The Chevrolet Captiva is the forgotten crossover. Competing in the hot compact segment dominated by the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV-4, we never gave the original one a second look. But the General offered us a drive of the facelifted 2011 model, and it could possibly be the best compact crossover SUV that no one has heard of.
At first it was the Chinese Chevy Sail, then the new Hyundai Elantra, and now there, I’ve spotted the all-new 2011 Chevrolet Spark. Looks like I hit a hat-trick with ‘spotting’ new cars.
Jaguar’s pricey grand tourer, the XK, has received some minor, but refreshing, aesthetic alterations for 2012. The facelifted XKR was unveiled at the 2011 New York Auto Show, alongside a new XKR-S model.
Jaguar, the British luxury carmaker and wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, have introduced their facelifted XF model for 2012 at the 2011 New York International Auto Show. Resembling the C-XF concept design which debuted in 2007, more than ever before, the new XF looks promising enough to attract a fair share of popularity.
Nominated new car models have now been announced for the 2011 Middle East Motor Awards. Vice President of the FIA and President of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE Mohammed ben Sulayem has offered his full support to the region’s largest motor awards, which are set to take place on November 3rd later this year at the Sharjah Expo Centre. I am a member of the judging committee, although my influence on this list was limited, considering there are 18 judges this year!
You may have heard by now that Audi has launched their Mini-wannabe model, the A1, in the UAE. Armed with a 122 hp 1.4-litre “TFSI” engine, women and girly-men are being lured by various promotional activities for the A1, including product placements around malls, big billboards on the streets, and overly-positive “reviews” in local magazines. If you really want this front-wheel-drive supermini though, you can wait for this one. Caught by one of our readers, Nabeal Malik, it looks to be a higher-spec Audi A1 model.
Boasting a phenomenal increase of sales by 178% in the first quarter of 2011, the strongest in the Middle East for the period, AGMC has announced the arrival of two “distinctive” Phantom models going by a fancy name as long as “Spirit of Ecstasy Centenary Collection”.
This is the 2011 GMC Acadia Denali. It is the Denali version of the Acadia. The Acadia is a stretched midsize crossover that debuted in 2008. The Denali nameplate signifies a more luxurious variant of a GMC. That ought to cover the introductions.
The heavily-revised 2011 Dodge Charger and the totally-new 2011 Dodge Durango were launched in the UAE, at a media event held in the underground parking lot of the Festival City Mall in Dubai, followed by a free premiere screening of The Fast & The Furious 5 movie, which prominently features the new Charger.
Chevrolet has revealed the Corvette C6 with some mild upgrades for 2012, rather than the anticipated all new “C7” model. The changes to the 2012 model are limited only to interior for the base model and optional external changes for the higher models. These enhancements however should improve driving performance and on-road comfort.