2008 Ford Five Hundred
| The Good: – Limitless cabin space – Pretty decent engine – Comfortable ride |
The Bad: – Baby-soft suspension – Too big for some places – As anonymous as a mailbox |
| The Good: – Limitless cabin space – Pretty decent engine – Comfortable ride |
The Bad: – Baby-soft suspension – Too big for some places – As anonymous as a mailbox |
The 2008 Geneva Auto Show is on, and one of the big debuts at the show is the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4.
Back in January 28th, we were invited to try out the 2008 Honda Accord Coupe at the Dubai Autodrome, although we had to keep this quiet until the March 1 local release date of the car. We got 3 laps each with a 271 hp 3.5-litre V6 and a 190 hp 2.4-litre 4-cylinder model, both automatics since that’s the only way they’ll be sold in the GCC region. The awesome photography for our drive was provided by Honda themselves.
That’s right. While parent company VW/Audi thinks we are a second-degree publication, their luxury arm Bentley thankfully works independently of them. So while we are not worthy of the holy VW Beetle, we are still good for a lowly Continental GT. And not just any GT. It’s the Continental GT Speed.
Holden, the Australian arm of General Motors, showed off this “Coupe 60” concept version of its Commodore at the 2008 Melbourne Auto Show. As we all know, the Commodore sedan is sold in the Middle East as the Lumina. If this two-door car goes into production, it’ll be a direct replacement for the now-cancelled Lumina Coupe.
So Diego, my PR guy, picked up this 2008 Honda Accord Coupe. Currently, the only American-built 2008 Coupes running around Dubai are these test cars, as the actual car goes on sale in March. He brought the car over to me, complaining about how painfully slow it is compared to the Altima V6.
Holden, the Australian division of General Motors that gave us the Chevy Lumina SS and CSV CR8, have cooked up a new car based on the same underpinnings. To be shown at the Melbourne Auto Show today, the tentatively-named HSV Commodore W427 is a new super-expensive offering with the 505 hp Corvette Z06 engine.
The 2009 Volkswagen Scirocco was supposed to be unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Auto Show this March, but photos of the new hatchback have already been leaked. While the car does not have the usual corporate grille design, poor VW doesn’t seem to understand that yet another similar car is going to cut into sales of their own Golf GTI, Seat Leon Cupra and Audi A3. Having a bunch of overlapping cars so similar to each other is what put them in financial trouble, among other things.
Gulf News reported that Dubai police fined as many as 50 of their own employees for having dark tint on their personal cars that is above the legal tint level. By law, the tint should have 30% “darkness” at most, but cops themselves were freely flouting the law, so this is a good decision by higher police officials, emphasising that they should act as role models.
GMC held a Ride & Drive event to let the press have a go with the latest GMC offerings. The drive was a road-trip from Dubai to Fujairah and back, involving no offroading. So I sent my support-monkey brother and his buddy on the trip, should anything exciting happen. The event was also supposed to showcase the all-new Terrain compact 4WD.