News

Up until last year, the Cadillac CTS-V was officially the fastest four-door sedan around the German Nurburgring race track, running 7:59 on the benchmark piece of tarmac where every manufacturer seems to tune their cars on. At some point late in 2009, the Porsche Panamera Turbo claimed the title with 7:56, although its credentials as a sedan are dubious at best, while also being twice as expensive. Now Subaru indirectly claims to have shattered the record with a 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI sedan, coughing up a time of 7:55, although their “production” car is dubious at best.

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The Chevy Malibu LTZ has now become my main mode of transportation, as my Jeep and BMW start gathering even more dust than usual. The Mallu is proving to be a rather comfortable ride, while also keeping up appearances. It looks like a luxury car after all, and behaves like one too.

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General Motors is recalling 1.5 million vehicles, across their Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer and other brands, because of a potential fire risk due to faulty heated windshield washer nozzles. This includes 22,500 cars in the Middle East, of which 6,000 are in the UAE.

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Suzuki has released first information and pictures of the redesigned 2011 Suzuki Swift. Looking more like a minor facelift than a major update, the new model is 9 cm longer with the wheelbase extended by 5 cm, with a new engine on offer.

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Chrysler, maker of Dodge and Jeep, has announced a recall for as many as four models in as many days. Among the three different recalls, the first one involves the Dodge Caliber and the Jeep Compass, the second involves the Chrysler Voyager minivan, and the third involves the Jeep Wrangler.

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I first asked General Motors’ old PR agency for a long-term test car back in 2005. At the time, they couldn’t comprehend why anyone would need a test car for more than 2 days, let alone some start-up website. Since then, we’ve asked others, and they all rejected us, mumbling something about the “quality” of our audience. But things have changed. Online is in. Chevy design is in. The new GM is in. And the new GM now has cool new PR people. They recently started a long-term test program, and we are only the second people to get a long-termer from them,

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I hate street racing, and I hate wannabe street racers. I have never been in any street race on public roads, no matter what car I’ve driven, and I will never condone street racing. However, I occasionally push my own limits on the roads, and like the guy in this video, sometimes enjoy chasing down other speeding drivers who think they are heroes in their fancy cars, just to show them that they aren’t all that when the road starts turning. Done with enough distance, this is a safe way to explore your limits, and that’s just what the video shows.

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Manufacturers usually do their best to hide their future models from prying eyes to retain some sense of suspense when the new car is finally revealed. Therefore the redesigned 2011 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class still has a long time to go before launch, with showroom deliveries reportedly slated for early 2011. So in an ironic twist, German tuning firm Lorinser has already released a full sketch of what their modified version of the CLS will look like.

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Mercedes-Benz Middle East & Levant has had its best sales month since October 2008 with over 1520 cars delivered in May. Year on year sales were up 22 % with the C-Class and E-Class models particularly popular.

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Something rather weird happened with my 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. After the starter motor blew out late last year, I got a brand new one fitted from the dealer. Then over the winter, my fuel consumption started dropping dramatically. As stated by the trip computer, it went from hovering above 17 litres/100 km down to as low as 15.5 litres/100 km, all without any change in driving style. One could attribute this to many other things, like winter weather or a dying trip computer, but neither can be proven definitively. This wasn’t my first winter with the Jeep, and the trip computer seems to be otherwise working fine.

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