C O V E R     S T O R Y

Editor's Note: The Car of the Year Awards - Philippines is a project of the Automobile Association of the Philippines (AAP) and is supported by the various car manufacturers/assemblers. The following have lent their support to the project: BMW, Chrysler/Dodge, Ford, Honda, Hummer, Hyundai, General Motors/Chevrolet, Isuzu, Jaguar, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Ssyangyong, Toyota and Volvo.

EAGLERIDGE, Cavite—The Car of the Year Awards – Philippines kicked off in style with the first-ever test fest that was held at the Eagleride Golf and Country Club last October 2.  The weekend-long, back-to-back test featured the highly competitive compact car market.  As defined by the Car Awards Group (CAG), the group that manages The Car of the Year Awards (COTY), a compact car has a displacement between 1.6- to 2.0-liters.  All cars falling under this category and sold to the public as of October 30, 2004 are eligible to join.

With the support and founding of the Automobile Association of the Philippines or the AAP, the Car Awards Group, led by its president Armin Amio of Business World Online gathered 8 compact cars for that weekend’s test. 

The test has 2 phases.  The first is an instrumented test where the entries will do a 0-100-0 km/h run.  Times and distances to reach the said figures are recorded by a GTech meter and then tabulated on a computer.  The interior noise level, measured in decibel, is also recorded.  The second phase is a qualitative test where journalists drive the vehicles back-to-back in the same route in order to gauge things such as ergonomics, comfort, ventilation system, audio system, and value for money.

For the qualitative test, journalists such as Aris Ilagan (Manila Bulletin), Dino Directo (The Manila Standard), Aida Sevilla-Mendoza and Tessa Salazar (Philippine Daily Inquirer), James Deakin (C! Magazine), and Paulo Subido (REV Magazine) lent their time and support for the project.

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