The yearly Toyota Road Trek once again hit the road with a bevy of cars from the country’s biggest auto brand. But the star of this year’s road caravan from Toyota is the new Toyota Rush.

Powered by a 1.5 liter engine, the Rush is a 7-seater compact SUV brought from Indonesia by Toyota to directly compete with Mitsubishi’s Xpander, another 7-seater compact SUV.

We were first allowed to try the Rush on the long drive from Toyota in Angeles, Pampanga to Toyota Bataan, some 80 kilometers of country highway driving. And while the power has some to be desired, the comfort of the ride is unquestionably soft and luxurious, something never seen from a compact SUV before.

We then tried the Rush next in the island resort of Balesin where the roads are smooth but not paved. Now, as an aside, Balesin is one fantastic resort that lives to its hype, mostly. Aside from that incident where plastic was found in my beef tapa, Balesin has the best in beach amenities I have ever experienced.

Anyway, on the clay roads ofd Balesin, the Rush still continued to be comfortable and this time the power is good enough for small country roads, allowing a better drive than at a high speed highway.

The Rush is powered by a 1.5 liter, 4-cylinder engine 2NR-VE Dual VVT-i mated to either a 4-speed automatic transmission or a 5-speed manual version. It throws out 103 horsepower at 6,000rpm and pulls at a peak torque of 136Nm at 4,600 rpm.

The 2nd generation Toyota Rush has grown by 230mm and has a general size of 4435mm in length, 1695mm in width and 1705mm in height with a longer 2685mm wheelbase. It sits about 220mm high from the ground giving it better ground clearance.

So we spend the next two nights in one of the most sought after resorts in South East Asia as guests of Toyota. This is probably one Road Trek that will be hard to beat. But then, Toyota always finds a way to beat the last year’s event with another surprise.

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