Although said to be already in showrooms, as seen by some of our readers, the 2008 Infiniti EX35 and the facelifted M35 were officially launched in Dubai yesterday. Read more… »

Abu Dhabi Police has obtained a marked-and-outfitted Nissan Xterra for use as a police patrol vehicle. No word on how many will be joining the police fleet, although the current Pathfinder has already been on duty in AD for a while now, alongside other less-reliable brethen such as the Dodge Charger, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the VW GTI. Read more… »

So there I was, people-watching from my apartment window as usual, seeing taxis speeding by tired brown people, spotting RTA guys hand out tickets, and counting the number of passing Land Cruisers (202.4 per hour at last calculation). And then I spotted this unique-looking five-door wagon. It had a sharp profile, with cool details such as lights on the hood and big red rear lights. The overall shape reminded me of a Nissan GT-R. And then it hit me — is this an early prototype of a secret GT-R sportwagon hot-weather-testing in Dubai? Read more… »

Organisers CMPi have revealed what is set to be the region’s premier tuning and custom car and bike show, TURBO: For A Custom Nation. Debuting at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre between 10th and 12th of October (update: postponed to November 13-15) the show will be apparently be packed with stunning vehicles from the world’s most famous and fastest tuners and feature some of the best customised cars exclusively brought in for TURBO. Read more… »

Naming a car after a natural disaster is never a good idea. It gives people like me a chance to come up with cheesy titles for articles. But I did take our recent Chevy Avalanche Z71 tester up and down the Jebel Hafeet mountain road. Considering it was a family picnic, I did not try to beat any records that I might have set with the Bentley. But it gave me the opportunity to try out some smooth driving techniques with a vehicle that has more body roll than the sinking Titanic. Read more… »

Gulf News reported that UAE residents will soon be able to obtain driving licences from any emirate regardless of their residence visa, although this was supposed to happen on March 1 with the Federal Traffic Law. We hear it will happen in April. Read more… »

The Kia Optima, our recommended midsize car that everyone chooses to ignore, has been heavily facelifted for the 2009 model year. Revealed at the 2008 New York Auto Show, the new Optima is still very similar to the existing version. Read more… »

The 2008 New York Auto Show this week is playing host to a number of hot new cars, all for the American market. None of these cars are due for a GCC release anytime soon, but it is always nice to have hope. Read more… »

The top breaking news story for tonight is that UK-based parent company Aston Martin, newly independent from Ford, is being sued for US$50 million by its Dubai-based Middle East distributors because of an apparent breach of contract. The lawsuit, filed by Middle East Aston Martin (MEAM), claims one of the new owners of the carmaker, Kuwaiti investment group DAR, is planning to refinance its stake in the company (whatever that means) and has disallowed the distributor to renew its investment, according to Reuters news agency. Read more… »

The 2009 Nissan Maxima is soon going to debut at the 2008 New York Auto Show this week, but here are some early photos of the car, leaked onto the internet as usual. Let’s see the print magazines play catch-up with us. Read more… »

Anytime people in the UAE shop for vehicles in places such as Abu Shagara in Sharjah or Aweer in Dubai, there is a chance that the imported used car they are purchasing something stolen in another country. This place itself has become popular around the world as a shipping destination for stolen cars headed for Africa and Russia. It is good to know that Dubai Customs has been cracking down on this shadowy trade for a couple of years now. Read more… »

Photos of the 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe have been leaked onto the interweb. Looks like both their new luxury sedan and this new coupe will share a name. No official details have been released. Read more… »

Kia showed off a bunch of cheesy tuner concepts, which came and went without any hype, at the Geneva Auto Show a few weeks ago. Those were a hint to the production-ready Kia Soul, which will debut at the Paris Auto Show later this year. Read more… »

UAE-based newspaper Gulf News conducted a survey to determine the types of transportation that people in the UAE use. Among the results, the most revealing is that 85% of the people who answered the survey have been refused a taxi journey based on their choice of destination, although there probably is more to those numbers than the newspaper is ready to admit. 15% are happy with the taxi service? Read more… »

That’s correct, our latest tester is not that golden Hyundai My-Name-Is-Neo or whatever. It’s the giant Avalanche next to it. Frankly, naming a truck after a natural disaster isn’t the smartest of moves, but it fits in a way, I guess. People should run away from one of these as they do from a real avalanche. Because this thing is huge. It is one of the largest vehicles we’ve ever tested, possibly beaten only by the Infiniti QX56 we got last Eid. Read more… »

In the early hours of March 11, an accidental chain reaction caused a massive pile-up in Abu Dhabi. Eight people died in the accident that involved as many as 200 vehicles on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway. Thirty-nine people were injured in this unprecedented accident that caused 92 vehicles to catch fire. The cause of the accident was heavy fog and, of course, speeding drivers.

Update: Latest reports suggest 60 cars, 3 dead and 350 injured. Read more… »

These are the latest additions to the New Car Buyer Guide. As usual, prices are a bit iffy, especially since they differ from city to city, and keep changing daily. Everything else should be in order, and more updates will follow later. Available information on some cars are limited, so do not hound me for any mistakes that might crop up, but do let me know so I can correct them. If the updates are not visible in your Internet Explorer browser, then press and hold CTRL, and CLICK on Refresh in the browser. And if you can’t figure out that instruction, you probably work for VW, and I don’t want to hear from you.

Lincoln - MKX, MKZ (correct prices)
Peugeot - 308
Hummer - H2. H3
Ferrari - F430 Scuderia (info update)
BMW - M3 (info update)
Bentley - Azure, Brooklands
Mazda - 6, CX-9 (correct prices)
Mercury - Montego, Mariner

Read more… »

Faralli & Mazzanti, Italian builders of the custom Antas that we checked out last month, have added the V12-powered Vulca to their portfolio. Read more… »

If you haven’t heard yet, there is now a federal law in the United Arab Emirates to actually enforce the black points system, whereby drivers get black points for various offences. Once a guy collects 24 black points, the licence will be suspended for three months. If he collects 24 points for the second time, the license will be suspended for six months. If it happens for the third time, the licence will be taken away for one year and will not be returned after that until the guy passes a training course from an officially-recognised driving institute. For a list of offences, check out this article.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi became the first city in this country to offer a self-service option at their ADNOC petrol stations, whereby a driver has to fill up his own fuel. It is optional right now, and it is stirring up mixed feelings. To read about the general public whining or cheering, check out this article.

Numerous people got run over by young speeders last month. The most horrible story was from Ras Al Khaimah. Two school-girls, one 5 and the other 14 years old, were crossing the road after being dropped off by the school bus, and got run over in front of one of their mothers. The kids died in hospital. Check out the story here.

So what did we learn today? Read more… »

So my PR guy called up Porsche and asked if we could get any Porsche model for our usual test-drive period, which is typically over several days. The Porsche people fired back that their test drive policy is the same for the media as it is for the public. So if you have some kind of undying love for these cars and want to abuse one, read on. Read more… »