The new Auris is back with a bang

The previous Auris is/was what I call a 'dutiful servant'. It got on with the job downstairs so you could get on with life upstairs. I don't think I've ever had a complaint from a reader about it – and I get lots of complaints.

By the same token, it was nothing more than effective and dull, with a truly forgettable cabin. All the while more and more competitors were offering service with a lot more of a smile.

The latest generation is no longer dowdy to look at, especially at the front where it has suddenly become one of the sharpest-looking in its class. The rear is more universal hatchback design but brings something to the table for all that. So the servant has changed its attire and now serves in a smart, crisp new outfit. I'm all for that.

Inside Toyota has taken the cabin criticisms on board – mind you, the version I had was a few steps up from basic and had brushed aluminium and nice-feeling plastic and upholstery.

I could, at this stage, throw a strop over something that might appear trivial to you. But I won't. I'll just give out for a minute . . . With all the preparation and work put into taking this several steps up the stairs, how could Toyota let it out with a rear wash wiper no longer than my middle finger. The back window was filthy in no time because I was driving on all sorts of roads and under all sorts of weather conditions. But all I had was an aperture I would consider far too small to peer out of. Strop over.

I had settled so quickly in this. Even though it is lower (and wider and just 30mm longer) I had no problem at all getting in. The seats suited me; I had my best position in 10 seconds and there was nothing too demanding on my fading intellect to find the thingies to work the audio, ventilation etc. The company's Touch system on my Luna version was brilliant. It was a simple, straightforward touchscreen that even I could follow. Oh, how I wish it could be replicated in others!

The 1.4-litre diesel is something of a favourite of mine. Like a good dinner made by a wily old cook, it puts your meat, two veg and nicely mashed potatoes on the plate every time.

To be fair, it could do with a few more horsepower to spruce it up from 90bhp – many of its rivals have (albeit larger) more powerful engines.

That said, this was really frugal (helped a little by a car that's 40kg lighter). Not too long ago, we'd have been flag waving the fact that a diesel engine dipped under the 100g/km and can consume as little as four litres every 100 kilometres (that's 74mpg – I'm afraid I could never get it that low).

On 15-inch wheels the emissions on this are 99g/km – impressive. On the 16-inch wheels that I had, it sneaks over the 100g mark to 103g/km – remember, there is a fine 1.33-litre petrol as well; low-mileage drivers don't need diesels.

But the best bit for me was the virtual lack of road/tyre noise in the cabin and a notable ability to glide over rough and bumpy surfaces. I would say this was the best I've come across for a while.

The revised electric power steering gave much better feedback and the suspension overall had more dynamism to it.

Yes, the Ford Focus has a sharper feel to its handling but the Auris had something rare in a family car – the feeling of being in something made for a more upstairs marque. I would say I felt better in it than I did in the subsequent Mercedes A-Class. Now that is sticking my neck out. Yet that is where this car has gone – from diligent servant to something of a modern-day equal.

True to the tradition of the press, the V was courageous and always sought and stuck to the truth, even risking punishment by lampooning the UST administration. But I think among all campus papers, the V excelled in the literary field. It used to have a separate magazine for literary works. It had literary contests every year for short stories, essays, poetry and plays, which later became the Rector’s Literary Awards, and still later the Gawad Ustetika, which added a “Pilipino” category in the short story, essay, and poetry writing contests.

When I was the V’s literary editor, I launched the Varsitarian Literary Quarterly, which published fiction, poetry, essays and literary criticism by professors, students and alumni. NVM Gonzalez’s “Children of the Ash-Covered Loam” was first published there. The story was later published as a book. Unfortunately, the Varsitarian Literary Quarterly was discontinued after I graduated. I think it should be revived. There is now no outlet for the literary output of Filipino writers, except one or two magazines—I can’t even remember which ones.

As part of the anniversary celebrations of both the V and UST (85 years for the V and 400 years for UST), I propose that they publish a book titled, “The Best of the Varsitarian.” It will be an anthology of the winners in the annual V Literary Contests, the Rector’s Literary Awards, and the Gawad Ustetika. The Palanca Memorial Awards publishes the winners in its annual literary contests, why not UST and the V? Many of the winners in the V Literary Contests have blossomed into the nation’s leading literary lights. (Witness the two National Artists for Literature—Jose and Lumbera. A third National Artist for Literature, NVM Gonzalez, was also a professor on the short story craft in Philets, UST.)

I understand the V Literary Magazine was revived, briefly, and a literary folio of winning entries to the V Literary Contests was published. Why not a more permanent book?

I confess I am biased for the V because I was once its literary editor and because I was able to finish college with the help of the V. I wrote a piece on that for the special edition of the V, which is called “Amihan,” for the anniversary celebration—and I am repeating here some of what I wrote there.

Yes, the V helped me finish a journalism course (Litt. B) at UST. Without it, I probably would have dropped out, as I would not have been able to afford the expense. I was a working student—although I had no regular job yet. I supported myself by freelancing for national magazines.

As a high school student at St. James Academy in Malabon, run by the Maryknoll Sisters, I started writing short stories and poetry. My literature teacher, Sr. Stephen Marie, encouraged me to write. She was the one who encouraged me to take up journalism at UST.

While still in St. James, I wrote a short story on the Hukbalahap rebellion then raging in Central Luzon. It was about a farmer whom the Huks tried to recruit. The farmer refused; he just wanted to be left alone to cultivate his small farm to support his family. The Huks finally shot him in the back while he was plowing his field. The final paragraphs described how he felt, what went through his mind as blood and life ebbed out of him.

I submitted it to the Philippines Free Press while I was still in high school, but I was already a freshman at the UST Faculty of Philosophy and Letters when it was published. For that story, I was paid by the Free Press the handsome amount of P50.

The amount of P50 is almost nothing today (it can hardly pay for one hamburger sandwich at a fast-food chain) but at that time, in the mid-1950s, it was a huge amount. Consider this for comparison: At that time, outstanding painters like Carlos V. Francisco and Vicente Manansala were paid only P50 for painting covers for This Week, Sunday Magazine of the Manila Chronicle. When I interviewed Fernando Amorsolo at his house on Espa?a Extension, Quezon City, he was selling several of his small oil landscape studies for only P50 each, but I could not afford to buy even one. All three painters are now National Artists and their paintings are now worth hundreds of thousands of pesos.