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Mobility stories without the glare

VISOR is a Philippine-based automotive website that pledges to deliver smart, objective, transparent and accurate content. We went online on November 6, 2017. Why the name? Good question. We really wanted “Best Motoring Website,” but that would have been a little awkward. Not because we wouldn’t be able to live up to the automatic expectations (we intend to), but because the acronym “BMW” is already taken. Some carmaker based in Munich, Germany, apparently beat us to it. By 101 years.

The website names we considered

VISOR
BEST MOTORING WEBSITE
TOPMOST GEAR
AUTO NEGOSYO
DRIVE, DON'T SURF (DDS)
TITO DRIVERS OF MANILA

Anyway, a visor is that flat sunshade attached near the top part of your car’s windshield—inside the cabin, of course—which you use to hide the picture of your wife during the first year of your marriage, or the picture of your dream car after the third. It also doubles (if it is so equipped) as a vanity mirror for ensuring that your colleagues won’t be able to tell what you had for lunch. Sometimes you use the visor for keeping parking receipts, or for holding a congressman’s business card which you brandish to intimidate traffic officers who like springing from behind a tree in order to fleece motorists.

You don’t personally know the congressman, but you know he’s a douchebag par excellence from all his TV interviews and also from all the Botox he has allowed to be injected into his face. So you picked up his card when you found it on the floor of a gentlemen’s club (which isn’t actually a place for gentlemen). As you slipped the card into your wallet, you pondered: “Why is this bar called something it is not?”

We aim to produce car-related content without the paid falsehood, without the sponsored drama, without the corporate bullshit

Since then, you’ve stopped going to seedy joints, mainly because you’re a hater of misnomers—wrong names inappropriately attached to people or things. There is already so much fraud in this fake-news generation that you feel a monumental sense of embarrassment from having contributed to it with your occasional visits to a gentlemen’s club that is not really for gentlemen.

You’ve changed your ways. You’ve blocked websites and social-media accounts that propagate disinformation. You’ve avoided influencers and brand ambassadors who exploit their followers’ gullibility in their shameless pursuit of viral fame and instant fortune. And you’ve vowed to never again cast your vote in favor of politicians who distribute business cards in the darkest bowels of society.

So here you are. Your search for sanity and truth in an increasingly crazy and fallacious world has led you to us. You wonder: “Why is this online portal called VISOR? And why should I read another automotive website when every other Jeremy Clarkson wannabe who has Internet access and a driver’s license feels qualified to put up a mobility blog?”

Well, a visor helps the driver see things clearly on the road by blocking the blinding radiance of the sun. Similarly, we want our website to help readers wade through the stream of deceitfulness in today’s old and new media that cover land transportation. Our slogan is “Mobility Stories Without The Glare.” Or car-related content without the paid falsehood, without the sponsored drama, without the corporate bullshit. That’s our pledge to you, dear high-minded reader, should you decide to include us in your list of trusted content producers.

If you stick around awhile, we’ll talk about cars and mobility in the most honest manner possible and minus the self-serving agenda you’ve come to ascribe to journalists. We promise you won’t find anything here that belongs to peddlers of fiction—political, automotive or otherwise. Pinkie swear.

Thanks for reading.

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SECTIONS

CARS

DRIVEN (test drives)

ENCOUNTER (intimate drives)

ICONIC (classic automobiles)

LAUNCH (production car launches)

LIST (catalog of categorized vehicles)

NEWS (automotive reports)

OFF-ROAD (4×4 vehicles)

PEEK (preview of latest cars)

REDLINE (motorsports)

STEED (personal cars)

TECH (automotive technologies)

TRANSFORM (modified cars)

VISION (concept cars)

BIKES

CYCLE (bicycle stories)

HANDLEBAR (motorcycle parts and accessories)

LIFESTYLE (two-wheel way of life)

MOTOR (motorcycle news)

QUICKSHIFT (Andy Leuterio’s column)

RIDE (motorcycle reviews)

INDUSTRY

ALTRUISM (corporate social responsibility)

BULLETIN (events, promos, news bits)

BUSINESS (corporate news)

GREEN (environment-friendly topics)

MESS (conflicts, lawsuits, chaos)

MILESTONE (feats, achievements)

PERSONNEL (manpower update)

PROCESS (research and development, car manufacture)

RANK (surveys, classifications, awards)

RECALL (product safety announcements)

SALES (vehicle sales reports)

SERVICES (fuel, convenience, delivery)

STORE (car dealerships)

TREND (industry directions and forecasts)

UPGRADE (aftermarket products, car parts)

HUMANS

10 QUESTIONS (Q&A interviews)

CLUB (car organizations)

DARE (adventurous activities)

FACE (brand ambassadors, product endorsers)

FAMILY (relatives, loved ones)

JOURNAL (schedules, personal events)

LEGEND (motoring icons)

OBITUARY (deaths)

SKETCH (human interest)

CULTURE

ART (paintings, posters, illustrations, sculptures)

BLISS (car-themed events and places)

DIVERSION (movies, TV shows, music, books, websites)

ET CETERA (because car culture is too vast to categorize)

GARB (motoring-themed apparel, shoes, bags, items)

PIT STOP (car-inspired food and drinks)

PLAY (toys and video games)

ROAM (road trips)

STUFF (objects of desire)

TIME (wristwatches)

TRAFFIC

APPRAISAL (reviews of establishments and government agencies)

CONCRETE (road infrastructure)

DECREE (motoring rules and regulations)

GRIDLOCK (traffic congestion)

GUIDE (navigational apps and devices)

LEGAL (unlawful motoring-related acts)

MISHAP (car accidents)

RECAP (summary of motoring news)

SAFETY (road security)

TRANSIT (public transportation)

WISDOM

ASK (answers to readers’ questions)

CAR LIFE (Botchi Santos’s column)

DATA (numbers, charts, infographics)

FAITH (God-centered content)

HACK (motoring or driving tips)

NAVIGATOR (Vince S. Socco’s column)

OPINION (subjective essays)

PASSENGER (R. Anthony Siy’s column)

REAR VIEW (Cito Beltran’s column)

SPOILER (Vernon B. Sarne’s column)

TRIVIA (car-related information)

TUTOR (in-depth technical articles)

VIRAL

HUMOR (amusing jokes)

LESSON (gentle reminders)

OMG (amazing nuggets)

SNAPSHOTS (Instagram posts)

MEDIA

FLICK (short videos)

GALLERY (car photos)

BRANDED

AGUILA AUTO GLASS

APITLI

BEEPBEEP.PH

BLAUPUNKT

BMW

CAROUSELL

CHEVROLET

CLEANFUEL

CTEK

DTE

FOCAL

FORD

GAC

GEELY

GOODYEAR

GRAB

HELLA

HONDA

HYUNDAI

JEEP

KIA

LAND ROVER

LEXUS

MASERATI

MAXUS

MAZDA

MERCEDES-BENZ

METRO OIL

MG

MINI

MITSUBISHI

MPTC

NISSAN

OBEN GROUP

PEUGEOT

PIAA

SEIKO

SONAX

SUBARU

SUZUKI

TAIWAN EXCELLENCE

TOYOTA

TOYOTA SHAW

TURTLE WAX

VOLKSWAGEN

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. (Psalm 20:7)