It’s a really cool car and it’s named Coolray. And the young car buyers will have another item in their want-list when they get their Christmas bonuses.
The newest car model that rolled into the local market last week in a grand celebration organized by its distributor, Sojitz G Auto Phillippines, looks like a car from the future. And the technologies that drive it are what dreams are made of.
The 360-degree camera of this small SUV allows the parking feature to park without the assistance of the driver, and even to drive “blind” with the help of the monitor on the dashboard. Those two features already tell of the exciting time its driver will have with the Coolray.
When Froilan Dytianquin, sales and marketing general manager of Sojitz PH, said the Coolray “promises to bring the fun back to driving,” I thought it was just a casual remark.
But getting to know the Coolray through the presentations of the design team from its head office in China, I realized that is true.
First, that car’s profile is designed around the concept of “Racing through Space and Time.”
Designers explained that it is integrated with the "wingspan" design to demonstrate the "beauty of the young power" to make Coolray “full of energy, confidence and strength.” The Sport variant comes with a black roof fitted with panoramic sunroof and with a carbon fiber trims for that youthful sporty look.
Its brochure says the Coolray is a small SUV powered by a 1.5 Gasoline direct injection 3-cylinder engine equipped with turbocharger and Dual Variable Valve Timing. It churns out 177 Ps of power and gives 255 Nm of Torque. Manufacturers say it goes from zero to 100 km/h in 7.9 seconds. It is paired with seven-speed Wet Dual Clutch Transmission.
One of the cool and innovative features of the Coolray Sport is the G-Pilot system that includes the Auto Parking Assist system which lets you do parallel and perpendicular parking with a touch of a button and four cameras to give that 360-degree view of the car.
It also has a blind spot detection system that alerts the driver on incoming vehicles. Other convenience features include tire pressure monitoring system which provides reading of pressure and temperature of tires in real time and a remote start feature that lets owners turn on the engine and airconditioning system to cool the cabin especially if the vehicle is parked outside.
It has standard Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brake distribution system, Brake Assist, Electronic Stability and Traction Control, Hill Start Assist, Hill Descent Control and Cruise Control.
The prices of this new small SUV will especially attract buyers – it starts at less than a million pesos for the Comfort variant (P978,000), P1,088,000 for the Premium variant, and P1,198,000 for the Sport variant.
Sojitz G Auto Philippines is a member of the the Sojitz Corporation which has been active in the Philippine auto industry since the 1960’s.
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Roads and Traffic Expo
A transport expo that is dedicated to roads and traffic management opened early this week at the SMX Convention Center at the MOA Complex, Pasay City. It is a concept that fits the times for the traffic problem is affecting lives, lifestyles and livelihood opportunities.
The Roads & Traffic Expo Philippines gathered government and private sector to seek solutions to the traffic problem which a recent study of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said would cost the Philippines P5.4 billion every day by 2035.
The expo conducted several seminars to discuss infrastructure development of roads, tunnels and bridges, electric vehicles, smart cities and smart mobility, road safety, traffic management and urban transportation.
The keynote speakers were Matthew Schultz, president of the Australian Smart Communities Association, Mark Richmund de Leon, officer in charge and Undersecretary for Road Transport and Infrastructure at the Department of Transportation, Maria Catalina E. Cabral, Undersecretary for Planning and PPP, Department of Public Works and Highways, and national president, Road Engineering Association of the Philippines and Danilo Lim, chairman, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.
By Pinky Concha Colmenares