To be shown at the upcoming CEATAC show in Japan, Nissan has developed a system designed for cars that could automatically avoid collisions, using ideas garnered from the natural abilities of bees. 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… »

This is probably the beginning of the end for petrol-powered cars. A Japanese company called Genepax, dedicated to finding ways to turn water into power, has unveiled what it calls the first practical car to run solely on water. The firm claims putting just one litre of water is enough to keep its automobile going for 60 minutes at a respectable speed of 80 kph. And the water can be from the tap, falling rain or even from rivers. Read more… »

BMW let loose their designers to create the weirdest possible concept car, and they came up with the GINA Light Visionary Model. GINA stands for “Geometry and Functions in ‘N’ Adaptations” and the car’s single most interesting feature is its outer skin, which is made entirely out of textile fabric, pulled tightly around a frame of metal parts and carbon-fibre wires. The best part of this BMW Z4 lookalike is that it can change shape. Read more… »

The Kia Mohave is apparently for sale in the GCC already. We only find out about local Kia news through third-party sources, since the Kia’s regional reps generally suck at communication. I found out through a billboard on the street. We also believe the truck-based offroadable Mohave is only available in “280 hp” 3.8-litre V6 form. We already reported on the Mohave before. Anyway, I am using this opportunity to announce that from now on, I’ll start replacing the term “4WD” with the term “SUV” in reference to such vehicles. Read more… »

I figured I should go over Dubai’s heavily-hyped hybrid taxis a bit more, considering the general media is happy just reprinting press releases. Operated by the much-loved Road & Transport Authority (RTA), the cars — five Chevy Malibu Hybrids and five Chevy Tahoes Hybrids — are beginning their one-year trial to see if they survive the Middle Eastern heat and whether they actually save any fuel in this publicity stunt. Read more… »

Dubai’s Road & Transport Authority (RTA) has, over the last few weeks, come up with various ideas that they are going to implement over the coming months. Some of these ideas seem to be confidential in nature, but Gulf News somehow always gets their hands on official sources. Read more… »

I usually don’t bother responding to racist jerks who send me insulting comments while assuming that I am “Indian.” I am a Muslim first, but I am also a Bangladeshi, and I won’t deny my heritage if asked. The forward-thinking nation of Bahrain has banned issuing work visas to all 90,000 Bangladeshis in the country, because one of them murdered a Bahraini a few weeks ago, and another killed a woman last year. Since we are such serial killers, this probably means I will not be able to go to the Bahrain F1, or any manufacturer events that might be held there, even if I wanted to. Read more… »

TAG Heuer just signed up local hero Mohammed Bin Sulayem to endorse their watches in print ads. The interesting bit is that Sulayem said he will donate all the money he makes from the deal to charity.

Around town, unregulated diesel prices have gone up to Dhs 17 per gallon in Dubai, and expected to go higher. Meanwhile, ADNOC in Abu Dhabi continues to sell diesel at Dhs 8.6 per gallon.

In other news, in an attempt to appear commuter-friendly, Dubai’s RTA has announced that they will “allow” people to carry passengers to work or wherever, provided they apply on the RTA website for a certificate registering the names of a maximum of four people that they want to carry in their cars. If you are caught without such a certificate, and the passengers are not your frigging relatives, you’ll be fined Dhs 5000.

And now, some more entertainment, courtesy of Dubai taxi drivers. A taxi driver became so angry when his female passenger asked him to go in a different direction during the journey that he stopped, dragged her from his cab, hit her and stole her mobile phone. Apparently he was going the long way round and the Filipina asked him to take a certain shorter route. When she tried to call the police, he took her phone and drove off. The loser cabbie is now in court, but many say this is becoming a common occurence in Dubai. Read more… »

We never get any invites to Mercedes-Benz car launches, and haven’t had any test-drive cars made available to us in years. However, their commercial vehicles division operates independently, and they invited us out-of-the-blue to the local launch of the Sprinter workvan. What caught our attention was the venue — Dubai Autodrome. We just had to go to this one. Read more… »

While we live in the City Of Gold, where the actual taxi service refuses to pick up passengers, the papers are reporting that out at the Gaza Strip, the ruling Hamas outfit has started using police cars to ferry Palestinians around because of severe fuel shortages. Read more… »

It might seem like I am being overly negative about VW. But I honestly am not. It just seems that way, considering the amount of fun VW stories that are simply falling into my lap. This story happens to be about the origins of the “Touareg” name. Time for a short-but-fun history lesson. Read more… »

An American website called gaywheels.com announced the VW Golf, also known as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the States, as their top-researched car for this year, being most popular among their users. Second is the VW Eos. At number six is the Mexican-built VW Jetta. Not to be outdone, the Audi A3 is at number five. Now you know where you stand if you own a VW. Read more… »

In our last few attempts to get advertising for this website, it was subtly hinted by some marketing reps that we are not very advertiser-friendly. This website certainly sucks more than Wheels when it comes to advertising priorities. Our site looks so bare without ads that I’ve decided to create my own ads, promoting various cars, all for free. 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… »

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… »

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… »

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… »

So I had this Bentley Continental GT Speed at hand, and I was wondering what to do with it, besides the usual battery of tests. I’ve been in the United Arab Emirates my whole life, and I hadn’t seen that popular Jebel Hafeet road yet. I also heard that at the top of the mountain road is a flat piece of pavement, so I grabbed two buddies, threw a barbeque kit into the luggage trunk and set off to Al Ain and see this road for myself. Read more… »