Hyundai has unveiled the company’s first Full Speed Electric Vehicle (FSEV) named ‘BlueOn,’ and has become the first Korean manufacturer to release a proper electric car. Hyundai unveiled the car in the presence of Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and other ministers.
Here is a scenario that happened to us just last week. We asked for a full tank of petrol at the station for our Chevrolet Cruze, which was already 60% full. The attendant put in the pump nozzle and left. The tank was then full and the nozzle “clicked” and stopped pumping at Dhs 39.40 only. So I pull out 40 bucks in cash, ready to hand it over. The attendant came over and started forcefully pumping more petrol into the tank, even as the nozzle clicked several times. This pushed up the bill to Dhs 42. The ironic bit is no one ever receives extra petrol after the first click.
It might take 600 hours to put together a BMW Z4 GT3, but it only takes less than 4 minutes to take apart and put back together an old-school Army Jeep, as demonstrated by this skilled Canadian military team.
American tuner Hennessey is branching out into the personal armoured car market with the introduction of their new Hennessey Armored Performance Vehicles (APV) line. One of the ideas that could be part of the Hennessey APV range is the VelociRaptor APV, based on the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor SuperCrew.
The special-order BMW Z4 GT3 is a fixed-roof racing car offered by BMW to anyone ready to cough up US$ 400,000. The only problem is, in true IKEA style, you end up overpaying for something that comes in self-assembly-required boxes. Swedish racing team, Team West Coast Racing, bought the Z4 GT3, powered by a 480 hp 4.0-litre V8, and took 600 hours to finish building it, over 25 days.
Korea’s fast-growing carmaker Kia Motors has announced just announced a growth in sales of 24.4% for August, compared to August last year. Posting growing sales numbers throughout the recession, the news is overshadowed by the fact that Kia’s Vice Chairman Jeong Sung Eun resigned to take responsibility for the recent recall of four models as the South Korean carmaker, to be replaced by new Vice Chairman Hyoung-Keun Lee. Those Koreans sure take their recalls personally.
The all-new 2012 Chevrolet Aveo is going to be publicly shown for the first time at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. So far, the hatchback version has already been shown as a nearly-ready concept, and now the version to be shown is pretty much production-spec, as seen in these early photos.
The Bentley Continental GT has been updated for the 2011 model year, although the VW-owned British firm is touting it as an all-new model. The new model features facelifted front and rear ends, a mildly-redone interior, an upgraded V12 and the promise of a new V8 base engine.
Our Chevy Cruze long-termer has been running well for its first week. As Ramadan draws to a close and the uncertainty of when Eid falls is the topic of the moment, we’ve been out and about at various showrooms, looking to purchase a midsize sedan. It was ironic that we were trolling for new cars while actually driving a brand new sedan, but the Cruze is a bit smaller than what we were looking for. It competes firmly in the compact category, although it is a bit larger than most of its direct competitors. Incidentally, Chevrolet offers as many as three larger midsize sedans to suit every taste.
The holy month of Ramadan is a time for being humble and hungry, so it pains us to see it being turned into a commercial enterprise where hotels that generally serve booze year-round try to entice customers with overpriced “ramadan tents” and car dealers start offering interest-laden products with “take loan now, get screwed later” offers. However, we don’t really mind genuine discounts in the spirit of Ramadan, and as such, the car market comes alive during this time. We just had a boost in traffic to our website thanks to people researching various models for purchase. Here is a list of the top 10 most researched vehicles on our website this Ramadan,