Best pictures from first drives in 2018

It was a relentless year full of road tests and first drives at CarWale. Now, it's about time to look back and recollect the memories from first drives in 2018. We have selected one best picture from a media drive from each month. Let's take a look at these 12 pictures that stick out from the other countless ones shot during these drives across the country.

2018 can be said to be the year of SUVs and what would have been a better way than this to usher the New Year in style! That's our editor Vikrant Singh powering out of the by-lanes of Pushkar, Rajasthan in the new Audi Q5.

With no official media drives planned in February, we brought in the Mercedes-AMG GLC43 Coupe. Look how the logo makes way for the rear cam to jut out and eye the by-standers who can't stop ogling at this beauty.

Here's the Merc's flagship doing some thrilling speeds on Hyderabad's Ring road. Not only are the occupants nestled in comfort, but are also being safely chauffeured around with the carmaker throwing in so much safety-tech than before.

After driving the new Ford Freestyle around the royal Jaipur city, we also went to the Sambar lake. With Ford's assurance from Active Rollover Protection, we had to throw it around the loose surfaces and have some fun.

The XC40 is the first to be based on Volvo's CMA platform and it impressed us during its first drive in Hyderabad. Little did we know that it would go on to bag the award for the first ever Premium Car Award by ICOTY. A small SUV, but indeed big on innovation!

What's the boxy little compact SUV from Maruti Suzuki doing in this fancy avatar you may ask? The cosmetic overhaul is for the diesel AMT gearbox with which the Brezza was introduced. Yes, it has only got better with these upgrades.

We wish the changes on the Jazz facelift were as intense as the July rains in Mumbai. No wonder you won't be able to spot the changes on the 2018 model that get some feature updates than the styling ones.

Now, the much-awaited updates were for the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and it didn't disappoint. Sure it doesn't look worlds apart from its predecessor, but the sharper looks are well captured in this image.

As we earlier said, 2018 is indeed the year of SUVs and Lamborghini bringing in one also reiterates this. The Urus is a perfect blend of Italian flavour, German engineering and, of course, all-road capability!

The performance tuned Tiago JTP and Tigor JTP were fun driving up and down the hills of Nilgiri. Here the Tiago JTP is nicely taking a fast sweeping corner with all its vigour (read 100bhp), highlighting its sporty quotient.

Mahindra's new flagship, the Alturas G4, deserves a special mention here as this is the same image that featured on the carmaker's official website. Our photographer Kaustubh received many praises for capturing this behemoth in Pune.

The upcoming new Tata Harrier SUV will soon be scheduled for public previews through roadshows across India. Here's our preview of the handsome SUV standing under the wind mills in Jodhpur beautifully snapped by our lens-man Kapil Angane.