The BMW-owned Mini brand has unveiled a special edition Cooper S model in the United Kingdom with a stupidly long name. The Mini John Cooper Works World Championship 50 is supposed to evoke the birth of the brand and John Cooper’s Formula One title victory 50 years ago.
Failing brand Chevrolet is rejoicing again after minor victories in motorsports. Following a WTCC triumph in Marrakech earlier in the month, the Cruze won both races of the Race of France that took place on the extremely demanding street of Pau in southern France, extending the team’s winning run to four. Drivers Rob Huff, Alain Menu and Nicola Larini secured top honours for the gold bowtie on May 3 in Morocco after taking the new car to the track for the first time in the opening round in Curitiba, Brazil on March 8.
The all-new Chevrolet Malibu has been on sale in the U.S. for a while now. The midsize sedan had finally become an equal competitor to its Japanese rivals in the States, but the GCC line-up was making do with a lopsided range consisting of the Korean Epica and the Australian Lumina, neither of which has a 4-cylinder engine that could compare with those in the Camry, the Accord and the Altima. So General Motors decided to bring the Malibu here again, after a gap of nearly a decade.
The Romanian highway patrol is currently testing Seat Leon Cupra hatchbacks for use as police cars in the Eastern European country.
Three newly-developed direct-injection engines are now available for the European-spec BlueEfficiency version of the 2009 Mercedes-Benz C-Class. They are the most fuel-efficient engines ever for the C-Class, and developed using traditional technology rather than a hybrid system.
The 2010 Hyundai Accent has been given a hefty facelift for its Korean home market. Dubbed the Verna Transform, it is possible that this new face will become the GCC-spec 2010 Accent, even if the rest of the car is largely the same.
The Porsche Cayenne has been aging ungracefully but is still selling well due to its badge. But Porsche is already testing a replacement, and has been caught numerous times on European roads in minor camouflage.
The hybrid version of the Toyota Camry was only on sale in a couple of developed countries earlier, but the Japanese firm has now started building the petrol-electric car at its plant in Thailand, to supply the Far-East Asian market.
While parent company General Motors is on the verge of bankruptcy this week, Chevrolet partnered with Xbox 360 and crowned the winner of the Middle East’s largest gaming tournament at Al Ghandi Auto showroom on Friday May 29th, in a bid to sell cars to kids apparently. Adnan Al Malki from Saudi Arabia earned his exciting grand prize, which is an upcoming 2010 Chevrolet Cruze.
It has always been obvious that Volkswagen’s designers have no creativity whatsoever, coming up with boring cars and hoping the marketing department can trick naive people into thinking they are cool. Take, for example, their latest “special edition” VW Eos. They named it the Eos White Night, except that the only change involves a white car with a cheesy black-painted roof that makes its folding hard-top look like a cloth roof.