IN THE past, the choice was between large luxury cars or small economy brands. In 2014, one can have a small luxury car with equipment that was once the domain of the prestige sedans.
The small car is back to dominate world markets and hopefully the trend will catch on in the Middle East too.
Conventional wisdom indicates that bigger cars are safer.
This is becoming a fallacy as small and medium-size cars regularly achieve five-star rating in the Euro-NCAP safety tests.
Small GTs can also accelerate faster with more agility than the best luxury barges.
The latest technology can easily be fitted in an Audi A3 or a BMW 1 series as in a top-of-range model of the same brands.
Ford can fit its SYNC system in a Fiesta as well as cruise control, air conditioning, power windows and premium audio and navigation systems.
For the up and coming generation, a small car is cool.
It is easier to park and drive, cheaper to run and grants its user some environmental credit no big car can ever give. In a small car you can have performance, safety, technology and connectivity.
Most small cars can be classified as “green cars” as they use less fuel and produce less CO2 emissions.
Modern small cars are also big on comfort and can transport four adults with ease.
A small car may make less sense in the GCC where fuel is cheap and large luxury cars are the norm, yet the trend is spreading from Europe to the US and other markets.
The sooner this trend is adopted in the Gulf the better for the regional environment.
It is the young generation who are likely to take this trend forward.
Governments too should encourage use of small cars, as a barrel of oil saved is a barrel exported at world prices.
— Adel Murad is a senior motoring and lifestyle journalist, based in London.
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Trends in 2014: Smaller is better!
Trends in 2014: Smaller is better!
USA Today Co., owner of the Detroit Free Press, says it will purchase The Detroit News
LANSING, Michigan: USA Today Co., which owns the Detroit Free Press, said Monday that it plans to acquire The Detroit News and bring both major metropolitan newspapers under its banner.
The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press recently ended an almost 40-year agreement that allowed the two papers to operate in the same city and merge aspects of their business operations.
According to a statement from USA Today Co., the newspaper publisher formerly named Gannett, both newspapers will continue to publish separately. The company provided little other information on the planned operation of the daily newspapers.
The statement also did not disclose a price of the sale.
USA Today Co., which publishes the largest chain of newspapers in the US, said the sale is being funded through cash and financing managed by Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm that funded New Media Investment Group Inc.’s 2019 acquisition of Gannett.
The deal is expected to close “at the end of the month.”
The two newspapers have both been in operation for over 100 years. The Detroit News has won three Pulitzer Prizes and the Detroit Free Press has won 10.
“Both companies have a mutual desire to ensure that these publications and their distinct journalism continue to serve the greater Detroit area,” Guy Gilmore, chief operating officer of MediaNews Group, the current owner of The Detroit News said in a statement.
In 1989, the two papers began a joint operating agreement, a deal established under the 1970 Newspaper Preservation Act which allowed failing newspapers to be exempt from certain antitrust rules. The two newspapers worked in competition but shared some overhead resources and business operations including advertising, printing and distribution.
The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News ended the agreement in December after 36 years.
In 2024, Gannett stopped using journalism produced by The Associated Press as financial struggles continued to mount on the news industry.
