The Philippines Crushed $1.2 Million in Smuggled Luxury Cars, Including a McLaren 620R

by Gabrielle DeSantis

The Philippines is not messing around when it comes to correctly importing vehicles. The Philippines Bureau of Customs recently crushed more than 20 luxury cars brought into the country illegally, including a McLaren 620R. Why did the government destroy these vehicles? Taxes, of course.

The McLaren 620R was one of the smuggled luxury cars

The Philippines crushed $1.2 Million in smuggled luxury cars, Including a McLaren 620R | Philippines Bureau of Customs via GMA News YouTube

The Philippines Bureau of Customs seized seven luxury vehicles in the last three years. People brought the luxury cars into the Philippines illegally between 2018 and 2021. Some of the confiscated cars include a 2007 Bentley Continental Flying Spur, a McLaren 620R above, a Porsche 911, and a few others such as a Mercedes SLK and a Lotus Elise. Someone’s random Toyota Solara was also crushed.

The Philippines has been cracking down on smuggling and used this initiative to make an example of the cars. The Philippines Bureau of Customs believes that if people have enough money to purchase these expensive cars, the owner should also be able to cover the taxes. In 2021, these luxury cars were worth more than $1.2 million altogether.

Who decides to destroy the smuggled luxury cars?

The Department of Finance (DOF), Commission on Audit (COA), and Bureau of Customs gathered together to destroy the cars with heavy machinery. Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero finished the job by taking some luxury car mirrors off with a sledgehammer.

“This malpractice has to stop once and for all, and so does the acquisition of smuggled vehicles back to the smugglers, disguised as legitimate auction proceedings. Only by doing so can a level playing field be available for legitimate and responsible business enterprises.”

Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero | Philippines Bureau of Customs

While this event does an excellent job of making a point, there has to be a better way to go about this. Can’t the Philippines use the cars as police cars or incredibly small ambulances? Using a seized McLaren 620R as a police car would be a total power move.

This isn’t the first event the Philippines has held to crush vehicles illegally brought into the country. It seems like a good idea to do all of your car buying and selling legally if you are in the area. Otherwise, you might have to watch your luxury car get torn apart by an excavator.

There are a lot of stiplations to importing a vehicle

According to the Philippine Consulate General, there are many stipulations to bring a car over. You must be a citizen that has been in the country for more than a year or that has legally entered the country. The vehicle cannot weigh more than three tons and must be for personal use. If you import a car, it cannot be resold for three years and should be left-hand drive. Buyers need to fill out an application and confirm various things before the car can hit the ground in the county.

According to the document, “Whether brand-new or used, purchased or donated, the imported vehicle is subject to 40% Customs duty, 10% VAT and Ad Valorem Tax from 15% to 100% depending on its piston displacement.” The value is to be determined by an official source, depending on the origin of the vehicle. It sounds like the actual amount of taxes charged can range from obscene to impossible, especially for more expensive luxury cars. Today’s lesson is always to pay the taxes on your McLaren 620R, or it might get destroyed by the government.

RELATED: Consumer Reports Best Cars and SUVs for 2021 Under $55k

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A Sebring Driver Was Thrown Off a Bridge Into the Chesapeake Bay After Being Slammed by a Semi-Truck

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Spanning more than four miles, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is one of the world’s longest over-water structures. It connects Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore with the more urban Western Shore of the bay and the city of Annapolis.  Given its length and the number of cars that traverse it every day, one would expect the bridge to see its share of accidents. And some have been quite strange.

One shocking crash occurred in 2013. It led officials to consider safety on the bridge more closely. 

How did this car accident occur?

A Chesapeake Bay Bridge accident involving a tractor-trailer in 2008 | Colby Ware/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

To this day, one of the more memorable accidents involving the Chesapeake Bay Bridge involved a semi-truck and a Chrysler Sebring. The tractor-trailer pushed the Sebring, driven by college student Morgan Lake, over the barrier at the side of the bridge, sending the car plunging some 40 feet into the bay.

Luckily, Lake had her wits about her. According to CBS Baltimore, she initially felt as if she were drowning but then found the strength and agility to escape the car and swim to the surface. “As soon as I got to the surface, I took five really deep breaths of air,” she said.

Drummond Law Firm ranks this accident second on its list of the weirdest car crashes of all time.  

Is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge the site of frequent car accidents?

If an accident such as Lake’s is possible, you’d probably think the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a particularly unsafe place to drive. But it turns out the opposite is true. 

After Lake’s accident, the Maryland Transportation Authority emphasized that, overall, the bridge has a much better safety record than most highways. According to The Washington Post, in 2013, the bridge averaged only 43 crashes per 100 million vehicles, while statewide roads had seen an average of 166 crashes per 100 million. 

But many people remain afraid to drive on bridges, and often for good reasons. There’s always the fear that one could end up experiencing a much worse fate than Lake.

Take, for example, the case of Erik Mezik. Chesapeake Bay Magazine reports that in December 2020, the dairy truck driver crashed through a guardrail on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and into the water below. Though the Coast Guard searched for him for 30 hours and other officials continued to look for him for weeks, his body remained missing for months. Finally, this past April 9, Mezik’s body was discovered over 100 miles away in North Carolina. 

And in another recent incident, Chesapeake Bay Magazine recounts the story of a baby rescued after falling into Assawoman Bay in a five-car collision on the Route 90 bridge. 

Does the Maryland Department of Transportation have plans to address safety issues on the bridge?

So, though the Chesapeake Bay Bridge has an overall excellent safety record, there’s always room for improvement. And the Maryland government has been looking into ways to do so for a while.

In 2008, for example, following another similar accident, the governor appointed a panel to look into bridge and tunnel safety. According to The Washington Post, the panel concluded that bridge railings were not generally designed to withstand the force of a semi-truck. And following Lake’s accident, the NTSB sent investigators to the scene. Maryland government officials pledged to implement any recommendations stemming from that investigation. 

Safety issues on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge are thus an ongoing concern for government officials and the public. Everyone hopes that as more investigations collect more information, engineering on this bridge and others will keep drivers even safer. 

RELATED: Georgia Bridge to Be Demolished After Truck Accident Knocks It 6 Feet Out of Place

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Are Lexus SUVs More Dependable Than Toyota SUVs?

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Toyota’s reputation for reliability is legendary. It’s been built up by years of vehicles that continue to run long after their competitors have sputtered to that great junkyard in the sky. But how do Toyota SUVs compare to Lexus SUVs? Does a luxury badge really mean that Lexus beats Toyota?

Toyota and Lexus logos | Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images and
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

For those who don’t keep up with what’s happening in the auto world: Toyota is the parent company of Lexus. This happened back in 1989 when Toyota realized that some loyal customers were skipping buying new Toyota models in favor of luxury vehicles. 

U.S. News reports that it all began as a sort of experiment to see if Lexus would actually take off. As it turns out, Toyota had a solid enough reputation that consumers were happy to upgrade to the luxury brand.

It helped that Toyota put as much effort into producing Lexus vehicles as it did its own. Other automakers have fallen into the trap of focusing on only one segment while neglecting the other. Toyota didn’t do that, and now it has two powerful brands. But which makes better SUVs?

Toyota vs. Lexus: Small SUVs

The Toyota RAV4 and the Lexus NX go head-to-head in this arena. U.S. News gave the RAV4 the award on this one. Though the Lexus NX is undeniably a luxury vehicle, it has less cargo room than some competitors. Considering most people buy an SUV for the room, that can be a bigger deal-breaker than one might think at first.

On the other hand, the RAV4 still has plenty of upscale features. Its fuel economy is tough to beat, and the ride is comfortable. It may not bear the luxury badge, but it feels luxurious.

Midsize SUVs

The Lexus RX 350 and the Toyota Highlander compete in the midsize SUV segment. In this instance, Lexus comes out on top.

Though the Highlander isn’t a bad SUV, it tends to be overshadowed by other SUVs. U.S. News praised it for its comfort, reliability, and extra cargo space that beat the RX 350. What the site wasn’t impressed with was the inferior interior quality, handling, and performance. There’s nothing severely lacking, but the Highlander can’t quite compete with rivals.

On the other hand, the Lexus RX 350 stands out in the luxury division. It has a powerful engine, great tech, and comfortable features that helped it bring home the win.

Large SUVs

In this category, the Toyota Land Cruiser and the Lexus LX compete. This was a tough call for U.S. News because both vehicles have so much in common. Each can seat up to eight passengers comfortably. Both SUVs handle going off-road admirably, and the MSRPs aren’t all that different, even though the LX is a luxury vehicle.

Despite this, there was no tie. The Land Cruiser won, thanks to tech features that are more fluid and intuitive than those in the LX. It also helped that the cargo area is roomier.

So, which is the better brand, Toyota or Lexus?

Toyota won two out of three when it came to the superior SUV. But which brand comes out on top when viewing all the various car segments, pricing, fuel economy, interior, and performance? 

The results were actually a bit of a surprise. It was a tie. Both Lexus and Toyota came up with the same number of wins, so it appears that trying to define which is the best brand is not that simple. This may make it hard to decide which brand to buy, so you’ll have to compare each vehicle and decide for yourself.  

RELATED: Are Lexus Sedans More Dependable Than Toyota’s?

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Unique JDM Cars That Nobody Buys

by Gabrielle DeSantis

When it comes to imported JDM cars, Nissan and Toyota products get most of the attention. While there’s plenty to love about Skylines, Silvias, and Land Cruisers, some very interesting machinery was being produced by other Japanese manufacturers.

Here are a few notable 1990s gems that are worthy of your attention.

The Lancer Evolution III won the 1996 World Rally Championship

1995 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III | National Motor Museum/Heritage Images via Getty Images

The first Mitsibishi Evo models were simple and light weight, with a turbocharged 4G63 engine and all-wheel drive providing plenty of traction. Picking up where the Galant VR-4 left off, they helped Mitsubishi rise to the top ranks of stage rally competition. In 1996, Tommi Mäkinen drove an Evo III to the World Rally Championship title, winning five of the nine events in the process.

The Evo III was the last of the original body style, which were known for their tossable handling and pure analog fun. With limited production numbers to begin with, and prices for JDM cars on the rise in general, values for well-kept early Evos will likely follow.

The Eunos Cosmo was a JDM tech showcase

Mazda Eunos Cosmo
Mazda Eunos Cosmo | Mazda

While the RX-7 has been the most popular Mazda rotary car, the Eunos Cosmo is definitely the most advanced. When it came out in 1990, it was not only the most powerful vehicle in Japan, but the first production car with a three-rotor engine and the first with twin sequential turbos. Per MotorTrend, the Cosmo was the potential flagship model for a proposed Mazda luxury brand called Amati.

When those plans never materialized, Mazda continued selling the Cosmo under its JDM-only Eunos sub-brand.. In addition to the groundbreaking powerplant, the car boasts a lavish and high-tech interior. With just under 9000 units ever produced, the Eunos Cosmo is a rare but impressive piece of Japanese engineering.

The Subaru Legacy GT-B was a fast Japanese wagon

The 1996-1999 Subaru Legacy GT-B was an oddity for Subaru, given that it had twin-turbochargers instead of a single. Called the EJ20R, the engine made 276 hp, which was the same as a WRX STi of the time. GT-B models were also notable for their sport-tuned suspension made by Bilstein.

Though not as popular as the heavyweights from Nissan, Toyota, or Honda, these JDM vehicles were each impressive in their own right.

RELATED: JDM Cars You Can Legally Import in 2022

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