The 2013 Nissan Sentra will be hitting showrooms in the UAE very soon. It is not a replacement for the new sub-compact Nissan Sunny, but will slot in alongside it as a compact sedan offering, effectively replacing the older Nissan Sunny.
It’s weird that, aside from a brief look at our scribe Vivek Menon’s Mazda 6, we’ve never had a go with any Mazda models before. All we kept hearing about was how Mazdas handled well and all that, but we never took it seriously, especially since the local dealers did not have a media test-drive programme in place. So when we got the call offering us the fresh Mazda CX-5 for a proper test, we were actually sort of excited.
Our previous-generation 2009 Renault Safrane V6 has been a reliable-enough car, but certain interior parts had prematurely worn out in just 2 years — a sign of cost-cutting if there ever was one. So we asked for those parts to be replaced under warranty.
There is a massive recall underway for several General Motors models in the UAE, including the Chevrolet Aveo, Captiva, Epica, Optra and GMC Terrain, between model-years 2007 and 2010. It was quietly announced by the UAE’s Ministry of Economy in an Arabic statement, which is why it flew under the radar.
According to a press release by Hyundai Middle East, their “GDI” direct-injection engine will make its debut in the Middle East with the new 2013 Hyundai Genesis, giving it more horsepower and torque. However, they’ve said a lot of things before, such as the “launch” of the GDI engines in the latest Genesis Coupe models, which never made it to the local dealers.
We’ve just received word that the 2013 Mazda CX-5 compact crossover is now on sale in the UAE. Replacing the slow-selling CX-7, the CX-5 has been receiving rave reviews in the foreign press for being more of a driver’s car than most crossovers.
Our long-term Mitsubishi Galant continues to run strongly without any hiccups, despite raking up over 40,000 km in less than a year due to regular Dubai-Abu Dhabi runs. Besides the minor A/C fix few months ago, there really has been no costs involved besides our self-imposed 10,000 km interval services with the major one done recently at 80,000 km on the clock. However, as mentioned in our last report we faced a minor issue and that is the battery finally crapped out. Mind you, the battery was not changed since we bought it back in June 2011, so we guess its death was pretty much near.
In what has to be the most convoluted move in attempting to create a brand identity, Infiniti has decided to rename all their models to have their names start with the letter Q, dropping the G, M, FX, EX, QX and even the new JX, names that they’ve worked all these years to build up. So much for brand equity.
The 500th Lexus LFA was built this Friday, and it was the last one, as production has ended for the overpriced supercar in Japan.
This here is the latest Lexus LS 460L, that last “L” meaning it’s a long-wheelbase version. The carmaker claims it is an “all-new” model, and we sort of agreed with that when we drove it at the launch event for an hour or so. However, after bringing it home, we feel it still drives very similarly to the old one.