We've  gone so far since the Filipinos stepped out of the horse-drawn carriage and boarded a four-wheel motorized vehicle.

Back since Dr. Juan Miciano bought and used a French-manufactured Richard-Brasier in 1901, the Filipinos have carried on their love affair with cars and made it part of their lives just like, well, everybody else in the world.

Trading companies are given the credit for bringing cars and motorcycles here at the turn of the century, an alien form of transportation for a people who were just coming out of centuries-long foreign rule and but were about to undergo another.

Before Miciano, the United States Army Signal Corps have brought in electric cars (would you believe?) by Woods Motor Vehicle Company for its military operations.

It's safe to say that the Philippines' automobile industry started during the American colonial period. It is said that it would take at least three months to bring in a vehicle to the Manila via ship sailing from as far as Europe and the United States.

Among the first car brands to arrive at our local shores are, of course, American cars like Mercury, Buick, Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge. They have lorded it over from the 1920s to the early 1970s.

The Philippines also took the initiative to establish automotive assembly in the Southeast Asian region, protecting it from the deluge of fully assembled units via laws that impose high taxes.

By the 1960s, American- and European-made cars were a common sight on our roads. In that period, the Philippines was the No. 1 auto industry in Southeast Asia.

Japanese brands churned out units that boasted fuel economy and practicality, while the Americans, like the General Motors, turned in mid-size cars by European and Australian subsidiaries Vauxhall and Holden.