After we took Gina, our Hyundai Getz Philippines, to the shop for her 1000km checkup, I thought the Hyundai Getz fuel consumption would improve. The number to beat - at least as far as money is concerned - was Php1,500.00, which was how much we were paying for a week on our Toyota Revo.

After a few weeks, this is the rather dismal number we’ve come up with.

Our Hyundai Getz gets 10.8km/liter.

 If that isn’t kick-you-in-the-crotch, why-the-hell-is-it-so-low horrific.

For a 1.1 engine, that’s abysmal. And I can testify to my own style of gas driving. I’m a great driver for fuel efficiency.  I don’t floor it, I rarely exceed 3,000RPM, and I’m not a clutch driver at all. Most of the time, it’s been me driving, and I’m not exactly a lightweight at a little over 200lbs, but you’d think a 1.1 could deliver at least 12km/liter.

So, instead of saving money on fuel efficiency, we’re actually spending more, because we pay the same amount - Php1,500 a week - but get less power and legroom because we gave up our Toyota Revo for this.

Admittedly, I’m a little bummed. But I’m not the only one. Review what others had to say here and here.

So remember what I said here? Scratch that.

We took our newborn Nicki out last week for the first time in Gina, our Hyundai Getz Philippines. We bought a baby stroller for her a few weeks before she was born, but we took that baby stroller home in our old Toyota Revo. Now, it remained to be seen whether we could fit this relatively large stroller in our Hyundai Getz.

One of the reasons why we bought our Hyundai Getz, Gina, from the Quezon City distributor (Wheels Inc. E Rodriguez) was because Cathy was impressed by the size of our hatchback’s trunk. It was noticeable larger than the trunks of either the Kia Picanto or the Suzuki Alto, the only two other hatchbacks in the Philippines we were considering.

Now we’d have to put it to the test.

I opened the trunk of our Hyundai Getz, Gina, where one would see this:

To fit our stroller, we had to remove the optional hatchback hood/dashboard.

To remove it, we simply removed the sling from the hatchback door here…

… and this was the end result.

Lots of space, as you can see. We folded up Nicki’s baby stroller, and it fit like this.

It fit snugly, with plenty of space on the side for other things, including both bags of our kids, as well as a picnic basket of goodies that we took to Mom’s house.

 Once again, Gina, our Hyundai Getz, surprises us with her flexibility and charm!

Owners of a Hyundai Getz in the Philippines will agree with me when I say the Hyundai Getz horn sucks balls.

It’s the worst horn ever. Blech. Horns are supposed to warn other vehicles, pedestrians, or animals on the road that we’re a-comin’. When I tooted my Hyundai Getz horn, all I got were laughing jeepney drivers and the occasional shocked dog.

So I resolved to change the horn of our Hyundai Getz Philippines. I bought myself a nice loud Bosch disc horn from Ace Hardware Greenbelt (at only Php699.75) and had it installed by the friendly folks at Wheels Inc - Hyundai E. Rodriguez for a service fee of Php500 so it doesn’t ruin the electrical warranty of Gina, our Hyundai Getz Philippines.

The end result: a Hyundai Getz horn I can be proud of!

We finally got the license plates for Gina, our Hyundai Getz Philippines. Thankfully, the LTO representatives at Wheels Inc., our Hyundai distributor, were able to get us license plates within a month, which, apparently, is rare.