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Hyundai Tucson
We love cars. Most of us here can't do anything other than something to do with cars. Yet our crossover of the year comes from an inconspicuous Korean brand and possesses the dynamic aptitude of a Carrefour shopping trolley, the one that always ploughs straight on into the woman juggling groceries with a baby, when you're tugging on it with all your might to point at the apex (ie the pyramid stack of Heinz baked beans.)

The Hyundai Tucson doesn't handle. But it's still a phenomenal car, so how can that be?

We recognise that most people (unfortunately) buy cars based on price and equipment levels. If it's cheap and crammed with kit, it's good.

The Tucson is indeed cheap, and has enough electronic gear to make Steve Jobs exclaim something stupid such as, "It's a car, it's a communications device and it's a seat heater, all in one!" Which is true, actually; the new Tucson has heated and cooled leather seats, a huge sunroof, electric tilt/telescope steering, a sat-nav display with an entertainment system and an LCD in the instrumentation binnacle.

It has a lot more too, such as a fine automatic transmission driving the front wheels, or all four if you want. The engine is a modern 2.4-litre four-pot unit producing 175bhp, putting the Tucson squarely up against established GCC giants such as Mitsubishi, Nissan, Volkswagen and that whole gang. The Mitsubishi ASX is tiny, underpowered and bare-boned, while Nissan's Qashqai is getting on a bit, as are the acres of plastics found inside. The Touran, well that's just too expensive. So the thing is, the Hyundai is better, smoother, quieter, softer and larger in the back. But most of all, it's exciting.

Yes, we called a Hyundai exciting, because the company designed a beautiful model with a distinctive front, elegant profile and fantastic, lively interior. This is a brand that has improved in two years as much as someone like, say, Fiat, has improved in two decades! For the first time, you can now buy a Hyundai because it's an excellent car for very little money, and not just the cheapest thing around that also happens to be a hunk of junk, like Hyundais of old. Well done, Korea.

VW Touareg
When VW invited us to drive the new version of the Touareg, it was significant that the first place they sent us was into the centre of Milan's rush hour. This was, after all, the environment in which most of these cars will spend most of their time. Question was, had VW lost sight of the Touareg's off-road capability in the process?

We needn't have worried. When VW came to launch the new Touareg here in the Middle East, it was exactly the same version they brought with them — no ‘Terrain Tech' pack, no low range gearbox, no locking diffs, no nothing. Such was their confidence in the new car that they handed us the keys and pointed us straight at the desert. So much for ‘city biased' expectations, this was still a proper Touareg, completely at home in the sand.

In many ways, VW took the new Touareg deep into Range Rover territory, making the car much more luxurious and refined, with top quality materials and a very stylish and well equipped interior. Yet it has done so without sacrificing any of the all-important off-road ability so crucial in this part of the world.

In fact, the new version of the Touareg is much more than just a facelift to bring it in line with the new corporate look. Under the crisp reskin lies the new version of the Cayenne platform, lighter and stiffer than before, which translates into an immediate and welcome improvement in dynamics. On the road, the Touareg is a very refined drive indeed, both on the standard steel springs and the optional air suspension. Ride quality is excellent, the body is well controlled through turns and the old ponderousness has been banished completely.

The 3.6-litreV6 FSI engine offers more power, but more importantly, more torque, and though the car is longer, wider and taller than the previous generation, it weighs a substantial 200kg less, and this translates into a much more nimble and responsive drive.

So, a leap ahead in technology, a step up in luxury and a big improvement in refinement. No wonder the new Touareg is in its element here.

Porsche Cayenne Turbo
Do you ever wonder if the success of the original Cayenne caught even Porsche by surprise? They may have been late joining the premium SUV market, indeed many were amazed they even went there in the first place, but the Cayenne proved to be a popular money spinner and in this part of the world, the Turbo versions sold in big numbers. The restyled and lighter 2010 Turbo model now boasts the V8 twin turbocharged engine from the Panamera, and although it loses the low ratio transfer box, who needs one when the standard transmission is an eight-speed Tiptronic, making the new model faster than the old Turbo (0-100kph in 4.7 seconds) and more economical.

On a day when we had quite a few low slung sportscars to test, what surprised me most about the Cayenne Turbo is just how much you can fling it into the bends where it not only maintains remarkable levels of grip for a car of its weight and height, but with eerily little body roll. The air suspension apparently doesn't know the difference between ‘straight and level' or ‘twisty and level'.

Apparently the four-wheel drive system puts all that power through only to the rear wheels until and unless it's needed up front. It works seamlessly, leading to the feeling that you're driving a ‘sportscar with big bodywork', not an SUV.

Inside the cabin you are surrounded by more buttons and switchgear than a fighter pilot, including about a dozen or more on the roof console because they ran out of room around the dashboard! There's a 16-speaker high end sound system, voice control for the navigation and telephone, climate control and seats so supportive that you know they were designed after the engineers had tuned the sports suspension.

However you look at it, the 2010 Cayenne Turbo is a whole lot of vehicle for your money. Your head says buy a four door family car but your heart says buy a sportscar? Just buy this.

It's all wrapped up into one package by those thoughtful guys at Stuttgart. Problem solved.