The streets of Manila aren’t paved with red prancing horses, or even luxo-SUVs; it’s filled with refrigerator vans.  Although this type of van design has been either retired or reduced to delivering flowers in other parts of the world, it continues to be the number one people transport of choice in the Philippines (with the exception of AUVs).  It doesn’t take an Albert Einstein to notice that almost every vehicle entering schools are vans even if they’re carrying just one or two kids, plus a driver and probably a maid.  Nonetheless, people have come to see this as a case of ‘more metal for your money’, a case where their 900,000 pesos was well spent on something that could carry ten to twelve people.

Of course, sooner or later one of the local manufacturers would find the initiative to enter into the new era of troop transportation.  A kind of van that is supposed to change the people’s perception on kiddy carriers. Unfortunately, the Mitsubishi Spacegear didn’t do this.  The Spacegear had all the right ingredients: acceptable looks, a beefy engine, seating for nine and the company’s reputation for bringing out quality products.  Unfortunately, the flaw is all in the execution.  The magic formula seems to be missing to justify this car’s absurdly high price of 1.1 million pesos.

In terms of looks, the Spacegear breaks the mold of the Kelvinator vans—it’s a given because it has a hood.  The car looks sleek, futuristic enough to be considered as a design of the 90s, compared to the Volkswagen-Minibus look of other full-sized vans.  If there’s anything that’s good about the Spacegear, it has to be its looks.  Much like the Mitsubishi Galant, the Spacegear has been given an aggressive look with those light clusters and grille. Most people carriers often have bland looks, probably as not to offend the chauffeur (the politically correct term) driving the vehicle.  The two-tone paint job (standard on all Spacegears) as well as the rear lamp treatment successfully hides the real bulk of the van, an illusion only ruined by the car’s flat sides (lacks fender arches or body creases).