The All-New Ertiga Tagaytay Media Drive
Suzuki Philippines Inc., invited us to join their media drive to Tagaytay in their recently launched MPV, the All-New Ertiga. We met up bright and early on January 31st at Suzuki Pasig along C5 for breakfast and to get into our car teams for the short drive to Tagaytay Highlands. Not long after our briefing and some photos outside, we were on our way. The 60+ kilometer ride was estimated to take around 2-2.5 hours due to the rush hour traffic.
I was teamed up with Gilbert Chao of motoph.com and Bam Olivares of Wheels and Gears magazine. I opted to let Bam take the wheel so I could enjoy the second row seat for the first part of the trip. With more legroom and headroom than the previous generation, I found it easy to find a comfortable position and drift off to sleep as we made our way out of manila to SLEX.
I finally took my turn behind the wheel, and this All-New Ertiga has a racing inspired leather wrapped D shaped steering wheel also has some wood trim, which is also ideal for taller people who would usually have the tendency of having the bottom of the steering wheel scrape the top of their legs. The dashboard and front doors have an upscale look with wood trim.
You get an a engine start button in the variant we drove, and for me, the piéce de resistance is the 10” touchscreen audio entertainment system which can read a variety of video formats. There are a lot of nooks and cup/bottle holders for your things, the doors can accommodate 1L bottles and the two in the front center console can accommodate 600ml containers in the ventilated receptacles. You get two 12V 120W lighter sockets, one up front and another one for the second row passengers which can supply enough power to charge even the thirstiest of gadgets. The third row is also spacious, it lets you recline and tilt down to as much as 16 degrees.
Under the hood is a new powerplant, the K15B 1.5L 4-cylinder 16-valve DOHC Multipoint injection with intake Variable Valve Timiing (VVT) gasoline engine that puts out 103Hp at 6000rpms and 138Nm of torque at 4400rpms. This engine has 8 more horsepower and 8Nm of torque more than the last generation but with Suzuki’s new generation HEARTECT platform, the small gains with the new engine translate into better performance overall and we found this out when we finally arrived at Tagaytay Highlands, where we put the All-New Ertiga through it’s paces on the winding roads and changing elevations. The variant we drove was the top of the line GLX (priced at Php978,000) with the 4-speed automatic transmission which eagerly upshifted when we needed power and readily shifted up to the next gear to keep the drive economical.
here’s a short video of the drive to Tagaytay:
Overall, the drive to Tagaytay and back to Manila was fun behind the wheel of Suzuki’s newest people carrier. It does the job, and performs as well as expected for an MPV with an economical engine. It’s also the most affordable top-of-the-line variant among its Japanese brand competitors. If you’re in the market for a small 7 seater, perhaps you should take a closer look at the All-New Ertiga.
Words and Photos – Neil Pagulayan
Video edited by Cameron Arciaga
