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Hi from Cebu

Discussion in 'Introductions' started by JayM, Jul 4, 2010.

  1. JayM

    JayM New Member

    I'm Jay, American, living in Mandaue City, Cebu province, Philippines with my charming wife Karen (who's from here). I've lived here for just over 13 months. A few months ago we bought a Suzuki microvan, which I call Black Betty (hehe). She seems to run just fine, though she overheated once when Karen was driving it (she likes to stay in 2nd or 3rd gear for some reason: I've been trying to teach Karen to shift more often and go easy on the little engine).

    Betty's a Suzuki something-or-other: she looks like a Carry or Every but the papers says she's a Scrum "cat-eye". Her horn button says Autozam, so she's had a few parts changed along the way. In the Philippines these kind of vehicles are called "multicabs" because the original importer named them that, 'cause they have several different style bodies with the same cab. She has a 12-valve 660cc 3-cylinder fuel-injected engine, automatic 4WD, a 5-speed manual trans-axle, air conditioning, leather seats, mag wheels and a cheap AM/FM/MP3 stereo with USB and SD card slots: no fancy speaker system though.

    It's illegal to import right-hand drive vehicles here, so they bring them in from Japan cut into pieces then weld them back together and reassemble them, converting to left-hand drive as they do. We bought Betty from one of these importers/assemblers as a reconditioned unit, probably someone's trade-in on one of the newer front-engine models (ours has a rear engine: better traction from the rear wheels that way). You can get most any configuration or modification done that you want: I had them move the driver's seat mounts back a few inches to give me more leg room. I've heard that they can extend the cab on the pick-up models to allow you to do the same thing. They threw in two bench-type jump seats on the sides of the cargo area for carrying more passengers, at my request. I think I'll remove them though, as so far we tend to carry more stuff than we do people. I comfortably carried four passengers to a wedding and back last Saturday, and we can squeeze 9 or 10 in there if we have to.

    We had a few problems already: the horn quit working, followed a few days later by the turn signals, then all the tail lights and brake lights quit. It turned out to be the horn's hot wire shorted out to ground. Some electrical tape and new fuses and she was good to go, thanks to the multicab mechanic that lives across the road. I didn't even know where the fuse panel was. :)

    I don't have any recent pictures but these are from when we first got her home (taken outside of our old apartment house in Banawa, Cebu City). Nothing has changed except we now have the permanent license plates.

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  2. fupabox

    fupabox Well-Known Member

    A friend of mine has a Black Betty as well (gmc 3500 plow truck)...nice van and welcome aboard...if you hadn't told anyone they would think that was always LHD.
     
  3. Coast Steve

    Coast Steve Member

    wow, never seen a black one before!

    Nice
     
  4. olddatsunfan

    olddatsunfan Member

    I like that Suzuki Jay!
     
  5. Duhhbadmeth

    Duhhbadmeth New Member

    Where in cebu particularly we can buy suzuki carry truck for assembly sir?
     
  6. fmartin_gila

    fmartin_gila Well-Known Member

    Jay, Nice looking rig there, a bit more upscale than what I have. Mine is very "plain Jane" with the lower grade upholstery in it and no extras. I am American living in Iloilo. I bought mine from Domescon about two & half years ago. It is the next generation, originally a 2002 Mazda Scrum in Japan, is now a 2014 Suzuki CarryVan here.

    Fred
     

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