Dubai

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”

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The minivan segment may be dying, but there are quite a few players trying to keep it alive. Honda, Chrysler and Kia offer the only mainstream ones in the GCC. Toyota does a jurassic-era fleet-spec one. BMW and Opel offer a couple of poorly-received ones. And then there is Mercedes-Benz, who have converted a commercial van into a luxury people-carrier, much like what Volkswagen did with their Transporter Multivan.

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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.

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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.

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The Renault Megane was never a major player in the compact segment. Blame it on lack of awareness, brand preconceptions or just lack of desirability, but it just never caught on in the GCC (except with one of our people, who actually owns one). There’s an all-new model in town now. Will it make waves?

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The Mitsubishi Eclipse has been around since 1990, until a green one with unlimited manual gears was popularised in the first The Fast and the Furious movie in 2001. While that movie franchise is still ongoing, the Eclipse sports coupe took a break in 2012. It’s back now as the 2018 Eclipse Cross, embodying Mitsubishi’s committment to become an SUV-focused carmaker. We took it for a stroll around the Dubai Autodrome at its UAE launch.

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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?

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In a joint effort to support the UAE Vision 2021’s environmental targets, Al-Futtaim Toyota announced the handover of first 50 Prius Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) to Arabia Taxi, member of Arabia Holdings Group of companies and one of the UAE’s largest taxi operators, marking the latter as the first fleet operator in the UAE to use a Prius in its ranks.

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There are certain things that happen only once in a lifetime. One of them is the chance to drive a Bugatti of any sort. When the Veyron was new in 2005, George W. Bush was still the U.S. president and the iPhone was still a passing thought in Steve Jobs’ mind. Of course, now we have the Chiron. Our resident journosaur Gautam Sharma drove one at the global launch event in Portugal last year. And this winter, I was offered an exclusive drive of the exact same car right here on the roads of the UAE, with 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans champion Andy Wallace as co-driver.

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