First Drive

“Real” journalists with Western passports fly to foreign destinations every other week, fully paid for by carmakers, with 5-star hotel stays and business-class flights. For that, all they have to do is “review” a car. Of course, third-world jerks like me don’t get foreign invites all that often, especially since I reveal more than just the test-drive itself. The couple of invites that I did get, I couldn’t go mostly due to visa hassles. So when Hyundai’s UAE dealer invited me for a three-day trip to South Korea to test-drive the all-new 2012 Hyundai Elantra, I agreed of course.

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The Honda Jazz, a sub-compact hatchback, is the kind of car that should be dominating its segment. And yet, it is the Toyota Yaris and the Nissan Tiida that have a stranglehold on sales, making the Jazz a niche product. For a while, we thought it was the price. Starting at a ridiculous Dhs 63,999 nowadays, and topping out at Dhs 71,999, you could buy a midsize sedan for that kind of dough, let alone a pint-sized runabout. But there was a time many years ago when the Jazz was actually cheap, and even then it wasn’t a familiar sight on Dubai roads.

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Our long-time readers might know that our VW coverage bordered on farcical since 2006. However, things change over time, and we were pleasantly surprised to receive an invite to the GCC launch of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta in Dubai. The new Jetta is the car VW expects to crack the compact segment with in the GCC.

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After a long break, I have finally decided to write another review in here. Think Mitsubishi Lancer; yeah, think! I bet the vast majority of you will now think of a silver-coloured bland-and-boring rental runner crying out loud in agony on the last lane of a motorway while trying with all its might to catch up with a Toyota delivery van! Get a manual variant and you may be able to get a glimpse of the delivery boy too. Yeah, that was what it was and that is what it still is! So why the review? Because what I am going to write is not about the Lancer,

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The last Porsche World Roadshow for the UAE was held two years ago at the Dubai Autodrome. It was a superb event for highlighting the entire Porsche line-up in one go. Seemingly open only to existing Porsche customers and us media types, it was a well-organised event that got us some wheel-time with the 2009 models. We haven’t driven any 911s or Cayennes in the past two years since then, simply because Porsche refuses to give us test cars for more than a few hours, but they did invite us to the 2011 edition of the Porsche World Roadshow,

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For those not in the know, a hybrid is a car with a petrol engine that also has an electric motor attached that provides additional power when needed and recharges its battery as the car moves, all while saving petrol, saving the environment and saving the whales. The theory goes that petrol is cheap in the GCC, so no one cares about hybrid cars. While that is definitely true, we live in the UAE, which boasts the highest petrol prices in the region and is proudly increasing prices further to match international market rates eventually. Suddenly, a hybrid doesn’t seem like a bad idea after all.

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The 2012 Hyundai Accent isn’t a car anyone was anxiously waiting for. That isn’t to say no one anticipates sub-compact cars with sweaty palms. The launch of the next-generation Toyota Yaris is going to be a big event in the lives of many in the UAE. Nothing else comes close to the Yaris in popularity. The Accent has always been sidelined. However, we just drove the all-new 2012 Hyundai Accent from Dubai to Fujairah and back, and it’s a car that can give Toyota some sleepless nights.

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Late last year, on the sidelines of the Mitsubishi ASX crossover launch event at the Dubai Autodrome, Mitsubishi had an egg on four wheels parked outside the halls, plugged into the wall like a blender. We quickly recognised that to be the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the Japanese firm’s first commercially-available electric car.

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The new Mini has looked pretty much the same since its debut as a lifestyle car sometime in late 2001. There was a major refresh in 2007, with a facelift and new engines. We drove all the body variants since then, including the Cooper S hatchback, the Cooper S convertible and the Clubman S. Then the next big change came in 2010, with a switch to a turbocharged 1.6-litre with a smidge more power for the Cooper S. That engine also made it into the “Mayfair” special edition. We’ll now see what makes it so special.

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Some say that Lexus invented the luxury crossover genre back in the late 1990s. Catering only to the U.S. market, the original RX 300 became such a massive hit that it is the ‘L’ company’s best-seller to this day, and helped Lexus become the top luxury brand in the States. Of course, the market dynamics of the Middle East are completely different. In the UAE, the latest RX 350 lives under the shadow of the LX 570. But it is the RX that is the more interesting vehicle in terms of luxury tech.

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