Two sunken cars lie between 24 and 28 metres on the Dauin sand, surrounded by concrete pipes and steel boxes. Some of the car parts are almost intact, and the whole pile has been colonised into an artificial reef that operators along the coast rate as one of the better macro dives here. It is the deep end of Dauin's muck diving.
Also known as Car Wreck, Cars.
Where it is and how deep
No published position for this site — the map shows Dauin and its other sites; operators know the mooring.
The dive
The dive is deep for Dauin. The two car wrecks sit between 24 and 28 metres with concrete pipes and steel boxes scattered around them, so bottom time is the limiting factor rather than anything on the sand. Sea Explorers recommends nitrox and a flashlight here, and it is worth working the structures first, while you still have the gas and the no-decompression time to spend on them.
What turns up is the standard Dauin cast in an unusual setting. Robust ghost pipefish hang over the debris, Pegasus seamoths shuffle across the open sand, and snake eels and moray eels use the pipework. Dive The World's list for the site adds cockatoo waspfish, fingered dragonets, lionfish, dwarf cuttlefish and orange ring-tailed cardinalfish. Crinoids growing on the car parts hold squat lobsters and clingfish in their arms, and shrimps and crabs, porcelain crabs among them, are numerous.
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
- Octopus & cuttlefish
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Fair |
Season follows Dauin: Diveable year-round on the sheltered coast; December–February trade winds can raise chop on the shallow sand slopes.
Know before you go
- At 24-28 m the dive is bounded by no-decompression time rather than air; plan a conservative profile and take the nitrox the operator suggests.
Photos from The Cars
q.phia · CC BY 2.0
q.phia · CC BY 2.0
Dive videos
Car Wrecks Dive Site, Dauin, Negros, Philippines · Tony Exall Underwater Video on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is The Cars dive site?+
The two car wrecks lie between 24 and 28 metres, with concrete pipes and steel boxes around them. That is the deep end of Dauin's muck diving, and Sea Explorers recommends nitrox and a flashlight for it.
Sources
- Dauin Dive Sites & Day Trips — Sea Explorers
- Dauin Diving, Dumaguete - Philippines — Dive The World
- Scuba Diving in Dumaguete — Atlantis Dumaguete
Photo credits
- An ornate ghost pipefish with red and white lace-like fins hovers over rubble at The Cars, Dauin. by q.phia, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse
- A tiny juvenile pufferfish with brown spots rests on coarse sand at The Cars, Dauin. by q.phia, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse
- A juvenile pink-eared mantis shrimp with pale purple antennal scales peers from its burrow at The Cars, Dauin. by q.phia, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse
In The Logbook
- Air, nitrox or trimix: which gas, and when?Gear & kit · 15 min read
- The best muck diving in the worldMacro & muck · 6 min read
- The best shore dives in the worldShore diving · 8 min read
More dive sites in Dauin
Muck slope and coral bommies ten metres apart
Sand slope
Metal and concrete structures set on a seagrass flat
Coleman shrimp on fire urchins, and the coast's smallest finds
Artificial reef
Mimic, wonderpus and blue-ringed octopus under the pillars
A decade-old tyre reef, grown in and dived after dark too
Muck & macro
Muck and healthy reef on the sanctuary's southern edge
Blue-ringed octopus and wonderpus on the rubble
Mandarinfish spawning over black sand in the last light
Similar dives elsewhere
Two jetties over a steep sand slope to 30 metres
Coral-grown structures at nine metres, dived for shrimp and nudibranchs
Fine sand and rock past 30 metres, dived for the small stuff
Zebra crabs sheltering in the spines of purple heart urchins