The 2010 Chevrolet Cruze, GM’s all-new Korean-built compact sedan that is surprisingly more anticipated in the Middle East than we expected it to be, is now available in Saudi Arabia and possibly a few other GCC countries, according to reports by our readers. There is no official word yet from GM’s regional headquarters in Dubai, but the Cruze is listed in Chevrolet’s UAE website.
About 42 hours after Highcroft Acura driver Scott Sharp walked away from a crash during practice for the Petit Le Mans racing event in the United States, a freshly-built Acura ARX-02a was rolled out for the morning warmup on Saturday. The Highcroft crew put in marathon sessions of work, totalling 20 hours, to build a brand new racecar, as LeMans teams do not generally have a backup car. A spare carbon-fibre tub was picked up from the Honda Performance Development shop in California and shipped, while the crew at the Atlanta racetrack salvaged 10% of the old parts for use in the new car.
Unlike industries in the Middle East, which exclusively make use of utilitarian Japanese pickups with puny four-banger engines, the Americans like to do their blue-collar jobs in style. For those who feel that the massive Ford F-150 is too small for their needs or their egos, the company is offering the redesigned 2011 Ford Super Duty.
The Toyota 4Runner 4×4 was launched back in 1984, based on the four-wheel-drive Toyota pickup architecture, as a smaller alternative to the Land Cruiser. And while it was last seen in the early 1990s around here, the 4Runner continued in the U.S. market, with styling harking back to the 80s original. Now, as the Middle East prepares for the launch of the blobby 2010 Prado, the Americans are celebrating the launch of the blocky 2010 4Runner. While both share similar platforms and engines, the American-built 4Runner looks far more purposeful.
Holden, GM’s Australian division, is responsible for the Lumina and the Caprice that comes to the GCC. Their HSV tuning arm is also responsible for some of the most violently-powerful rear-wheel-drive V8 cars ever built. Indeed, the Middle East got a taste of HSV in the form of the rebadged CSV CR8 sedan. Now the company has updated their extensive range of tuned vehicles for the Aussie market. The new range is dubbed the HSV E Series 2, and comes in four different body styles and various trim levels, include an ‘SV Enhanced’ customisation package.
This test was done to celebrate the U.S. IIHS safety institute’s 50th anniversary. The IIHS is a non-government organisation that conducts crash tests on new cars. It is generally accepted that today’s cars are softer and crumple more easily, compared to the hard-boned cars of olden days. So they decided to pit a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu against a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air to see which one comes out on top.
The 2010 Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedan, slotting in between the Epica and the Lumina, will go on sale in showrooms across the UAE and GCC starting this October. Considering the “misaligned” status of Chevrolet’s existing midsize sedans when compared to the Japanese competition, the Malibu is as mainstream as it gets.
Ford Middle East is participating at the GITEX technology show on October 2009, and will use the Dubai event as a basis for the GCC launch of the 2010 Ford Taurus and Taurus SHO models.
The facelifted 2010 Ford Fusion has debuted in the GCC via TV commercials, and has been on sale in the UAE for more than a week now, although we haven’t heard of any official announcements from Ford Middle East.
Every time I test a brand new luxury “crossover” 4×4, I realise just how brutish, noisy and unrefined my aging Jeep is. But then I remember that none of these new-fangled “crossover” thingies can even think about going off-road. And that should count for something. The 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee is chugging along rather decently in its 7th year.