The First Year in the Life of a Philippines Car Spotter

4,928 · March 16, 2023

The "Asian Utility Vehicle" (AUV) is a segment catered to by most of the Japanese manufacturers and they are sold throughout Southeast Asia. Rugged, versatile and easy to maintain, they're totally ideal for the environments they are used in. Examples of the AUV are...

Mitsubishi Adventure

Isuzu Hi-Lander

Toyota Tamaraw

Then you've got the FB (Family Business) versions of various vehicles; a box van that's usually fitted with longitudinal bench seats.

Tamaraw FB

4,928 · March 16, 2023

Still in production after x-amount of years, this Mitsubishi L300 is nearly brand-new.

Check out the '80s-tastic interior. Want Level: 1985/10

Price is one million Pesos which converts to 15,000 of your UK pounds.

23,064 · March 16, 2023

1 hour ago, davocano said:

Toyota Tamaraw

I first encountered these whilst working in Taiwan in mid ‘90s, where they were badged “Toyota Zace”. If I could buy a new one here in Britain then I would, today.

4,232 · March 16, 2023

5 hours ago, davocano said:

Mitsubishi L300

They’ve had their moneys worth out of that tooling! You would have thought there was still a market in Europe for something like that if pitched in the right price bracket. Unless it no longer meets regulations?

4,928 · April 8, 2023

Minivans are very popular due to the amount of people and stuff they can carry. For instance:

Mitsubishi L300 (so ubiquitous are they, the locals often refer to ANY minivan as "L3" or "L300")

4,928 · April 8, 2023

There's still a lot of Toyota LiteAces around.

4,928 · April 8, 2023

Not so common is the Nissan Vanette.

4,928 · April 8, 2023

Further down the scale, the kei commercial is also very popular. Not sure if they're Japanese-spec 660cc as there's no equivalent to the DVLA lookup service or cazana etc.

Apparently, there was one as recently as last year but the database got hacked so the government pulled it. Bummer.

3,016 · April 8, 2023

Don't know how I've only just come across this. I have just come back from the Philippines after a month out there. My fascination is with the Jeepneys. I visited Manila, Biñan, Batangas and Boracay.

4,928 · April 9, 2023

19 hours ago, DirtyDaily said:

I visited Manila, Biñan, Batangas and Boracay.

Biñan is a few miles southeast from where I live. Small world etc.

4,928 · April 9, 2023

Of the surviving '80s and '90s cars, the three most plentiful models are...

Toyota Corolla

4,928 · April 9, 2023

Nissan Sentra

(this one has been re-purposed as a cat shelter)

4,928 · April 9, 2023

Mitsubishi Lancer

4,928 · April 9, 2023

Taking a brief intermission from Japanese chod; the VW Beetle can still be spotted. Is there a single country in the world that doesn't have at least one within it's borders?

3,016 · April 9, 2023

3 hours ago, davocano said:

Biñan is a few miles southeast from where I live. Small world etc.

Very small world...

4,928 · April 10, 2023

Now for some of the rarer stuff.

There's a bit of confusion on my part coming up; I think the Sunny name was the predecessor of Sentra here.

... and I think this is an earlier Sentra but I don't know for sure.

4,928 · April 10, 2023

'80s Mitsubishi Lancer...

... apart from this one which is definitely a Galant.

4,928 · April 10, 2023

I took a drive around my local area when I first got here and went past this (unidentified at the time) '70s motor. A few weeks later I was out strolling and stumbled across it again. Fortune was on my side and the owner was standing in the road along with other members of his family and we got chatting.

It's a 1973 Dodge Colt; a captive import built by Mitsubishi. The young chap who owns it plans to transfer all the running gear from this one to a second bodyshell that is currently under restoration.

While I was cooing over this he said "Would you like to see my Opel Manta?"

My reply was something along the lines of

and blimey, it was indeed a 1980 Opel Manta.

Fitted with a 2.0L Toyota engine for ease of spares availability. Still needs some work as you can see; the rear light clusters are being fabricated locally using photos and measurements taken from the internets.

Oh yeah, and his Dad owns this 1993 Toyota Crown Super Saloon that's also in 2.0L flavour.

2,097 · April 10, 2023

Might be different in the Philippines, but the Sentra name started in Thailand due to B11 Sunny production continued after the B12 (as pictured) introduction. B13 above is also Sentra. After the B11 production ended in 1995 the name Sunny went back on the B14.

4,928 · April 11, 2023

16 hours ago, Conan said:

Might be different in the Philippines, but the Sentra name started in Thailand due to B11 Sunny production continued after the B12 (as pictured) introduction. B13 above is also Sentra. After the B11 production ended in 1995 the name Sunny went back on the B14.

Got to admit that I'm finding the whole Sunny/Sentra thing quite confusing.

I've also seen a B12 Sunny wagon wearing a Stanza badge.