News

The 4th DriveArabia Meet was held on October 1st at the Dubai Outlet Mall. The “chief guest” of our small gathering was the 2012 Volkswagen Golf GTI. It was great again, as some of our regulars showed up, as well as some new faces. We had some fun doing repeated runs with the VW’s awesome automatic parallel-parking system, checking out how tight of a spot it could fit into. Some of the attendees shown up later in the night, during the free DriveArabia-sponsored dinner, so they are unfortunately not in these pictures.

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If you were wondering what that rusted old car in the picture is doing in our news column, you may be surprised to hear that this is going to be one of the show-stealers at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. Dubbed as the Icon Derelict, this beauty from history is a resurrected 1952 Chevrolet Business Coupe Deluxe, enclosing a plethora of mechanics and electronics from the modern era, thanks to Jonathan Ward at Icon, a US-based company better known for rebuilding 4x4s. What we are uncertain of is, whether the discolouration on the body is custom too!

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Toyota’s luxury division Lexus is all keen to steal the show at the SEMA 2011 exhibition in Las Vegas, with the debut of the 2013 GS 350 F Sport featuring a unique performance and visual upgrade package. Though no visual extravaganza, the racing-inspired F Sport package does give the GS 350 some aggressive mien.

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This Friday, BMW Middle East held the Mini “Drive Out Loud” festival at the Dubai Autodrome. The event hosted Mini owners from around the Middle East. Entry was open to the public, though ticket prices were pegged at Dhs 100.

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A couple of pages from the the Japanese brochure of the production-version Toyota FT-86 has been leaked onto the net. Considering the absolutely random nature of the pages, we think this “leak” might even have been deliberate. Update: More leaked images added.

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As part of our re-acquaintance with the Mercedes-Benz brand, we were invited to the UAE leg of the 2011 AMG Performance Tour, held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. The deal was that we get to stay overnight at the fancy Yas Hotel, but before that, we were subjected to a brutal assault of the senses by a variety of Mercedes-Benz AMG models.

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The Mazda 6 has aged gracefully. Still the beauty among the beasts (and we don’t mean in terms of power) in the mid-sized saloon segment, it’s due for a replacement soon to keep it up to date with current design and technological advancement. Keeping this in mind, Mazda Motor Corporation has confirmed that it will premiere the Mazda Takeri concept car that provides us with a preview of what to expect from the next 6.

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Transparency is a word that is uttered with caution in this region. The lack of information on many aspects of the automotive industry is obvious. Some aspects will change soon, however. We’ve had the pleasure of talking to Satish Singh, an automotive-industry veteran who started Tetrahedron Consulting to build up information on the GCC car market, one step at a time.

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Mitsubishi’s and Honda’s UAE dealers have opened used car divisions, BMW’s Qatar dealer has restarted their bespoke programme, while Mini is hosting a public event.

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There is only so many ways that we can make a Toyota Yaris review interesting. The hottest new car of this year that will sell in droves no matter what we say, we were given the option to pick a colour, and we picked red. You know, like a Ferrari.

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