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By Ruben D. Manahan, 4th, Reporter
On April 25, Honda Cars Phils. Inc., in
partnership with Petron Corp. and the Department of Energy, held a
fuel economy driving event for select members of the media to
illustrate that people shouldn’t rush in searching for fuel
substitutes (even with the skyrocketing gas prices) as long as they
possess the discipline on the road and have the knowledge with
regards to fuel conservation and efficiency.
Honda lined up seven variants of its Jazz, City,
Civic and CR-V models for the 28 participants. To ensure the driving
event was as close to real-world conditions as possible, all the
cars were inspected to ensure no modifications were made on them and
that all their air-conditioning units were turned on, the switches
sealed so participants could not turn these off to save on fuel.
Also, the route was devised so that it would
pass through the daily traffic conditions in the city as well as on
the highway. Separate readings were made for the city-and
highway-driving mileage figures.
The participants took off from the Petron
station in C-5 and headed for the heavy traffic inside the Makati
Central Business District before ending up at another Petron station
in Bocaue, Bulacan, inside the North Luzon Expressway. That
city-driving leg had a distance of 39.3 kilometers.
From there, the group proceeded to the
expressway’s Dau exit in Pampanga, resulting in a highway run of
65.5 kilometers.
City-driving results
Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Tessa Salazar and
Aries Espinosa, on board a Jazz 1.3, took the lead with a
consumption of 34.9558 kilometers per liter. Business Mirror’s Al
Mendoza and Andy Sevilla came in second with 31.7886kpl.
In third, fourth and fifth were Auto Review’s
Ron de los Reyes and Ronald de los Reyes in a City 1.3 with
31.1095kpl; Manila Bulletin’s Iñigo Roces and Philippine Star’s
Drew Asuncion in a City 1.5 with 29.1852kpl; and Hit FM 99.5’s
Neil Pagulayan and Top Gear’s Beeboy Bargas in a City 1.3 with
28.4058kpl.
Following them were Speed TV’s Mike Potenciano
and Lindy Pellicer in a Jazz 1.5 with 27.323kpl; Manila Bulletin’s
Pinky Colmenares and Anjo Perez in a Jazz 1.3 with 25.9211kpl; NU
107’s Allan Sevilla and Business World’s Barbara Lorenzo in a
Civic 1.8 with 22.0787kpl; and Business Mirror’s Popong Andolong
and myself in a Civic 2.0 with 21.8889kpl.
Coming in the last five places were
Yehey.com’s Alma Ramos and Karla Henson in a Jazz 1.5 with
19.8469kpl; Motoring Today’s Butch Gamboa and Jenny Bleza in a
Civic 2.0 with 18.4997kpl; Top Gear’s Dinzo Tabamo and Jaykee
Evangelista in a Civic 1.8 with 8.4507kpl; Manila Bulletin’s Aris
Ilagan and Manila Standard Today’s Dino Directo in a CR-V 2.4 with
11.2245kpl; and Slipstream’s Lory Uy and Maike Evers CR-V 2.4 in a
CR-V 2.4 with 10.3654kpl.
Highway-driving results
The Asuncion-Roces pair took the lead in highway
driving with 48.1481kpl. They were followed by the Mendoza-Sevilla
teamup with 45.9155kpl and the Pagulayan-Vargas duo with 44.9315kpl.
Placed in fourth and fifth were the delos
Reyeses with 43.0263kpl and team Colmenares-Perez with 39.5181kpl.
Henson-Ramos tallied a total of 27.5107kpl while not far behind were
Potencio-Pellicer with 27.1308kpl.
Sevilla-Lorenzo had 21.1327kpl, Andolong-Manahan
had 16.4824kpl, Tabamo-Evangelista had 16kpl, Gamboa-Bleza managed
15.7452kpl, Directo-Ilagan got 14.8718kpl, Uy-Evers had 14.6136kpl
while Salazar-Espinosa got 10.7882kpl.
This meant the Mendoza-Sevilla tandem bagged the
top spot with a combined city- and highway-driving figure of
39.3585kpl in three hours and 11 minutes. Roces-Asuncion came in
second after they tallied a total 38.6667kpl in two hours and 40
minutes; the delos Reyeses placed third with 37.6619kpl in three
hours; while Bargas and Pagulayan are in fourth spot with 36.9014kpl
after two hours and 53 minutes of driving.
Saving fuel
HCPI Vice President for Marketing Arnel Doria
said that fuel efficiency is essential because it does not only mean
monetary savings but reduces harmful emissions in the environment.
“Just imagine if 100,000 motor vehicle users
would consciously save a liter of gasoline a day. Our country could
save over 12,500 barrels of oil in a month,” Doria said.
He added that several techniques could be
applied in achieving fuel mileage but it all boils down to three
main aspects: vehicle, fuel and driver.
“If one these factors is lacking, optimum fuel
mileage would be hard to achieve,” Doria explained.
HCPI said it is committed to developing products
that have minimal effects on the environment, and that their
vehicles are equipped with highly efficient engines that are
engineered to pass Euro4 levels even if the Philippine regulations
only mandate Euro2 compliance.
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