With the first info on the facelifted 2011 Land Rover LR2, also known as Freelander elsewhere, Land Rover is jumping full force into the crossover market. For the 2011 LR2 will be the second Land Rover ever to be offered in a front-wheel-drive version. The first one was, of course, the 2011 Range Rover Evoque.
The 2011 Mazda 2, a facelifted version of the Mazda2 that has been on sale in Europe since 2008, was launched in the UAE today at a lunch event in Dubai. Jostling for attention alongside good chicken and bad beef were the sedan and hatchback models, competitively priced and completing the Mazda range in the GCC.
The news of the day is that Ford has finally completed the sale of its Swedish Volvo division to China’s Geely for US$ 1.8 billion. Almost simultaneously, Volvo has announced a recall for all of the S80 sedans for the 2007-2010 model years.
الشرق الأوسط – تتاح في أسواق الشرق الأوسط ابتداءاً من اليوم إمكانية حجز سيارتي كاديلاك CTS كوبيه وCTS-V كوبيه 2011، اللتين ستصلان إلى معارض المنطقة في شهر سبتمبر المقبل.
ويشار إلى أن نموذج السيارة المذهلة التي شكلت أساس إنتاج نسخة الكوبيه كانت قد عرضت للمرة الأولى في المنطقة في معرض دبي الدولي العاشر للسيارات في ديسمبر 2009، حيث تم الكشف عنها أمام حشد كبير من محبي السيارات ولقيت إعجاباً هائلاً.
ويعود أصل فكرة سيارة كاديلاك CTS كوبيه إلى اقتراح في أوساط فريق التصميم لدى كاديلاك، حيث طوّر المصممون فلسفة الفن والعلوم للعلامة التجارية مما عمل على تسريع الطريق نحو إنتاج سيارتي كاديلاك CTS كوبيه و CTS-V كوبيه 2011.
The 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe and CTS-V Coupe are now available to pre-order at Cadillac showrooms across the Middle East, and will start arriving in the GCC this September.
Toyota’s Dubai-based dealer office has released a statement that the 2002-2007 Lexus LX 470, the 1999-2004 Toyota Avalon and the 2000-2001 Toyota Corolla are being recalled in the UAE. Only a few GCC-spec Corolla models are affected, while the Land Cruiser seems to have escaped the recall here.
Alongside an earlier-announced recall for 39,000 Lexus LX 470 4x4s built between 2003 and 2007, Toyota has also announced the global recall of all Land Cruiser models between 2003 and 2007. UAE media reports put the global number of affected Land Cruisers at around 40,000, for a total of almost 80,000. That number seems to suggest that only the V8 version is affected.
After a little more than a month, the 2010 Chevrolet Malibu long-termer finally left our fleet last week. We would’ve liked to keep it longer as we still had a lot to cover about it, but General Motors Middle East wanted to put the car back in use as a press test-drive vehicle. But before we gave it back, we just did a quick run to see what the engine is capable of in terms of fuel economy.
Mark Webber turned the Hungarian Grand Prix into a nail-biting gripper when a safety-car intervention on the 15th lap upset the form that Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel had established from the start.
The hottest news of the day is the governmental suspension of Blackberry services in the UAE by October 11, officially “due to security concerns” but more due to the fact that “The Man” cannot snoop on your dirty emails. The shocking news (to BB users only) pretty much overshadows the fact that the 2011 Infiniti QX56 has been launched in the GCC. That’s the news we hear from our journalist friends who frolicked at the launch party last week, in Lebanon of all places.