It’s been more than a decade since a Toyota coupe has set foot (or tyre even) in a Dubai showroom. But Toyota has been churning out 2-door cars elsewhere for years, and one of them has finally made it to the shores of the UAE. Whether the Toyota Zelas will make Honda fanboys jealous remains to be seen.
One look through our archives and you’ll realise how many times we drove the latest-generation Honda Accord when it launched back in 2008. Come 2011, and we’re at it again. Right after driving the facelifted V6 coupe, we picked up this optioned-up 2.4-litre sedan, and it of course feels familiar.
This right here is the largest vehicle we’ve ever driven on the streets of Dubai. Or rather, we stuck to the highways and avoided the streets. Consider the fact that this Dodge Ram is two feet longer than the gigantic Toyota Sequoia, and you get an idea of how big this thing is.
This one took a bit of scrounging, but we finally managed to bag a Lexus IS-F for a brief two-day test, thanks to our supporters within the UAE dealer. There is a long list of press people waiting to test this car, so we were almost ready to dismiss it. But after driving it, we’d say this is the first Lexus we’ve ever desired. You know, like, really desired.
Last week we picked up a 2011 Lexus RX 350 for a couple of days to see what updates the crossover has received for the new model year, as well as to have a comfortable ride to travel to the Abu Dhabi Motor Show, an hour-and-a-half drive from the centre of Dubai. On the day we returned the Lexus, we also received a 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe for only a day. There won’t be any of our quirky comparison tests, but there will be ‘first drive’ stories soon on both these cars.
Most of you people aren’t even interested in Volvo. Neither were we. The only Volvo we drove previously was the XC60, which was technically advanced but dynamically underwhelming. Then we drove the all-new S60 2.0T recently. Stuck behind a slow Gulf News journalist on a track convoy, we didn’t get much out of that event. Now we got the S60 T6 for five days. And the car is phenomenal, hot damnit.
It’s always nice when a manufacturer gives us a test car for a reasonable amount of time. Mazda gives cars for only a day. Porsche gives cars for a ridiculous 6 hours. And Aston Martin asks for your date of birth. So we boycotted those companies in terms of test-drive coverage. Ford is variable, depending on what’s available. The 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 seemed to be available. And they gave it to us for nearly a week.
For those not in the know, Skoda is a Czech brand owned by Volkswagen. Skoda does fine in Europe, selling variantions of VW platforms alongside Seat and Audi. But thanks to sub-standard dealers and all sorts of internal politics, the brand never took off in the UAE. Now a new dealer has taken over sales of Skoda in the UAE, and they are looking to move cars in a big way instead of playing second-fiddle to VW. To coincide with the launch of their Dubai showroom a couple of weeks ago, dealers Ali & Sons released the 2011 Skoda Superb 3.6,
The Mini Mayfair is a “special edition” model that was released as a celebration of Mini’s 50th anniversary. From memory, the Mayfair was first shown at the Dubai Motor Show a year ago and this specific test car has been in circulation since summer, so it isn’t exactly new. It is the first Mini model we’ve driven that is fitted with the new-for-2010 direct-injection engine with an extra 12 hp, so it was worth a look, but since it is so similar to all the other Mini variants we’ve already driven, we’ll do a shorter “first drive” article later on,
It’s been almost a year since we last tested their car, but we’re in with Ford again, and managed to snag a 2011 Ford Edge Sport for a two-day test. The Edge has undergone a frontal facelift, but the big news is all under the skin.