Many commercial pickup trucks today have wandered off from the true beauty of driving a workhorse around. Most have turned the pickup into a glamorous social vehicle deviating from its true profession, the mechanical workhorse of the working man.

Not so with the Foton Blizzard. Proudly claiming its Chinese heritage and one of the first Chinese commercial vehicle manufacturers to enter the Philippines, Foton Motors Corp. sees the Blizzard pickup as its answer to the need for a vehicle that serves day to day needs.

The Foton Blizzard does not have any of the fancy contraptions of the modern pickup truck, nor does Foton intend to turn it into what it is not, a passenger vehicle. The Blizzard is a workhorse and all its features are tuned towards that direction.

“We are not going to say that the Blizzard is this and that. For Foton, the Blizzard is its carrying brand. It is a workhorse, no frills, no fuss, it just does the job. The Blizzard projects what Foton is all about, a company manufacturing and selling commercial vehicles for the use of the working man and the businessman/entrepreneur,” said Rommel Sytin, president of Foton Motors Philippines.

The Blizzard is powered by a 2.8-liter in-line 4-cylinder OHV diesel engine with Direct Injection. This is controlled by a 5-speed manual transmission and shoots out a maximum torque of about 173 Nm @ 3,200 rpm. This power is supported by independent telecopic shocks for the front suspension and semi-elliptic leaf springs for the rear suspension, to ensure that cargoes are carried well.

The four-wheel-drive of this workhorse is still mechanical, one that many 4x4 afficionados appreciate so well, since there is no fear of an electronic breakdown in case where it is used in extreme conditions.