We never even touched the 350Z. We didn’t drive the 370Z Coupe either. And we never asked for the 370Z Roadster. However, we never say no when we get offered a car, so we took this Nissan drop-top you see here for a spin. Trouble is, with 16,000 km on the clock, everybody and their mother has already test-abused this car, so we’re guessing it wasn’t the most ideal representation of what a “Z” car is supposed to be.
We’d heard rumblings that Honda had a batch of 2012 Honda Civic sedans shipped to the UAE, but backed off from properly launching the new model due to the supply shortage after the Japanese earthquake. These cars apparently went on sale quietly, and one of our readers snagged these photos of the Civic at one of Honda’s dealerships in Dubai.
Our 2008 Mitsubishi Galant GTS is now in full service, being used as a daily commuter for the Dubai-Abu Dhabi-Dubai slog every evening by my brother. So we racked up 3,000 km in less than a week.
One of our readers in Dubai, Afaq Soomro, caught what he says could be the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class or more likely a B-Class. And we’d say he guessed right, considering camouflaged Mercedes-Benz cars in the UAE are a common sight and these test cars seem to be escorted by other Mercedes-Benz cars.
The 2010 BMW 535i Gran Turismo left us many months ago, after less than three weeks with us. We figured we should do a wrap-up article before closing the book on this car, especially since BMW themselves are considering ending production of this car for obvious reasons.
Geely is on a roll in the GCC region, it seems. Two test cars in light camo which were spotted by two commuters in Dubai on two different streets that lay fairly close by, turned out to be two different models from the same manufacturer, Geely. This one is the Emgrand EC825.
So I was driving along Garhoud Bridge in Dubai a few days ago, and a seemingly mid-size sedan bearing light camouflage caught my attention. Like any other car enthusiast I was eager to find out what it was and soon got involved in a brief chase with the unknown driver of the unknown car. Though the chase did not help me get a clue of what brand the car possibly belonged to, I succeeded in taking a few pictures of the car. And as it turned out, what I chased was a Geely Emgrand EC718.
This is our third VW test-drive in a row. This time we have the 2011 VW Golf R, a stronger version of the Golf GTI and replacement for the previous R32. Since we’ve tested neither of those cars before, thanks to VW’s previous PR agency, we have nothing to compare the Golf R to. All we know is that it is a proper ass-kicker of a car.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, June 30th 2011: Al-Futtaim Motors, the exclusive distributor for Lexus
in the UAE, has announced the launch of Lexus Gold Movies, inviting their customers to enjoy their
favourite blockbuster movies at Gold Class theatres, booked exclusively for Lexus car owners.
Bridgestone Middle East has just launched the ECOPIA EP100A tyre for the Middle East and Africa markets, at an event in Dubai, UAE. Bridgestone “rises up to the challenge in helping our planet” with this tyre, which apparently saves fuel thanks to lower rolling resistance.