AS it usually is, we are always at the tail end of the lending queue for review units. We have actually found this to be an advantage because the reviews can assess the cars when these are not exactly brand new anymore.
So when we got the Volkswagen Lamando, it already had nearly 7,000 kilometers on the odometer. In real-world driving that meant about a year’s worth of road time in the hands of different drivers with different destinations and different driving styles.
I am unsure if Lamando is Spanish although it sounds like it. It is supposed to mean leader or commander. Mando, which is hand in Spanish seems to connote directing like a conductor will orchestrate, or an army general pointing out directions. If this is what it means, then the Lamando is truly an executive’s car.
The day the Lamando was delivered it was raining. And as we practice we empty one car from the garage to make way for the week’s guests. When the Lamando Highline variant arrived, the first thing I noticed was the size. Comparable in length to my dad’s Cefiro, standing as low and with a quiet elegance. It came in red–a color that not only brought out its authoritarian shape, it also quietly screamed “I mean business.”
I say quietly because most executive cars come in grey or black or silver. These are suits that are truly quiet and subdued. It takes a different kind of executive–usually, a woman, a powerful woman, who can come into a conference dressed in a red suit, tight and well pressed–and command stares and respect almost immediately. This is how the VW Lamando felt.
After the turnover, I took the keys and drove the Lamando immediately in the downpour. It was the kind of intermittent downpour that lasted for about an hour, shifting from storm surge to slight drizzle and back. The large windscreen was wiped clean almost end to end by the pivoting wipers, which are also rain-sensing. I immediately exited to Maharlika Highway and decided to drive to the CityMall in Tiaong, Quezon just 14 kilometers southward.
I drove with the sunroof shade opened. Though not as long as the one that I have on my Forester, this one sloped nicely into the back of the car. I couldn’t invite my tall friends to ride with me (most of them still scared to go out because of the pandemic) so I couldn’t test my theory of headroom in the back with the sloping roof. But I guess that was not to be the case anyway.
In the rain, the Lamando’s 17-inch alloys with low profile tires felt surefooted and the power delivery was direct, not linear but felt when pushing it along the drenched roads. The 7-speed DSG transmission (which is VW’s acronym for dual-clutch), ran well in highway speeds but was laggy but not jerky in the traffic by the railroad that cuts through the highway. On this day too the San Pablo-Lucena train was being tested causing traffic along the perpendicular Tiaong junction. Though possessing a turbocharger, the throttle was a bit hesitant in traffic.
The hesitation definitely does not come from the very spirited 1.4-Liter turbocharged gasoline engine. This compact mill (it has a huge engine cover to shield the engine) produces 150 horsepower and 250 Nm of torque. The engine is powerful–the smallish powerplants for these Volkwagens imported from China is to keep the prices low, guided by free-trade act policies. But really the engine was not the issue, it only had these moments of hesitation in the low revolution ranges. After I arriving at CityMall I was figuring out in my head my driving manners and decided to be more calculating on the drive back.
Now pointing north, I decided to use the car in is sports mode–truly responsive manual lever changer–and I proved my theory correct. Since the car was set to be more economical, quickly shifting through the gears may feel like there is hesitation, on manual mode I could keep it in gear until a point where the momentum is to my satisfaction.
In this mode the Lamando is quicker, livelier, and more responsive. One might consider the time to connect gears as a lag but it is simply the dual clutch making the most of its job. Combine this mode now, with the Lamando’s motor-assisted steering and things come into play. The electronic steering drops down to zero on fast drives, keeping road feel in the hands of the driving. When parking in the tight spaces of CityMall, the steering became lighter, with almost no feedback to help in maneuvering.
Upon exiting back into Maharlika Highway I decided to explore take the recently rebuilt roads to Lucena instead of going back. There are two. The Candelaria-Sariaya bypass and the Sariaya-Lucena Access road. These roads are not for driving fast but they are quite open and there are many opportunities to open up the throttle. One particular part I enjoy driving in is the curve entering into the Lucena junction, a soft and long left southbound, but a sharp left going back, On both approaches the Lamando was surprisingly tight, having the cornering ability of, may I say it, an Audi.
This sporty sedan cornering ability give an almost flat feel with little or no body roll. It really feels like a late model Audi that has active suspension, even though this car does not have any suspension aids. On this point the Lamando get five stars from me.
Inside this German-Chinese project is a strange mix of nice textures, soft plastics and chromed bits and trims. The faux leather on the dash is there to battle ultraviolet light, real leather will crack and crumble, and having said that, it does its job properly. The doors are heavy, that typical German feel, but in fact they aren’t actually heavy in weight. I discovered it has to do with hinging.
When I first settled into the Lamando, the low seat position instantly gave me a feel of sportiness–again like an Audi. The bolstered seats are wrapped in synthetic cowhide overlapped with jersey fabric and felt cool and looked breathable. I immediately took notice of the clean lines, clutter-less design from the door panels to the rear deck. This straightforward, all business design goes on with the location of the buttons and switches. At this point, I felt pity that it didn’t have paddle shifters. But I also though that the up-down gear shift lever is a no-nonsense choice. One last point, though the dash is blanketed with a faux leather, it is a genuine leather that wraps the steering wheel.
I had an early dinner in a barbeque place plus panciteria in Lucena. I won’t make recommendations (for now) because since the pandemic they fell into hard times. The food is really good but the wait is long–43 minutes for my plate of pansit habhab and barbequed chicken. Come back to me after 6 months and maybe I will reveal which restaurant I it is.
So on the drive back I get the test the headlights–which have automatic sensor functions to switch it on and off and with manual leveler which was so useful in the long stretches of unlit highways. I used the adaptive cruise control that is standard in the Highline all the way to the Villa Escudero gate. It is an economical ride too–delivering 10.2 kms per liter for me, with about 7.5 kms per liter in the city.
The feeling of safety is always present inside with ABS with EBD, vehicle stability control. Annoying but needed is the seatbelt reminder for the driver and front passenger. Oh, on that note, a heavy bag of cat food should never sit on the passenger seat. That action triggers the seatbelt reminder on the starboard side.
I also found out that the infotainment system came with gesture control. Once activated, switching radio channels and moving the playlist up could be controlled there but it took a lot of getting used to. The climate control system is fully automatic and can create temperature zones on both sides of the vehicle.
Pointing a vent to the back get the coldness there too. It had the standard auto start/stop feature, and brake hold. That auto start/stop annoyed me a lot in the midst of the traffic at the Candelaria stretch, and I wondered why it seemed to operate more at night than in the morning. I sort of feared the battery dying out on me with all the start and stops.
There are the many corner, front and rear sensors and cameras that gave me approximation of the vehicles corners. A lot of that information is displayed on the 9.2-inch infotainment display.
If this is an executive car, then this is one of the best in its class and price range. That is my final say about the Lamando–a drive and ride quality that can be only described as plush. That means soft but not bouncy, quiet and comforting as well as comfortable. Add that to the roster of safety features ranging from the seven airbags, ISOFIX child seat tethers, tire pressure monitor, and proximity sensors I just mentioned.
The Highline variant of the Lamando costs P1.753M. That is all put to good use in this car. I found little fault in it. It would be unfair to compare it the what the Japanese and Koreans are offering in this price range because fancy is, fancy does, is not the Lamando’s style. It is a caring and embracing but it means business.
