Friday is the worst day of the week for a test drive. Sure, we take cars for the weekend, but no real testing gets done on a Friday evening due to the beautiful traffic in our always-under-construction city. Read more… »

Volkswagen has been teasing the public with their own spy shots of their new Tiguan small 4WD, although we didn’t bother. The actual production-ready Tiguan has now broken cover, looking, as expected, like a lifted Polo. Read more… »

I’ve never been a fan of vehicles that look like a 4WD, but do not provide all the capabilities of a 4WD. The Toyota RAV-4 is one such vehicle, with car-like underpinnings and all-wheel-drive. But as I drove it back-to-back with a full-blooded truck-based 4WD, namely the Chevy Tahoe Z71, the strengths of the crossover conundrum became all too obvious. Read more… »

Here it is, folks. The real 2008 Toyota Land Cruiser. We fed you photos of it undergoing tests, and then the Lexus version debuted. Read more… »

Seen here are real 2008 BMW 1-Series Coupe photos. It will have the same engine options as the current 1-Series hatchback, but a new addition will be a 135i model. Read more… »

Japanese consumers now have access to the hottest Honda Civic Type R yet. The standard R sedan gets modified by Honda-owned Mugen, resulting in the Honda Civic Mugen RR. The Mugen RR sheds an additional 10 kg off the standard Civic Type R’s weight, coming in at 1242 kg. In addition to the weight loss, the free-breathing Mugen RR picks up 15 horsepower over the regular Type R. Read more… »

Last weekend we had absolutely no cars to test. This week we have two 4WDs. We just picked up a Toyota RAV-4 for a two-day test. So effectively, our four-day Chevy Tahoe Z71 will still be with us when we return the RAV-4. Read more… »

GM came through for us this weekend, and home-delivered this brand new Chevrolet Tahoe Z71, as seen in Chevy’s own press photos. We might actually be the first one to churn out a review of this off-road-packaged beast after our four-day drive, unless it already appeared in one of those local magazines that we never read. Read more… »

BMW has mildly facelifted the 2008 6-Series, although we are not sure how many people will notice. Engine choices remain the same. Read more… »

The United States and Europe have civilian governmental authorities to monitor dangerous defects in cars. Around here, we have the Dubai Police apparently. The police forensics lab found a defect that can cause fires in 2.0-litre Ford Mondeos, and are asking owners to head to the nearest dealer for free repairs. Read more… »

The new-generation Nissan Altima has been out in the United States for many months now, but we in the GCC still get the old model. However one of our readers, Muhammad Talha, managed to snag a few photos of the 2008 Altima undergoing hot-weather testing near the Fujairah mountains in our very own United Arab Emirates. Read more… »

There’s a saying that money can’t buy love. It seems money can’t buy driving skills either, as demonstrated eagerly by this Ferrari owner at the drag strip.

So we were supposed to get a Hummer H3 for last weekend. Then we hear the previous reviewer damaged it. So GM offered to give us a Chevy Tahoe in the final hour. But then at the last minute they said it broke down or something and did not call us back to reschedule. So we went ahead and arranged a Ford Edge for the beginning of this week. Today morning we find out the previous reviewer struck again, leaving big scratches on the Ford. Read more… »

A pair of car thieves in the United States pointed a gun at the driver of a car just as he was about to leave his workplace. The car owner left the car and ran back to his workplace to call the police. He returns a few minutes later only to find that the bumbling carjackers cannot get his manual-shifter car started. Read more… »

Chinese cars are starting to make inroads in the Middle East thanks mainly to their price. While we feel they should be even cheaper, people are still starting to snap up some of these cars. The Chinese are also trying to conquer Europe, but they have to pass Europe’s strict crash test regulations. Shown above is the latest car to try, known as the Brilliance BS6, a midsize luxury car. Read more… »

Details have emerged regarding Ferrari’s new eco-friendly concept vehicle, the FXX Mille Chile. Ferrari has decided to develop new technologies in order to comply with future regulations and an early fruit of that labour is this wood-built non-working concept. Read more… »

Anyone living in the Middle East has access to a pretty good set of satellite channels collectively known as MBC. But it seems that they’ve been unhealthily obssessed with MTV’s Pimp My Ride, so much so that they made an Arabic version and constantly bombard audiences with very annoying TV ads featuring modded cars. It seems Toyota has caught the bug too, and decided to release this heavily pimped Aurion for the Australian home market. That’s right. The Aurion is Australian. Read more… »

For the last few months, Europe has been playing with the new version of the Nissan X-Trail, as well as a new style-crossover called the Nissan Qashqai. While the Middle East gets the Pathfinder/Murano duo in the midsize 4WD class, the compact 4WD class is only held up by the pathetic old X-Trail. It will be interesting to see which new compact 4WD chooses to bring to this region. X-Trail or Qashqai? Or maybe both? Read more… »

Here’s a real-life car chase video from America. The guy killed some people and was running from the cops. He didn’t make it. It is a nice demonstration of what happens if you speed in a tall 4WD.

German tuners Startech has unveiled appearance packages for the Dodge Caliber and the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. The kits include body add-ons, larger alloy wheels, exhaust systems and other minor bits. Read more… »