The 2017 Nissan X-Trail has received a facelift, at least in some markets. Known as the Nissan Rogue in the U.S. market, it features their new corporate “V-Motion” exterior design, along with the addition of a hybrid engine.
If you felt that Tesla’s Autopilot system wasn’t autonomous enough, here is some good news for you. Autonomous taxis are no more a thing of the distant future. nuTonomy, a US start up company has started testing driver-less taxis in the city of Singapore. This steals the thunder from Uber, who was planning to test their autonomous taxis in the city of Pittsburgh, USA just days after this venture.
The Nissan Sentra is getting refreshed with the addition of a sportier version, the SR Turbo, which gets a turbocharged engine. The 2017 Sentra will feature a new face with Nissan’s V-Motion grille similiar to that of the Maxima and Altima.
Our Nissan Patrol LE went in for its first “free” service recently, after the 1000 km break-in period. While we were booking the dealer appointment in Dubai, the lady on the phone started upselling certain accessories to us. Normally we avoid upsells, but she just happened to be offering exactly what we were after.
The month of August has registered a bunch of recalls in the U.S. that might affect the cars in our market as well. The Takata Airbag related problems continue to surface, with Jaguar Land Rover initiating a recall for the same in the past month.
After Hyundai officially announced last year that they will make Genesis a separate luxury brand, the G90 takes its place as the Korean manufacturer’s flagship sedan. Assigned with the tough task of taking on the established premium German carmakers, the G90 has to deliver on the necessary components of a luxury car, which for the most part it does.
The 2017 Toyota Yaris sedan and hatchback have quietly gone on sale in the UAE, and will soon in other GCC markets if they haven’t already. Visually, they look exactly the same as the outgoing models, but the big news is that the new models have switched over to a CVT automatic transmission.
Rumours are swirling that Mazda has a new model in the pipeline named RX-9, which might signal the long awaited return of Mazda’s much-loved rotary engine. It will be based on the RX-Vision concept they displayed in Tokyo last year. According to Motoring.com.au, a prototype RX-9 will be featured at the next year’s Tokyo Motor Show.
Our 2007 Honda S2000 went in for “40k” major service last week. Our car has less than 25,000 km on the clock, but a year had passed since the last service. Also, the car was grounded for a while as the brake lights were stuck on permanently, so we had to disconnect the battery when parked. Here are the dealer expenses nowadays.
If you hadn’t noticed, the Nissan Xterra was discontinued in August last year, with final stocks selling out by the first few months of this year. While the fate of the true body-on-frame 4×4 was up in the air, we can now confirm via sources that a new model is in development for release sometime in 2017. There is even a prototype running in Australia, with a Pathfinder Classic body.