This Friday, BMW Middle East held the Mini “Drive Out Loud” festival at the Dubai Autodrome. The event hosted Mini owners from around the Middle East. Entry was open to the public, though ticket prices were pegged at Dhs 100.
Mitsubishi’s and Honda’s UAE dealers have opened used car divisions, BMW’s Qatar dealer has restarted their bespoke programme, while Mini is hosting a public event.
Continuing DriveArabia’s season of giveaways, we are giving away this goody bag made out of stuff I’ve received from carmakers as well as bought myself. This Mini bag contains a goofy hat, a 1:43-scale first-generation Mini Cooper toy model, and a dealer-branded 2GB USB keychain.
Update: The winner is Jaikesh Sudheer.
Not so long ago did we report about the all new super-compact 2012 MINI Coupe dressed in designer camouflage, and now the Coupe has been unofficially unmasked revealing more interesting details.
Marking the official opening of its new dedicated showroom and Lime Tree Café & Kitchen in Dubai Media City, MINI together with AGMC, dealer for Dubai, Sharjah and the Northern Emirates celebrated with partner Red Bull by showcasing its unconventional marketing style, creativity and latest MINI models.
We just received a press release stating that the 2011 Mini Countryman had its GCC launch in Dubai with a “two-day action packed adventure” for the media around the UAE. We also heard from some Sharjah newspaper journalist that even he was invited. But of course, we being a small-time website with only 100,000 audited GCC readers and 280,000 worldwide users, with five times more web traffic than Car Middle East or any other local website, were deemed not worthy enough to join the party.
The Mini Paceman concept, essentially a Countryman crossover with two fewer doors, was displayed at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show as Mini’s answer to the three-door Range Rover Evoque. And it has already been approved for production.
The new Mini has looked pretty much the same since its debut as a lifestyle car sometime in late 2001. There was a major refresh in 2007, with a facelift and new engines. We drove all the body variants since then, including the Cooper S hatchback, the Cooper S convertible and the Clubman S. Then the next big change came in 2010, with a switch to a turbocharged 1.6-litre with a smidge more power for the Cooper S. That engine also made it into the “Mayfair” special edition. We’ll now see what makes it so special.
The Mini Mayfair is a “special edition” model that was released as a celebration of Mini’s 50th anniversary. From memory, the Mayfair was first shown at the Dubai Motor Show a year ago and this specific test car has been in circulation since summer, so it isn’t exactly new. It is the first Mini model we’ve driven that is fitted with the new-for-2010 direct-injection engine with an extra 12 hp, so it was worth a look, but since it is so similar to all the other Mini variants we’ve already driven, we’ll do a shorter “first drive” article later on,
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.