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Drives — Car reviews, long-term tests and running costs from Dubai. Road tests written after weeks with the car, not a launch event.

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A silver INFINITI QX80 with a black roof driving across sand dunes, front three-quarter, a plume of sand thrown up behind its rear wheelsPress release

Press release · · 4 min

5 Reasons Why the INFINITI QX80 Is the Ultimate Road Trip SUV

INFINITI’s case for the QX80 as the family road-trip car, in five reasons. Most of it is what you’d expect from a big luxury SUV: eight seats, massage chairs, a Klipsch system. Two details are properly clever. Biometric Cooling uses an infrared sensor to read how hot the second row is and aims the air at them, and Individual Audio lets the driver take a call while everyone else keeps their music.

A hand holding a phone running Chery’s car app, a white SUV on screen above Lock, Window, Trunk, Search and Sunroof buttons, with a blue Chery SUV blurred in the backgroundPress release

Press release · · 5 min

Beyond the Dashboard: What Connectivity Really Means for UAE Drivers

Chery’s CarLinko app is now on its Super Hybrid line-up in the UAE: lock, windows, sunroof and pre-cooling from your phone, plus a button that makes the car beep when you can’t remember which level of the mall car park you left it on. The interesting part comes near the end, where Chery raises data privacy itself, then doesn’t say how it handles yours.

A black Nissan Patrol 75th Anniversary edition in a studio, front three-quarter, with copper-gold bars across the grille and fog lamps, a copper-gold line along the shoulder and multi-spoke wheelsPress release

Press release · · 3 min

Nissan Marks 75 Years of Patrol with Exclusive Anniversary Edition for the Middle East

The Patrol turns 75, and Nissan is marking it with 1,951 cars for the GCC, the number borrowed from the year it all started. Underneath it’s the Platinum V6TT, so 425hp and 700Nm, dressed in Copper Gold outside and a Bordeaux cabin inside. One word to notice: the run is “initially” 1,951. Limited, for now.

A grey-turquoise Nissan Pathfinder with a black roof driving through a concrete underpass between office blocks, a glass footbridge overhead and the road streaked with motion blurPress release

Press release · · 3 min

Nissan’s 2026 Pathfinder Arrives with New Look and Smarter Technology

The Pathfinder refresh again, this time from AWR Automotive, which sells Nissan in Dubai, Sharjah and the Northern Emirates. The headline changes are the ones Nissan announced in August: a new grille, a 12.3-inch screen and remote control through the MyNissan app. What’s new here is the detail on the top SL grade, which gets massage and ventilated front seats, driver memory and 20-inch wheels.

A yellow-green Bentley Torcal driving toward the camera on a mountain road at dusk, front three-quarter, a wide valley falling away to the leftPress release

Press release · · 15 min

The All-New Bentley Torcal Makes Global Debut

Bentley’s first electric car, and only its fourth model line in 107 years. The numbers are the easy part: 888PS, 1,350Nm, 0-60mph in 2.8 seconds and up to 375 miles of range. The good bit is the noise. Rather than fake a V8 they had musicians play drums, viola and bass guitar to the rhythm of the old 6¾, and that recording is what you hear. The doors also close themselves when you put your seatbelt on.

A slate-blue Nissan Tekton with a pale grey roof driving down a city street, the glass-fronted office buildings beside it streaked with motion blur and the sun low at the end of the roadPress release

Press release · · 4 min

Nissan Introduces All-New Tekton to the Middle East, Bringing Large SUV Confidence to the Compact Segment

A new name in Nissan’s line-up, styled after the Patrol and built in Chennai. The resemblance is skin-deep: underneath is a 1.3-litre turbo with 153hp and a six-speed dual-clutch. The number that matters is the price, from USD 19,500 before VAT, or about AED 71,600, and it arrives before the end of the year.

A woman in a helmet and riding jacket rides a BMW roadster away from the lit AGMC Dubai Motor City showroom at night, a pillion passenger behind her and the headlights of other riders followingPress release

Press release · · 3 min

Emerging Stronger and Better Together: BMW Motorrad Marks Emirati Women’s Day 2026 with a Special Female Community Ride

BMW Motorrad and AGMC put 80 women riders together at Dubai Motor City for Emirati Women’s Day, then ran a convoy out to Desert Palm behind Hind Al Budoor. The name worth knowing is Dr. Fatima Alloghani, the first Emirati woman to ride solo around the world — on an F 750 GS, which is a very long way on a middleweight.

White Ford Everest angled nose-down on the face of a sand dune, front wheels turned, sand spilling away beneath itPress release

Press release · · 5 min

Engineered for the Middle East: Ford Tests Vehicles for Regional Driving Conditions Ahead of Everest V6 Launch

Ford’s argument is that testing here isn’t a photo opportunity: heat soaks on the cooling system, UV and dust on the trim, sealing and suspension over wadis and dunes. The news underneath it is the Everest V6 — 2.7-litre EcoBoost, 310hp, 500Nm, ten speeds, arriving in November with a new Tremor variant. It is also the first car through Ford’s regional validation fleet, which puts production cars with local drivers before deliveries start.

Dark green INFINITI QX60 parked head-on in a city street lined with stone townhouses, a man on the pavement to one side and a woman walking past on the otherPress release

Press release · · 4 min

How Does the INFINITI QX60 Balance Luxury and Practicality?

INFINITI making the case for the QX60 Autograph as a luxury SUV you can use on an ordinary Tuesday. Captain's chairs in the second row, USB-C across all three, a motion-activated liftgate for when your hands are full. The detail I'd actually want is the headrest speakers, which let the driver hear their own audio without the whole car having to share it.

The Nissan name in white capitals mounted on the glass and steel facade of the company's headquarters against a clear blue skyPress release

Press release · · 3 min

Nissan and Honda Finalize Joint Development Agreement to Standardize ECUs and Software for Next-Generation SDVs

Two rivals agreeing to share the computers that run the car. Nissan and Honda will standardise the core ECUs, the in-vehicle operating system and parts of the control software across both their next-generation platforms, going into cars from FY2029. Not a merger, and after the last one collapsed nobody is calling it one, but software is increasingly the part of a car you either get on with or you don't.

White Renault Koleos with a black roof travelling along a wet road at dusk, pink and blue light trails streaking past itPress release

Press release · · 4 min

Pedestrian Safety Meets Smart Driving in the Renault Koleos

AWR Automotive is aiming the Koleos at the school run, and the pitch is a hologram speedometer sitting in your line of sight plus a speed limit alert for the stretch outside the gate. The feature that earns its place is the automatic braking, because no driver, however alert, catches a child stepping out from behind a parked car at 7:40 in the morning.

Cadillac Escalade Sport Platinum in silver, photographed from the front three-quarter angle in a shaded Dubai plaza.Review4.5

Review · · 9 min

Front seats in the back. Rear seats in the front.

The Escalade gives its second row the chairs from the front, then gives the front all the toys. For once, the passenger might envy the person driving.

Refreshed 2026 Nissan Pathfinder in Grayish Turquoise with a black roof, driving through a concrete city underpassPress release

Press release · · 5 min

Nissan Expands Connected SUV Offering With Refreshed 2026 Pathfinder in the UAE

Remote start and climate control from your phone, on a Pathfinder, in a UAE summer. CCS 2.0 arriving on the 2026 refresh is the update that will matter most day to day, more than the new grille does. Still eight seats, still the 271hp V6, and a new Grayish Turquoise that looks much better than the name suggests.

Cadillac V-ONE Concept in silver-to-navy gradient paint, front three-quarter viewPress release

Press release · · 4 min

Cadillac Unveils V-ONE Concept

A single-seat, 830hp hybrid V-8 built on actual Le Mans hardware rather than a styling exercise wearing the badge. One of one, which is the part that stings — this is the most interesting thing Cadillac has shown in years and almost nobody will drive it.

Blue Ford Mustang Mach-E GT parked on a stone waterfront at sunset, front three-quarter viewPress release

Press release · · 5 min

Ford Mustang Mach-E: Where Heritage Meets the Future

Ford makes the case that a four-door electric SUV is still a Mustang: 358kW, 950Nm, 0–100 in 3.5 seconds in GT form, 419km of range, and a 1,420-litre boot the 1964 car could never have offered.

Blue Nissan Pathfinder towing a side-by-side buggy along a dirt track, snow-dusted mountains behindPress release

Press release · · 5 min

Nissan Pathfinder: The Family SUV Ready for Every Back-to-School Journey

AWR Automotive is pitching the seven-seat Pathfinder at the school run — the EZ FLEX second row that slides with a child seat still fitted, 16.6 cubic feet behind the third row, and tri-zone climate for an August start of term.

Four Nissan wheels side by side showing red, gold, red and yellow brake calipersPress release

Press release · · 6 min

Nissan Reveals the Design Code Behind Its Brake Caliper Colours

Silver, red, gold, yellow — Nissan finally writes down what its caliper colours have meant since the R34. Gold means Brembo, yellow means carbon-ceramic, and there is a reason the GT-R50 broke the rule.

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