Author Archives: Vincent Nguyen

There are a lot of factors to consider when your ultimate packing goal is to only travel with one bag. Do you opt for one with wheels, go fashionably hand-carried, or pick a backpack? Over the years I've developed a preference for the latter, and lucky for me there has been a big surge of backpacks over the past couple of years. The options range from startups through to the likes of Tumi, Nomatic, Wandrd, and Boundary Supply, and you'd be forgiven for finding it all overwhelming.

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Mercedes-AMG and Cigarette Racing have a long history of creating high-performance racing boats, but few are as striking as this year’s Miami International Boat Show specials: the 59’ Tirranna AMG Edition, and its one-off Mercedes-AMG G 63 Cigarette Edition SUV cousin. From that point, I didn’t know where to look first: should I feast my eyes on Mercedes-AMG’s newest racing boat, or should I ogle at the newest G 63? Since the new 59’ Tirranna AMG Edition was still out on the first run giving journalists a test ride, I spent some time with the Mercedes-AMG G 63 first.

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The Jaguar F-Type lives in a competitively niche market. Flanked by the Porsche 911 and BMW 8-Series, the F-Type is dedicated to purists, much in the same manner that a Mazda Miata MX-5 aims to thrill the enthusiast's senses. When the F-Type first launched in 2013, it instantly gained recognition as the evolution of the luscious E-Type from the 1960s. Those teardrop-shaped headlights, the classic sportscar proportions of bulbous rump and long hood... oh, and it behaved like a proper Jag as well. Gutsy engines, a standard manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive, and that iconic silhouette. When you're taking inspiration from the past, choosing a car so gorgeous that old man Ferrari thought it to be the most beautiful machine with four wheels isn't a bad place to begin.

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Once in a while, one company stumbles onto a new technology that pulls the rug out from under their industry - and sparks plenty of competitors trying to do the same. For Nura, that innovation centered on how it could create truly personalized hearing profiles simply by having people sit through a series of beeps and boops while wearing their headphones. Headphones offering personalized audio has since then popped up left and right, pushing the company to step up its game. That next level comes in the form of the NuraLoop, a pair of around the neck earbuds that brings Nura's technology to a more discreet and more personal wearable device.

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In many ways, Mercedes-Benz's new VISION AVTR concept car is everything we've come to expect from automakers at CES 2020: exaggerated style wrapped in an ambitious message, in this particular case James Cameron’s epic “Avatar” movie. Certainly, the VISION AVTR - which stands for Advanced Vehicle Transformation - is full of gloriously hi-tech details that Mercedes says embody the next chapter of sustainable luxury. Think ecologically-sound mobility mixed with awe-inspiring, futuristic design that tries to highlight the interaction between humans and machines. It's a tall order, but then again the VISION AVTR is a big car.

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Mercedes-Benz has brought a new concept car to CES 2020, with the VISION AVTR inspired by James Cameron's epic "Avatar" movie. Intended to embody themes of ecologically-sound mobility and the interaction of the passenger and their vehicle, the striking concept also uses new green materials.

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Even before the arrival of Mercedes-Benz’s all-new compact 2020 GLB SUV, the German automaker has a full eight sport utility vehicles for the US market. The GLB takes it to nine SUVs in total, which is more than what I was expecting before I double-checked to compensate for my aging memory. That's a whole lot of options if you want a luxury truck, and a very broad range when it comes to size and abilities: the GLB happens to be the seventh car to utilize Mercedes’ new compact car platform, the same architecture as found under the A-Class and CLA coupe.

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The 2020 BMW X6 excels in the very niche it created more than ten years ago. Back then, the first-gen X6 was polarizing, to say the least. But it found its way into garages of people who embraced the concept of a sportier type of SUV: in fact, the X6 has been one of BMW’s best sellers for the past decade or so, and hence the introduction of an all-new third-generation X6 to carry that torch.

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There are electric cars, and there’s the Porsche Taycan. Make no mistake, the Taycan is a very big deal for Porsche and every other performance electric car released in the future. For the sake of simplicity, what started out as the Mission E concept around five years ago has morphed into what is really an electrified and elongated version of the Porsche 911, and that's all for the better. In the process, though, you can't miss the chatter around how the Taycan is around $50,000 more than a Tesla Model S Performance model, a car which goes faster to 60 mph, can accommodate five grown adults comfortably, and theoretically has a longer range.

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The 2020 Audi RS Q8 is the new flagship in the German carmaker’s growing portfolio, and only the second Q-model to receive the RS badge. It's a badge that sets some seriously high standards, too: we've not long driven the magnificent RS7 Sportback and RS6 Avant, and each sets a tall bar for their bigger sibling to meet. If the RS Q8 is to hold its own, it needs to be a super-SUV.

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For those of you old enough to remember, the Audi R8 was the first production car to feature LED headlights. Back then, automotive LED lighting technology was in its infancy: the R8 was at the dawn of an age of newer, more modern, and hi-tech looking cars. At the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show, Audi shed some light on something even bigger than the new Audi e-tron Sportback, and it all has to do with the car’s digital matrix LED headlights. This, I said to myself, is the future of automotive lighting.

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Lamborghini is on a roll. The Italian supercar maker known for creating beautiful poster cars is hitting new sales records, notably from selling mind-bending supercars rather than anything so mundane as pickup trucks or SUVs. Not least among that range is the Huracan, and the latest 2020 Huracan Evo Spyder is intended to drive the growth even further.

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