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How often do you drive in rush hour traffic, clutching and declutching ever so often as you are forced to shift gears? And how many times in such situations, as you get increasingly fatigued, have you wished that you had a car with an automatic transmission so that you could bypass this chore. Well, you are certainly not alone.

Jaguar Land Rover unveiled the latest versions of two of its SUVs — the Range Rover Sport, which starts at Rs 99.48 lakh at the showroom, and the Range Rover, which starts at Rs 1.74 crore. 

Toyota’s new Yaris has driven into the section of the sedan market that’s one step up from the entry-level, sub-4m models. This is an approximately 15,000-cars-per-month segment that is dominated by Honda City, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and Hyundai Verna, with other cars like Skoda Rapid and Volkswagen Vento doing smaller numbers. Evidently, that’s a tough place to break into.

Driving at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida in a Lamborghini, one can hardly wait for the 60kmph pit lane to end to give the car some gas. Flooring the right foot as one exits it will suddenly turn what was a burble coming from behind the driver into a scream, with the engine spinning up and the car surging forward. One would want the feeling to go on, but has to brake hard for Turn 1. Two turns later, one hits the long back straight. A high-performance car will easily top 250kmph here, with every upshift snapping the driver’s helmet against the head restraint. That audio track, that flood of power and that adrenaline rush... heady indeed!

An average person would run a car for 10,000km a year; it would take more than seven years to rack up that mileage. With most owners swapping cars after about five years, chances are that in terms of costs one would be better off driving a petrol.

Karen Davidson told us she was a bit of both — powerful and a rebel. You couldn’t have missed how soft-spoken she was or how full-throatedly she laughed. The creative director of Harley-Davidson’s general merchandise line, and the great-granddaughter of Harley-Davidson co-founder William A. Davidson, was in town for the launch of the Harley-Davidson lifestyle store at South City Mall, the first in any metro city in India. She was dressed in the colours of the 115-year-old brand — if the black was on her tee, pants and boots, the orange was on her nails. t2 caught up with the California-based Karen.

Had it not been for Chikkaballapura, it’s unlikely that we’d have had a chance to really check the mettle of the new Honda Amaze CVT (continuously variable transmission) automatic with the petrol engine. This town about 35km from Bangalore airport is also the headquarters of the district of the same name.

Rolls-Royce (RR) has almost made a virtue of being verbose. Last week it rolled out the Cullinan, what it described as “an authentic, three-box, high-bodied, all-terrain car”. Everyone else calls them SUVs. Named after one of the biggest diamonds in the world, it is squarely being aimed at successful, young buyers. 

You don’t have to be a millionaire to drive like one. You can live out your driving fantasies with high-end self-drive rental cars. Available are luxury vehicles that start from brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, whose least expensive models cost somewhere around Rs 30 lakh, and go up to the Rs 4-crore-plus Rolls-Royce Phantoms. If GT coupes and supercars are what you crave for, then you can get models like the Ford Mustang or the Lamborghini too. There’s a price to pay, of course, but not one that will break your bank. And all you need are a valid driving licence that’s a few years old and an identity proof.

Mercedes-Benz India CEO Roland Folger talks to t2 about taking the technology lead in the auto industry by launching the Bharat Stage VI compliant S-Class and the way his company’s planning to go. Excerpts.