Privately-owned midsize pickups are a legitimate market segment in several Asian and even Western countries. Here, they are almost exclusively used as commercial vehicles, driven by sweaty hard-working men who quietly laugh at moisturiser-toting management types trundling to office in oversized American pickup trucks. However, Isuzu feels there is a gap in the market for a good-sized “lifestyle” pickup, and hence, we have the Isuzu D-Max GT.
Most arm-chair car enthusiasts who’ve never driven legendary American powerhouses such as the constantly-cloned Shelby Cobra or the overblown Vin Diesel-spec Dodge Charger have an idealised view of such cars and lament their demise. However, a car exists today that harks back to those brutal larger-than-life super-muscle cars. It’s built by Chrysler and it’s so out-of-sync with their usual offerings that they gave it a whole separate brand now — the SRT Viper. The Viper itself has a similarly-celebrated reputation, and we found out what it’s like on the streets of Dubai.
If you remember, we had gone to Italy last month to drive a couple of cars, including the Fiat 500L and the Alfa Romeo 4C. We also drove the latest version of the Fiat 500 Cult, a new trim level with a new engine and a manual gearbox, before it was even revealed at the Geneva Motor Show last week. We’d never driven a 500 before that, but damn is it good with the Euro-spec hardware.
Don’t get too excited. If you were pining for a hybrid version of the Toyota Camry, you’re still not going to be able to buy one. The brand’s UAE dealer has just sold less than 50 of these hybrid sedans for service as Dubai taxis, and being a passenger in one of these rarities will be as close as you can come to experiencing it. But we got a chance to take the 2014 Toyota Camry Hybrid for a spin.
Overseas media trips usually follow a strict regimen — you eat, sleep and drive whatever’s on “The Plan” and you do not deviate from it. So while the original plan was to drive a couple of Fiats, a Wheels scribe from our little Middle Eastern group requested to drive an Alfa Romeo 4C in the free time before we flew back to Dubai. And our Italian handlers obliged. What came next was a drive that shattered expectations.
The awkwardly-styled BMW 1-Series has always been an acquired taste ever since it launched in 2004. But I’ve always been a fan of the top-spec 1-Series which have combined arguably BMW’s best inline-6 engines with an entertaining chassis and probably most closely evoke the spirit of past BMWs than most of the other current models. Having owned (and loved) a 2007 130i M Sport back in London, as soon as I saw the M135i I knew I had to have it as it promised to be even better than the old car.
This was one overseas media event that kept throwing us surprises by the bucketful. I was invited for a trip to Milan by Fiat to drive something or the other. What we got was a romp in a manual 500 with a new turbo engine as well as a brief run in an insane Alfa Romeo 4C, but more on all that later. The car in focus during the event was the Fiat 500L Trekking, a recently-released crossover that’s tentatively headed to UAE shores by the end of summer this year.
With all the hype over three-row crossover SUVs such as the Ford Explorer, the Honda Pilot and the Nissan Pathfinder, we’re wondering why more people don’t ask us about the Dodge Durango when discussing their shopping lists. They should, because we could hardly find a fault with the facelifted 2014 version that we just drove across the country in.
If you’re the aging CEO of a well-to-do company and you like to be driven around, your ride of choice has probably gravitated towards default choices like the Mercedes-Benz S350L or the BMW 740Li. If you felt adventurous, you might even look at the Audi A8 3.0T, the Lexus LS 460 or, in a particularly down year, the Hyundai Centennial. But what if you’ve made your money a bit earlier in life, and you prefer to mostly do your own driving? You also like to not appear like an aging CEO around town, so you want a bit more style in your car than the traditionally-conservative choices.
Maserati, the brand better known as playing second-fiddle to Ferrari, is adamant to prove that it is anything but. The Italian carmaker has its own racing heritage, and therefore they currently runs their own racing series, the Maserati Trofeo MC World Series, whose final was held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi last December. During that event, we even got to hit the track in between races, with a street-legal Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale, the car on which the racing series is built.
