Our Honda S2000’s battery wasn’t holding charge as well as it should, so when it finally died after just over a year, we called in our buddies at Batt-Mobile to replace the battery right down in our parking lot.
The American-built VW Passat got a minor facelift last year, having been on the market since 2012. We thought it’d have a bigger impact on the midsize sedan scene, given that it easily has the most cabin space in this segment, but key features were missing that may have caused it to become an also-ran. Several of those issues have now been addressed.
After spinning off from the sensible 3-Series sedan, the BMW 4-Series range of coupes has been around for a few years now. The whole 4-Series family, which includes the Coupe, Cabriolet, Gran Coupe and the M4, has been given a small refresh for 2017 but you need a BMW-fanboy eye to spot the changes.
Two new rental car services have been launched in the UAE that offer a by-the-minute payment option if you don’t need a rental car for the whole day.
Let us look back at the last month of 2016 to know what went wrong with the automobile industry in December. A few automobile manufacturers announced recalls on several models to rectify problems.
Porsche has a history of creating cars that cause a negative reaction, even if only temporarily. Aging enthusiasts will remember the 914 from the 70s. Millennials will remember the first Cayenne. And more recently, there was the Panamera, the German carmaker’s first ever sedan which was actually a stretched hatchback. But while derided when launched, all three went on to become bestsellers, much more so than the iconic 911. For 2017, there is a new Panamera hitting the streets, but no one can say any more that the styling is found wanting.
At the Chengdu Motor Show in China, Hyundai took the wraps off the all-new 2018 Accent. Following the lines of its bigger brother, the Elantra, the new Accent looks much sharper than the current model. The new Accent is based on a concept Hyundai showcased at the 2016 Beijing Motor Show.
Ford fans from around the world have been waiting for the boffins at Michigan to resurrect the legendary Bronco nameplate. The wait is now officially coming to an end. Ford has announced that 24 years after it got phased out, the Ford Bronco SUV is coming back in 2020.
Honda has been busy trying new things lately, and while we may never see the fruits of their labour when it comes to the NSX or the Type-R, we are now getting a base version of the latest Honda Civic with a 1.6-litre engine. Spec it up for a few bucks though, and it’s hard to tell it apart from the 2.0-litre version.
While the GCC got a new Thai-built Toyota Yaris in 2015, Europe gets its own version of the econo-hatch. And the Europeans now have a 210 hp version. No, that wasn’t a typo. Toyota has revealed a spicy hot version of their Yaris hatchback. The name of the car isn’t confirmed yet but expect it to bear the ‘Gazoo’ moniker as Toyota has promised to include the name of its racing team in all its performance-oriented models.