u/bohann42069

Dove into the world of EVs back in June when I first got my BYD Seal Performance, am happy with the car— but for long journeys outside of Manila, I wanted to get a PHEV to eliminate the risk of being left on the side of the road with a pure BEV. I decided to take the risk of being an early adopter and pickup a Li Auto L6 new after hearing a lot of great things about them and getting to ride them on my most recent trip to China. These are my first impressions:

Things I like: Elegant exterior design that justifies its steep price tag and an equally elegant interior. Beautifully crafted, better build quality inside and out compared to ALL new mainstream luxury German brands bar probably Porsche. Everywhere you touch just feels fantastic. Very well thought out features including self parking regardless of whether or not you’re inside or outside the car, ACC that actually works, massaging seats, cameras everywhere that appear even on your HUD, tremendous power, great pure EV range, a fantastic ride and a very well deisgned infotainment system and a LOT of lifestyle oriented features.

What I dont like: The car simply isn’t localized to the Philippine market yet. A bunch of apps are still in Chinese, all the entertainment apps on the system are Chinese and the built in satnav and app don’t work in the Philippines yet. You can use the browser to watch Youtube naman powered by the car’s onboard simcard. I was however told, that a software update fully localizing the car will come within the year— so given that all my complaints are software related, I didn’t mind it much given that all the other features of the car that work here justify its price new.

Full review will come after I spend more time with the car— but overall I am extremely pleased with the purchase. It looks nothing like anything on the road, and its just cool and a great privilege to drive something so unique. Hope the experience, particularly in the long term match the excellent first week I just had.

With this generation of Lexus IS350 being over a decade old now, and with secondary market pricing being in the low to mid 1 million peso range— I genuinely believe that this is the single best entry level sports sedan available on the Philippine market today. I write this piece after using the car almost everyday and after adding more than 50,000km on the clock.

Exterior & Interior Design: I think the car just looks fantastic. Great proportions, sharp angles that are not overdone, LED lights front and back make for a car that still looks up to date and still pulls looks more than a decade after its launch. While I think the generations of IS that came after this look better, I don’t think they look 3x better (which is how much more they cost vs this one). The interior is also a genuinely wonderful place to be. Every single material feels solid and high quality, and with mine having more than 70,000km at this point, there is not a single creak or rattle inside. Even the plastics, while not being the most exciting in their designs, they do not degrade unlike their German counterparts. The seats are a highlight too. Excellent support, comfort, leather quality and grip even on spirited drives on twisty roads. They also offer plenty of flexibility and go down a lot— very important for me as someone who is 6 feet tall.

Features: Given that its more than a decade old, you can’t really expect a car like this to have all the latest bells and whistles— but I think it has everything you need in car you take around everyday. A very, very well placed and high quality reversing camera, a decently sized screen that can easily and very cheaply be retrofitted with wireless Apple Carplay, one of the best car stereos I have ever heard, and a gauge cluster that is cooler than 99% of all other cars on the road. My only gripe in this area are the cooled seats. While the car is equipped with them, you can barely feel them as they are reliant on cool air being pumped in from vents that pass through the floor. There are however, 3D printed air guiders that guide air directly from the floor to the fans directed below the seat. Features wise, while this doesn’t come with any ADAS, ACC, 360 cameras, etc. if these aforementioned things matter to you the most in purchasing a car— I don’t think you should be looking at a 12 year old sedan in the first place. For someone like me who just wants to have a nice place to sit in, the perfect seating position, a great sound system you do not need to upgrade anymore and Apple Carplay— this IS comes with all you need.

Power: This is where the car shines. The Toyota 2GR-FSE 3.5L V6 is one of my very favorite engines. Stock, the car pushes about 306hp (270whp) and it is definitely more than enough for everyday use and spirited driving. I modified mine with a Takeda cold air intake, catless headers, a Blox Racing full exhaust and now the car pushes about 340hp (300whp) after a 95 RON ECU tune. The engine pulls HARD and sounds absolutely fantastic. The exhaust comes in with a rich and high pitched wail that sounds like nothing else you hear on the road and you get a very distinct whistle from the intake. The power delivery is instantaneous, linear and very manageable— so while on paper, the performance numbers of the car don’t look too crazy compared to a lot of EVs today, its still more than enough power to allow you to have a lot of fun and gap everybody on the road without getting you killed.

The gearbox is also excellent. I heard a lot of people complain about it being slow, but it definitely is fast enough for me. It’s definitely not instantaneous, but unless you’re chasing ultimate laptime— I dont think .3 seconds of lag between you pulling the paddle and the gearbox doing something really matters. Where the 8 speed automatic of this shines is in its smoothness, and I find that this is the most important thing in a gearbox. I have cars with Porsche PDKs, Audi DSGs, BMW ZF Automatics and DCTs and even when driving in heavy traffic— this gearbox has never lurched on me or in any way feel awkward. I drove a Nissan 400z recently with its Mercedes Benz derived automatic, and I found myself rushing to get back into my Lexus because that thing lurched on downshifts to the point it felt dangerous. Horrible experience that was lol.

Ride & Handling: This is where I fell in love with the car. Bar the fact it comes with an open differential stock, which you can easily (but not very cheaply) swap out with a Cusco or even GT86 LSD— this car rides and handles like a total dream. I modified the car with RSR Sports-i Coilovers, Tom’s front and rear strutbars, solid bushings and Michelin PS5s with 245 width in front and 275 width at the back around Rays Gramlights. Even in its stock configuration, the car handles day to day use and the occasional spirited drive well enough— but I think that conducting the aforementioned mods truly up the car’s game up as the stock Bridgestone Potenza tires in particular are too narrow and do not offer enough grip under load. The car feels light on its feet, the steering provides a great amount of feedback without being too heavy, the nose just flies into wherever you point the wheel with lightning pace while retaining excellent predictability, while the back even under high load always remains composed unless you actively try to kick it out. Grip is superb and body roll is kept to a minimum. I was able to track against GR Yaris’, Corollas and 86es and the car was easily faster than a lot of them and I even went toe to toe with the pace car (apparently thats not something you should do LOL)— proving how well it performs even against today’s latest and greatest offerings from the Toyota Group. On daily use, the coilovers from RSR made the car feel even more compliant on the road compared to stock. While it definitely isn’t an S Class or a 7 Series, I have never found myself complaining about the ride despite taking the car everywhere from the streets of Tondo to the mountains of Ifugao. The brakes are great too. You DO NOT need a BBK for this car. I upgraded the system with steel lines, EBC Redstuff Brake Pads, Dixcel SD Rotors and Ravenol brake fluid and the performance is very good. Great stopping power, and very communicative pedal feel that allows you to brake smoothly at all speeds.

Longterm Ownership & Maintenance: I’ve never had this car brought to the Lexus casa yet for the sole reason that they simply charge too much. Daig pa nila ang PGA Cars Porsche & Audi and RSA Motors BMW lol. I have the car maintained at Autoplus, Titanworks and for small stuff, Zidcar in Banawe just like all my other cars. As one would expect, longterm ownership is a strong suit of the car given that it’s basically a souped up Toyota. I’ve driven this thing harder than anything I’ve ever owned for the sole reason that I know it will take anything I throw at it— and it just has done exactly that. Replacement parts are cheap with lower control arms being about 6k, stablinks being about 1.5k with all the parts you need easily purchasable from reputable parts importers. You can even order stuff cheap yourself from China.

The only thing that went “wrong” for me were the aircon servos with hot air being blown out of the central vents even when you set it to be cold. This is something I had resolved for 1,500 at Speedyfix with a simple reset. I just dont touch anything else except for the fan speed anymore, and the issue has never reoccured. Gas mileage is unspectacular to be expected, when driving in the city— you can expect to get about 4.5-6km/L and about 12km/L in the highway. It just eats a ton of gas when you really rev the engine out, but then again— what did you expect from a 3.5L NA V6.

The cherry on the top of the cake of owning this car is the Lexus ISPH Group all IS owners can join. I’ve been a part of multiple car groups in the past, and I can safely say that this is the best one I’ve ever been part of. It consists mostly of rich uncles (I do not fall into that category) but that just means that the group is mature, not jologs in any way, they have great careers and as one of the youngest people in the group— I genuinely learn a lot from the people around me car and career wise.

Overall, apart from the useless cooled seats and subpar fuel economy, this car is all things considered— the best car I have ever had. It’s perfect for someone looking to have a gorgeous, premium, solidly built, fast, luxury sports sedan that will start every time you ask it to. And for the price you can get one today, I simply cannot think of another vehicle that can do all the things this IS can in such a wonderfully executed package.

Crazy how someone took delivery of a 20+ million peso luxury SUV with a front fender - hood panel gap that looks like that. Ni 1 million peso Chinese econo car ngayon wala kang makikitang ganyan hahaha. Oh how the mighty have fallen…

I’ve been reading a lot of great things about BYD over the last year, so back in June— I decided to pull the trigger and dip myself into the world of EV & BYD ownership. I wanted to have something a little bit more “special” than the ever popular SL6 and Tang DMi, so I ended up picking up the Seal Performance, also just because I wanted to see how BYD could flex their muscles as a car company.

Design: The car just looks great. Very well proportioned, not overly busy with just the right creases and angles installed on the right places. The poppy out door handles make the thing look so cool too, and the tail lights in particular are a strong suit of the car. The rear LED tail lights that run the length of the rear are also of great quality. No dark or inconsistently lit spots just make the whole thing look super premium. The car gets quite a few looks too, just because I think it looks super different to all the other BYDs on the road now— so it definitely has some street cred lol. Overall, the Seal looks better than 90% of the cars coming out of Germany these days from Mercedes and BMW in particular hahaha.

Power: The 530hp the car gives you out of the box is simply out of this world. I cant believe we live in a world where you can access this much power out of the box from a car that is such a complete package at a very competitive price. The delivery is linear and not brutal— very different from the Tesla Model 3 Perf I drove a few months back that really kicks you into the back of your seat aggressively, the Seal is much smoother in its power delivery and therefore much more controllable and comfortable. It’s more akin to a very powerful naturally aspirated ICE car than an EV. More striking for me was the mid range pull of the car. Speeding up from 40kph to illegal speeds takes a scarily short amount of time and it does it in such a smooth and undramatic manner. It gaps almost every single car I’ve owned/own— and it’s literally a family sedan. Great overall.

Range: BYD advertises 580+km of range while I’ve been getting 430-450km in mixed use. Nowhere near what you’d be getting in a PHEV, but definitely more than enough for your week working around Manila. Going full EV has been problem free from me, bar that one time when I first got the car and ended up with 2% battery while driving around the city during rush hour. I couldn’t find a fast charger anywhere near me, so I ended up having to call AC Mobility’s mobile charger to charge the car. They fully charged the car in under an hour. I’d still never take this thing further away than Tagaytay given our limited charging infrastructure, so unless you have other cars to choose from— I wouldn’t pick one up even if you only do the occasional long distance trip just because of the risk. But as someone who used to daily an NA 4.8 V8 and a NA 4.0 flat 6 fun car, the positive financial impact of not having to spend 5-8k a week just on gas has genuinely been life changing. (i cant stress that enough)

Features: This is by far the most feature filled car I’ve ever had. The ventilated seats cool up so quickly, the infotainment system is very well optimized and easy to use, the ADAS & safety systems actually work and stop me from crashing and all the cameras are of exceptional quality. However, the Dynaudio speakers are good but not great, the wireless phone charger is absolutely hopeless, and the drive mode selector that lets you choose between eco, normal and sport is tiny, has almost no feedback and is situated almost right next to the volume button. It’s pretty difficult to get into the drive mode you actually want to be in. Overall, compared to whatever the Germans are selling here for literally 3x the price— wala akong masabi. I just hope it had massaging seats.

Build Quality: This is another strong suit of the car, everything just feels solid. The doors close with a heavy and reassuring thud. The panel gaps are better than modern BMWs and Range Rovers. Even the small things like the sound of the pop out door handles are nice and solid sounding. The leather and suede they use in the interior is great, and everything you touch and feel just screams quality. Excellent tactility, and nothing in the car feels hollow at all. There is not a single creak in the car. Gone are the days na we could shit on Chinese cars for having shitty quality— and this thing proves it. This BYD made me remember two years ago when I had an Audi Q8 and recalled how many creaks there were when you’d touch the screen, press on things and even lay your arm on the front and rear armrests. It was absolutely hopeless. This car beats it and most if not all of the German cars I’ve had/have at 30% of the cost.

Ride & Handling: This is a mixed bag. The seating position is a little bit too high for my liking as someone who’s 6’0. You also cannot adjust the front passenger seat height, so I’ve never been comfortable in it in the few occasions I was a passenger prince. The steering is light and devoid of any feedback as one would expect— but setting the steering to sport does add a little bit of heft, but not in any way adds any level of feedback or road texture. The tires leave lot to be desired. I’m sure the Continental EcoContract 6Qs these have from factory are a big step up from the Giti tires in other BYD models, but it is clear that they are tuned for efficiency and quietness above all. Wet weather grip in particular leaves a lot to be desired, with the limit of the tires being very, very early. I found myself in situations where the ABS module was vibrating and the car simply wasn’t slowing down enough in higher speed, close call situations that become even more prevalent now with the unpredictable weather. There was also a time when I was parked on top of the Lucky China Town Mall parking lot, driving out of the parking after it had rained wondering to myself why I was simply drifting across the road and having to counter steer while turning left hahahaha. Overall, I get that EV tires have to maximize efficiency, but for a car that literally has “Performance” in the name— the tires simply do not deliver, even with its reputable name. Don’t expect yourself to have the time of your life in your nearest mountain pass.

My biggest gripe with this car however boils down to the ride. It is simply too stiff for my liking, especially for a daily. While the car never feels like it loses its shit over bumps, you really feel a strong jolt enter the cabin when you go over larger bumps, and you feel literally every single road imperfection there is. I understand that BYD probably had to stiffen up the springs on the car due to the weight, but better tuning for the suspension would be much appreciated for whatever updated models come after. I skipped the SL6 because I found the ride to be too matagtag, this almost feels the same— apart from the fact that you sit quite a bit lower. The base Xiaomi SU7 even without the air suspension rides better than this.

BYD Service: This is also a mixed bag. I’m pretty maarte with my cars because obviously, these things are not cheap and you want to know what you’re buying. When I walked into almost every single BYD dealership I went to, while the staff were generally very nice— it felt like the extent of their knowledge are the features the car has on the interior, and they are not briefed or do not take the effort to find what it would be like to truly own one of their products in the longterm. Not enough knowledge on charging, on tires, on what goes wrong, and why one should choose BYD over their competitors apart from the fact that BYD is the most reputable among their contemporaries. (this was the exact illness Geely had half a decade ago) There was also this time when I was super desperate for a charge, and went to the BYD dealer closest to me. An agent came outside to greet me, but the second they found out I wasn’t going to buy a car and instead was simply looking to fill up my rapidly dying car— they just told me na may charger daw malapit sa Eastwood. The Evro chargers were useless and I had to call AC Mobility to help me. No comment on maintenance yet as I’ve had the car for too little a time. Overall, mababait naman mga tao nila— they just need to truly learn who their clients are and what they would buy each car specifically for. More refinement on the service end is needed and better customer care.

Overall, the car is great. Not perfect, but for the price— it’s a very strong option for anyone looking for a fast, feature filled, premium city run about. The main pitfalls for me are the useless wireless charger, subpar tires, unnecessarily complicated AC vents and disappointing ride, but for 2.550 million— it’s a very good package.

Pwede pala to, marked “Police” na Hilux na walang plaka sa harap likod, todo switch lanes ng hindi nagsisignal, complete with wang wang pa! How do these guys expect people to respect road rules when they themselves violate the most basic things. Sayang ganda pa naman ng build— complete with ARB and BFG tires pa 🤣

For context, these are two of my cars. The one on the first photo has its original PPF on from 2018 from casa and as you can see— the application was very “of its time.” the edges werent tucked in, and the PPF is now dirty and parang may yellow patina na yung kotse ko. The second photo is of my daily. Walang PPF pero now naman dumarami na yung sand/rock chips sa bumper and halata siya kasi the chips are lighter than the car’s paint.

Friends are pushing me to go for Xpel and while the output seems good, parang their pricing seems a bit steep. I’ll end up spending basically 500k for both cars. Any recommendations for good value PPF around the Metro and where I can get the paint retouched on the second car?

Carrots & corn were decent but as standard as you can get. Beef patty was clearly frozen and had this really weird and tough exterior texture with the inside being inconsitsntly cooked. Garlic rice was also nothing to write home about. I dont usually write food reviews— but if this isnt highway robbery, then I dont know what is 😅