New Honda, Abarth and Borgward showrooms open in UAE
We attended the inaugurations of new showrooms for three different brands in the UAE over the past couple of weeks.
We attended the inaugurations of new showrooms for three different brands in the UAE over the past couple of weeks.
Midsize sedans are increasingly being sidelined in the face of the crossover revolution. Many manufacturers are starting to give up on the segment, but there are two that have been consistently successful — the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord. Both have been launched in all-new forms for the 2018 model year, with launch events held at the same location in Dubai, and only a month apart, as if aligned by some cosmic intervention. These two stalwarts have undergone massive changes, with one bringing back the V6 and the other one going full turbo. Seeking to answer the “which is better”
The Honda Accord has been doing perennial battle with the Toyota Camry and the Nissan Altima. Somewhere along the way, the Accord gained a reputation for being a “bit more premium,” possibly due to higher pricing or because the other two started showing up in taxi fleets around the UAE. But while all previous Accords really were just direct rivals to the other two, the new-for-2018 Accord really does pull out all the stops, and finally justifies its rep as being a “bit more premium,” as we found out on our short drive.
The all-new 2018 versions of the Honda Accord sedan and the Honda Goldwing touring motorcycle have been launched in the GCC, at an event held in the UAE.
Acura is Honda’s luxury brand, found in only a handful of markets. The RDX crossover is Acura’s key player in the U.S. market. Accounting for a third of the total Acura sales, the RDX obviously is a very important product. Now, as a new generation model of the RDX is due to arrive this summer, Acura has lifted the covers off the 2019 RDX prototype.
When you think of Honda, the Jazz is the furthest thing from your mind nowadays. It was unceremoniously cancelled a few years ago in the GCC due to slow sales stemming from its high price. It’s back now in its latest form, although the price hasn’t changed from before. Does it pack more value now?
For a change, we took a van around town about a month ago. It was the all-new Honda Odyssey minivan, and we were expecting bigly things from it, especially after hearing about all its fancy features at the launch event.
On invitation from Jeep, we had the opportunity to check out what is quite possibly the largest annual aftermarket-equipment trade show in the world, where even a few major manufacturers such as Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, Toyota, Honda, Ford, Hyundai and Chevrolet make an appearance with modified cars, aside from hundreds of privately-owned tuner shops and suppliers.
After getting into the self-driving game a little late compared to several other mainstream carmakers, Honda plans to introduce cars with highly-automated driving capabilities in most driving situations by 2025. We tried out their latest autonomous prototypes during a trip to Honda’s R&D centre in Tochigi, Japan recently.
Honda released the 2018 City facelift for the Middle East and Africa region recently. The City is available in three grades – the DX, LX and EX.