We’d heard rumblings that Honda had a batch of 2012 Honda Civic sedans shipped to the UAE, but backed off from properly launching the new model due to the supply shortage after the Japanese earthquake. These cars apparently went on sale quietly, and one of our readers snagged these photos of the Civic at one of Honda’s dealerships in Dubai.
Geely is on a roll in the GCC region, it seems. Two test cars in light camo which were spotted by two commuters in Dubai on two different streets that lay fairly close by, turned out to be two different models from the same manufacturer, Geely. This one is the Emgrand EC825.
German carmaker BMW has just expanded their 6-series line-up for 2012 with the introduction of four new variants – the 640d Coupe, 640d Covertible, 650i xDrive Coupe and 650i xDrive Convertible.
If anyone remembers seeing the Azera, the full-sized sedan from Hyundai that was based and heavily resembled a modified previous-generation Sonata, they would gladly confirm that it wasn’t the best premium car around. Being one of their flagship models, Hyundai had put a lot of faith in it, but the Genesis came along, and so did the next generation Sonata, wiping out whatever buzz it had.
German tuning firm AC Schnitzer has unveiled their range of performance and styling enhancements exclusively developed for the BMW X3.
Cadillac, the premium luxury brand of General Motors, will enter the compact car segment; with the all-new model “ATS”. Designed to take on premium competition like the Mercedes C-class and BMW 3 series, the ATS is based on the new Alpha platform, which will simultaneously underpin the next generation Chevrolet Camaro.
Bridgestone Middle East has just launched the ECOPIA EP100A tyre for the Middle East and Africa markets, at an event in Dubai, UAE. Bridgestone “rises up to the challenge in helping our planet” with this tyre, which apparently saves fuel thanks to lower rolling resistance.
Not so long ago did we report about the all new super-compact 2012 MINI Coupe dressed in designer camouflage, and now the Coupe has been unofficially unmasked revealing more interesting details.
“Real” journalists with Western passports fly to foreign destinations every other week, fully paid for by carmakers, with 5-star hotel stays and business-class flights. For that, all they have to do is “review” a car. Of course, third-world jerks like me don’t get foreign invites all that often, especially since I reveal more than just the test-drive itself. The couple of invites that I did get, I couldn’t go mostly due to visa hassles. So when Hyundai’s UAE dealer invited me for a three-day trip to South Korea to test-drive the all-new 2012 Hyundai Elantra, I agreed of course.
The Renault Koleos, a rebadged compact crossover built in Korea, has never really sold well in the GCC since its launch a couple of years ago. So the carmaker is going at it a second time with a facelifted model for 2012.