Opel’s mid-size sedan, the Insignia, has received a thorough revamp for 2017. The car, dubbed as the Insignia Grand Sport, will be sold as a Vauxhall in the UK and as a Holden in Australia. In the Middle East though, the Insignia is offered as an Opel.
| The Good: – Attractive inside and out – Cabin trim and features – Ride and handling |
The Bad: – Limited offroad ability – Less space than rivals – Few key options not offered |
Taiwan has some very strict laws that govern the trade of importing cars into the country. A person who owned a Lamborghini Murcielago LP-640 learned it the hard way. Taiwanese authorities decided that to send a message to the people, the best way was to destroy the illegally-imported Italian supercar publicly in front of cameras. When a YouTube channel, J.K Photography, uploaded the video, it sent not just the message, but much heartbreak as well.
The Audi Q5 has been around externally unchanged since late 2008. That’s an eternity in car years, but the German carmaker has been keeping the line-up fresh with new engine options and trim levels. One of those is the SQ5, which is the quickest version of the Q5 you can currently get. It’s a little late in the year to test an outgoing model, considering our more “prominent journalists” have already driven the all-new Q5 model in Europe recently, but this is actually our first time behind the wheel of any Q5.
Oman’s Toyota dealer seems to have the UAE beat in new model launches this year, as sharing space alongside the 2017 Corolla on the Toyota stand at the 2016 Oman Motor Show was this 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser TRD.
One of Ford’s most loved hatchbacks in Europe, the Fiesta, is getting a good makeover for 2017. The 2017 Ford Fiesta seems to look different from the outgoing model even though it is more of a facelift. Ford calls the new Fiesta “the most technologically advanced small car to date”.
When we were strolling through the relatively cosy 2016 Oman Motor Show, the last thing we expected to see was a new model debut. This here is the 2017 Toyota Corolla. While this isn’t exactly a new car, it’s a welcome facelift to a decent but aging model.
Mazda has been on a roll lately, with their latest models appealing to everyone from commuters to enthusiasts, which no one else has been able to replicate. But there was one sore spot in their line-up which, oddly enough, is their flagship model — the midsize CX-9 crossover. It was a fairly competent vehicle, but it had been left unchanged for almost a decade. So we were really looking forward to driving their all-new 2017 CX-9.
The internet is going wild over news that a brand new Honda S2000 was sold in Australia last month. Before you get confused, it’s a 2008 model that a Honda dealer in Australia kept aside for display purposes (probably to make the brand look more sporting than it is currently), but they’ve finally sold it to an unknown customer.
After giving the XC90, S90 and V90 some proper spruce ups, Volvo’s performance division Polestar turned their attention to the Volvo V90 Cross Country. The Polestar treatment was given to the T6 petrol and D3 and D5 diesel engines of the new V90 Cross Country. Volvos are not going to feature its bigger engines anymore, so the Polestar models in the Volvo lineup are intended to fill in the shoes of the now phased-out models that featured engines with more than four cylinders.