Behind The Scenes

Opel has a relatively non-existent rep in the GCC. Their cars have been available here on-and-off for decades now, but they had recently disappeared for a few years in between. Now that the brand is back, with no support from parent-company General Motors, they face an uphill battle to re-establish themselves in the fickle UAE car market. We’d say the best part of their re-emergence is that they brought over the entire OPC line of models, including this Insignia OPC sports sedan.

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This dark-orange Opel Corsa OPC has been doing the rounds of local media since the beginning of this year. It is the Nurburgring edition, apparently making it very exclusive. And being a manual, it will be even more of a rare sight here.

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Who would’ve thought that, 3 years ago when the Range Rover Evoque debuted, it was a sign of things to come, as the new face of Range Rover. Could it be that the Evoque is now the new “original” Range Rover? Anyway, our last experience with the Evoque wasn’t very satisfying, with its lethargic drivetrain and non-adjustable suspension in the mid-range version we drove. So we asked for it again, and this time, it’s equipped with a new 9-speed automatic and dynamic suspension.

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Truth be told, I like this car. I’ve liked it ever since I saw photos of it a year ago. Yes, it’s been around that long in South-East Asia while we were still seeing that generic Japanese-built one around here. This new one’s built in Thailand, but from what we saw, that hasn’t made an ounce of difference in quality — it feels just as cheap as the Japanese one.

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The first time I drove the Toyota FJ Cruiser, it was late 2007, I was only 6 months out of college, I owned a 1990 junker, this site was still growing, and I was barely getting any invites to automotive media events. Fast-forward to 2014, and I’m married, I own three cars, the site is a successful behemoth…and I’m still barely getting any invites to automotive media events. That’s how long the FJ has been around. But I digress. The Missus just got her driving licence after a month of lessons, and a manual one at that. As with any noob driver,

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The Honda City has always held an odd spot in the market, too expensive to compete with other sub-compacts and too small to compete with larger compacts. But the all-new 2014 model has undergone a radical transformation, and it can finally justify its price now.

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The Jeep Cherokee has always been boxy and upright ever since its debut in the 1980s. It wasn’t considered beautiful, but nobody called it ugly either. The new-for-2014 Cherokee however, is as controversial as it gets, designed to illicit a response, no matter what it may be.

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This is it. The car that melds your muscle-car fantasies with your practicality needs. The 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT is expensive, but with performance that keeps up with all sorts of overpriced German SUVs, it’s a relative bargain.

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If you remember, we took a 2015 Mazda 3 hatchback for a spin a couple of weeks ago, and found it to be promising. This week, we got the sedan version, essentially the same car with a boot, and got to dig deeper into what we were expecting to be the best compact car ever, given how good the Mazda 6 is.

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This GTS here is the V8 version of the Maserati Quattroporte. And they’ve tacked on a turbocharger as well. When we drove the Quattroporte S before, with a turbo V6, we felt it was all the car you’d ever need, even in terms of power. And we were right. Because this here GTS, it is absolutely mental!

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