Dude, where's my car?

I took this photo of the parking lot behind Robinson's Summit last Friday morning. I was at the 20th floor.

Don't they look like little matchboxes? It would have probably looked better if the carpark was full. Anyway, can you spot my car in the picture? I'll give you a clue.. it's white!

2008 Toyota Corolla Altis!!

The loooooong wait is over! The 2008 Toyota Corolla Altis is out! Toyota has finally launched the new Altis here in the Philippines. You can now visit Toyota Philippines site or go to their showrooms to see the new Altis.

For those who have also been anticipating the launch of the new Altis, I'm sure you've seen how the new Altis looks like even before it was available here in the Philippines. There were already alot of images floating around the internet, especially since Toyota Thailand had launched it earlier.

Anyway, here's the news from Toyota Philippines about the launch of the new Corolla Altis.

V-Power!

Some of my friends have tried Shell's V-power gasoline on their cars eversince I told them how it has provided my car more fuel economy, BUT their experience with the gasoline was different from mine. In fact, they told me that it had either no effect on their fuel consumption or it increased their fuel consumption even more.

I have no idea why that is. I guess the V-power gasoline does not have the same effect on every automobile. But I'm still pretty convinced that the V-power still gives my car better fuel economy than other gasolines out there in the market and here's to prove it.

The image is not that clear but it reads 370KM. At that time, the fuel tank was almost empty and when I refueled, the tank filled up to 50 liters. So to do the math for the KM/L ratio, it's about 7.4KM/L. Not bad at all comparing it to the previous average of around 6KM/L.

One of these days, I'll try to shift to other gasolines just to check if the V-power is still giving my car the best fuel economy.

Car problems...

It's been days, even weeks since my last blog. I don't really blog while at work and by the time I get home, I just want to spend my time with my family. I have so many things I want to blog about but I want to write about my recent car problems. I'm now broke because of it!

It's actually not that recent. I had my car checked at Honda last year and they found so many problems. Problems with the engine, transmission and suspension to name some. The final quote amounted to over Php80K for them to fix all the problems. The car is 8 years old so I guess those problems are due to the eventual wear and tear. Still Php80K is a lot of money and I know I couldn't afford to have it fixed there. And even if I could afford it, I would still think twice.

So I scouted several car shops and eventually had my car fixed at Speedyfix (address: 312 shaw blvd., Mandaluyong City; tel#7174202). I've been going to this place before for tune ups and they have done a pretty good job. I didn't have all the problems fixed at once since it would still cost a lot and would take 2-3 days to finish. So I started with the important ones first, which was the engine problems. This was two weeks ago. I spent over Php16K.

And today, I discovered that there was a leak on the transmission. I knew about the leak already but didn't have it fixed yet because it was not yet dripping. But now it is so I have no choice but to have it fixed. I will again spend around Php10K. And that's not the end of it yet, because I still have problems with the suspension and etc. I will probably spend tens of thousands more before I get the car back into shape.

Eversince we got the car, we've spent thousands on gasoline, maintenance, registration, insurance, etc. and counting. But I'm not complaining though, I'm very glad that we have our car. It's been a great help for us, especially me. The convenience it provides is irreplaceable. I cannot imagine not having a car anymore. It has really been a part of our everyday life.