This year’s auto industry rigodon has new participants. Astara Philippines, the multinational mobility distributor that handles the local operations of Peugeot and GAC Motor, announced in an August 2023 press statement that it has appointed two well-renowned executives in key leadership positions. Timmy Naval-de Leon, who was formerly head of corporate communications of the Ayala Corporation’s automotive arm AC Motors for nine years, is now Astara Phiippines’ new marketing director. Naval-de Leo

Unless you’ve recently come back from a tech detox, you’ve no doubt heard of a little snafu happening with Daihatsu and Toyota, where they committed a bit of an alleged cheat in crash safety tests. While full details are still making their way down the pipeline, the general story is that Toyota’s small-car division Daihatsu, which makes the Raize, Vios, Wigo and the Avanza/Veloz twins, had allegations of fraud lobbed against it because of a modification on the Vios and Wigo units that it produce

The Hyundai i10 has a relatively short history in the Philippines. It was initially brought in to fight the likes of the Kia Picanto, Toyota Wigo and Honda Brio. However, its time in the Philippine market was short-lived as no new generation arrived. In other markets, the i10 nameplate is still alive and well, as the Hyundai hatchback has recently received a minor update. While the facelift doesn’t bring anything revolutionary to the vehicle's design, it does get a few tweaks to its styling, esp

Slated to be formally launched in the Philippine market by the end of this month, the updated 2023 Mitsubishi Xpander Cross features a host of interesting improvements. This is largely based on the updated Mitsubishi Xpander Cross launched during the Gaikindo Indonesia International Motor Show last year. Judging from how it looks, there’s much to look forward to as it promises to be better than the previous model. Apart from the numerous improvements on the exterior and interior, one of the aspe

Although the rear-wheel-drive Mazda CX-60 and Mazda CX-90 have been hogging the headlines recently, Mazda has another sharp-looking crossover. The Mazda CX-50 isn’t poised to take on the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz unlike its larger stablemates. Instead, it uses a larger version of the excellent-handling, front-wheel-drive Mazda3 platform and is a bit larger than the Mazda CX-5 crossover. But the mere fact that Mazda has just introduced the CX-50 in China and has assigned local assembly to th

The home of VTEC is celebrating 32 years of operations in the country. Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) announced in a press statement that it is holding its “Honda at 32: Celebration Blowout” from Oct. 1 to 31, 2022. Customers can get cash discounts, low all-in downpayment, low monthly amortization, flexible financing options, and other special offers, including deals on the Honda Safety Driving Center (HSDC) automobile learning programs. HCPI was established on October 1990 under the Philipp