IN the premium compact SUV arena, it’s not enough to bring in comfort, convenience, safety and performance. One has to introduce a product that stands out, even if it totes a feature or two that the competition doesn’t offer, in order to become a solid contender.

One such case is the Volvo XC60.   

You can see it in its exterior. Although the overall outline resembles its larger XC90 sibling, there’s a lot more sex appeal. You see it in the ovoid headlights, which bear additional lamps closer to the new grille. You see it in the rear, which has striking curves from the top of the vertically mounted taillights down to the rear bumper. You see it in the aforementioned grille, which—along with the rest of the front fascia—will be the standard visual identity for upcoming Volvos.

THE precious Prius had been scheduled to take me to my roots—with myself behind the wheel, of course, of this wondrous ride. The day before, Poet Dante Velasco had wished me well with a heartwarming shot of, “Happy trip, aro.”

It didn’t materialize.

Ondoy butted in.

Ondoy who?

The killer typhoon that devastated almost 80 percent of Metro Manila and its outlying provinces on September 26.

Not wanting to disappoint myself—I just don’t give up that easily when it comes to renewing ties with my haunts in Pangasinan—I reset the trip.

But, alas, Pepeng mimicked Ondoy—almost, that is.

Like Ondoy, Pepeng also proved to be a KJ—to say it mildly.

The week after Ondoy’s venomous visit, Pepeng peppered us with more lashing rains that triggered more home-wrecking floods after aborting—thank God—its deadly design to become a heartless super-typhoon. Instead, Pepeng elected to redirect its still-havoc-laden anger on our poor brothers in the Cagayan Valley, toppling trees and electric posts, ripping away bridges and roads, crops and roofs of even newly built homes, and even threatening to burst dams.

Both conspired to inflict harm and misery to our already suffering nation, one week apart of each other, affecting almost three million Filipinos from Bicolandia to the metropolis, all the way to Cagayan Valley and Ilocandia.

THE common perception of China-made vehicles is of cheap but low-quality vehicles, heavily “borrowing” from other marques when it comes to exterior design and engineering for their products.

However, the Foton MP-X aims to break that wall of perception. Surprisingly, to this writer, they did it with unprecedented success.