When our editor asked me if I wanted to attend a Roll Royce drive event, I didn’t think twice. And I didn’t even bother to ask which Rolls Royce I was getting to drive. Turns out the event was to introduce us to the newest member of the Rolls Royce family, the Wraith.
When I was looking out for a manual transmission car, Alfa Romeo was never on my list. Though I knew very little about the brand, I always admired late-model Alfas like the 159 and the Brera. When I went to check out this red car, it was the very first Alfa 155 I was about to see. It was like ‘love at first sight’. A car that looks, sounds and drives like a race car. And for a used price tag of Dhs 10,000, I couldn’t resist the deal. Was the car reliable? Is it hard to find parts?
Mercedes-Benz held their annual AMG Driving Academy event yet again, at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. It is that one night of the year where we get to thrash the heck out of various new AMG models, and the slightly new format for this year was better than ever. They packed in so much track-time under the floodlights that several of the others in our media bunch were quitting out of exhaustion by the middle of the evening. We carried on, of course. With cars like the A 45 AMG, the E 63 S AMG, the SL 63 AMG,
What kind of people buy Toyota Corollas? Maybe the kind who walk into a showroom and the first thing they ask is “does it come with an automatic?” Maybe the kind who has a great job in the GCC and still keeps asking “how will I survive these high petrol prices?” Or maybe the kind whose first question to a Jaguar sports-car owner is “what’s the resale value?”
Mercedes-Benz has just launched the new 2014 Sprinter in the UAE and Middle East. Just like the last Sprinter event we went to back in 2008, Mercedes-Benz emphasised on the safety features of the latest facelifted model.
Another month, another Bentley. This GTC V8 is the fifth variant of the updated Bentley Continental GT we’ve driven in the past 18 months, and heck, it never gets old.
The Ford Taurus is a bit of an oddity in the market. It’s not an obvious choice for most, and given that its direct competition includes the well-regarded Dodge Charger, you’d be forgiven for dismissing the Taurus altogether. However, the Taurus is aimed at a far more niche market than the Charger.
Al Futtaim Motors didn’t hold back at this year’s event when launching the all-new 2014 Toyota Yaris sedan in the UAE. It is, after all, one of their best sellers. With the new Yaris, Toyota are probably going to maintain their lion’s share of the sub-compact market once again, thanks to the new looks and cheaper entry-level model.
Let me start off by saying that I was missing in South Korea for the past one week, not for a test-drive event, but to be part of a new programme by Hyundai, dubbed the Hyundai Global Club Invitation. It’s an event that involved flying in around 35 people from 14 countries who contributed to the cause of promoting Hyundai, mostly by starting local Hyundai clubs and such, while a handful of “bloggers” were along for the ride. Somehow I was representing the UAE there, although I didn’t know that when I agreed to go for this trip. Between the long flights and 4 days of touring Hyundai’s facilities as well as South Korea itself,
When shopping for a hot hatch in the UAE, the VW Golf GTI is on every potential buyer’s shopping list, usually as the only choice. But when shopping for a compact car here, the “regular” VW Golf is never on anyone’s shopping list. In fact, the GTI actually outsells the standard Golf here. The Golf is generally pricier than its rivals, but we’ll see if the extra cost is justified as much as it is in its GTI sibling.
