General News

Say what you want about the Americans, but they are a serious bunch when it comes to safety. The U.S. government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — NHTSA — is the one that mandates airbags and tyre-pressure monitors in all new cars, subdued automakers into making their roof strength higher while inadvertently making outward visibility worse due to thicker pillars, and is set to force rear-view cameras on all new cars by 2014 thereby making car prices higher. And if that weren’t enough, there are not one, but two agencies in the U.S. that conduct crash tests, one being the NHTSA and other being the private Insurance Institute for Highway Safety —

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Through their respective UAE dealerships, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Nissan have chosen The International Automobile Show (IAS) 2010 to publically unveil new models for the first time in the Middle East.

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While people in the UAE are still reeling from the last increase in petrol prices, a newspaper report says that petrol prices are set to increase again after Eid, as the country inches towards going with international market rates for something that is locally available in abundance.

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A “foreign” Swedish driver who was caught speeding at 290 kph in the nearby country of Switzerland could be given a world-record speeding fine of SFr 1,080 million, equivalent to US$ 1 million.

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Nominated new car models have now been announced for the 2010 Middle East Motor Awards. Vice President of the FIA and President of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE Mohammed ben Sulayem has offered his full support to the region’s largest motor awards, which are set to take place at the International Automobile Show (IAS) 2010 later this year. DriveArabia.com is an official partner of the show and part of the judging committee.

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The Korean-built Kia Picanto was voted the most reliable new car in the United Kingdom in a survey by UK consumer watchdog magazine Which? Car. Incidentally, the UK-built Land Rover LR3 placed last in the list.

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Back in April this year, the UAE government had announced that they were killing the subsidies on petrol prices in the country because the fat-cat oil companies were whining about so-called losses. Back then, they said the price of a litre of petrol will only go up by 15 fils. Today, local news outlets are reporting that an increase will be implemented from July 15th onwards, and it will go up by 20 fils per litre.

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One of the region’s largest shows for car tuning has launched a unique auto tuning design contest, which will undoubtedly be the highlight of an action-packed customised car show featuring TV favourite and customiser to the stars, Bear Garcia.

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Law enforcers have been busy in the UAE for the past couple of weeks. The hottest news of the week are discounts for traffic fines in Abu Dhabi. Ajman has its own set of problems, with impersonators robbing people. And then there is the annual dilemma of where to leave your car during the holidays.

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New test results show that some automakers are doing a good job of designing vehicle roofs that perform much better than current U.S. federal rollover standards require. But the roofs on some other vehicles need improvement. In the first U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) roof strength tests of so-called midsize SUVs, six earn the top rating of ‘good’ for rollover protection, one is ‘acceptable’ and five others earn the second lowest rating of ‘marginal.’

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