The GAC GN8 Master’s Edition: Powerful, elegant, comfortable and intelligent luxury vehicle
Text and photos by Monsi A. Serrano
Having majored in Philosophy, my appreciation for objects inevitably focuses on two aspects: form and substance.
When I saw the GAC GN8 Master’s Edition launched last October, I said to myself, “This is a minivan of elegance, luxury and perfect form.” It bears resemblance to the expensive Toyota Alphard in terms of external attributes.
Still skeptical at this point, I did second-guess its performance. It’s clearly not an Alphard, thus, my mind pressed on the question: “Did this beautiful body of a machine have the substance it needed?”
I drew more comparisons to the Alphard as the GAC GN8 really did stoke memories of a great experience. Of course, I’m no stranger to the Alphard’s comforts having used it as my service vehicle in Japan, courtesy of my friends in Tokyo and Sendai. The Alphard grew even more in me as my Japanese-Filipina friend also provided that service car for my family during our stay in Jakarta, Indonesia.
So as GAC Philippines public relations specialist Mavelle Durian told me I could take the GN8 Master’s Edition for a spin on December 7, I jumped on the chance. It was, afterall, a timely surprise for my wife on our 10th wedding anniversary. But as fate would have it, something came up and the test drive did not push through.
Of course, that was not the end of it. Mavelle told me she could lend me the new and stylish minivan on December 23-29, instead. Who am I to turn that down, huh? I thanked her off to Tagaytay we went as a family to spend the Christmas holidays.
And right smack behind the wheel, I was right – the GAC GN8 Master’s Edition was indeed a head-turner. The charming grill design in front and lovely silver skirt fit perfectly. Then the side skirts complemented with ergonomically designed lights will surely make everyone’s eyes pop out.
Body design, hands down truly very ergonomic and elegant that even my daughter Agnes who has down syndrome was high with “Wows!” Yes you will be wowed by its looks.
On December 23, we headed to Tagaytay, first time to drive it and I was expecting a heavy vehicle volume given the fact it was already the holiday season and the following day was the big exodus to Tagaytay for Christmas Eve festivities.
Behind the wheel, I felt instantly comfortable as if I did not switch from driving our Honda CRV to the new GAC GN8 Master’s Edition. It had a smooth and soft steering wheel. The accelerator and brake are also very soft, and the vehicle is powerful and intelligent as the drive mode automatically adjusts according to the terrain. Any driver will just have to focus on steering through the road and need not change gears so often.
As we drove along, my wife noticed that many people who were also in the highway were looking at the vehicle – curious at this new road machine along SLEX. The seat was comfortable not just for the driver and front passengers, but also for the backseat passengers. To a great degree, without exaggeration, it felt like an expensive airplane seat.
Speed-wise, the GAC GN8 Master’s Edition can be a trailblazer without giving up the smooth driving experience. An added feature on the panel was the tire pressure gauge for all four, easily detecting any imbalance in pressure. For me this is a big help to the driver to ensure his and his passengers’ safety. The negative ion air purifier is a good value-added feature that keeps the vehicle and passengers free from viruses given the threat of the COVID-19.
On Christmas Day, we went cruising around Tagaytay to find a church where we could attend Holy Mass in person since for the past two years of the pandemic, we only attended the online masses. Our search ended at the Our Lady of La Salette Shrine in Silang, Cavite, also upon the advice of a friend we called. It was a leap in the dark, though, because we were certain about the Mass schedule.
I prayed and hoped that this would give us the chance to physically attend the Holy Mass. Lo and behold, the Church’s bell rang and called us into one of the most important Eucharistic celebrations of the year – the feast of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
For me, it was meant that we heard mass then, and as I was taking the photo of GAC GN8 Master’s Edition, I realized that the beautiful cross of the Our Lady of La Salette Shrine with hammer and pincers was also captured.
Driving back to the place we rented, I didn’t feel any exhaustion even through the horrendous traffic. It was a journey to solitude, that even if the traffic should have caused stressed to me as a driver. I was able to sleep that night soundly and I told to my wife, if we weren’t using this GAC GN8 Master’s Edition, it would be a tiring night for me as we had to endure the traffic that day and night because it appeared that all the people in Manila emptied out to Tagaytay to enjoy the cool weather away from the humdrum of the city.
After arriving home from Tagaytay on December 26, I was not able to use the car anymore. But every morning, I always looked at it and checked it to ensure that as the day to return it comes, the wonderful memory and experience during the Christmas holiday will be imprinted in my mind, because this was one of the best holiday adventures for us since the pandemic hit the country.
Yes, I know the biggest room in this world is the room for improvement and I look forward to added features and improvement to be made by GAC such as screen panel that gives you a view of the vehicles on the right side. Otherwise, everything was perfect and can really be compared with other commercially available vehicles in the country that provides comfort, power and elegance inside and out.
Overall, my perspective has changed about this China-made vehicle – the gentle giant and intelligent GAC GN8 Master’s Edition.