First Drive

The CL-Class is dead. Long live the S-Class Coupe. Oddly enough, before two generations of the Cl-Class, Mercedes-Benz’s largest 2-door offering was indeed called the S-Class Coupe before someone in marketing decided the name change. However, the German carmaker has decided to simplify at least some of their model names, and therefore we have the all-new S-Class Coupe for 2015. We briefly drove the S 63 AMG Coupe, and it makes quite a first impression.

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The Subaru Legacy is Subaru’s flagship sedan, and has been around since a long time, even if nobody knew. Overhauled for 2015, the Legacy now gets an entirely new design and a new engine choice.

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It’s interesting to note that the Land Rover LR4 has been around pretty much unchanged for the past decade. Introduced in 2005 as the LR3, and known as the Discovery elsewhere, the big 4×4 has so far undergone at least two facelifts, reshuffled engine choices, and that aforementioned name-change. The latest model is still fundamentally similar to its predecessors, but it now packs a single engine offering borrowed from sister-company Jaguar.

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We got to test-drive something different last week. Something that is genuinely Japanese and not the Chinese-American-Australian Japanese. Something that is blisteringly fast, sounds awesome, and is a pure joy to drive. It is interesting on the tarmac, and only gets infinitely more interesting beyond it. It is the all-new 2015 Subaru WRX STI.

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BMW was the pioneer in creating segments that nobody realised they wanted, with monstrosities such as the 5-Series GT, the 2-Series Active Tourer and the X4 actually doing decently on the worldwide sales charts. Mercedes-Benz took a page out of that same book and created more tasteful segments, such as the CLS-Class and the CLA-Class. At least they did a full reboot of their previously-horrendous A-Class city-car with a proper hatchback, and out of that spawned the GLA-Class. We’re still not quite sure how it differs from the A-Class, but we’ll give it a go.

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What do iPhones, Nike Air Jordans and Honda Accords have in common? All three popular products are made in China. However, actual homegrown Chinese brands have built a reputation for their lack of build quality, let alone safety, especially when it comes to cars. So when a Geely executive contacted us, directly from China no less, to try out their latest still-to-be-formally-named midsize sedan, consider our interest piqued.

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What would you buy for a million Dirhams? A McLaren 650S? A Bentley Continental GT? Two Porsche 911s? Fourteen Toyota Yaris TRDs? The truth is, assuming you’re not the spoilt son of a business tycoon, you’ll be middle-aged by the time you become a business tycoon yourself. By that time, you’re too busy for supercars and prefer to be chauffeured around so you can get some work done. That’s exactly why the 2015 Mercedes-Maybach seems to have been created.

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The all-new Ford Fusion debuted almost a year ago, and just as it’s catching up with the local car-buying public, Ford suddenly decided to roll in the all-new 2015 Ford Fusion Ecoboost, albeit quietly. So quietly that no one knows it’s here in the UAE. The Fusion Ecoboost had been here two years ago in its prototype stage for some extensive hot-weather testing, when we were offered an exclusive media test-drive that left Editor-in-Chief Mashfique thoroughly impressed. And the final production model that we just drove has only become better.

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Japan has some quirky yet practical cars, a side-effect of the country’s unique culture as well as obsession with making life easier, be it with robots, gadgets or hugely-spacious cars with tiny wheelbases. Of course, we’re not getting 660cc “kei” cars on the streets of Dubai any time soon. What we have here is the 4-cylinder Honda Odyssey J, the slightly-smaller Japanese-built cousin of the full-size V6-powered American-built Odyssey minivan.

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