[1098] 2024 Toyota Wigo G CVT

My family recently purchased a brand new 2024 Toyota Wigo G CVT. These are the reasons why we chose to get this vehicle.

• Practicality. We needed a car that could bring my wife and daughter to where they needed to go everyday. The car can seat four adults, or five but tight. It has enough trunk space to hold the usual stuff you bring to school and/or work.
• Fuel efficiency. So far the Wigo has been averaging around 10 - 11 km/L of fuel every week. This includes four work days, and it only usually doesn't go out on its number coding day. This is way better than our old 2001 Toyota Rav4 that usually averages around 6 km/L of fuel. That's almost double the distance you can travel on one liter of gas.
• Reliability. The "newest" car we previously had was 2011. The Rav4 was starting to break down (issues included replacing ignition coils and a refurbishment of the transmission). We needed a car that we would be confident wouldn't have surprise issues any time.
• Price. The Wigo G sells for PhP729k. I originally wanted the Wigo E which goes for PhP684k but since this was a family decision we decided on the higher spec model. No regrets. Except the color for me personally. Technically we were fine with the Wigo E but since the only color available was yellow it was only me who wanted it. We settled for grey metallic for the Wigo G. Again, it's a family decision.

Now you may be wondering why not just go for a used car? To be honest I was also looking at used cars and I was seriously considering getting one. However, the biggest reason why I chose not to get a used car is fuel efficiency. Yes I could have gotten a bigger vehicle with the same budget. However the vehicles I was looking at all had relatively poor fuel consumption. Some got 7 - 8 km/L which is still better than the Rav4, but not as efficient as the Wigo. And currently with fluctuating prices of gasoline I'd rather get the most efficient vehicle we could afford.

Then the available cars at my budget were a wee bit too old for my taste, usually seven years or older. If I looked at smaller cars, around Wigo or Vios sized, then to be honest it was still, at least for me, the better bang for the buck to go with a brand new car.

Finally, why didn't I go with the Suzuki S-Presso or the Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback? Well for the former it was a safety thing. The Wigo is rated 4-stars while the S-Presso is rated at only 3-stars. The Mirage is just way more expensive than the Wigo and I'm not sure how okay Mitsubishis are.

So there you have it.

Out.

[1097] Jogging

My good friend Ferds recently told me that some people do 3:1 interval jogging when they train. That basically means doing 3 minutes of jogging (or running) and 1 minute of walking. Earlier today I decided to try it out.

Unfortunately for me I think I set the timer wrong so I only did one set of the 3:1 interval training. Not wanting to ruin my session I decided to just do distance based intervals. So I picked four spots in my route where I would start jogging and stop jogging. I also made sure that my jog sectors would be longer than my walk sectors so that I can still count my work out as a jog on Strava.

Anyway I was able to do 3 laps, a little over 3km. Which is one whole lap farther than my last jog session. And I will attribute it to the intervals. Getting a walk sector or two per lap helped me recover so I could jog farther. So I guess moving forward this is what I'll be doing when I go jogging.

Out.

[1096] Bike Musings

This will be a train of thought blog post.

I really miss riding my bike, but I'm still too scared to brave the public roads. Too many motorcyclists and cars who may or may not respect cyclists.

Aside from that, I haven't ridden longer than two to three kilometers lately so the stamina is gone. I definitely need to start using the trainer again just to get my legs and stamina back.

Speaking of which, I still want to get a new, tubeless ready wheelset for my bike and most likely a better made 11-50T cassette. I also want to try getting 165mm crank arms and a newer, better saddle.

Out.

[1095] My Thoughts on EVs and Hybrids

Honestly at this moment I'm leaning more towards hybrids. I have two main reasons why.

There isn't a great charging infrastructure in the Philippines for fully electric vehicles. There are some mall parking areas that offer slots for EV charging, and I believe there are some gasoline stations that do offer EV charging as well. But I have no idea how many there are, how fast it takes to charge EVs, and how much it costs to charge them.

Hybrids will still have better range for out-of-towns. You still have an internal combustion engine. You can still fill up at gas stations, which are basically everywhere. With the range of a hybrid you have a good chance of making it to a gasoline station almost anywhere you go.

Plus I've read about Toyota's 1:60:90 rule. In terms of resource usage it might still be more environmentally sustainable to build hybrids at this moment.

Out.

[1094] Bicycles

So I'm currently curious about do-it-all bikes that you can ride on tarmac and rough roads. Practical bikes that can be fun to ride but still very practical. Hence my curiosity with cargo bikes.

After everything I've read I think I would rather own a long tail cargo bike. It seems like the adjustment period to ride one is a lot easier than front loading cargo bikes. I've already had my crazy ideas for a cargo bike build, including a 1x setup that has very wide gear range so that you can hopefully stay on the pedals on a loaded bike as much as possible.

Then there's an ATB, or an all-terrain bike. I'm thinking shouldn't this just be a gravel bike? And honestly, I'm not sure. If it's differences in geometries then fair enough. From what I've read though I think an ATB is the right bike frame for me.

I'm at that point in my bike interest that I do want a new frame so that I can fit tires as narrow as 32mm or as wide as maybe 42mm AND still fit fenders. I still want to stick with 1x no matter how curious I am with 2x. a 44T chainring with 11-50 cassette is I think the right gearing for me. And of course drop bars. Flared ideally so I can get a 38mm wide flared drop bar.

Out.

[1093] Practical Dream Car

There are three relatively new models that I would consider to be my practical dream car. I've blogged about it before as well but I want to blog about them again. So here they are in order.

1. Honda Jazz 1.5L AT second generation (2007 - 2012). This is still my unicorn. Alas the prices for used models of this here in the Philippines are still relatively expensive, plus the fact that most of the Honda Jazz being sold have been modified. Still my benchmark for a small, practical car. I just don't think I'll ever be able to own one because I honestly don't see how practical it would be to buy a car that's over ten-years old already.
2. Toyota Yaris 1.5L AT second generation (2005 - 2011/2013) and third generation (2011/2013 - 2021). This would be my second choice because it's a Toyota. It doesn't have the magic seating configuration of the Honda Jazz but it has the same engine displacement and it's also a hatchback. Sadly the second generation sells here for almost the same amount as some third generation Yaris being sold. And most of the third gen Yaris I see being sold are the 1.3L engine variant. Which isn't a bad thing.
3. Kia Picanto 1.2L AT third generation (2017 - current?). This was actually the first choice I had when I was originally planning to get a used car a few years ago. This is the cheapest car being sold but from reviews I've read and watched online this car is very fuel efficient and it is fun to drive. The biggest reason why this drops to my third choice is because it's a Kia and I don't know how easy it is to get parts for maintenance for this car. In terms of used car pricing this is very affordable.

Honorable mentions for practical used cars of course include the Suzuki Swift, Honda Brio, and the Toyota Wigo, AT variants if possible. Also hatchback of course.

Out.

[1092] September

It's already September 2024. We're fast approaching the final quarter of the year. I can say that time is both slow and fast at the same time, depending on your perception relatively.

The day is slow but the days are fast, if that makes sense. There are times when I feel like it takes so long for one day to finish, however when you look back at what day of the week it is you'll be very surprised at what day it is. Or what month even. It's September already, there are a few months left. A lot of things to do.

Out.