By JESUS ERLE SEBASTIAN
Let’s say you’re looking for an MPV, a multi-purpose vehicle, for the family. And you’ve got a budget somewhere in the vicinity of P750,000. What are your choices in the market today?
The best place to quickly find out is the motioncars.com car chart, by far the most comprehensive listing of vehicles on the Internet. The car chart is informative, providing price, specs, and a fair and concise — and oftentimes witty — evaluation of what’s being sold by authorized automobile distributors locally.
There are a number of entry-level MPVs in the motioncars.com car chart that fall close to your P750,000. These include the base models of vehicles formerly known as AUVs but are now classified by auto manufacturers as MPVs.
But for the purposes of this comparo, let’s narrow down the choice to the Suzuki APV which is now priced at P765,000 and the Mitsubishi Adventure GLX with gasoline engine that is listed at P733,000.
It’s not exactly comparing apples to apples. But we thought it would be interesting to discover what you can get for around P750,000 or slightly more in terms of design, engine displacement, and amenities. Remember, the primary consideration for this exercise is the budget of the vehicle itself.
Suzuki APV GLX
Motioncars.com describes the Suzuki APV as funky and practical. Funky because of its rather quirky exterior design with its seemingly high waistline.
Practical because it can seat six to eight "typical Asian adults" comfortably and its second and third row seats split, fold and tumble to accommodate various configurations of passenger and cargo.
It has a rather compact and narrow dimensions (4,155 mm long, 1,655 mm wide and 1,860 mm tall). It weighs in at 1,325 kilograms.
Aside from the funky design, the APV offers a 1.6-liter SOHC (single overhead cam) gas engine that is mated to a four speed automatic transmission.
(There’s a cheaper APV variant that comes with manual transmission for only P632,000).
The engine generates a maximum 91 brake horsepower at 5,750 rpm and 127 Nm of torque at 4,500 rpm.
By the way, the engine drives the front wheels.
The APV has five doors. It comes with fog lamps and a chrome grille insert, and rear wiper and washer system.
The car chart lists the following interior features: A urethane steering wheel that can be adjusted for tilt, fabric upholstery, wood accents, digital clock, front vanity mirrors and cupholders.
The price also gets power steering, door locks, windows and mirrors,
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