Although it wasn’t expected to come to US since Audi officials had claimed so, a camouflaged Audi a5 sportback was seen in the US, which I believe is quite close to the production version. According to the Zamafir (who took these pics), it supposedly better looking than Audi A5 and the BMW 5 GT. Here are the pics:

BTW, does anybody else notice a Ford GT in the background of the first picture?

Source: Autoblog

There’s a touch of the forgettable Elantra in the larger grille, which has received the bulk of the attention in the facelift, along with the headlights, bumpers and new alloys. Yet, the Transform badge for the Sonata isn’t for the exterior. It’s more for the interior. The wide leather seats are easily the best of the lot. And that’s not just in the front, but at the back as well. This has the shortest wheelbase of the three but legroom is excellent.

There’s climate control, there’s audio controls on the steering wheel. The dashboard is a let down though despite the wood decor. It’s as cohesive as a japanese tape-recorder of the eighties. The problem is that the Sonata has beenpacked with everything with the intention of having everything there, not because it’ll actually do any good.

The Sonata is the odd one out here. Odd, but not in a bad way. It’s the smallest of the lot in terms of length but also the tallest. And also least sophisticated. You wouldn’t have said this if you hadn’t seen the competition here, or even the earlier models from Hyundai. The new transform is a face-lifted version of the fourth-generation Sonata, with a mildly revised exterior and a hugely improved cabin. If you remeber the over-styled original cabin.

There’s a touch of the forgettable Elantra in the larger grille, which has recieved the bulk of the attention in the facelift, along with headlight, bumpers and new alloys. There’s control, there are audio controls on the steering wheel. The dasboard is a let down though despite the wood decor. The problem is that the Sonata has been packed with everything with the intention of having everything there, not because it will actually do any good.

Alongside the cayman, meanwhile,it appears huge, not just in terms of simple dimensions, but equally via a forbidding kerbside presence that alludes to daunting power in that short, fat chassis. This is a hairy chest to the Cayman’s boutique wax. And all before you’ve even turned it on.

Inside, that GT-R theme reappears. Where the 350 was an artless affair with masses of brittle black plastic and a functional air that belied its price and market position, the 370 is a fine mix of stitched leather and solid touch points. Alcantara door trim, high-tech instrumentation and everywhere an attention to detail that makes the whole cabin feel expensive. Vital for a Nissan with ambitions as lofty as this one.

Things that you will notice is that it has styles from the GT-R.  Yes, you can say that it looks fantastic. But i thought the 350Z still looked great.

Side-by-side the full extent of Nissan’s efforts in the restyling of its new car quickly become apparent. Everything regarding it aggressive and eye catching  the moment.  No matter this car is styled very firmly and every moment has been taken seriously to enhance the beauty of the car. People were excited to know about the newly furnished Nissan, and offcourse they liked the looks. Looks were attarctive, specially for the youngsters who really want to enjoy the ride. Getting to know more about this car is like only for those who are really thinking of buying it. Its costly but not for those who are millionaries

The 370Z is the evolution of the 350, mock muscle car of the mid-Noughties that earned Nissan a cacher that it hadn’t experienced for a long old time. But blunt styling, grunt and a bench press for a gear change wasn’t enough to get the 350Z taken seriously. Everybody loved it, but heart seldom rules head when you’re shopping for a $60K sports car. Or at least it shouldn’t.

So the 370Z delivers, according to the blurb more agility, more performance, more practicality and more fun. And all that for near enough $20K less than the entry level Cayman it aims to trounce. Sounds like madness, but Nissan’s serious here. When the car was launched in Japan, Nissan had a Cayman there and stated that this was the car they had set out to beat.

Let me introduce you to the story. Luxury cars tends to say put in the city and on the bigger highways- mostly because if they head even an inch off manicured tarmac, they break. So, the idea was to find luxury cars that could go anywhere. Then someone mentioned coffee, and it clicked. Millionaire plantation owners! People who need a luxury car in the city, a long-distance express on the highways to travel to their mega-acres, and cars that can go into the green and make it out alive. And it was the perfect excuse to head to coorg, where coffee, cardamom and money grows in delicious, cool hills ; cars that would work for these chaps would work anywhere at all.

So then , enter the dragons. Paul Horrell, in his money’s there, but the roads aren’t , and people have come round to that fact.

Welcome to the twilight zone. I say this for the simple fact that i still have difficulty fully comprehending what went down that day. I’ve come to expect a lot of good things and some fine pieces of machinery as part of my work, but then having nearly 1,000bhp waiting is not something i can compute. Enter the AMGs.

Not one but two of them. Not coupes but proper convertibles that go from hard top to wind-in-the-hair in about twenty seconds. Most importantly, proper V8s that growl every time you think about poking the accelerator and hurry past the 100kph mark in under five seconds.

The SLK55 AMG was lucky number one. Finished in a special shade of silver, this car is the milder of the two evils, churning out 360 horsepower from its petite ( har har ) five-and-ahalf-litre V8. Not a bad way to acquaint myself with supercars, then.

It’s fairly regular occurrence that I absolutely fall in love with a BMW when i’m driving one around. The minute you see one with all its ridiculously hardened, sharp lines staring at you, wearing the propellers-in-the sky badge like a medal of honour, you feel like jumping right in and doing one simple thing- driving hard. There isn’t a time i can remember willing to drive one calmly, the 7-series being of course an exception. However, as soon as the adrenaline ruch starts fizzling out and the roadbecomes less appealing , you start feeling tired and think to yourself, ” why does this fed feel like such a workout?”

Well, these fascinating machines have been tuned to deliver the ultimate driving experience and at times it seems to work against them. But, this is not one of those times. The 530d highline is one car I could sign my life away to.There is one simple reason for that. This car has to be the easiest to live with among the long line of cars that BMW rolls out and is a massively entertaining drive, which is right up there with the best of the lot.

LAUGHING IN THE FACES OF recession-hit Americans, Audi launched an updated Q7, with even more imposing looks, a mildly refreshed interior and improved fuel economy across the board. This has beenachieved by using regenerative braking and AdBlue ammonia injection; the biggest gainer is the 4.2 turbo-diesel, which goes from 8.5kpl to a world saving, crop-growing 9.5. More significant to Audiphiles of course is the addition of LED daytime running lights and an even scarier grille.

The best Yank SUV’s been fully refreshed for 2009: it’s likely to be pretty decent. The highlight is supposed to be an interior that Chrysler claims is up to European standards. Be a shame if a near-comatose Chrysler fails to back this product: it really feels good.