News

Now that our old guide has been officially given a decent burial, our new Ultimate Car Buyer Guide has firmly taken over as the region’s best automotive resource. I might be tooting my own horn, but please direct me to a better source if there is one, so I can copy stuff off it, because personally researching all this information is a real pain. If you missed the latest cars that were added during the launch of our new guide, they are listed below. Also, if you have any older cars in mind which you’d like to see added to the ever-growing guide,

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Ford has revealed the 2009 Focus RS hot hatch that they’re going to show at this month’s London Motor Show. Along with all the body-kit pieces you see in the photos, the car will pack a 295 hp 2.5-litre turbocharged 5-cylinder, using 410 Nm of torque through the front wheels, good for 0-100 kph runs under 6 seconds.

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England-based luxo-tuner Project Kahn has come up with yet another appearance package, this time for the Bentley Continental GT. The ‘Black Edition’ has an eight-piece body consisting of a three piece rear valance, two side skirts, a two piece front valance and a rear boot spoiler. Optional are the coolest alloy wheels we’ve seen in a long time.

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Photos of the all-new 2009 BMW 7-Series have hit the web before its upcoming official launch. The new model looks strikingly better than the outgoing blob, which can truly be called the ugliest sedan in the history of BMW.

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The unloved Kia Cerato is on its way to the grave. Not a bad car overall, it just couldn’t compete with the usual Japanese appliances. So much so that Kia has completely redesigned their new compact offering, now calling it the Forte.

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The Romanian-built Dacia Logan was launched in 2004, under the ownership of Renault, as an ultra-cheap car for Eastern Europe, which later became a hit in places like Brazil, Iran and even Western Europe. Renault even showed off the car, badged as a Renault Logan, at the 2007 Dubai Motor Show, but we never heard any more about it after that. We believe Renault’s GCC operations are seriously considering bringing this car here, although it would end up competing with their own outdated Clio Classic. Before it could even make it here, the original European version has been given a facelift.

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Here is the latest batch of letters to the editor, for the month of June. Glad to clear up any confusion about resale values of Toyota, Infiniti, Nissan…and VW.

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I was pissed when my PR dodo told me he arranged a test-drive during my self-imposed break from road tests. It didn’t help matters when he said the only car he managed to get was a Ford Focus. I went and picked it up today, with a minor confusion as Ford and Jaguar/Land Rover are separating their offices, for obvious reasons. On top of that, the tester turned out to be the 1.6-litre version, instead of the larger-engined one. However, it is in Ghia trim, with upgraded 16-inch wheels and 205/55 tyres. After taking it away and pulling it through some corners,

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It seems AGMC, Dubai’s exclusive BMW dealer, recently held the first BMW M Power Driver Training session at the Dubai Autodrome. More than 30 AGMC customers attended the road safety awareness driver-training course with their own cars, new or old. Wait a minute…I own a BMW M Roadster, and I wasn’t invited. But then it hit me…I bought my car second-hand, and I’ve never stepped into an AGMC service bay, in the interests of avoiding the rumoured Dhs 1000 oil changes. I may have plastered my BMW all over this website, but AGMC has no record of me owning it.

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The new top-rung version of America’s favourite sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, has managed to a pull off a time of 7:26 minutes at Germany’s famed Nurburgring racetrack, driven by a GM development engineer. The ZR1 thereby beats the amazing 7:29 set by the “basic” Nissan GT-R recently (after setting 7:38 on a wet track earlier). However, the ZR1 has a tough battle ahead, as the prototype lightweight Nissan GT-R V-Spec has already been casually timed doing 7:25, while the pricey Lexus LF-A prototype has already pulled off a 7:24. Honda is already testing an NSX prototype,

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