first look

There seems to be a tendency among “top” automotive journalists to go with the flow. They will all parrot the same things, like how class-leading the Audi A5 interior is, how easy to drift the Toyota 86 is, or how awesome the Range Rover Evoque drives. If you really knew how the media industry worked, you’d lose faith in the press forever. The latest story that’s going around is how the all-new 2014 Mazda 6 is the best midsize sedan ever made. For once, there is some truth to it, although only up to a point.

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No, we didn’t buy an Evoque, contrary to what you may have seen on the internets. Despite our issues with them, we asked Land Rover for one and, despite our issues with them, they still gave us one. We assume it’s a 2013 model, although with almost 9,000 km on the clock, it could be a 2012 for all we know. Not that it matters. It’s a good-looking car, to say the least.

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Hey, looks like we landed ourselves another Bentley. This time, it’s the Continental GTC Speed and apparently we’re the first ones to review it here, probably because all the “big” journalists are out of the country. That doesn’t matter, because the Continental GT is among our most favourite cars.

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Alfa Romeo isn’t exactly a very popular brand in the GCC. But it should be, now that the Giulietta’s appeared in Fast & Furious 6 as the car that took down a cargo plane on the world’s longest runway. Incidentally, we took the car for a run just a week before the premiere of that movie in Dubai, which we attended courtesy of tickets from Chrysler-Fiat.

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The Bentley Continental GT is among our most favourite cars we’ve ever driven. It looks great, drives great, and offers just the right amount of balance between performance, practicality and flamboyance. Of course, none of that will ever justify its apartment-sized price-tag, but there’s a lot to like about it. And in GT Speed trim, there’s a lot more to like about it.

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The Ford F-150 SVT Raptor’s been out and about for a good while. First it was offered with a 5.4-litre V8 and a quad-cab body. Then the 6.2-litre engine became available, as did the four-door SuperCrew body style. And now for 2013, there are a few more upgrades.

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The last time we drove the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe was actually the first time we drove it. It was for our industry-best crossover comparo, and it was the 2.4-litre model. That lower-spec model won our comparo, partially because of the promise that you could get this fully-loaded V6 model for less than the price of all the other contenders. So it was time to actually check out the V6 model that won its lesser-engined brother the title in that bout.

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This one was a long time coming, but we finally got the call. It was a call to pick up the McLaren MP4-12C Spider.

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The Toyota RAV4 lays claim to creating the crossover segment back in the mid-1990s. Since then, it’s become lost in the deluge of crossovers from every possible carmaker from BYD to BMW. The new RAV4 looks to change that with an all-new design.

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