Jaguar, the British luxury carmaker and wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, have introduced their facelifted XF model for 2012 at the 2011 New York International Auto Show. Resembling the C-XF concept design which debuted in 2007, more than ever before, the new XF looks promising enough to attract a fair share of popularity.
Nominated new car models have now been announced for the 2011 Middle East Motor Awards. Vice President of the FIA and President of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE Mohammed ben Sulayem has offered his full support to the region’s largest motor awards, which are set to take place on November 3rd later this year at the Sharjah Expo Centre. I am a member of the judging committee, although my influence on this list was limited, considering there are 18 judges this year!
You may have heard by now that Audi has launched their Mini-wannabe model, the A1, in the UAE. Armed with a 122 hp 1.4-litre “TFSI” engine, women and girly-men are being lured by various promotional activities for the A1, including product placements around malls, big billboards on the streets, and overly-positive “reviews” in local magazines. If you really want this front-wheel-drive supermini though, you can wait for this one. Caught by one of our readers, Nabeal Malik, it looks to be a higher-spec Audi A1 model.
Boasting a phenomenal increase of sales by 178% in the first quarter of 2011, the strongest in the Middle East for the period, AGMC has announced the arrival of two “distinctive” Phantom models going by a fancy name as long as “Spirit of Ecstasy Centenary Collection”.
The heavily-revised 2011 Dodge Charger and the totally-new 2011 Dodge Durango were launched in the UAE, at a media event held in the underground parking lot of the Festival City Mall in Dubai, followed by a free premiere screening of The Fast & The Furious 5 movie, which prominently features the new Charger.
Chevrolet has revealed the Corvette C6 with some mild upgrades for 2012, rather than the anticipated all new “C7” model. The changes to the 2012 model are limited only to interior for the base model and optional external changes for the higher models. These enhancements however should improve driving performance and on-road comfort.
Kia has come such a long way in such a short time. Once the maker of unreliable tin cans that wouldn’t sell even though cheap, now they are among the best carmakers in the business, with class-leading build quality, ground-breaking styling and still keeping it all relatively cheap. Their bestseller in the UAE is obviously the Kia Sportage. Out since late last year, the 2011 model is already a common sight on Dubai roads. So when we picked up this white tester, we knew we weren’t going to come up with a convincing review. Many people were already convinced.
Al Tayer Motors, the Ferrari and Maserati dealer for the UAE, has re-opened their Dubai showroom after an extensive refurbishment and expansion. It was unveiled during a media event last week.
While taking a walk around Sharjah I happened to spot this weird tiny car parked right next to an elegant Chevy Malibu wearing the same bowtie badge. A walk around it and the badges read a plain ‘Sail’. It was a manual variant with an interior as plain as the Empty Quarter; or maybe the Empty Quarter looked better. The front looks fine, rear looks ugly and the whole thing looked as if some revengeful dismissed ex-designer from Chevrolet had messed up with the Aveo design.
في هذا السياق، يتضمن محرك السيارة المسطح عمود المرفق عينه المعتمد في محرك سيارة السباق “911 جي تي3 آر إس آر” 911 GT3 RSR، والذي يتألف من ست أسطوانات.