The 2009 Volvo XC60 is a new crossover SUV that the Ford-owned Swedish company thinks will raise regional Volvo sells by an unrealistic 30%. The GCC version was launched in Dubai a few days ago, and Volvo gave the press a taste of the XC60’s capabilities at the Dubai Autodrome on January 28. They certainly had an impressive line-up of events planned.
Mercedes-Benz launched the 2009 GLK-Class soft-roader at a 2-day all-expenses-paid press event in Oman.
A couple of weeks ago, Ford Middle East invited us to a two-night all-expenses-paid stay at the Fujairah Rotana resort for the Ford “Ride & Drive” event. The event was designed to give the press some wheel-time with new models such as Ford’s Flex, Fusion and Focus as well as the Mercury Mariner.
We never get any invites to Mercedes-Benz car launches, and haven’t had any test-drive cars made available to us in years. However, their commercial vehicles division operates independently, and they invited us out-of-the-blue to the local launch of the Sprinter workvan. What caught our attention was the venue — Dubai Autodrome. We just had to go to this one.
Back in January 28th, we were invited to try out the 2008 Honda Accord Coupe at the Dubai Autodrome, although we had to keep this quiet until the March 1 local release date of the car. We got 3 laps each with a 271 hp 3.5-litre V6 and a 190 hp 2.4-litre 4-cylinder model, both automatics since that’s the only way they’ll be sold in the GCC region. The awesome photography for our drive was provided by Honda themselves.
I was invited to share and pilot a 2008 Honda Accord with another journo on a press drive from Dubai to Fujeirah and back. Considering we didn’t have enough time with the cars other than straightforward driving, I’ll save a full review for when I get one in front of my building. What I can talk about are my first impressions of the 2008 Honda Accord, in both 2.4 and 3.5 trims.
