It was a busy week in the UAE automotive sector, with the launch of a new Peugeot showroom in Abu Dhabi, a Juke Missions campaign by Nissan, the announcement of fake parts raid by Toyota, the start of a new Maserati one-make race season, and a booster-seat giveaway by BMW.
Volkswagen has always been known to make some of the best campervans, none of which are offered here in the Middle East, thanks partly to the vast desert terrains and climate, and partly towards the tendency of the customers to opt for SUVs when it comes to choosing a large family hauler. Towards the West, however, there is a good demand for such mini mobile-homes purpose-built for campers; and the Volkswagen California Multivan is one of them.
You might be wondering why there have been no updates on our 2000 BMW M Roadster, the ultra-rare sports car of which only a handful exist in the UAE. The truth is we haven’t been driving it much, because it is a race-car for the streets. Race-cars aren’t particularly good on crowded streets.
Not so long ago, we reported about BMW about to offer their xDrive all-wheel-drive system in the 6-series range. The manufacturer has now updated their U.S. website to include the specification of the new variant as a 2012 model.
Porsche Centre Dubai, a part of Al Nabooda Automobiles in the UAE, delivered 211 new cars in the month of August, apparently the best monthly performance ever for any Porsche Centre dealership worldwide. But that’s not the interesting part.
The Volkswagen Beetle, one of the oldest surviving nameplates in automotive history, has always had more female aficionados due to its inevitably-cute design. Yet, folks at Volkswagen seemingly have not given up trying to inject doses of masculinity into this cute-o-mobile, evident from the Beetle R Concept which debuted at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Italian luxury carmaker Maserati has confirmed their intentions of joining the crossover four-wheel-drive bandwagon with the debut of Maserati Kubang concept at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Continuing our series on Volkswagen (hey, they’re offering us car after car, so why not), this week we have the 2011 Volkswagen Touareg, a 4×4 that shares its platform with the pricier Porsche Cayenne. Considering we drove a Porsche Cayenne V6 just a few weeks ago, it felt a whole lot similar, yet different.
Hamann, the tuning specialist from Germany that has been producing individualised BMW cars since 1986, has gone ahead and customized the new BMW 6-series cabriolet with its usual visual panache with a turbo engine in development.
Rimac Automobili, a Croatian based company, has unveiled the world’s first electric supercar, the Concept One, powered by a new propulsion system.