Father’s Day motoring treats

You know the difference between men and boys? The sizes (and prices) of their toys!

So being the big (and small) boys dads are these days, we take a look at some of the motoring treats in store for all the dads out there.

THE HEART of the all-new Outback is a horizontally-opposed or boxer-configuration six-cylinder engine.

The first toy is Subaru’s all-new Outback. The Outback is a real treat because it has a true dual personality: Its very comfortable riding in the back, having a chauffeur drive you around to and from work, home and play. For a start, the interior is covered in rich perforated leather. It’s got very generous space inside, lots of legroom and oodles of cargo space thanks to the crossover/estate wagon rear end, perfect for carrying two to three golf bags for a round of golf with dad and his buddies, or dad with his kids. Drop the 60:40 split folding seats and you can haul in more gear, more toys.  There’s 12-way electric-seat adjustment  at the front, and the steering wheel adjusts for both reach and rake to help find your preferred driving position.

The heart of the all-new Outback is a horizontally opposed or boxer-configuration, six-cylinder engine which takes the fight to the traditional executive sedans such as Toyota’s Camry, Honda’s Accord and Nissan’s Altima. It produces a healthy 265 horsepower and 350 Newton-meters of torque, within the relevant range of its competitors. But unlike its competitors, the Outback has ample grip in the form of its highly vaunted Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive System with the three-mode (Sport, Normal and Intelligent) SI Drive controller system. It also transfers power via Subaru’s third-generation Lineartronic High-Capacity CVT transmission which emulates the perfect gear regardless of situation. The result? You get the best of both worlds: impressive acceleration and top end, coupled with equally impressive fuel efficiency. As a bonus, since the Outback is essentially a jacked-up executive sedan, you get far more versatility and offroad go-anywhere ability. In short, the Outback not only lets you go fast, it lets you go almost anywhere, too!

As if to ram home the point, the Outback comes with Subaru’s latest version of its X-Mode offroad assistance software, allowing the Outback to crawl through almost any type of surface (snowy, muddy, rocky and wet) with ease. While the sedans tend to feel pushy through tight corners, the Outback just flows gracefully through them.

YOU get the best of both worlds from the Outback: impressive acceleration and impressive fuel efficiency.

Coupled with the active outdoorsy lifestyle Subaru espouses, the Outback is a perfect weekend toy car to take the family out of town, either for  camping or to the  beach, or  to load up with sporting equipment, like a small kayak/boat, a bike or two, and so much more. The included roof rails accept a variety of universal accessories such as bike racks and roof baskets from brands like Rhino-Rack and Mont Blanc. Let’s see your stiff executive sedan doing that!

Behind the wheel, the Outback is impressive. Power comes on strong; the CVT has the immediate response of a traditional torque-converter-equipped automatic with the smoothness only a CVT can have, plus the responsiveness of a modern-day, performance-oriented dual-clutch transmission, delivering aggressive stepped shifts should you floor the throttle pedal.

The ride is crossover soft and comfortable, but trust in the AWD grip, give the suspension some leeway for the inherent body roll, and the Outback corners like it has no business doing so! The comfortable ride gives impressive compliance on bumpy corners, allowing you to ditch-hook a meaty 225/60R18 all-season touring tire inside the curb and slingshot you out of the corner. You’d curb your wheels in a typical executive sedan if you did this!

There’s electric power steering which gives a light but decently feelsome and responsive steering, a brake pedal on the soft side but still easily modulated, and active torque vectoring to help quell understeer on tarmac or high grip surfaces—if you just really want to relive Colin “Crash” McRae’s legacy (pun intended) on the road.

Vehicle Dynamics Control (integrated traction and stability control) ABS-EBD brakes, an incredible nine  airbags, hill start assist, hill descent braking assist (to help control your speed downhill and keep you safe), HID/LED headlights, a rearview reverse camera mated to the 7-inch multimedia infotainment system with Harman Kardon surround sound system round out the safety and convenience features.
On a personal note, the Outback was really painlessly easy to drive, as I had driven it when I was recovering from a very nasty bout of gout a few weeks back. The Outback is great value-for-money at P2.366 million, is highly versatile on- and offroad, has oodles of space, and is genuinely fun to drive. Jack of all trades has never been this good!

Bonus points from mommy

THE DESIGN is a huge departure from the previous-generation HR-V which was boxy and quite boring.

The next toy is really more for mommies than daddies, but it makes for a perfect gift from daddy to mommy to give daddy some bonus points from mommy. Honda’s latest and greatest compact SUV, the second-generation CUV has finally broken cover. It has, I’d wager, 90 percent of all of its big brother CR-V’s capabilities at only 70 percent of the price, if you know which variant to pick.

The HR-V, which stands for Hip and Smart Runabout Vehicle, is aimed at the youth and newly starting families who need the additional cargo-carrying capacity of an SUV but the small exterior qualities of a C-segment car. The design is a huge departure from the previous-generation HR-V which was boxy and quite boring. The all-new HR-V has an almost coupé-like quality when viewed from the side profile, with hidden door handles at the rear for an even cleaner, more stylish and more elegant appeal.
We took it on a long drive to Pangasinan last week, driving a total of 800 kilometers through scenic back roads, mountain passes and superhighways. We found it to be incredibly roomy inside (I sat cross-legged and half asleep all the way to Pangasinan), with great comfort, impressive NVH isolation and amazing  stability on very fast highway driving, enough to carry a deep conversation about politics, life, religion and spirituality until we’d realize that we were dangerously over the speed limit. Yep, it’s that impressive to ride and drive!

The new HR-V is a mix and match of Honda’s parts bin: The main architecture is somewhat similar to the Jazz/City, with the gas tank underneath the rear seats, giving it impressively low polar moment and yaw, and improving handling. You also get the ULT seating versatility by folding the rear seats flat to the floor in a variety of configurations. The engine is Honda’s 1.8-liter i-VTEC, found on the Civic, while the transmission is an Earth Dreams CVT which helped the HR-V achieve an amazing 15 km per liter on our combined highway/provincial road route, and an instant 20-kpl readout cruising on the highway. In the city, stuck in traffic, the HR-V still delivers a decent 8 kpl which will improve as the mileage piles up on the zesty four-cylinder lump.

Behind the wheel, the HR-V has electric power assist, which is light and painless for everyday driving. The brakes have excellent modulation, the throttle very linear. The handsome three-spoke steering wheel adjusts for both reach and rake, with auxiliary controls for the multimedia infotainment system and paddle shifters that allow you to simulate seven forward gears if you’re in maximum attack mode. Being a Honda, expect the driving position to be excellent for sporty driving as well as very long drives out of town. Having driven it for seven hours in a single day, I can say the HR-V scores high in comfort and support.

You also get an excellent tablet-based touchscreen infotainment system which has excellent connectivity via Bluetooth, Aux and USB to your mobile media device. Hopefully Honda or any number of specialty in-car electronics accessories manufacturer can figure out a simple mirror-image interface with the touchscreen system and your mobile media device, so you can use real-time traffic navigation systems such as Waze without the constant need of looking at your mobile phone, thus improving safety and convenience. Aside from the entertainment value, the in-car trip computer is displayed as well, giving you real-time and average fuel-consumption figures, which when used in conjunction with the Econ button will help you realize better fuel-efficiency figures.

The HR-V is a perfect choice if you are limited by budget or parking space (which is becoming a serious problem in Metro Manila especially if you live in a newly developed condominium or townhouse with limited parking). The HR-V is somewhat similar  to Honda Civic, but with far greater versatility and mobility as it allows you more latitude to cover harsh terrain (like light offroading) or sudden flashfloods, thanks to its raised ride height versus a traditional C-segment sedan. You get HID headlamps with LED daytime running lamps on the top-model variant, and there’s a full line of the aforementioned tasty and stylish Modulo and Mugen accessories available from the dealership, too.

The pricing is great, too, starting at P1.19 million to P1.34 million. Add the Mugen or Modulo accessories, though, and you’re into CR-V territory BUT you can include these accessories into your monthly amortization should you buy them together with your HR-V from your Honda dealership.