The Filipinos Deserve Better

During the first few weeks of having my current car, a Mazda 3, I was naturally looking up ways on how to customize it. A quick Google search landed me on an online forum specializing in Mazda 3's. All models from different years and generations were discussed there. People from all over the world were sharing their ideas from turbocharging their Mazda 3's to what kind of polish was most appropriate.  

However, while I was looking for ways to boost my Mazda's performance, it became apparent that none had heard of a 1.5 litre Skyactiv engine in a Mazda 3. All of the discussions were about the 2.0 litre and 2.5 litre versions. The deeper I thought about it, the more depressing the truth became.

See, in our country we always seem to be lagging behind when it comes to new wheels. Take for example the Nissan GT-R. This was a car introduced back in 2007. Can you believe it was only 10 years later in 2017 when it was finally officially made available here? Sure the average Filipino wouldn't buy such a car, but the option would have been appreciated.

It's not only the high-end stuff that's been kept from us. Take a look at Hyundai's and Kia's line-up last year. The latest Hyundai Elantra was, and frankly still is, a sales disaster. Hyundai failed to make it competitive against the jaw-dropping Honda Civic and we-ll-regarded Toyota Altis. It lacked features that came standard with its rivals. The stereo unit for example was an old-school type with knobs and buttons. This also meant no backing-up camera, an increasingly common feature even in subcompact offerings. Acres of plastic didn't help hide the rather spartan interior feel of the car. The rear seats weirdly didn't fold down, limiting cargo capacity. Not that it's an ugly car, but it's so dull-looking in fact that side-by-side with the previous Elantra, you'd be hard-pressed to tell which was newer. The lack of features could have been rectified if Hyundai offered the 2.0 litre version and chucked in those missing features. For a short while they did offer the 2.0 litre, but never bothered to re-stock them last year. Instead we were stuck with the 1.6 litre, handicapped version. Shame because the naturally-aspirated 2.0 litre would've been a joy to drive. No wonder it flopped.

Even the Tuscon and Sportage fell victim to this scheme. Neither of which were being offered as standard with touchscreen, navigation ready stereo head units. At close to 2 million pesos, there's really no excuse why that isn't standard. 

These are all but a few examples of how we are seen by car makers. The sad reality is I think that they know we were ready to settle for anything last year. TRAIN was coming (pun intended) and people were panic buying cars. Aggressive sales agents were in a race to clear the warehouses filled with base variants of popular models. Hence why some distributors didn't bother to re-stock certain models which they deemed not worth it to import, fearing that few would buy them. (I'm still bitter about not being able to buy the Ford Focus we initially wanted).

Maybe it's our fault too because a lot of Filipinos aren't particular about their car. We don't know the advantages of having rear disc brakes as opposed to drums. We don't care about having plastic hubcaps. We don't care about having a radio which looks like it came from the 90's. We don't even care if the engine is a carry-over from a few years ago. We probably just don't know better.

As long as the Philippines remain a place where driving and the car itself is not seen as something that is exciting and something to be enthusiastic about, we might be stuck in the automotive world as second-rate citizens.