Calling all Hyundai Getz owners! The men and women of Hyundai Auto Club Philippines are organizing an EB on September 13, 2008, and you’re all invited!

This is the third time the folks at HACP are organizing a general EB, and all Philippine Hyundai Getz owners are invited to join the fun. Around 16 Hyundai Getz owners have already signed up, and you are more than welcome to join the fun. Complete information and sign-up opportunity here.

The gang meets 3PM at JayJ’s Grill at the Ortigas Home Depot along Julia Vargas Avenue in Pasig City. (It’s opposite the new Medical City. JayJ is a terrific choice of place. Delicious food there, and economical, no need to take out payday loans to afford the great food.)

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it, but y’all can go and meet NormanBonz and the rest of the gang. Sali na!

I just got a sticker for my Philippine Hyundai Getz, Gina. It’s obscenely large - I overestimated the size of the letters - but it does make a statement, doesn’t it?

If you see us in the streets, honk, and we’ll honk back! *grin*

I’m now on Plurk. Come and join the fun; Gina-related posts come often.

We took our Philippine Hyundai Getz, Gina, to Zambales last Monday, June 2, for a three-day R&R at the beautiful Punta de Uian beach resort in Zambales. We rode there in a massive twelve-vehicle convoy with some friends of mine, and I tell you, they were impressed. All the vehicles in the convoy had 1.6 engines and above; we’re talking Stradas and CRVs and station wagons and Innovas, the powerful kinds.

Along the North Luzon Expressway, we reached speeds of up to 140kph. (I hated going over the speed limit, but these guys were threatening to leave us in their dirt, so I had to keep up or get lost.) Our Hyundai Getz was the tiniest of the lot at its 1.1 engine, but we kept up with those bruisers!

When we got to the resort, one of my friends said, “Bilib ako dito kay Gina! (I believe in Gina!) I was speeding at 140kph, and when I looked in my rear view mirror, there she was, right behind us!” They then christened her, ‘The Little Car That Could.’

Well, of course, we were right behind you. What would you expect? We’re in a Hyundai Getz! Speed is just one of its pleasant qualities!

Plus, we got on a couple of dirt roads on the way there, and Gina’s suspension handled like a pro. My babies slept through it.

So what’s the word on fuel efficiency? Well, we used up more than half a tank of gas for 380 kilometers total. Since I can’t scientifically compute that just yet, I can make a guesstimate of about 25 liters, which pegs my Hyundai Getz’s highway fuel efficiency at 15.2 km/L. Like I said before, Hyundai’s been lying through its teeth about fuel economy on all its cars, but that’s still better than the crappy 11 liters I’ve been scraping by on for city driving.

I’d show photos, but by the time we got there, my Hyundai Getz was all dusty, so sorry, no photos because we don’t take pictures of those we love when they look bad, yesz?

Score one for the Getzers! Woohoo!

My Philippine Hyundai Getz took her furthest trip yet: a four-hour journey to Laiya, Batangas, in search of a resort in which to book dozens of guests for a team-building and training seminar that I’ve been invited to participate in. Here are some of the more stringent notes:

• We left Manila at 11:00AM, encountering terrible traffic somewhere in the vicinity of the Star Superhighway. Boiling heat and bad traffic = overheating Hyundai Getz, right? Nope! Gina stayed on-target and cool the entire way and back. (Mind you, one of the major flaws of the Hyundai Getz, which is the appalling lack of an engine thermostat to tell you whether or not your engine is on the verge of overheating, was glaringly obvious during this time. Yech.)
• The edge of Laiya gives way from smooth paved road to dirt road. I’m not kidding. My Hyundai Getz Philippines handled it with aplomb, taking on the rocky road with finesse. Kudos to her shock absorbers. Plus points, too, for my tires for not giving out. (Will check the brand; tibay din pala ng mokong.)
• So how does Gina perform in terms of fuel efficiency? We replaced the usual standard gasoline (93 octane rating) with a 95 octane rating gasoline from Petron to see if power and fuel efficiency would improve. End result: 11.93 kilometers per liter. Initial conclusion: walang diperensya. Testing is stil ongoing.

As I mentioned on my main blog, I have a new job. The good news is I don’t have to pay for parking. The bad news is the free parking at our Makati church is open-air, which means my Philippine Hyundai Getz is exposed to the elements.

Ouch! Hot leather seats! Ouch! Hot! Hot!

So I bought a reflective sun visor for my Hyundai Getz. Now it’s not so painful. Plus, Gina now has a bumper sticker on her back. It’s a College of Saint Benilde sticker that we designed back in the day, and it says ‘Driven to Succeed.’

If you see my Hyundai Getz on the road, give us a honk and we’ll honk right back!

We drove our Philippine Hyundai Getz, Gina, to the Tagaytay Highlands last Saturday. It’s the third out-of-town trek for our Hyundai Getz; we first took her to the Boutique Hotel in Tagaytay on a romantic getaway last year, then to Enchanted Kingdom sometime in early January for a family outing with Nathan.

Frankly, I was a little concerned because I didn’t think Gina would be able to handle the high mountain roads. She is, after all, just a 1.1L spitfire, and when you combine me, Cathy, Nathan, and two days’ worth of clothes, that’s quite a load. But our Philippines Hyundai Getz handled it with aplomb and class. This one particularly steep mountainous curve - I would say somewhere 30 degrees slant - near the Tagaytay Highlands was a source of great concern, because I honestly wasn’t sure she could handle it. But she did! Way to go, Gina!

Most of the ride within the actual Tagaytay Highlands - given that it was carved into a mountainside - was quite steep, so I drove Gina mostly at first gear and 4000RPM because her second gear wasn’t powerful enough to handle the slant. The entire trip from Caloocan to Tagaytay and back used up around 200KM and a third a tank of gasoline.