EXCITEDLY, I said yes to Timmy Naval-de Leon, head of communications of Automobile Central Enterprise Inc. (ACEI), distributor of Volkswagen cars in the Philippines, when she invited me to their third Fuel Eco Fun Run event—a fuel economy test.
The reason for this was that I was curious as to how fuel-efficient VW’s other vehicles are, since we just finished testing their Tiguan recently, which happened to be BusinessMirror’s “Car of the Month.”
ACEI invited 18 motoring journalists, who all met at the VW showroom in Quezon Avenue. Navigating for me was Aris Ilagan, editor in chief of Balita. What is there to worry about when your navigator is the country’s “Navigator of the Year” awardee and Eco-run champion? After breakfast, we were briefed about the cars and contest mechanics. We were then given a road book and a 2.0 Touran, and then flagged off by no less than Klaus Schadewald, VW Philippines chief operating adviser.
Since, their event was held in cooperation with Pilipinas Shell Petroleum, our first stop was supposed to be for a fill-up at the Shell gas station in Balintawak, Unfortunately, we only figured this out by the time we were already near the Santa Rita exit of the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex). In short, we missed our first stop—so much for the vaunted skills of my navigator.
We had to go all the way back to Shell Balintawak, which took about 35 minutes. Then, we headed to Abe’s Farm at the foot of Mount Arayat for lunch. Everyone was already eating their dessert when we got there. Aris and I didn’t lose hope despite the loss of time, so when we hit road again, I tried my best to be as consistent as possible, employing my fuel-saving skills, such as the calibrated application of the fuel pedal and driving in straight lines, among other things. The Touran proved to be very comfortable and steady as we zipped at 90 kilometer per hour along the Nlex. Our aircon was on during the whole trip and we managed to try out the USB output feature as well as the radio.
The convoy of three Tiguan sport-utility vehicles, three Touran MPVs and three Polos driven by the media traveled some 146 kilometer. At the end of the test, which was at Shell San Fernando, each car’s fuel consumption was computed and compared to determine the best drivers of the exercise.
“Despite being a relatively new brand in the market, Volkswagen is the world’s largest producer of diesel engines. Our TDI engines feature the latest in common-rail injection technology, making them responsive and fun to drive, as well as being incredibly efficient,” said JP Orbeta, ACEI president and CEO.
Previous legs of the Eco Fun Run were held in October and November of 2014, and took participants to the scenic Cintai by Corito’s Garden in Lipa City. In each leg, the cars were driven by different sets of journalists to avoid familiarity with the vehicles, as well as to obtain results from varying driving styles.
There were three competing teams in each category (Polo, Touran and Tiguan). The pair of Wee Gamboa and Raul Promeda of Motoring Today/Auto Focus won the Polo category by posting 26.54 km per liter with their manual shift Polo sedan powered by a 1.6-liter TDI engine using Shell V-Power Nitro+diesel. The duo of Steven Yu and Jerel Fajardo of Malaya/C! Magazine took the lead in the Touran category and registered 22.85 km per liter in their 2.0-liter TDI Touran with DSG transmission. Brent Co and Martin Aguilar of www.autoindustriya.com bested the other Tiguan drivers by recording 17.86 km per liter in the 2.0-liter TDI Tiguan automatic.
The event and results were observed and verified by Mark Ponce of Clean Air Asia, a non-governmental organization committed to promoting better air-quality management.
With the results posted during the first and second legs of Eco Fun Run, Volkswagen Philippines has proven that fuel efficiency is a key development priority of every Volkswagen model. Whether it’s the TDI for diesel or the TSI for gasoline, they all represent Volkswagen Philippines’s continued commitment to building vehicles that exceed both customer and government demands for ever-higher fuel economy and performance.
Volkswagen Eco Fun Run will culminate this March in a “Battle of Champions,” wherein the three winners of the third leg will go head-to-head against the first and second leg champs.