Feature Stories

You know that all those years of being a good boy is paying off when people suddenly call up to offer you a black 2010 Chevy Camaro SS for the weekend. With an LS3 V8. And a manual transmission. For a second round. The manual SS is initially hard to drive, but having just about mastered the clutch-gearbox combo the last time, we figured we’d do something different this time around. We’ll do the first-ever fuel economy test for this car, while still driving in regular traffic at regular speeds.

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The General organised a little two-day trip for journalists to the Le Meridien Al Aqah, with some scuba diving, private rooms and Chevy Tahoes thrown in for good measure. I was a bit perplexed as to why they were promoting the unchanged-for-2010 Tahoe, but heck, who are we to argue.

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One look at this visual stunner and the Toyota-obsessed crowd out here, for some reason, go ga-ga over this fluidic sculpture thinking it’s a Lexus. Park this elegant piece of machinery next to an Avalon or Lexus ES, and the next moment will be a moment of realisation for the public with the truth finally striking their heads with one question – “Does Toyota even know how to design cars?” But every moment spent in the new 2011 Hyundai Sonata is “almost” awesome. Yes, still almost! It is definitely not the overall best mid-sizer out there. But that said,

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The Renault Logan isn’t a car that people like me look forward to driving. Even at my poorest point in life, making Dhs 3000 a month while in college, my first car was an old Mercedes-Benz. With leather. And cruise control. And ABS. And a hood ornament. However, most people don’t think like me. For some unknown cosmic reason, they have to have a brand new car, even if it means taking a loan and risking jail if they can’t pay. And so, the local Nissan/Renault dealer thinks they have a hit on their hands, especially since they are targeting peeps making at least Dhs 3000.

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It’s not everyday that I get a call to come down for a press event in Abu Dhabi, a couple of hours before the actual event. Normally, I wouldn’t bother, but this time it was a chance to drive, briefly, cars from the Rolls Royce range. The BMW-owned firm had two Ghosts and one Phantom lined up for a limited excursion around the streets of Abu Dhabi. While not a proper test drive, a Rolls Royce is still a Rolls Royce after all.

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The 2nd DriveArabia Meet took place on Friday the 9th of April, 2010. Again, two of us organised it, and this time 17 people showed up, most of them new people who did not come the first time round, and even an off-duty journalist from an upscale magazine. Again, our little street party was competing with events such as some classic car auction at Times Square Mall and some BMW safety campaign at Creek Park.

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RM Auctions, the world’s largest collector car auction house, will drop the hammer on an outstanding private collection of high-powered muscle cars in June as part of a single-day sale in San Diego, California.

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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.

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As is common knowledge by now, the 2010 Nissan Patrol was launched in Dubai on February 15, at an event on an offroad course within the Jebel Ali Shooting Club. Apparently the course will be used for customer test-drives once the all-new Patrol goes on sale. We have exclusive photos of the course, courtesy of our photographer Faisal Khatib.

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This urban comparo is about as meaningless as it gets, but for the sake of argument, we’ll give it a go anyway. We’ve had a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee V8 since late 2007, and this is the first time that we’ve managed to drive another Jeep vehicle since then. Our Grand Cherokee was the epitome of American 4x4s back in its day, with capable off-road and on-road performance, packed with leather, full-time 4WD and a V8. The Wrangler has always been a simplistic offroader, but the latest generation claims to be the most refined and practical Wrangler ever, with options such as four doors and Bluetooth,

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