We got handed this car two months after every frigging magazine in the country has already published their review on it. So there isn’t any real urgency on my part to review this rocketship quickly, and it goes to the back of the line among my pending reviews. Read more… »

The Spanish car website km77.com acquired official photos of the upcoming 2009 Renault Megane, probably by illegal means. Read more… »

Volkswagen Middle East has recently introduced their Jetta GLI in this region, years after it originally debuted in America. The Jetta GLI is essentially a sedan version of the Golf GTI, except that it looks awful and is built in Mexico. Read more… »

While the new face of the 2009 Seat Ibiza still isn’t seen in the GCC, the Spanish company has revealed the Seat Ibiza Cupra in Europe. The car will officially be shown at the 2008 Paris Auto Show in October. Read more… »

Renault has unveiled a hot new version of their Twingo supermini. Powered by a 133 hp 1.6-litre 4-cylinder engine, the Renault Twingo Renault-Sport may have a stupid name, but it is big on heart. Read more… »

Italian design house Pininfarina has taken a Rolls Royce Drophead Coupe and fully reskinned it create the one-off Pininfarina Hyperion. This coach-built convertible was unveiled at the Pebble Beach auto show in the United States this month. Read more… »

The open-top Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport has been fully unveiled at the American Pebble Beach auto show. It features a removable transparent polycarbonate hard-top roof. Read more… »

One of our readers, Mohamad, pointed us to this thread on nissan-arabia.com, showing local photos of the GCC-spec Renault “mystery sedan” that we exposed some time ago. It looks like the new sedan will revive the Renault Safrane nameplate for this Japanese-designed Korean-built French-badged car. Read more… »

While dealer-owned service centres here get away with crappy service, dealer garages in other countries usually give you a free replacement car to drive around in while your own car is being serviced or fixed. In Europe, Ferrari has chosen the Fiat 500 as its courtesy car for local customers. About 200 special Fiat 500 units have been manufactured exclusively for the Ferrari sales network all over Europe. Read more… »

Early photos of the next-generation 2009 Volkswagen Golf has surfaced on the internet, ahead of its official launch this week. So far, things are not looking good for the gay icon. Read more… »

In case you were wondering, the Porsche-themed Transsyberia Rallye 2008 concluded on Friday with Team France in first place, followed by Team Spain and Team Germany 1. Coincidentally, Porsche also released details about new variants for their latest 911. The 911 Targa 4 and the 911 Targa 4S, so named due to their glass tops and standard all-wheel-drive, will hit showroom closer to winter this year. Read more… »

The Transsyberia Rallye 2008, in which most of the top racers seem to be sponsored by Porsche, has finished its 11th leg, and the Team France is in the lead, follewed by Team Germany. Team Qatar ran into a rock and damaged their vehicle, and may not be able to continue to the 12th leg. A few days ago, the original points leaders were Team Middle East, but on the 9th leg, driver Said al Hajri drove into a hidden pothole and injured his spine. Read more… »

This Renault Megane R26.R is a track-ready version of the Megane F1 Team R26 on sale in the GCC. The R26.R will only be available in Europe, and it uses weight-savings to become the quickest compact hatchback to lap the Nurburgring racetrack in Germany. Read more… »

The little-known Transsyberia rally from the Russian capital of Moscow to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar is being heavily promoted by Porsche, so much so that they custom-built a set of Cayenne S Transsyberia models to compete in the rally. Unlike the WRC, these road-legal vehicles are closer to their showroom counterparts. Though some other vehicles are also running the rally, the Cayenne-driving teams are getting the most publicity through international Porsche online advertisements (though none on this website). Unsurprisingly, they are also currently leading the 2008 rally, which has already reached its fourth leg. Read more… »

The British magazine CAR had apparently got its hands on first images of the upcoming 2010 Lotus “Eagle” earlier. Powered by, of all things, a 3.5-litre Toyota V6 mounted behind the seats, it is supposed to a luxury cruiser alternative to the strippo Elise and barely-known Europa. “Eagle” was the codename for the car that eventually debuted as the new Lotus Evora at the British Auto Show. Read more… »

So a few weeks ago, the staff manning the front desks at the Immigration department made my father run around different counters over two days as he tried to get a residence visa for my college-going brother, since the clerks were on a power-trip and kept asking for random bits of unneeded paperwork, which in the end were discarded without being checked. Incidentally, a few days ago, while dropping my mother off at the airport, I argued with red-shirted staff as they weren’t letting me pull my mother’s heavy suitcase up till the first x-ray scanner (much before the actual check-in counters, and flying by Emirates no less), and they weren’t ready to help her pull it either, trying to kick me out of the building instead. Then a non-uniformed “official” with a walkie-talkie even threatened to call the cops on me if I didn’t come back out again after I convinced them to let me go. Right after that, a different set of red-shirted losers kept trying to kick me out when I was trying to buy a Pepsi. Anyway, I was recently contacted by Land Rover and they said an LR2 was ready for me today. What does a Land Rover have to do with my ranting? Absolutely nothing, except that it is nice to be respected around here sometimes. Read more… »

Renault Middle East sent us news that they will launch a new midsize sedan in the GCC during September. They even sent us a teaser photo of the unnamed car, showing only a tail-light. That was enough for me to figure out that the car will be a rebadged version of the Korean-built Nissan-derived Samsung SM5. Read more… »

Peugeot has quietly released photos of the 2009 Peugeot 308 CC hardtop-convertible, ahead of its official launch at the 2008 Paris Auto Show. Read more… »

With the new SL65 AMG Black Edition taking up the top spot in the Mercedes-Benz line-up temporarily, the SLR McLaren is being discontinued soon, as AMG and McLaren branch off to make brand new supercars of their own. To give the aging SLR one last hurrah, an SLR Speedster is being developed. The funny part is, these “spy shots” were deliberately leaked by Mercedes-Benz themselves. Read more… »

While the overdone SLR McLaren is finally going out of production, Mercedes-Benz is putting out the SL65 AMG Black Edition to take its place for a while. Powered by a twin-turbo 6.0-litre V12, it is one serious performance machine, even if it only comes with an automatic transmission. Read more… »