Feature Stories

Nissan made its debut in the pick-up segment way back in 1933 with its pint-sized Datsun 12, yet Toyota managed to comprehensively usurp it with the launch of its Hilux in 1968. The latter’s dominance in this region is especially emphatic, and the stats reflect this -– the Hilux has succeeded in cornering a huge 75% of the segment in the GCC, while the existing Navara and Pickup have been able to muster up just 12% between them. Nissan aims to at least partly redress this imbalance via its new “NP300” Navara line-up, which replaces not only the old Navara,

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One hundred years ago, before the independent country of Jordan was created, a certain British military officer called T.E. Lawrence led an army of the Arab Revolt on a grueling, two-month march through the desert that was believed to be impassable, and captured the Red Sea town of Aqaba on the other side. Immortalised in a 1962 movie, he was better known as Lawrence of Arabia, and because there’s footage of him piloting a Ford Model T in Wadi Rum, Ford invited us to Jordan to retrace Lawrence’s march in the comfort of modern Ford SUVs. The connection isn’t particularly tenuous,

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Porsche has finally done it. With the need to increase performance while also improving fuel economy numbers in line with upcoming worldwide legislations, Porsche has taken the turbocharged route with their new Boxster and 911 models. We got a chance to drive these two models at an event in Abu Dhabi recently.

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The Honda Civic has been struggling to retain its relevance in recent years, what with strong competition from rivals that offer better overall value. Everyone would agree that the last truly-innovative Civic was the one that debuted in 2006, so a decade later, Honda has pulled out all the stops in an attempt to become the benchmark of the compact segment again, as can be seen by the daringly-designed exterior.

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There’s something oddly incongruous about sitting up this high in something with a leaping cat logo on the steering wheel. That’s the first thought that comes to mind on sliding into the cabin of the all-new Jaguar F-Pace and motoring a few kilometres down the road in Montenegro.

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Volkswagen has done well with the Tiguan -– sales of more than 2.8 million examples globally since its 2007 launch is reflective of that –- but there’s no denying it was getting long in the tooth against a horde of fresher rivals. Consider this: there are now three times as many contenders in the compact crossover segment as there were when the first Tiguan debuted. It was clearly time for a change, and the second-gen Tiguan, which goes on sale in our market from September onwards, represents exactly that. It genuinely is an ‘all-new’ vehicle, using as its basis the hugely-flexible MQB architecture that underpins everything from the latest VW Golf to the third-gen Audi TT.

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Al Futtaim Motors recently launched the all-new 2016 Toyota Fortuner in the UAE. Featuring completely new exterior and interior designs, the second generation Fortuner was destined to be a hit before it even arrived on our shores. We had a chance to drive the new Fortuner in both road and off-road conditions during the UAE’s mega-storm earlier this month.

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