This is great news. For the first time ever, Mazda has contacted us for a press conference. It seems Mazda has finally taken the initiative and is launching the MX-5 roadster, also known as Miata in USA, in the GCC on October 22. The MX-5 is the best sports car in its class. Available abroad as a ragtop convertible or a folding-hardtop convertible, it remains to be seen what engines and body-styles are offered in this region.
We just received a list of 2008 models from General Motors Middle East, and hidden in this list is a “CSV CR8” with “400+ horsepower” and what not. This is confirmation that Chevrolet will finally release the Australian HSV Commodore supersedans in the Middle East with Chevy badging, but dropping the Lumina name. There are even photos of the Chevy-badged car in the GCC.
Seen here is the first ever unmasked photo of the 2008 Nissan Skyline GT-R. American Motor Trend magazine prematurely put the car on their cover too. We don’t have the magazine, but they revealed a handful of performance specs.
I took the BMW X5 off-road because BMW kept pounding the public with evidence that it could, showing it as doing dunes and climbing man-made hills. I got it stuck and had to tow it out. On the other hand, the GMC Acadia was never advertised as being anything more than a road-going vehicle. But Diego, our not-so-bright PR guy, took it off-road anyway when I wasn’t looking.
The TV show and the movie were bad enough, but here is a reenactment of one of the jumps that made The Dukes of Hazzard popular back in the 1970s. Needless to say, it didn’t go exactly as planned.
The Middle East is forced to feel content with the 360 hp Chevy-badged Lumina SS, but its Australian maker is really having some fun with it for the domestic market. The 400 hp HSV versions of the Commodore (aka Lumina) sedan were released a year ago in Australia, but this is the first time they have unveiled the HSV version of this Holden Ute pickup derivative, named the HSV Maloo R8.
Yep, Dubai Police has taken delivery of 101 BMW 5-Series cars, half of which will be used as patrol cars. They are a good step up from the Mercedes-Benz C-classes, Toyota Fortuners and Nissan Pathfinders the cops keep trolling around in already.
The Jaguar X-Type was always considered a joke since the day it was released. It drives well enough, it looks great, and it even improved its reliability record over the years. But its price combined with the fact that it is simply a reworked Ford Mondeo was enough to spell disaster for what was supposed to be Jag’s volume model. Unlike the S-Type-to-XF transformation, the X-Type gets a minor refresh to keep it going until it is killed eventually.
To give our lumbering Infiniti QX56 some company this Eid, we also got a brand new GMC Acadia as a little brother. Except that the “little one” is also pretty big and likes to park in the adult parking lot. It’s a good thing and a bad thing that parking is free during the holidays. Good because I don’t have to shell out more money to the RTA. Bad because every cheap nincompoop will now come out of the woodwork and fill up the limited spaces.
We were supposed to pick up an Infiniti FX for this Eid-Al-Fitr, so it was a surprise when we were handed the keys to the QX56. Confusing letters aside, we never drove it before, and it is going to be an interesting exercise driving what it possibly the largest passenger vehicle that isn’t a bus. Less obnoxious than the Hummer H2, but still quite a bit longer, it is at least easy to drive.