The first month of the new decade opened up to two massive recalls from two Japanese manufacturers, one letting the infamous Takata airbag issue to resurface. In addition to this, an American manufacturer is correcting a mistake that it had made while it was correcting a previous mistake.
Turkey isn’t usually the first country that comes into mind when we talk about cars. But that may change now, with a new manufacturer taking the limelight. TOGG, short for Türkiye’nin Otomobili Girişim Grubu, recently launched a mid-size crossover prototype along with a concept sedan.
Here is the last set of recalls announced around the world before the end of 2019.
Our Jaguar XK never had a fair shot in this market. While the car is perceived to be a modern classic in the United States and Europe, it had a weird reputation here — a mix between expensively unreliable, driven only by old British men, and expensive enough to get a ton of road respect.
Renamed but little changed since it first launched 40 years ago, Lada’s legacy model remains the brand’s defining model as it makes a comeback to Middle East markets. Formerly known as the Niva, the diminutive Lada 4×4 is both precursor to the crossover segment and a highly capable off-roader. With uni-body construction, rugged four-wheel-drive, and coil spring double wishbone and live axle suspension, it was designed as an affordable people’s car for city streets and rugged rural Russian winters alike.
As a part of expanding their lineup, Ferrari revealed a new model named after the capital of Italy. The Ferrari Roma, as it’s called, is a V8 two-seater coupe that flaunts styling which is a departure from the design of most modern Ferraris, yet ends up looking the most generic and derivative.
The month of November came with an exclusive recall for the UAE and a string of recalls from FCA and others globally. Here is the list of all recalls from the past month.
With the launch of the Taycan Turbo and Turbo S, it was clear that Porsche is adopting a top-down approach for the launch of its electric sedan. So the lower models were expected to pop up soon after the launch. And Porsche did not disappoint. Here is the 2020 Porsche Taycan 4S. And this may be the best model to get, because it is the cheapest and you don’t have to explain to your friends why your electric car has a Turbo badge on it.
The previous-generation Mercedes Benz GLA served as the initial stepping stone to the German giant’s overly-extensive SUV lineup that leads up to the G-Wagen (which is what you should really be saving up for, and skipping the rest). Even though it looked like a bloated hatchback than a full-on crossover and therefore never caught on here, this never deterred Euro-centric customers as the little crossover racked up more than a million sales worldwide throughout its lifetime. Now Mercedes Benz has taken the covers off the second-generation GLA, giving it more of that crossover flavour.
The Jaguar F-Type has been fairly popular for its handsome design and borderline-illegal exhaust note. But the Indian-owned British sports car has been growing a little old in the tooth, not even counting the fact that it’s actually based on a shortened XK platform that dates back to 2006. Which is why Jaguar decided to update the 2020 Jaguar F-Type Coupe and Convertible. While the classic platform remains the same, the new models get a better design, more tech and powerful engines but they ditch the manual transmission option.