Abu Dhabi

Toyota is very proud of the fact that the RAV4 started the “crossover” segment back in 1994, before these jacked-up cars were even known as “crossovers”. It took us the better part of a decade to accept these as legitimate options for consumers, considering their too-tall-to-handle and too-low-to-offroad market positioning, but several of these crossovers have actually moved on to become quite competent in their on-road dynamics, with useful all-weather capability to boot. The RAV4 has always been one of the better options in the market, but the older model had a few shortcomings which the new 2013 model addresses rather well.

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The Rolls-Royce dealer in Abu Dhabi has come up with yet another special-edition model, this time a Rolls-Royce Ghost “honouring legendary Arab inventor Abbas Ibn Firnas, who is most famous for being the first man in history to make scientific attempts at flying.”

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We’ve just received word that the 2013 Mazda CX-5 compact crossover is now on sale in the UAE. Replacing the slow-selling CX-7, the CX-5 has been receiving rave reviews in the foreign press for being more of a driver’s car than most crossovers.

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Abu Dhabi Police claimed around 600 vehicles were impounded in the capital city during the UAE’s 41st National Day celebrations.

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The UAE Ministry of Interior has issued guidelines regarding car decorations for UAE national day celebrations on December 2. Penalties include one-month car impoundment, a Dhs 2,000 fine and 12 black points.

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Volkswagen recently held a mega event for media, dealer staff and fleet customers last week at the Yas Marina circuit to celebrate their best ever sales period in the Middle East, witnessing 22% growth for 2012 over last year. The event consisted of an overnight stay at the Yas Viceroy hotel with various activities the next morning, such as track time with the VW Scirocco, drag time with the VW Passat CC, and skid-pad time with the VW Golf GTI. Now, the problem with attending a mega event means that there is a lot of standing around doing nothing,

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The 2012 Infiniti FX50 Sebastian Vettel Edition was launched in the GCC this week, at an event in Dubai, coinciding with the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix. Additionally, there was an event held for potential customers to take a ride with Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel around the Al Forsan karting track in Abu Dhabi.

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It’s not often that we get invited to Bentley’s events, but this was probably the most interesting one yet. We were given a tour of Bentley’s service workshop in Dubai, run by Al Habtoor Motors, the UAE dealer for the British brand. This 189,000 square-feet site in the middle of nowhere also happens to be the largest Bentley workshop in the world. They also opened a new dealership in Abu Dhabi, displaying the one-off Bentley EXP-9F 4×4 concept there as well.

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This here is a Fiat Bravo. We wouldn’t have given it a second look when we spotted it a month ago, except that it had all these weird wires taped onto the exterior. Indeed, it’s possibly a GCC-spec prototype of the 2013 model.

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Within just one week, the Dubai Police impounded 80 vehicles for violating traffic rules, apparently all within the Bur Dubai area. More than half of these cars were confiscated for expired registrations, while another car owner who bagged fines worth Dhs 154,415 also had his car taken away. Surprisingly, the latter vehicle owner never showed up to address his hefty fine issue.

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