Competition in the sub-compact segment is heating up, with entries such as the Hyundai Accent, the Honda Jazz and the Ford Fiesta pushing the boundaries of what is possible with small cars. And soon after we drove the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic for the first time, we were invited to the UAE launch of the all-new 2012 Toyota Yaris. Thus far, the Yaris has remained the segment leader, but we were eager to find out if it could maintain that lead.
It isn’t every day that we get to drive a Rolls-Royce. It isn’t every day that we get to drive an electric car either. But there we were, driving the Rolls-Royce Phantom 102EX, the British carmaker’s experiment with electric cars.
Let’s get it out of the way that, as much as Chevrolet would love to target a car like the Aveo at someone like me, I chose long ago to never own anything in this category of cars. And yet, I found myself at the GCC launch event for the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic anyway, lured in by the promise of a free overnight stay at the Atlantis hotel in Dubai.
Riding the green wave, Volkswagen Middle East participated in the second stop on the Western leg of the Asia Pacific Natural Gas Vehicle Associates (ANGVA) Green Highways 2011 event held in Dubai recently that is dedicated to raising awareness among local industries of the importance of making natural gas and energy efficient cars available.
We were offered a second round with the 2012 Ford Explorer to address some issues we had discovered with our previous abused grey-coloured test vehicle. So while we’ve already amended our original review to reflect that, we were now still left with a brand-new blue-coloured Explorer Limited for two days. So we did what we always do with extra time — conduct one of our legendary Economy Tests.
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.
Trying hard to redefine Detroit Muscle, Roush performance has announced an exclusive and unique serial numbered 2012 Roush Stage 3 Mustang Hyper-Series. Only 25 will be made.
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.
The Nissan Maxima for 2012 gets a mid-life facelift with no price increase in the US at least. The exterior touch-ups is in the form of a new front grille design, new rear combination lights, two new exterior colours (Java Metallic and Dark Slate) and new 18-inch and 19-inch aluminium-alloy wheels.
Classic car enthusiasts in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and neighbouring GCC countries can now register to participate in the fourth Emirates Classic Car Festival which shall be held from December 1 to 3.