Upping the Excitement

Coinciding with its new brand campaign, “Rediscover Excitement” as well as its second anniversary as a part of the global Nissan family, Nissan Philippines, Inc. brings to market, the Juke—a sports subcompact crossover. Featuring a unique exterior design, motorbike-inspired cabin, and dynamic handling, the Juke is now available for reservation at all Nissan dealerships nationwide with deliveries to start by January 2016.

Built to thrill, the made-in-Japan Juke is designed to immediately capture attention with its fun and bold exterior design. Penned with the ROBIOTIC design concept, it takes the mechanical (ROBO) and living body (BIO) to produce a muscular and agile exterior and an interior that’s both mechanically precise and sleek.

It absolutely screams for attention with its alien-like split-design headlamp cluster, which vertically separates the park lights, main lamps, and fog lamps. It has the trademark boomerang-shaped LED combination lamps set high on the hood followed by large projector-type round headlamps located below the grille. The signature V-grille ties in all the radical design cues with the Nissan familial look.

The raked front pillars and large windshield gives excellent visibility while a sloped rear roofline along with muscular lower body sides emphasizes strength and sportiness. Hidden rear door handles add to the coupe-like feel as do the standard 17-inch alloy wheels shod with 215/55R17 tires.

Inside, it has a motorbike-inspired interior that starts with a hooded gauge cluster and a gas tank-like center console. Sporty fabric seats for the driver and front passenger provide excellent lateral support, perfect when carving corners. It also offers seating up to five adults as well as a 60/40 split-folding rear seat to accommodate larger cargo. With the rear seat up, it can swallow 251 liters while with the rear seats down; it goes all the way to 830 liters.

Front and center to the Juke experience is the Integrated Control System or I-CON. This versatile, multi-colored system allows the driver to change the driver and climate modes with a single touch. The Drive Mode features three different settings: Normal, Sport, and Eco to deliver maximized performance or fuel efficiency. And at the toggle of a switch, the same controls can operate temperature settings and air flow preferences.

Emphasizing the ‘sport’ element to the ‘sport crossover’, the Juke comes into the market with a single variant: the 1.6 Upper CVT. This means, it comes with the HR16DE engine under the hood good for 116 hp at 5,600 rpm and 154 Nm of torque at 4,000 rpm. These figures are perfect for spirited everyday driving. Mated to this engine is Nissan’s award-winning Xtronic CVT transmission for increased fuel efficiency and responsiveness. The Juke also comes with cruise control as standard equipment.

The front-wheel drive Juke promises to be fun and stable through twisty roads thanks to its front independent MacPherson strut suspension coupled with a rear torsion beam axle. As fun and dynamic as it is, it’s also one safe choice coming with a complete array of safety gear including dual SRS airbags, ABS, Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, as well as a rear parking camera.

The Nissan Juke comes in four fun colors: Red Alert, Solar Yellow, Pearl White, and Black Obsidian with a surprisingly low retail price of P980,000.

Mercedes-AMG

Auto Nation Group, the exclusive distributor of Mercedes-Benz vehicles in the country, showed off the newest offerings from high-performance division, AMG, headlined by the local debut of the Mercedes-AMG GT S supercar. This was joined at the event by the CLA 45 OrangeArt Edition and GLA 45.

The Mercedes-AMG GT S is only the second car to be built completely in-house by AMG. Instead of being based off a more “pedestrian” version of a Mercedes automobile, the GT S is a purpose-built supercar featuring a front mid-engine, rear wheel drive layout made of intelligent aluminum lightweight construction. The ultra-stiff body structure forms the basis of its impeccable handling and is further emphasized by a newly-developed AMG 4.0-liter bi-turbo V8. This is the first sports car with internally-mounted turbochargers (‘hot inside V’). The dry sump lubricated engine is available in two states of tune: 462 hp in the regular GT and 510 hp in the GT S.

Performance figures for the all-new GT are nothing short of extraordinary: 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.8 seconds and a top speed of 310 km/h. Mercedes-AMG also promises top-notch performance both on- and off the race track.

As potent as the GT is, it’s still pretty much a Mercedes-Benz at heart and sets the standards in terms of practicality, efficiency, and premium comfort unmatched in the segment. It has a large tailgate with an easily accessible luggage compartment as well as extensive driver assistance systems from the Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive.

On the opposite side of the Mercedes-AMG spectrum, two new 4-cylinder offerings were also shown alongside the GT S.

The CLA 45 OrangeArt Edition starts off on the Night package of the CLA 45 and adds splashes of orange around the car. It’s found in areas such as the radiator grille, mirrors, and rear apron. Furthermore, the alloy wheels come with flange-painted orange and matching black and orange center caps.

Inside, the CLA45 OrangeArt Edition differentiates itself with contrasting orange stitching on its leather/DINAMICA microfiber performance seats. The same orange stitching is found on the steering wheel and shifter.

The CLA 45 Orange Edition is available in both the CLA 45 coupe and CLA 45 shooting brake.

Mercedes-AMG is throwing its hat in the growing high-performance compact crossover segment with the introduction of the GLA 45. It comes with the world’s most powerful production series 4-cylinder engine with 381 hp and 475 Nm of torque. This makes this all-wheel drive crossover accelerate to 100 km/h in just 4.4 seconds and achieve a top speed of 250 km/h (electronically limited).

Aside from being lightning quick, the GLA 45 is equally efficient enabling it to do up to 13.33 km/L while achieving Euro 6 emission standards.

Apart from these three dynamic Mercedes-AMG models, Auto Nation Group has announced that the C 63 AMG sedan and C 63 coupe will join the line-up soon.

At the same event, current Mercedes-AMG owners were invited to join the AMG Private Lounge global online community. This allows this select group of performance-minded enthusiasts to join in special events and programs tailor-made specifically for them. This includes driving events, model sneak peeks, and even a tour of the Mercedes-AMG factory in Germany.