Rekindling an Old Flame

MANILA, Philippines - I thought I would not recognize him when I see him. We got a long history together. Traveled the long way up and long way round the country. We used to roll the windows down and sang with the music out loud, danced raves on our seats while careening down highways. We’ve spent sleepy afternoon hours through sun-dappled roads of Tarlac, South-bound, North-bound, soul-bound. We’ve sat for hours in a parking lot watching a rented movie while waiting for a friend. We’ve role-played to get the boredom out of those day-long drives up North. We’ve roamed Metro Manila streets aimlessly past midnight, parking at gas stations and roadsides most times in torrential rain.

I thought I would not recognize him when I see him. That he’s changed colors. That he’s become sophisticated, more techie. He’s supposed to be better dressed, flashier, more head-turning. He’s become ever more successful through the years.

I thought I would not recognize him when I see him. Not just because I knew after all these years that he would have changed just as I have changed. I just never thought he would ever think of himself getting older. He’s even had a facelift, would you believe? It’s true. I read it in the presskit before I went out to meet him.

I laid eyes on him as he stood in the sun waiting for a photo shoot. How vain, you think? Oh but the Isuzu Crosswind is the most unassuming, modest, unpretentious AUV you’d ever get to come across. At least that was what I have always believed, before I read the press kit. So then I worried that maybe he wouldn’t recognize me.

Oh yes, he is flashier now with a six-hole, fully embossed radiator grille set lower on the bumper. He’s got halogen projector-type headlamps. He did look different with the silver garnish on the bumper and and chrome garnish on the foglamps. My initial thought was we could have used those that time we got caught in the very thick early morning fog in Tarlac. But hey, it was a better experience that we had made that unplanned pitstop and got a chance to chat with the locals while watching the fog clear. Anyway, it’s his new “face value” according to his friends at Isuzu Philippines Corporation.

And it’s true what I heard, he did get new colors with all these exotic names: Fusion Orange (XUV), Granite Grey (XUV and XT), Moroccan Gold (Sportivo), Tundra Green (Sportivo) and Venetian Blue (XTi). It took me a while to recognize him.

I inched slowly closer to him during the photo shoot. It was hard to launch into any getting-to-know-you-again phase with a bunch of motoring media and IPC personnel milling around. So I stood gingerly in front of him and smiled and waved for the camera.

It was a very familiar feeling for me to once again load my luggage at the back. Once inside the Isuzu Crosswind Sportivo, it was even harder for me to recognize him. He’s got this audio unit with ultra-wide touchscreen LCD monitor. Once the iPod got connected, it was hard not to notice how even our music sounded different now. Up front, there’s a new design for the console with integrated cup holders. At the second row, there are a pair of headrest-mounted 7-inch high-resolution LCD monitors, even a pull-down convenient tray. I guess I’ll never spill my Nalgene on him again, just like on the way down from Baguio when I role-played as an artist-hitchhiker that he picked up on the side of the road.

I thought I wouldn’t recognize him and he wouldn’t recognize me after all this time. Part of me didn’t recognize him actually until we eased into the NLEX traffic and we both knew the familiar feeling of hitting the road and being free.

I looked out the window and wondered about how men would always think of their flashy cars as their girlfriends or worse, trophy girlfriends. It’s all about “vital statistics,” ain’t it?

Well, the truth is most times the stories we like to remember about our cars or our vehicles are our memories of them. Just like IPC president Keiji Takeda’s stories. In the welcome remarks at the press conference with the motoring media at Camp John Hay, Baguio, he talked about his long relationship with the Isuzu Crosswind. He was part of the initial development of the vehicle; the Crosswind was his trusted service vehicle in one of his longer assignments in Southeast Asia and now he has overseen the development of the 2010 Crosswind.

The Crosswind has a pedigree. Well, not exactly like those vehicles whose names usually get attached to the word pedigree followed by words like fast, sexy and sleek. As Mr. Takeda put it: “Of our best-selling and award-winning vehicles, I am particularly fond of the Crosswind. We manufacture it in our Biñan plant in Laguna. More than anything, it showcases the world-class skills of Filipino workers. The Crosswind remains to be the only Philippine-made vehicle ever to be displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show which took place in 2002.”

It took us the long way round to Baguio through the scenic and once perilous route via Nueva Vizcaya before falling into the comfort of our old routines. Even with the facelift and all the added gadgets and creature comforts, he was still the same guy who plodded through floodwater and fog to get me to where I wanted to be, the same one who would maneuver through sharp switchbacks and endless zigzags with me sound asleep.

An old love with a truly great vehicle like the Isuzu Crosswind doesn’t fade so easily. Looking over the bridge down at the raging, cascading waters of Ambuklao Dam or running down a hangover past creeks and huffing and puffing up hillsides at the Eco-trail of Camp John Hay, I thought of this one thing I’ve always loved about cars. Yeah, yeah it’s so great to read about the amazing things a car can do or how beautiful it looks, but if you just don’t have a relationship full of memories with it then it’s just a meaningless one night stand with someone you will never get to know.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The new Isuzu crosswind is available six variants: the manual transmission XT at P875,000, manual transmission XTI at P935,000, manual transmission XUV at 1.032 million, automatic transmission XUV at 1.092 million, manual transmission Sportivo at 1.145 million and automatic transmission Sportivo at 1.210 million.