The 15 new cars in the Philippine market that most impressed me this year

My colleagues in the office asked me if I could do a “Top Cars of 2016” story. Or something like that. By top cars, I assume they mean the most impactful new models launched in our market this year. I also assume that they wouldn’t mind if I gave this a very personal treatment, meaning I’d only include cars I’d actually driven or at least intimately encountered in the metal. (Apologies to the Audi A4 and the Maserati Levante, for instance; I haven’t really come face to face with either one yet.)

So, this is not a “Best Cars of 2016” roster. The following are just the models that distinctly got my attention in the past 12 months. The list is in alphabetical order.