The Ford Escape doesn’t register on any shopping lists of crossover buyers around here. And truth be told, the mildly facelifted model that you see here probably won’t change that at first glance. But this updated model has a few tricks up its sleeve that surprised us. And in a world where even exotic cars are completely predictable, we definitely like surprises.
Porsche has taken the wraps off the most powerful road-going 911 ever produced. Called the GT2 RS, it slips in as a halo model to the iconic sports car range which sold more than a million units since its inception 55 years ago.
When we attended the Honda Meeting 2017 press conference in Japan, at the carmaker’s Tochigi R&D centre, we got an unexpected taste of some of the company’s latest products. The cars on hand to drive were the much-hyped Honda Civic Type-R, the new Honda Clarity range of hybrid/electric vehicles, and a Honda Civic Dynamic Study prototype. While our time with each of them was limited to a few minutes, if you ever get your hands on these on the same day, you’d have a completely different view of Honda as a carmaker than you would when walking into a local Honda showroom.
Al Habtoor Motors launched the all-new range of Fuso Thunderbolt trucks in Saudi Arabia. The heavy-duty truck recently went on sale in the UAE as well.
Century-old American tyre-maker Cooper Tire is currently keen to take a bigger share of the Middle East pie when it comes to tyres, especially in the last two years. With rivals such as Continental Tires setting up a regional office in Dubai a couple of years ago, following both Michelin and Bridgestone, it seems our region is finally being taken seriously. We recently had a chat with Luis Ceneviz, who is the Cooper Tire managing director for EMEA and Latin American markets, alongside regional sales director Christophe Huss, regional marketing director Michiel Kramer and the European Technical Center’s general manager Gavin Richards.
McLaren has dropped the top on the 570S to create the first Spider model in its entry level “Sports” series. Joining the 675LT Spider and the 650S Spider from their “Super” series, the 570S Spider will offer air-in-the-hair motoring action at a slightly lower price.
The Volkswagen Polo hatchback was retracted from the GCC market in 2010 and since then, the German manufacturer hasn’t even spoken about bringing it back. And VW has now revealed the sixth generation of its popular supermini for the international market.
The new Land Rover Discovery is not a good-looking vehicle. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, remember that the current Toyota Land Cruiser, Nissan Patrol and even Range Rover were received with equal hate from the general public, only for them to become “dream” cars for those same people in less than a year, and they both currently dominate the sales charts. In all likelihood, the Discovery will pull off the same feat, once everyone gets used to it. We were just about starting to warm up to it when we had one for a few days.
These images of 2018 Toyota Prado facelift look like the real deal, after renderings were leaked earlier.
Just days after Hyundai revealed the Kona, a subcompact crossover which slots in between the Creta and Tucson, Kia has revealed their take on the same. Called the Stonic, the new crossover sports a design that fits right into the current Kia lineup. Following the lines of the Nissan Juke, which brought radical designs to the crossover table, both these SUVs are hoping to cash in on the fact that 21% of hatchback users (according to Kia) are looking to upgrade to a small SUV.