European Car News

The Seat Ibiza has received a major makeover for the 2009 model year, and will debut first in Europe. It continues to offer unique styling in a segment that has yet to make any inroads in the GCC.

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The top breaking news story for tonight is that UK-based parent company Aston Martin, newly independent from Ford, is being sued for US$50 million by its Dubai-based Middle East distributors because of an apparent breach of contract. The lawsuit, filed by Middle East Aston Martin (MEAM), claims one of the new owners of the carmaker, Kuwaiti investment group DAR, is planning to refinance its stake in the company (whatever that means) and has disallowed the distributor to renew its investment, according to Reuters news agency.

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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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Faralli & Mazzanti, Italian builders of the custom Antas that we checked out last month, have added the V12-powered Vulca to their portfolio.

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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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The Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG will be used as the official safety car for the 2008 season of Formula 1 racing. The SL63 is one of those Black Edition models, with lightened panels and a fixed roof. In addition, the official medical car will be a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG station wagon.

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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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The 2008 Geneva Auto Show is on, and one of the big debuts at the show is the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4.

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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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The 2009 Volkswagen Scirocco was supposed to be unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Auto Show this March, but photos of the new hatchback have already been leaked. While the car does not have the usual corporate grille design, poor VW doesn’t seem to understand that yet another similar car is going to cut into sales of their own Golf GTI, Seat Leon Cupra and Audi A3. Having a bunch of overlapping cars so similar to each other is what put them in financial trouble, among other things.

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