Asian Car News

At the end of every year we do a rundown of how we’re doing and what were the highlights of the past year. Admittedly, 2016 has been tough on many people, with the downturn in the economy leading to job losses and a 30% decrease in car sales. This was reflected in our traffic statistics, which has always been a window into the local car market. However, we still managed to eke out a 5% increase in revenue, and still remain the most profitable automotive portal in the region (despite increased costs in “fees” and unfavourable rules) thanks to our genuine readers,

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In its inaugural year, the Auto Excellence Awards 2016 has been proclaimed to be the only audited automotive awards in the country, and quite possibly the region. Organised by and held at the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre, the awards ceremony saw dealer representatives for all the major automotive brands in Oman gather to see if they won. But two weeks before that, the judges had a go at all the nominated cars — close to 80 in total — over just 2 days of hectic testing at the Oman Automobile Association’s Muscat Raceway compound, and while I was one of the judges,

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MG has confirmed that the new MG ZS, which made its global debut at the recent 14th Guangzhou International Auto Exhibition, is set to arrive in the Middle East by late 2017. The new SUV introduces a new design language from MG that will form the corporate look of future models.

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Oman’s Toyota dealer seems to have the UAE beat in new model launches this year, as sharing space alongside the 2017 Corolla on the Toyota stand at the 2016 Oman Motor Show was this 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser TRD.

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When we were strolling through the relatively cosy 2016 Oman Motor Show, the last thing we expected to see was a new model debut. This here is the 2017 Toyota Corolla. While this isn’t exactly a new car, it’s a welcome facelift to a decent but aging model.

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Mazda has been on a roll lately, with their latest models appealing to everyone from commuters to enthusiasts, which no one else has been able to replicate. But there was one sore spot in their line-up which, oddly enough, is their flagship model — the midsize CX-9 crossover. It was a fairly competent vehicle, but it had been left unchanged for almost a decade. So we were really looking forward to driving their all-new 2017 CX-9.

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The internet is going wild over news that a brand new Honda S2000 was sold in Australia last month. Before you get confused, it’s a 2008 model that a Honda dealer in Australia kept aside for display purposes (probably to make the brand look more sporting than it is currently), but they’ve finally sold it to an unknown customer.

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With the Takata airbag fever starting to subside, the number of recalls has decreased slightly. There hasn’t been a ton of recalls in the past month, but here is the list of the ones that did happen in November 2016.

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Honda has launched a base variant of the 2017 Civic with an all-new 1.6L engine. To be offered in the GCC, Lebanon and Jordan, the 1.6-litre Honda Civic comes in two grades, namely DX and LX, and clearly aims to grab some market share from significantly-cheaper rivals. The 2016 Civic which was launched in April this year in 2.0-litre n/a and 1.5-litre turbo forms, leading to an 86% increase in yearly Civic sales at a time when every other compact sedan has seen crashing sales due to the economic slowdown.

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Hyundai has launched the all-new 2018 Azera large sedan on its home turf, Korea, under the Grandeur moniker. With the subsidiary Genesis brand acting as a luxury marque, Hyundai now has more room at the top of their portfolio to move up their flagships even further.

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