The 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit played host to the unveiling of the all-new 2009 Toyota Venza crossover. Toyota calls it a “crossover sedan” that will compete with the Murano and the Edge, but we are not sure Toyota needs yet another fake 4WD in its range alongside the RAV-4. We assume this “lifestyle” vehicle might come here too eventually.
Usually I don’t freely advertise local aftermarket outfits, but the PR folks for Yellow Hat were kind enough to invite me to their opening ceremony, so I figured I’d give them my time. Yellow Hat is a Japanese superstore for aftermarket car accessories, and they have opened a branch store here in Dubai, at the Times Square Mall on Sheikh Zayed road.
The new 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart debuted at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. Unlike the previous insult to the badge, the new Lancer Ralliart is like an entry-level version of the upcoming Evolution, with a turbocharged engine and all-wheel-drive.
As Dubai celebrates Bush Day by announcing a public holiday during George W’s visit here, the 2008 Detroit Auto Show in America is in full swing, and one of the first launches include the weird 2009 Volkswagen Passat CC, a so-called “coupe” that still looks like a damn four-door sedan.
I briefly wanted to get a cheap so-called “hot hatch” so I could have some fun driving around town while I saved up enough money for a true sports car (since I refuse to take a bank loan). After selling off the Supra, I didn’t want to lose touch with a manual car. The ideal temporary-replacement used car I wanted had to be small, have decent power for its weight, have a manual gearbox, and be really cheap. This pretty much removed most reliable-but-slow-and-sloppy Japanese commuter compacts from my list sadly. So what I came across in my search were four Europeans and one Japanese.
Not really sure where this is taking place, but it shows a guy changing a tyre on his retro racecar, while the car is still doing doughnuts! Just when I think I’ve seen it all involving cars, someone comes along doing even weirder stuff.
Bosses at General Motors figured that the camouflage on their upcoming Chevrolet Camaro was affecting their aerodynamics tests, so they decided to drive around their prototype without any black dressing any more. These photos, released by GM themselves, show the actual production-version exterior trim of the 2009 Camaro.
Ratan Tata, boss of Indian conglomerate Tata, had vowed some time ago to release a “1-lakh” car, essentially a car that costs 100,000 Indian rupees, or US$2,500. That translates to Dhs 9,350 for a new car, and it has just been launched in India as I speak, as the Tata Nano.
Skoda is almost no presence in this region, but they still manage to sell more than a handful of cars in Europe. The Superb, which is based on a stretched version of the Volkswagen Passat platform, has been fully redesigned. So instead of looking like a cheap copy of the Passat, it now has a bit of brand identity, no matter how dull it may be.
The 2008 Detroit Auto Show will showcase the second-generation high-performance Cadillac CTS-V. The 2009 CTS-V outdoes its chief competitor, the BMW M5, by utilising GM’s new LSA supercharged V8, derived from the LS9 in the new Corvette ZR1, but tuned for refinement obviously.