Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury

While some pro drivers get all the fanfare, it seems there is no shortage of good drivers around the world who can do the impossible. Chinese driver Han Yue has officially broken the record for parallel-parking in the tightest space. Han managed to shave off 7 cm from the record, drifting into a space of just 15 cm longer than his vehicle during an attempt at the May launch in Beijing of a new special edition of the Mini called The Chinese Job. The record has changed hands five times in the past two years, with Patrik Folco holding the previous record of a gap 22 cm longer than the car in April.

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Wait, it’s here? It took long enough, but the Toyota 86 has finally landed in the Middle East. In what has been hailed as the Japanese company’s game-changer, the 86 was officially launched in the GCC, at an event in Abu Dhabi.

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The 2012 Renault Duster, quite possibly the cheapest SUV currently on sale in the region, was officially launched in Abu Dhabi, after its debut in Dubai a couple of weeks ago. Interestingly, the Duster is slightly cheaper in Abu Dhabi than in Dubai. The Abu Dhabi dealer is Al Masaood Automobiles.

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UAE dealer prices for the all-new Toyota 86 have been released, at the GCC launch event in Abu Dhabi. There are four model variants that are officially available, although Al Futtaim Motors says the available options might change in the future, depending on demand.

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Swaidan Trading, Peugeot dealers for Dubai and the Northern Emirates, has extended their pre-owned cars operation with an additional showroom in Al Quoz.

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This would be our first update on the 2012 Toyota Camry SE Plus long-termer that we picked up from Al Futtaim Motors more than a week ago. When we sat down to figure out what to write about this car, we came to the conclusion that there isn’t much to be said about the Camry. After all, it is a Camry. It’ll sell by the sackful, and there will always be a rabid bunch who’ll keep hating it. So after contemplating for a while, we decided to do the updates for this car differently. From now on, we’ll pitch our Camry against a variety of random cars,

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My first car was a 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.6 with an original AMG appearance package. I bought it in 2004, but back in 1990, AMG was an independent tuner specialising in Mercs, with the occasional work done on other brands. Eventually, Mercedes-Benz and AMG became partners, and then AMG completely became a subsidiary of the three-pointed star. Things have changed a lot since then, or maybe, things haven’t changed at all. AMG-badged cars continue to be hyper-active versions of regular luxury cars, but they are more powerful than ever. The latest cars we’ve tasted from the new-generation AMG line-up include the ML 63 AMG,

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Our first encounter with the Pentastar-engined 2012 Jeep Wrangler was around the time it was launched in the UAE, where we were given a car and thrown into the desert wilderness. In that trial-by-fire, we made our way out in one piece, all by ourselves, without ever getting stuck, and navigating with visual clues rather than by GPS. This time, our car does have GPS, although we’re just soaking in what it feels like in an urban environment.

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Ford is aggressively pushing products in the Middle East region nowadays, energised by the fact that their first-quarter GCC sales are up by 37% compared to last year. We are told they are concentrating on one segment at a time, and this summer, it is the turn of Ford’s truck line-up. To start it off, Ford Middle East invited us to the “Built Ford Tough” event held right here in the UAE.

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