Asian Car News

When Lexus first came out, it was nothing more than a cheaper copy of a Mercedes-Benz when it came to looks. Still, Lexus is now known as the dullest luxury brand in the market, and a substandard attempt at taking on the Europeans. And now, a new generation of Infiniti models, while still building their brand, have already managed to surpass ever-desperate German stylists in terms of looks. It is hard to believe that the uncreative Japanese have beaten the Germans at their own game. And the Infiniti FX50 is the crowning glory of that achievement.

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The 2009 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport was launched in Dubai at a quick media event where its off-road abilities were showcased. First shown at Moscow Auto Show last year, this new midsize model is really the replacement for the aging Nativa, and is based on the L200 pickup.

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Created solely for the United States market back when big SUVs were popular there, the American-built Toyota Sequoia received a redesign in 2008. Based on the American Toyota Tundra pickup truck, the brutishly big Sequoia makes the Land Cruiser look like a RAV-4, and intended to compete with the Chevy Suburban and the Nissan Armada. And then the U.S. economy went to hell, so Toyota decided to send those hard-to-sell trucks in the GCC instead, where things are a bit better. And therefore the 2009 Toyota Sequoia was launched yesterday in Dubai.

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The Mazda 3 has been updated for the 2010 model year with a smiley new look and a new set of engines. Now Japanese and American markets will get a hotter variant of the new hatchback, with the re-introduction of the Mazdaspeed 3. Of course, as before, the GCC probably will not be getting any Mazdaspeed models.

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About a year ago, some research company contacted me to discuss the Hyundai Genesis and how it would fit in the GCC car market, while Korean executives directly from Hyundai viewed my opinions from another room, with no involvement from local dealers. Anyway, I told them that no one would pay much more than Dhs 100,000 for a Hyundai sedan in this region, no matter how good it might be. I said to work on building their brand image first, or to create a separate luxury brand for the Genesis. I told them to price the fully-optioned V8 Genesis at Dhs 130,000 maximum.

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While the appetite for petrol-hogs drive economies here, hybrid-electric cars continue to evolve in Western markets, with the introduction of the 2010 Toyota Prius and the 2010 Honda Insight at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. Both are very similar cars, and both come with a petrol engine that supplements itself with self-generated electrical power. Both also offer increasingly impressive fuel consumption figures, compared to any other hybrids before them.

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The much-awaited 2009 Nissan GT-R Spec V has been unveiled in Japan. Contrary to popular rumours, there are no power upgrades, as Nissan instead focused on reducing weight to create a track-biased car. This leads us to believe that the standard engine-gearbox combination is already running at optimum, and any performance modifications done by tuning companies are simply reducing the life of the car.

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The Tokyo Auto Salon always features the quirkiest concepts, but Honda has toned down the fun this year for the 2009 auto show, showing only modified versions of their existing cars.

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Japan-based tuner Ings has revealed the latest addition to their line-up of body kits for popular compact cars, now including the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.

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