UAE

The Porsche 911 is probably the longest-running sports-car nameplate ever. It has retained some semblance of familiarity since its debut in 1963, improving with every generation, eventually reaching a point where they cannot further optimise the shape any more. There are thousands of 911s running around the world right now. And yet, very few people have actually been behind the wheel of these so-called “iconic” cars. Are they really iconic? Well, we finally got behind the wheel of the 911 Carrera GTS to find out, if only for a day.

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We’d already heard about it from our sources at the Nissan dealership, so this is just a confirmation. The older-generation Nissan Patrol, currently still available in 5-door form alongside the new Patrol, will also be offered in the 3-door short-wheelbase body style for 2012 in the UAE.

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One of the local favorites, the Infiniti FX, has received a mild facelift with changes confined to a slight bumper redesign and nothing much else.

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Who would’ve thought that the new Ford Explorer would be such a hot topic? But it is. The redesigned 2011 Explorer has been around for a year now, but only now has it reached the GCC. And what we have here is one of the first vehicles to land in the UAE, and we’re the first to review it. Incidentally, the first shipment is already sold out.

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Ford Middle East hosted a three-day public event dubbed Can-A-Car at the end of July at the Dubai Autodrome. The event was aimed at publicising Ford’s latest American line-up, including the all-new 2012 Ford Explorer. And a fair number of visitors to the event happened to be our regular readers, though all of them showed up at different times on different days.

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The Nissan Juke didn’t make much sense to us, considering the Qashqai was already on sale here. But it has apparently become a hit wherever it has gone on sale so far. This is the first time we got to look at the Juke in person, and it is seemingly nothing like the Qashqai on which it is based.

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Well, looks like we’ve landed an exclusive. This here is the first 2012 Honda Civic to be reviewed in the UAE. After months of spy photos by readers spotting these mysterious cars all over Dubai, the Japanese firm has finally gone official with their new compact contender.

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We were wondering why Honda Middle East didn’t do this sooner. Prices of Japanese cars are so high nowadays due to the retarded world of currency fluctuations that the American-built Honda Accord Coupe was priced higher than the Japanese-built Honda Accord sedan in 2011. Of course, now the sedan is also being imported from the United States, although Honda isn’t making a big deal out of it.

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When we heard that Porsche Middle East had bumped up their test-drive period to a little more than a day now, we were more than a little pleased. Previously, Porsche used to hand over test vehicles for just six hours at a time so as to avoid naive journalists, drunk or otherwise, from trashing their cars. So we’d never bothered to drive their cars before, outside of their spectacular roadshows at local race-tracks. But things change, and we went ahead and asked for a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS.

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We’ve already known for months now that the first shipment of 2012 Honda Civic sedans were on sale in the UAE quietly. According to Honda, the Japanese carmaker “faced immense challenges in its production capabilities due to the earthquake & tsunami disasters in March 2011.” Honda was in short supply of the new models, so they did not actively advertise the fact that limited numbers were already available, which was likely sold out easily enough. But Honda has now released full details about their new model.

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