Cadillac has had many “rebirths” over the past two decades. The STS back in the day heralded a new kind of Cadillac. Now it’s gone. Then there was the first CTS. A great car, and incidentally, the first official test car we ever got, but that final bit of refinement was missing. Now we have the ATS. And this is as close to nailing it as they’ve ever come, if not doing so already.
Full-size sedans take a back seat to midsizers and compacts in the UAE, but they’re big business in Saudi Arabia, the largest automotive market in the GCC. And the Americans are especially good at building big sedans. The 2014 Chevrolet Impala is a very important car for General Motors, and the importance they gave it is apparent from the first time you lay your eyes on one.
Most arm-chair car enthusiasts who’ve never driven legendary American powerhouses such as the constantly-cloned Shelby Cobra or the overblown Vin Diesel-spec Dodge Charger have an idealised view of such cars and lament their demise. However, a car exists today that harks back to those brutal larger-than-life super-muscle cars. It’s built by Chrysler and it’s so out-of-sync with their usual offerings that they gave it a whole separate brand now — the SRT Viper. The Viper itself has a similarly-celebrated reputation, and we found out what it’s like on the streets of Dubai.
Don’t get too excited. If you were pining for a hybrid version of the Toyota Camry, you’re still not going to be able to buy one. The brand’s UAE dealer has just sold less than 50 of these hybrid sedans for service as Dubai taxis, and being a passenger in one of these rarities will be as close as you can come to experiencing it. But we got a chance to take the 2014 Toyota Camry Hybrid for a spin.
UAE Toyota dealer Al-Futtaim Motors has entered a deal with Dubai RTA-franchisee Cars Taxi to supply them with a fleet of Toyota Camry Hybrid sedans for use as taxis.
Toyota Middle East recently announced a solid 10% growth in 2013 sales at a press conference in Dubai, at the same time there is unrelated news that they’re shutting down their Australian production operation.
We pick up our first Audi for a test-drive after a nearly decade-long hiatus. And it’s a good one too, for our re-introduction to the brand. The facelifted A5 Sportback, with the supercharged V6, is quite a car.
Toyota has launched an “interactive telematics service” called T-Connect in the Middle East, which is basically a navigation app for your smartphone, but with an on-call concierge. It will come with every new Toyota purchase.
Teased ages ago as a photoshop long before the Expo 2020 win, the Bugatti Veyron has finally joined the Dubai Police fleet in the flesh.
With all the hype over three-row crossover SUVs such as the Ford Explorer, the Honda Pilot and the Nissan Pathfinder, we’re wondering why more people don’t ask us about the Dodge Durango when discussing their shopping lists. They should, because we could hardly find a fault with the facelifted 2014 version that we just drove across the country in.