The Philippines most economical car

Welcome to my personal search for the Philippines’ most economical car.

I decided to conduct this search after noticing how some companies, whether car, tire, fuel, or otherwise, seemed to be quoting some pretty incredible figures by creating unrealistic challenges that are only designed to produce the best possible results. I’ve been on many of these economy runs before, and while it is true that many cars out there are capable of 30 or even 40 kms to the liter, that is usually only ever achieved under perfect conditions.

And seeing that nothing in real life is perfect, and Philippine roads are the perfect example, once the owners get behind the wheel, they’re lucky to get half those published figures. And it really ticks them off.

But who can blame them? We’re not talking about 0-100 acceleration figures and Nurburgring lap times that really only matter to a handful of vehicles and even less people, this is the ‘F’ word we’re talking about, which hits each and everyone of us right where it hurts most: our wallets.

So basically, the idea here is to evaluate the real-world performance of everyday cars using the consistency of just one driver (me) on regular routes with at least two people on board, air-con on, filling up at the same fuel bowser each time (in this case, Total Merville) plus standardized highway testing on the same stretch each time.

For the highway tests, I head down the Skyway from Magallanes to Sucat at 11pm. The idea is to get up to 100 km/h on the SLEX, reset the trip meter,  enter the Skyway onramp, maintain speed, reset at the exit toll booth, write the figure down, make the U turn at Sucat road, reset again only once we re-enter the Skyway and hit 100 km/h, then reset again once we come off the Magallanes off ramp.

The idea here is to get an uncorrupted highway figure that is averaged out both ways to compensate for elevation. This is the only time I can say that we are achieving near-perfect conditions. But it is the same for every car tested on the list, even the earlier ones that I tested on the NLEX, so it is a level playing field.

Basically, regardless which highway I use, for so long as I can maintain the steady 100 km/h on the same patch of road both ways, the figure can stand.

For the city driving figure, as a rule I try to keep shifts just under 2,000 rpm, but only if I’m not slowing traffic down. For example, my Trailblazer will actually be pretty darn peppy at 2,000 rpm, but a Wigo may need to do 22-2300 RPM to keep pace. It is all relative. What remains constant is that I stick to the road rules and I cannot impede the flow of traffic in order to achieve better mileage.

I also have a village cycle, which is a 16km daily school run through my village. It doesn’t any more consistent than this: same route, same time, same traffic, same speed, same driver, same passengers and same luggage load. Every. Single. Day. I never exceed 40km/h and never go over 2,000 RPM.

I then add that figure to the city runs to Makati, Ortigas, EDSA and the like to get an overall figure that is fairly representative of Metro Manila driving.

As I have only began this method of testing since January 15, 2014, the list is a work in progress. Expect it to shuffle up as more and more contenders throw their hat in the ring. For now, here are the country's most economical cars (metrics in km/l):

Leaderboard

1. Hyundai Accent CRDi Sedan 6-Speed Manual (23.8 city/27.3 highway)

2. Hyundai Accent CRDi Hatchback 4-Speed Automatic (21.4 city/24.6 highway)

3. Peugeot 3008 1.6 Liter (15.71 City/25.31 highway)

4. Chevrolet Spin 1.3 Liter Diesel Manual (15.20 City/24.79 highway)

5. Mitsubishi Mirage 1.2 Liter 3 Cylinder Automatic (14.10 City/21.30 highway)

6. Kia Carens 1.7 Liter Diesel (13.60 City/19.00 highway)

7. Toyota Wigo (11.3 City/18.14 highway)

8. Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 Liter Diesel Automatic (10.56 City/15.81 highway)

9. Chevrolet Trailblazer 2.8 LTZ Auto (10.20 City/15.04 highway)

10. Ford Ranger Wildtrak 3.2 Liter Automatic (10.07 City/14.86 highway)