Our first encounter with the Pentastar-engined 2012 Jeep Wrangler was around the time it was launched in the UAE, where we were given a car and thrown into the desert wilderness. In that trial-by-fire, we made our way out in one piece, all by ourselves, without ever getting stuck, and navigating with visual clues rather than by GPS. This time, our car does have GPS, although we’re just soaking in what it feels like in an urban environment.
There are few things in life you can be sure of, at least where we live — Death, Salik, and the dominance of the Toyota Camry on the midsize sales charts, no matter what spiteful names you may call it. If you hate it just for the sake of hating it, you are in the minority. The truth is, the 2012 Toyota Camry is a good car. And we now have one for two months to prove it.
This is the Renault Duster. No, it isn’t used for wiping chalkboards, nor can it be used to vacuum carpets. What it is doing, is kicking up dust with its “shockingly affordable” price for a 4×4. Or so the TV ads say.
The outgoing Honda CR-V was one car that really needed a makeover. As versatile as it was, the exterior design was way too awkward. Still, it sold in droves because it was, well, a Honda. The CR-V has been given a makeover for 2012, and it looks pretty slick now.
Lexus is very proud of their new GS 350. Once the aging forgotten model of the range that was overshadowed by the ES 350 and the IS 300 at the showroom, The GS 350 is now the amalgamation of all the new tech that Lexus has cooked up for the near-future. The pricier LX 570 seems outdated in comparison.
We got a call the other day from BMW, offering us an X3 for a test-drive. While we weren’t particularly looking forward to checking out a compact crossover, we agreed to take a look anyway. It is a BMW after all.
The Toyota Land Cruiser, quite possibly the most overrated vehicle in the world, or so most of us would like to think. So many of them ply the roads in the Middle East, tailgating everyone else, that most people have a love-hate perspective on them. We did drive the Land Cruiser before, but never really pushed it too hard off-road, because we weren’t experienced enough back then. But then, come 2012, there is an updated version with a new 4.6-litre engine option. This time, we were ready to take it off-road. Properly.
Truth be told, we feel Chrysler is arguably the best American carmaker right now, if only because they keep sticking a big V8 into half the cars they make. And those cars are some of the best in their segments, with the only competition coming from Ford in terms of pure quality and engineering, while the third one in the Big Three is still chasing short-term profits by peddling Daewoos. The Chrysler 300C, along with its Dodge cousin, is probably the last truly-American full-size rear-wheel-drive V8 barge still in production. And it’s better than ever.
We’re not quite sure of the order of the words in its name, but the short version is we finally got to drive a Mini Coupe, in Cooper S trim no less.
There are a lot of stereotypes floating around about “which is the best offroader” when it comes to dune-bashing. Many automatically say “Toyota Land Cruiser” or “Nissan Patrol”, with a few naive ones even adding in “Jeep Wrangler” and “Land Rover Defender”, generally by people who’ve never been off-road in anything more than a desert-safari ride. The truth is there is no such thing as the “best offroader”. But if we were to make a list, we’d put the Nissan Xterra Off Road edition above any of the aforementioned trucklets.