Al Futtaim Automotive, the UAE dealer for Toyota, Honda, Chrysler and various other brands, has opened new facilities around the country as well as announced their new offers for Ramadan as well as lease programmes.
We were wondering why Honda Middle East didn’t do this sooner. Prices of Japanese cars are so high nowadays due to the retarded world of currency fluctuations that the American-built Honda Accord Coupe was priced higher than the Japanese-built Honda Accord sedan in 2011. Of course, now the sedan is also being imported from the United States, although Honda isn’t making a big deal out of it.
When we heard that Porsche Middle East had bumped up their test-drive period to a little more than a day now, we were more than a little pleased. Previously, Porsche used to hand over test vehicles for just six hours at a time so as to avoid naive journalists, drunk or otherwise, from trashing their cars. So we’d never bothered to drive their cars before, outside of their spectacular roadshows at local race-tracks. But things change, and we went ahead and asked for a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS.
We’ve already known for months now that the first shipment of 2012 Honda Civic sedans were on sale in the UAE quietly. According to Honda, the Japanese carmaker “faced immense challenges in its production capabilities due to the earthquake & tsunami disasters in March 2011.” Honda was in short supply of the new models, so they did not actively advertise the fact that limited numbers were already available, which was likely sold out easily enough. But Honda has now released full details about their new model.
Our last giveaway before Ramadan comes courtesy of freebies we got from Nissan-Renault events. Included in this gift pack is a fancy limited-edition Renault Trucks key-ring set, consisting of small heavy metal sculptures of the Renault Sherpa and Kerax “Cape To Cape” adventure trucks, as well as a booklet detailing the original adventure trip. We’re also throwing in a Nissan Altima-branded 1GB USB stick with built-in fingerprint security scanner.
Update: The winner is Bijoy John.
Honda has unveiled their latest iteration of the slow-selling Pilot. Changes are limited to a facelift and a new transmission.
The 2012 Honda CR-V is coming by the end of the year, but the Japanee firm is going to preview the new crossover with this near-production “concept” version at a future auto show, as seen in this leaked photo.
Exactly as the title says. Volkswagen’s Middle East office has like three or four VW Golf R hatchbacks on media duty. When we picked up the white VW Golf R earlier this month, the only one available happened to be the version without Dynamic Chassis Control, a system that adds adjustable suspension. So we simply asked for another round, this time with the DCC version, and they obliged. After driving the non-DCC car, we were already impressed, and had made up our minds that adding complicated suspension gimmickry would only add weight and nothing else. We were wrong.
If you’d been waiting for the next-generation Toyota Innova with breathless anticipation, your struggle is now over. The 2012 Toyota Innova was just unveiled at the 2011 Bangkok Auto Show, and it is simply a facelift.
Porsche has released early “spy shots” of their next-generation 911 sports car. Dubbed the 991-generation, it looks as you’d expect a 911 to look, which is to say, indistinguishable from older versions, but Porsche is making drastic changes beyond the styling.