Our first test car for Ramadan is the Mazda CX-9, a car that is seemingly loved unconditionally by its owners, but one we haven’t driven before. The 2013 iteration of the CX-9 is a facelifted version with carryover mechanicals and some interior enhancements. Is the forgotten Japanese contender in the hotly-contested midsize segment as good as we hope it is?
We drove the absolutely brand-spanking-new 2014 Lexus IS 350 F-Sport at the launch event in Dubai just two weeks ago. It was a great car, but we couldn’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed by it. Now we got the non-Sport version of the car for a few days, and we were keen to see if it’d be just as underwhelming. Ironically, we had more fun with it!
There seems to be a tendency among “top” automotive journalists to go with the flow. They will all parrot the same things, like how class-leading the Audi A5 interior is, how easy to drift the Toyota 86 is, or how awesome the Range Rover Evoque drives. If you really knew how the media industry worked, you’d lose faith in the press forever. The latest story that’s going around is how the all-new 2014 Mazda 6 is the best midsize sedan ever made. For once, there is some truth to it, although only up to a point.
No, we didn’t buy an Evoque, contrary to what you may have seen on the internets. Despite our issues with them, we asked Land Rover for one and, despite our issues with them, they still gave us one. We assume it’s a 2013 model, although with almost 9,000 km on the clock, it could be a 2012 for all we know. Not that it matters. It’s a good-looking car, to say the least.
Hey, looks like we landed ourselves another Bentley. This time, it’s the Continental GTC Speed and apparently we’re the first ones to review it here, probably because all the “big” journalists are out of the country. That doesn’t matter, because the Continental GT is among our most favourite cars.
Alfa Romeo isn’t exactly a very popular brand in the GCC. But it should be, now that the Giulietta’s appeared in Fast & Furious 6 as the car that took down a cargo plane on the world’s longest runway. Incidentally, we took the car for a run just a week before the premiere of that movie in Dubai, which we attended courtesy of tickets from Chrysler-Fiat.
The Bentley Continental GT is among our most favourite cars we’ve ever driven. It looks great, drives great, and offers just the right amount of balance between performance, practicality and flamboyance. Of course, none of that will ever justify its apartment-sized price-tag, but there’s a lot to like about it. And in GT Speed trim, there’s a lot more to like about it.
The Ford F-150 SVT Raptor’s been out and about for a good while. First it was offered with a 5.4-litre V8 and a quad-cab body. Then the 6.2-litre engine became available, as did the four-door SuperCrew body style. And now for 2013, there are a few more upgrades.
Ah, the car that has become the new whipping boy of Hyundai-Kia fanboys who put price above all else. The 2013 Honda Civic is a car we’ve been itching to test-drive ever since we heard that it went in for a quick upgrade after the lukewarm response to the 2012 Civic. More than just a cosmetic facelift, the Civic has undergone changes under the skin as well.
The last time we drove the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe was actually the first time we drove it. It was for our industry-best crossover comparo, and it was the 2.4-litre model. That lower-spec model won our comparo, partially because of the promise that you could get this fully-loaded V6 model for less than the price of all the other contenders. So it was time to actually check out the V6 model that won its lesser-engined brother the title in that bout.