Behind The Scenes

These are the latest additions to the New Car Buyer Guide. As usual, prices are a bit iffy, especially since they differ from city to city, and keep changing daily. Everything else should be in order, and more updates will follow later. Available information on some cars are limited, so do not hound me for any mistakes that might crop up, but do let me know so I can correct them. If the updates are not visible in your Internet Explorer browser, then press and hold CTRL, and CLICK on Refresh in the browser. And if you can’t figure out that instruction,

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So my PR guy called up Porsche and asked if we could get any Porsche model for our usual test-drive period, which is typically over several days. The Porsche people fired back that their test drive policy is the same for the media as it is for the public. So if you have some kind of undying love for these cars and want to abuse one, read on.

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So I had this Bentley Continental GT Speed at hand, and I was wondering what to do with it, besides the usual battery of tests. I’ve been in the United Arab Emirates my whole life, and I hadn’t seen that popular Jebel Hafeet road yet. I also heard that at the top of the mountain road is a flat piece of pavement, so I grabbed two buddies, threw a barbeque kit into the luggage trunk and set off to Al Ain and see this road for myself.

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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.

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That’s right. While parent company VW/Audi thinks we are a second-degree publication, their luxury arm Bentley thankfully works independently of them. So while we are not worthy of the holy VW Beetle, we are still good for a lowly Continental GT. And not just any GT. It’s the Continental GT Speed.

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So Diego, my PR guy, picked up this 2008 Honda Accord Coupe. Currently, the only American-built 2008 Coupes running around Dubai are these test cars, as the actual car goes on sale in March. He brought the car over to me, complaining about how painfully slow it is compared to the Altima V6.

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GMC held a Ride & Drive event to let the press have a go with the latest GMC offerings. The drive was a road-trip from Dubai to Fujairah and back, involving no offroading. So I sent my support-monkey brother and his buddy on the trip, should anything exciting happen. The event was also supposed to showcase the all-new Terrain compact 4WD.

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While I was playing with the Nissan Altima, I had to send my support-monkey younger brother to pick up this Lincoln MKZ. This is our third Ford-owned vehicle this month, after the Jaguar XKR and the Ford Five Hundred. I haven’t stepped downstairs to look at the car yet, but for some reason, he is impressed by this vehicle, citing good acceleration, great exclusivity, and even better handling.

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I’ve hardly driven our Nissan Altima 3.5 SE tester at this point, but right now it isn’t what I’d call “class-leading,” considering how noisy the tractor-like V6 engine sounds. Combine that with a CVT tranny, and the whole setup just feels a bit “off” in a car with sporting pretensions.

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So what does the “Five Hundred” stand for, especially since it’s in words rather than numbers? Does it have a 5.0-litre engine? Nope. 500 horses maybe? What. Celebrating 500 years as a company? Unlikely. About the only “500” we came across is that the 2008 model has more than 500 changes compared to the 2005-2007 version, which wasn’t sold here anyway. And it was still called the Five Hundred even before the 500 changes, although they did tack on the “500” number on many models decades ago. But Ford already calls the 2008 model a “Taurus”

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