First Drive

Raising the stakes for German-dominated full-size luxury saloon rivals, the fourth generation Audi A8 is a technologically advanced tour de force. The first level-three autonomous driving production car -– of five levels –- the A8 rolls out a raft of high tech driver assistance, safety, infotainment, convenience, self-parking, mild hybrid, driveline and chassis technologies and systems. And as traditional for luxury flagships, much of its technology, and design elements, should eventually trickle down throughout the Audi model range.

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The Audi Q5 isn’t particularly common in the GCC, but it is currently the VW-owned carmaker’s top-selling model worldwide. It still sold around a healthy 280,000 units in its final year, and 1.6 million in total since its inception in 2009. As it remains hugely popular, just like the A4, Audi has gone for evolution, rather than revolution, when it comes to the exterior. However, underneath the skin, everything has changed, with more technology, power and efficiency.

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The latest in a string of recent crossover and SUV launches from Nissan, the 2018 incarnation of the ever-popular X-Trail seems an intentionally conservative mid-life refresh focusing on aesthetic, refinement and technology updates. The “world’s best-selling SUV” according to Nissan – and brand’s best-selling model with 835,000 units sold in 2016 alone – the Japanese automaker understandably doesn’t quite yet feel the need to upset such a successfully well-positioned proverbial apple cart. Unchanged mechanically, the 2018 X-Trail instead builds a winning formula of adept user-friendly driving, versatile practicality and affordability. We drove the updated model in Lebanon.

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Volvo has been undergoing a bit of a renaissance ever since they got bought out by Geely. The Chinese carmaker has taken a hands-off approach to running the quintessentially-Swedish brand, allowing Volvo to explore riskier design ideas, moving them from the almost-premium segment to competing with proper luxury marques, one model at a time. After the well-received XC90 and the conservative S90, the all-new XC60 compact crossover we drove in Turkey may just be their best model yet.

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Keeping in mind the current trend of crossovers becoming the most popular type of vehicle among car buyers, Chevrolet recently launched the all-new 2018 Equinox for the Middle East market. Chevrolet will be hoping the Equinox proves to be just as popular as it is in the United States, where it is their best-selling vehicle, only behind the Silverado. It will replace the Korean-built Captiva, which never quite gained a foothold here.

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When we attended the Honda Meeting 2017 press conference in Japan, at the carmaker’s Tochigi R&D centre, we got an unexpected taste of some of the company’s latest products. The cars on hand to drive were the much-hyped Honda Civic Type-R, the new Honda Clarity range of hybrid/electric vehicles, and a Honda Civic Dynamic Study prototype. While our time with each of them was limited to a few minutes, if you ever get your hands on these on the same day, you’d have a completely different view of Honda as a carmaker than you would when walking into a local Honda showroom.

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When Volkswagen first debuted the Passat CC, it turned quite a few heads. Not only because it looked good, but also the question of “why?”, especially as the CC version was priced higher than an already-existing Passat. Lucky for us at that time, Volkswagen decided to help us understand the “why” question and offered us the VW Passat CC V6 for 5 months. If you had been following our reports back in 2011, you would probably know we bloody fell in love with that car. Power, handling, comfort and luxury in a more stylish package — it ticked all the right boxes and justified the price premium over the standard Passat.

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