have all “died” or a new law is passed rendering them obsolete and unusable or illegal, which could mean decades of mixing the new and the old.
What road map?
In last year’s frenzy of test-drive events and parties thrown by the country’s automobile companies, one of the major serious talks I had with industry top executives was about the long-delayed release by the government of the much-hyped about auto industry road map, which has been touted to spell the hastened development of the sector.
The common answer whenever I throw the question was, “What road map?” Although done in jest, the answer says much or a lot of what many, if not all in the industry think of the said road map—a joke?
A keen industry observer maintains that with the overall industry’s interests being divided between that of manufacturers and that of importers, with some wearing both hats of manufacturer and importer in running their business enterprise, it would be very challenging, if not difficult or outright impossible to come up with an even playing field of incentives that would be acceptable to all parties concerned.
An industry scenario that would favor auto manufacturers would be viewed as inimical to those importing and would also be similarly true if the reverse is adopted considering that at the end of the day any kind of incentive would redound to lower prices, which in this market-driven market is the end-all of most top-selling models.
The local auto industry road map—drawing lang?
A busy year ahead for the auto industry
During the mad rush for available dates to hold last year’s Christmas Party, which was further cramped with the unexpected visit of an off-season storm, a couple of car companies have opted to hold their media “thanksgiving party” this month.
And with the long list of auto industry activities lined up this year, they better get these events over with before the calendar gets more packed as it is already now.
STV (Sunshine Television) alone has quite a slew of industry events and although they have been in the calendar for several years now, we made sure that we released their dates as early as the last week of November last year so as to lay our stake to the given dates.
These yearly activities include two legs of the STV ARCC (Auto Rally Corporate Challenge), the only motor sport event that all the members of the local auto industry openly compete against although in the most friendly and non-confrontational manner. For this year we have decided to hold the 1st leg back in March, which has been its original schedule with the 2nd some time in the third week of November.
Then there are the multi-brand industry test drive events that STV organizes—with the Summer Test Drive Festival sometime in April and the Pre-Christmas Test Drive Festival in the 1st week of November.
We also have the voting of the AFPCA (Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards), which we hope to launch as early as March with on-site voting to start during the MIAS (Manila International Auto Show) scheduled in the early part of April. This is when most of the participating models will be on display, which makes it very convenient for the public to make comparisons and cast their votes.
We also have the traditional STV Invitational Golf Cup, an always-awaited yearly golf tournament exclusive to the friends and supporters of Sunshine TV, who are mostly from, but not limited to the auto industry, which is set on the 2nd Friday of May.
Now think of the more than 30 automobile brands that are currently active in the country. Just give them an average of three events in a year, which by present standards are quite few to be considered active and that would mean more than 90 events to be tightly packed in a year’s 52 weeks.
Now for most of us serious motoring journalists who find it a must to cover as many events as physically possible to give everyone equitable airtime or column inches of coverage, it is a nightmare just thinking of what lies ahead in 2015.
This year would indeed be a very busy year for the auto industry—a lot busier than 2014.
May the gods of sustained stamina be with us in the motoring media.
You got it all wrong!
In the final days of the recent prolonged holidays, I decided to do some driving in my newfound toy of a muscle car so as to shake off the cobwebs and the gathering inertia of staying at rest. The best place to unwind and see how a 5.0-liter engine can go within legal speed limits, are the expressways. And while at the expressways I can’t help but notice a very wrong notion of many drivers with regard to passing or overtaking and handling speed limits.
Many drivers think that as long as they are running at top legal speed, which in the case of our expressways is at 100 kph, they can stay in the passing lane or the innermost lane or that nearest the center island.
Well dude, you got it all wrong! It is called ‘passing lane’ because you only use it when passing or overtaking a slower vehicle. After you have done your passing maneuver, you are supposed to go back to the middle lane.
Now, if you are running at top legal speed while at the passing lane and another vehicle is behind you poised to pass while you are in the passing lane, don’t give a hoot if the guy is running faster than you and beyond legal speeds. That is his look out! Your lookout is to stay out of the passing lane because someone else wants to pass you. And for heaven’s sake, let him pass—that’s the proper thing to do! If you do otherwise, you are not doing the proper thing and you are not practicing road safety.
Happy Motoring!!!
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