Forgotten British sports-car maker Aston Martin, now owned by a troubled Kuwaiti investment fund, has mildly updated their aging DB9 grand tourer model, largely to bring it in line with newer cars when it comes to infotainment tech.
Gordon Murray, designer of the legendary McLaren F1, has released the first images of his latest project, the T.25 City Car. In development now for half a decade by his firm, Gordon Murray Design, the T.25 started life as a doodle on a restaurant napkin.
The entire existing Mini range has been facelifted for the 2011 model year, including the Convertible and the Clubman. Available from September in Europe, the changes relevant to the GCC are cosmetic only, as the petrol engines are carried over unchanged.
It looks like Oman is the first country in the GCC to receive the all-new 2011 Kia Sportage. Apparently launched by the middle of June, the new Sportage offers similar equipment packages to the Hyundai Tucson, on which it is based.
Our long-term 2010 Chevrolet Malibu had been taken away for more than a week for an agency photo shoot, during which time we cruised around in a courtesy Cruze. Our Malibu is back now, with about 500 additional kilos on the clock. As interesting as the Cruze is, upgrading to a Malibu again is like getting bumped up to first-class. In fact, on the day we got it back, we took it along when we returned the Accord Crosstour to the Honda Middle East HQ. We gave a tour of the Malibu to a person from Honda, and he uttered the words “wow nice”
Among the clutter of tuner cars at the SEMA aftermarket show in Las Vegas last year, Chevrolet showed off a V6-powered Camaro with a body kit and a painfully green paintjob. Dubbed the Synergy Special Edition, that car will now be offered as a limited-edition trim level, with some coming to the GCC soon.
We’re one of the first people to test the all-new 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour in the GCC. So fresh it is that this is the same opal-green car that was displayed at the Atlantis launch event less than a week ago, and it still has less than 400 km on the clock. We’ll have to say though, that the car isn’t really as revolting in person as it is in photos. In fact, we’d go as far as calling it “nice” in an oddball way.
One of our readers, Nabeal Malik, spotted this 2011-2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS prototype filling up at a petrol station in Dubai. The next-generation CLS-Class has been spotted in Dubai before, undergoing hot-weather testing, but this time, it has distinctly less camouflage than before, as the final body styling has already been finalised.
The American-market Honda Accord has received a facelift for 2011, which amounts to little more than a nose-job and a bit of fiddling with the tail lamps. Engine choices and transmissions remain the same, although a few bits of equipment have been added.
The controversial J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. Initial Quality Study is out. The study on American-market cars has been conducted annually for the past 24 years, and while not wholly accurate, it is an interesting look at the number of defects that show up in brand new cars. Lexus, Honda, Infiniti and Hyundai are expectedly on top of the listings, while Chevrolet and Nissan have seemingly placed above Toyota. Volkswagen and Land Rover take their usual spot at the bottom of the tally.