Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury

Volkswagen recently held a mega event for media, dealer staff and fleet customers last week at the Yas Marina circuit to celebrate their best ever sales period in the Middle East, witnessing 22% growth for 2012 over last year. The event consisted of an overnight stay at the Yas Viceroy hotel with various activities the next morning, such as track time with the VW Scirocco, drag time with the VW Passat CC, and skid-pad time with the VW Golf GTI. Now, the problem with attending a mega event means that there is a lot of standing around doing nothing,

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While we here in Dubai just witnessed the launch of the first road-legal electric car, the Fisker Karma for Dhs 500,000, and General Motors is still testing their Chevrolet Volt here for ages, poor countries like Bangladesh took the green initiative years ago. What you see here is the main mode of “baby” taxi transportation in my ancestral hometown of Barisal in Bangladesh. It’s built locally. And it’s fully electric.

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As I’m flying over Dubai and Sharjah towards Ras Al Khaimah in a Bell 412 crammed in with 13 other people, I am thinking that helicopter travel isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. The flight is noisy, tight and industrial, completely at odds with the “luxury” experience we were supposed to be having. But damn is it quick. We reached our destination in only 20 minutes, landing at the Banyan Tree resort at the northern tip of the Emirates, having enjoyed a great view and not feeling fatigued at all for the 2013 Lexus LS launch event.

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Here’s your chance to win some exclusive apparel. PUMA has launched the new Mercedes AMG Petronas collection of apparel and footwear, a new addition to PUMA Motorsport for Autumn/Winter 2012. Celebrating the Mercedes-Benz F1 team’s achievements, the exclusive merchandise feature the team colours and logos on various products, including backpacks, jackets, polo shirts, t-shirts and various styles of shoes. Update: The winners have been announced.

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When the Toyota 86 was launch earlier this year, Al Futtaim Motors had also announced their sponsorship of the Emirates Drifting Team, a UAE-based outfit that takes part in regional drifting events. While their main driver, Ahmed Al Amri, was using a Toyota Soarer earlier, he is now switching to this Toyota 86 now, although there isn’t much left of the original car any more.

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Hyundai and Kia are lowering their U.S. fuel economy ratings on most 2012 and 2013 models. Following several complaints, an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found the carmaker guilty of posting false fuel-economy estimates on window-stickers at showroom since late 2010. The companies will spend millions of dollars compensating the owners of about 900,000 vehicles sold during that time.

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The Renault Fluence has failed to make an impact in the UAE market as much as some of its other siblings, not least of which due to its docile styling. The company has somewhat rectified that with a new corporate front-end for the 2013 model.

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The 2012 Infiniti FX50 Sebastian Vettel Edition was launched in the GCC this week, at an event in Dubai, coinciding with the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix. Additionally, there was an event held for potential customers to take a ride with Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel around the Al Forsan karting track in Abu Dhabi.

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Toyota’s UAE dealer says that a government-owned Toyota Land Cruiser Pick-up has clocked nearly 1 million kilometres.

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