Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury

The last time we drove a Toyota FJ Cruiser, it was 2007 and the recession hadn’t hit yet. Fast-forward to 2014, and that recession has become a footnote in history, but the FJ Cruiser is still around, not looking any different than when it first started out. Now, depending on which rumours you believe, the FJ is on its last legs, and the UAE dealer has created some special models to keep interest alive. One of those models is the FJ Street, a pre-pimped offroader that’s intentionally more about style than about offroading.

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This GTS here is the V8 version of the Maserati Quattroporte. And they’ve tacked on a turbocharger as well. When we drove the Quattroporte S before, with a turbo V6, we felt it was all the car you’d ever need, even in terms of power. And we were right. Because this here GTS, it is absolutely mental!

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As I was flying back from the Jaguar F-Type Coupe media drive in Spain, I sat next to a random passenger who happened to be an Australian mining engineer. He told me an equally random story. He asked me why the width of a Space Shuttle’s high-tech booster rockets are what they are. Apparently it’s because the rockets had to be transported via train tunnels, thereby limiting them to that size. What decided the width of the train tunnels? The width of the train tracks. What decided the width of the train tracks? The makers of the train wheels and axles.

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Luxgen, Taiwan’s own automotive brand, has finally arrived in the UAE. Better known for building Toyota Corollas in Taiwan on a contract basis, we last encountered Luxgen here in 2010 when we had a chat with the CEO about their Middle East plans. The brand already set up dealerships in Oman and Saudi Arabia in the past few years.

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As we’ve said before, the Honda S2000 is supremely reliable when it comes to mechanicals. But keep it in top cosmetic condition is a never-ending battle due to all sorts of random cost-cutting measures by Honda.

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Clearly, Infiniti is still in the start-up phase. Despite having started right after Lexus a quarter of a century ago, they’re still doing things a start-up would, such as continually changing the plan to keep going. They started off back then with nameplates like the Q45 and the J35, none of which survived beyond the early 2000s. Their flagship switched from a full-size sedan to a Nissan-based full-size SUV, the QX56. And most recently, they decided to dump all their old nameplates that were just beginning to gain traction, such as the G37 and the FX50, in favour of a Q-based naming convention that no one has quite figured out yet.

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Mazda’s been on a roll for the past year, launching all-new models that use an all-new design language that basically adds luxury-car styling cues that go well with their sporty handling. Their latest introduction is the redesigned Mazda 3, a car we expected to hit above its weight. And from what we could tell from our briefer-than-brief encounter, it didn’t disappoint.

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Dodge has unveiled the facelifted 2015 Charger at this week’s 2014 New York Auto Show. Chrysler claims they have reworked almost about every body panel on the car, even if it appears to be just a friendlier Dart-inspired front and rear redesign using more LEDs.

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