Bentley is in the process of updating its range to flaunt a new design language. Their Continental GT and Flying Spur models have already received the treatment and the recently-revealed mid-cycle facelift of the Bentayga brought the behemoth closer to the rest of the range. The Speed version has just been announced.
Toyota’s workhorse pickup is now available in a “consumer” trim, as the the 2021 Toyota Hilux Adventure is now available in dealerships across the GCC. The Adventure version is fittingly on display at the Dubai Festival City mall right now, signifying that for the first time in the UAE, a variant of the Hilux can be bought by any expat individual rather than just by companies and nationals.
The Ford F-150 Raptor carved a new niche for itself when it came out first, slotting itself in as a performance pickup. Since then, the Raptor has been enjoying a sort of monopoly with no mainstream manufacturer daring to lighten its halo. But after years of teasing and dawdling around, FCA has finally debuted their version of a fast offroading truck, the 702 hp Hellcat V8-powered 2021 Ram 1500 TRX.
Indian utility vehicle manufacturer Mahindra was never a big player in the Middle Eastern market, although a few models are starting to trickle down to showrooms here. Their far more comprehensive U.S. operation recently they took a legal jab from FCA for “copying” the design of the Wrangler for their Roxor off-roader, even though the latter wasn’t meant for road use nor was it a Wrangler rival. While the U.S. factory had to shut down, back at home in the lucrative Indian market, Mahindra hit back with an uppercut. Here is the 2020 Mahindra Thar.
From the time Hyundai slipped the tiny Venue crossover “SUV” under the Creta in their lineup, it was only a matter of time before an equivalent Kia was on the way. Even while the Soul still exists globally, Kia has launched the 2021 Kia Sonet in India to be yet another installment to the ever-growing compact crossover segment. The Sonet packs the Seltos’ design features into a smaller footprint.
What do you do when you run out of names for your car-based crossovers? Toyota seems to have found an answer by naming its crossovers after all its hatchbacks and sedans. After the Yaris Cross debuted a month ago, they have laid their hands on another name, revealing the all-new 2021 Toyota Corolla Cross in Thailand.
The Lexus LS, Toyota’s full-size luxury sedan, is still around, lest you forgot about it with the big-nostrilled BMW 7-Series taking up the limelight and the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class around the corner. Lexus has gone ahead and given the 2021 Lexus LS a bit more tech to stay relevant. And yes, it finally gets a touchscreen.
In the Philippines, Toyota has revealed the Yaris with a new face. Known as the Vios there, the design update to the front looks quite familiar to the previous generation Toyota Camry which was sold here.
In the Australian car market, car-based pickup trucks or Utes were quite popular. Some of these vehicles, like the Holden Maloo or the Ford’s FPV F6, took the pickup truck to levels of performance unimaginable for the genre. But taking their place are midsize pickups such as the Ford Ranger and the Toyota Hilux, both of which come with aggressive offroad versions. Now Nissan is thinking about cashing in on the combined opportunity of fast pickup trucks by dropping a V8 under the hood of the Navara, giving birth to a NISMO variant.
SUVs are so popular nowadays that they have all but eliminated market share for almost all other types of passenger vehicles, not least of them minivans. So to update their 2021 Kia Carnival, Kia took inspiration from the very popular “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome” meme. The new Carnival minivan has been infused with SUV styling elements to keep its head high in this raging sea of SUVs.