Abu Dhabi

The Honda NSX, or rather Acura NSX as it will be called in most markets, is a car that’s been painfully dragged on through the development process for almost a decade now. First announced in late 2007 as a concept, it was cancelled in 2008 due to the recession, then revived again as an actual Japanese SuperGT Championship race-car in 2010, then became a hybrid in 2011, and was finally unveiled in 2012 as a near-production concept, except that it was nowhere near production-ready yet. It’s still undergoing development, and the latest prototype is now doing the rounds of the UAE for hot-weather testing,

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The Ministry of Economy announced recently that all cars must be serviced at every 10,000 km, effectively banning the 5,000 km intervals that several Japanese-brand car dealers follow, something that consumers have effectively thought of as a rip-off all these years. The decision was made to “uphold consumer interests.”

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It almost feels like Dodge is exclusively a muscle-car brand. Sure, they also peddle the excellent Durango currently, but at the moment, their brand seems to be defined by the Charger and the Challenger, with a bit of Viper thrown in as well. Muscle-cars are known to only be straight-line warriors, so Dodge saw it fit to let us try out their latest Challengers and Chargers at the Yas Marina circuit no less.

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The UAE’s Ministry of Energy has announced that petrol and diesel prices will be deregulated from August 1, 2015. A new pricing system linked to global oil prices will be adopted.

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Abu Dhabi Police has, shall we say, “borrowed” the W Motors Lykan Hypersport for use as a fully-liveried police car in promotional activities, similar to what the Dubai Police has been up to for the past couple of years.

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It’s not often that a launch event is held for a minivan. But Kia felt the all-new third-generation version of their people-carrier is important enough to be highlighted, especially since they’ve added “Grand” to the Carnival’s name now. So off we went for a convoy drive in and around Abu Dhabi.

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We wanted a vehicle to take a trip from Dubai down to Abu Dhabi for some event, so we hit up Chrysler. They offered a 2015 Ram 1500 Laramie, a truck we last drove back in 2012, but figured we’ll give it another look. Nothing much has changed, has it? Well, some things have changed.

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The popular Renault Duster underwent a facelift a year ago in its home market of Europe, but its launch was delayed in the GCC for whatever reason. A facelifted version has now officially been launched at an event in Abu Dhabi, with some minor but important features, as well as a different grille.

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The only electric cars you’ll ever see in the GCC are at golf clubs, with little wheels and no doors. Sure, there are the unloved Lexus hybrids, there was that pricey Fisker Karma with the backup petrol engine, and some Chevy Volts were spotted testing in Dubai before disappearing for obvious reasons, but there are big things happening this week on the electric front. Dubai’s DEWA utility company has just announced the first dedicated charging station here for electric cars, in what is to become a network all over Dubai soon. And Renault is hoping to bank on that with the Zoe hatchback and the Twizy runabout.

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Mercedes-Benz make some very nice luxury cars. In fact, we really liked the new S-Class and the newer C-Class when we briefly drove them around town a few months ago. Mercedes-AMG make some very fast cars. In fact, they make those fast cars simply by upgrading their luxury cars with bigger engines and stiffer suspension. They go very fast in a straight line. But when you reach a corner, one of two things happen at the limit — if ESP is on, you are made to slow down and understeer forcefully, but if you turn off the ESP nannies,

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