As part of our Hyundai dealer-sponsored trip to Korea, we were given a quick tour of the Research and Development centre in Namyang, mostly to see the wind tunnel facility. The place was so secretive that cameras and phones were confiscated before entry, and even inside, all we saw were prototype cars in camouflage. Lots and lots of prototype cars in camo, all playing around their testing grounds.
“Real” journalists with Western passports fly to foreign destinations every other week, fully paid for by carmakers, with 5-star hotel stays and business-class flights. For that, all they have to do is “review” a car. Of course, third-world jerks like me don’t get foreign invites all that often, especially since I reveal more than just the test-drive itself. The couple of invites that I did get, I couldn’t go mostly due to visa hassles. So when Hyundai’s UAE dealer invited me for a three-day trip to South Korea to test-drive the all-new 2012 Hyundai Elantra, I agreed of course.
The Renault Koleos, a rebadged compact crossover built in Korea, has never really sold well in the GCC since its launch a couple of years ago. So the carmaker is going at it a second time with a facelifted model for 2012.
Toyota USA has unveiled their all-new 2011 Lexus LS 460 Touring Edition which is essentially a body-kitted version of the ongoing LS 460 model with few other enhancements.
Some of you may have noticed that my brother Marouf does not write news articles for us any more. That’s because he is now a web editor at a sports newspaper in Abu Dhabi. And that means he has to drive from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and back everyday, a distance of 270 km daily. We’d already sold our Peugeot 307 2.0 last year, I wasn’t going to have him rack up miles on my fuel-hog Jeep or my exotic BMW, and our Renault Safrane is in use by the Old Man of the house. So he was doing the daily road-trip in our trusty old 1997 Toyota Corolla,
The Honda Jazz, a sub-compact hatchback, is the kind of car that should be dominating its segment. And yet, it is the Toyota Yaris and the Nissan Tiida that have a stranglehold on sales, making the Jazz a niche product. For a while, we thought it was the price. Starting at a ridiculous Dhs 63,999 nowadays, and topping out at Dhs 71,999, you could buy a midsize sedan for that kind of dough, let alone a pint-sized runabout. But there was a time many years ago when the Jazz was actually cheap, and even then it wasn’t a familiar sight on Dubai roads.
So here comes another visual treat for the hardcore Honda fanboys from Mugen, Honda’s racing arm. And this time it isn’t a boring Accord or a Civic sedan, but a more purposeful CR-Z hybrid coupe, Mugen’s version being dubbed the CR-Z Mugen.
Al Majid Motors, the Kia dealer in the UAE, officially launched the all-new 2012 Kia Picanto at their showroom in Dubai, although the car has been quietly on sale for a month now.
Our 2009 Renault Safrane hit the 10,000 km mark, so we took it in for a dealer service in Dubai. Making the appointment a day earlier by phone was hassle-free, and we dropped off the car at 10 am in the morning.
Arabian Automobiles, part of the AW Rostamani group and the exclusive dealer of Nissan, Infiniti and Renault in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, has launched a massively-expanded vehicle servicing centre at its existing Ras Al Khor facility which will be open 24 hours, 7 days a week.