Dubai

When we got the Alfa Romeo 156, it was covered in a thin layer of dust on the inside that seemed to be semi-permanent, stuck in the nooks and crannies of the textured dashboard, door panels and centre console. The dark-tan leather was also blackened from years of neglect. After some hard scrubbing, the leather became a bit lighter, but none of the dust on the rubberised plastics seemed to come off. We then noticed an ad for Green Steam car wash and gave them a call to check out if it’s a cost-effective alternative to an expensive detailing job.

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The Volkswagen Beetle is back in our part of the world. The last “new” Beetle was there for a decade, unchanged, which showed the staying power of that design. And well, the “real” Beetle before that — that stayed almost unchanged for the better part of last century. VW hasn’t gone crazy with this redesign, but has done enough to just about make out that this is a new model with a more sporty twist.

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The CL-Class is dead. Long live the S-Class Coupe. Oddly enough, before two generations of the Cl-Class, Mercedes-Benz’s largest 2-door offering was indeed called the S-Class Coupe before someone in marketing decided the name change. However, the German carmaker has decided to simplify at least some of their model names, and therefore we have the all-new S-Class Coupe for 2015. We briefly drove the S 63 AMG Coupe, and it makes quite a first impression.

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There are several fast 4x4s nowadays. And Range Rovers have been plenty fast ever since they started sticking superchargers on their V8s about a decade ago. However, someone gave Land Rover the bright idea that they should start their own “performance” badge, like BMW’s M and Mercedes’ AMG. Frankly, we’re wondering why they didn’t think of it sooner.

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The Kia Sorento was never a serious contender in the crossover stakes, largely because it was one of the last holdovers from the “old” generation of Kia before ex-Audi designer Peter Schreyer took over and transformed the model line with more desirable styling. The all-new 2015 Kia Sorento finally gets that upgrade.

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Last we heard, Jaguar-Land Rover had a dedicated engineering facility in the UAE. It’s the reason why everybody’s been seeing the camouflaged Jaguar F-Pace prototype roaming the streets, usually alongside a convertible Range Rover Evoque. Instead of spy shots, Jaguar has just released their own heavily-photoshopped beauty shots of the prototype.

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The Subaru Legacy is Subaru’s flagship sedan, and has been around since a long time, even if nobody knew. Overhauled for 2015, the Legacy now gets an entirely new design and a new engine choice.

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It’s interesting to note that the Land Rover LR4 has been around pretty much unchanged for the past decade. Introduced in 2005 as the LR3, and known as the Discovery elsewhere, the big 4×4 has so far undergone at least two facelifts, reshuffled engine choices, and that aforementioned name-change. The latest model is still fundamentally similar to its predecessors, but it now packs a single engine offering borrowed from sister-company Jaguar.

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