First Drive

The Ford Ranger WildTrak has been around for a while, although it has gone under the radar largely due to the fact that it only came with a diesel engine. Despite the visual modifications, its strong resemblance to the commercial variant never helped either. Just as diesel prices dropped significantly, Ford decided to update the Ranger WildTrak for 2016, trying to make it more appealing to people who desire a pickup truck that is too big to fit in the average parking space.

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The other day we were reminiscing about the first time we drove the Bentley Continental GT. It was the Speed variant, and the year was 2008. The GT had already been around for four years at that point, and the Speed was recently launched as a flagship model to keep the line fresh. We took it straight to Jebel Hafeet for our first ever run on that mountain, close to midnight, and it proved to be an amazing car.

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Kia credits themselves with being the inventor of the crossover SUV, a title that is usually usurped by Toyota. The truth is Kia’s Sportage came out a full year before the first-gen RAV4. However, it was conceived back before Kia merged with Hyundai, and therefore the Sportage was better-known for 1-star crash test ratings and recalls for wheels falling off while driving. Somehow, it still managed to have a fan following over its decade of existence. Fast-forward a couple of decades, and the recent Sportage does 5-star crash ratings and among the top sellers in its segment. Now that’s an impressive transformation.

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The Hyundai Elantra is a subcompact that has been around since a long time. Although not much of an attention grabber, it is apparently a sales success in the Middle East, owing to the great exterior design and price tag. However, the Koreans’ penchant to continually evolve meant that Hyundai finally went all-in to make the car a more complete package rather than just a looker. And how the all-new 2016 Hyundai Elantra has grown from its past is what we were to witness when the local dealer invited us for a day-long media event that included an extensive test-drive.

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Downsizing is rampant nowadays, and the same goes for premium cars. We’re not talking about job losses, but the size of cars. The Audi A3 started life as a lacklustre hatchback about a decade ago, and we called it out as such back then. However, it’s changed over the years, and the new sedan version of the latest A3 has been getting some attention lately. And with good reason, from what we saw.

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Porsche is going to rebadge their Boxster and Cayman as “718” models this year, complete with 4-cylinder turbo engines, the first of which have just been revealed. However, the GTS models will get a stay of execution from the turbo era for now. We drove the last of these naturally-aspirated mid-engined Porsches late last year in Stuttgart, Germany.

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When you think “entry-level,” it conjures up images of Hyundai Accents and call-centre workers. However, in the world of premium cars, even “entry-level” has a wholly different meaning. And we’re not talking about stuff like BMW and their 1.6-litre 1-Series. We’re talking about McLaren and their new 570S, part of their entry-level Sports Series cars that are positioned as a rival to the Porsche 911 Turbo S, which is essentially the flagship of Stuttgart’s legendary rear-engined range.

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When we drove the redesigned second-gen Chrysler 300C about four years back, we wanted to like the car, but it was a bit of a boat in terms of handling, even though its sister-model, the Dodge Charger, was a pretty decent corner-carver. Fast-forward to 2015, and the Chrysler 300 range has received a facelift to inject some aggression into the car’s overall character. And there’s a new trim level — the Chrysler 300S.

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With a governmental push for “green” initiatives, the ubiquity of hybrid cars is inevitable in the UAE, even if the current lukewarm sentiments are due to lack of actual subsidies to reduce the higher prices of hybrid cars, as in Western countries. However, a few local car dealers have taken it upon themselves to offer hybrid models that make sense to cost-conscious consumers. One such model is the Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid, which costs almost the same as a regular Pathfinder at Nissan’s dealership in Dubai.

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