There are only a few tested cars that we’ve ever marked as major events in the history of this feeble website. There was the Nissan GT-R. There was the Bentley Continental GT. And this weekend, there was the Honda Civic Type-R, a car as overrated as this website, and yet so legendary. We indulge in making fun of Honda fanboys all the time, but this is one car that almost turned us into Honda fanboys.
The swoopy new 2011 Hyundai Sonata was officially launched in the UAE, at a launch party in Dubai. The launch comes four months after the model was shown off at the 2009 Dubai Motor Show, and two months after a media driving event in Oman that we weren’t invited to.
For the first time in the region, young aspiring drivers will have a structured route to F1, building their experience and preparing them for the challenges of the Europe and Asia racing championships.
Scion showed off their latest creation recently, the 2011 Scion tC sports coupe. It features a new chassis with improved performance and looks.
Tuner company Hennessey has released the Venom GT. It combines British engineering with American muscle as it looks like the Lotus Elise and has a highly tuned Corvette ZR1 engine, giving it the best of both worlds.
Kia is putting a lot of faith into their all-new flagship model, the 2011 Cadenza. In fact, they are going all out to promote the full-size sedan. While even large outfits like Ford and VW cheap out at media driving events, Kia lined up close to 30 brand-new cars for the day in March. In fact, the fleet of Cadenzas was so big that most of the gathered GCC media scribes ended up one-person-per-car. I certainly enjoyed my privacy when pushing the limits of the car, instead of worrying about any aging passengers vomiting in the passenger seat.
AGMC, the exclusive importer of BMW Group vehicles in Dubai, Sharjah and the Northern Emirates, has opened the first phase of an AED80 million expansion of its flagship showroom on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road.
Though already shown extensively at previous launch events, the UAE dealer for Kia officially launched the all-new Cadenza at a dinner event in Dubai this week.
A lot has happened in the UAE during the past one week. As reported by various newspapers, Dubai will now implement dedicated bus lanes, while Abu Dhabi is looking at more ways to catch speeding drivers.
It is a given that most people do not use child-safety seats while driving with their kids in the GCC. It has mostly to do with the cultural mindset that will be hard to overcome in the short term, although the cost of child seats can also be a deterrent. When I was a kid growing up in Dubai, I rode in the back seat of my budget-minded father’s craptastic 1988 Honda Civic, with a broken rear-door latch that used to fling the door open on occasion at highway speeds. In the front seat, my mother refused to belt up until it became law.