To some extent, this is reasonable, especially if it is a Frankenstein car rebuild from Japan – the parts probably spanning a decade. The year of the car mostly seems to relate to when it was first registered in this country. You’ve heard of Motorcity, this is Multicabcityįor those looking for a bit more comfort and a lot more get-up-and-go than the Ginger Winger (above), it’s difficult in the Philippines to get any accurate information on the cars you see for sale at the yards or on the internet (and here ). In the meantime, the Multicab is a great little looker with alloys a tangerine paint job and apparently can carry a lot of small Filipinos – just keep the petrol tank full, please!

The tank is probably full of metal and paint and needs flushing. My diagnosis is that the openings to the tank weren’t adequately sealed during shotblasting of the body shell prior to painting. The problem is recurring (fuel delivery) and usually happens at the bottom of the tank, so the best solution until we get the tank cleaned is to keep it topped up with fuel. We had to buy a new fuel pump from a guy who couldn’t believe his luck selling to a rich westerner (I’m not rich, but nobody believes that), and All-trac did at least give us a new pump which we intended to hold as a spare…until the replacement broke too and it was rushed into use within a week. By the time we were driving the lanes of Samal it was getting a bit sick and struggling to get up the hills…or along the flats…downhill was great though! Over the next couple of days the Suzuki got sicker and died on the side of the road twice. The little Suzuki was ok on the way to the ferry, but not as zippy as I expected it to be.

The All-trac team couldn’t wait to get us out of the yard so that they could lock the gates behind us. I should have been suspicious that the collection time was set for closing time. We were assured that it would be serviced before delivery and we went off to get the cash. The engine turned over in a lively fashion without a hope of firing up. All good until we tried to start the one we were most interested in. All-trac were open, and their vehicles were the cleanest looking and best presented.

It must have been a Sunday (or a Saturday afternoon) because most of the yards were locked and uninterested in opening, even for a surefire deal. We spent a day wandering around the Suzuki Multicab yards of Davao in January 2010.

Multicab installment