Feature Stories

The holy month of Ramadan is a time for being humble and hungry, so it pains us to see it being turned into a commercial enterprise where hotels that generally serve booze year-round try to entice customers with overpriced “ramadan tents” and car dealers start offering interest-laden products with “take loan now, get screwed later” offers. However, we don’t really mind genuine discounts in the spirit of Ramadan, and as such, the car market comes alive during this time. We just had a boost in traffic to our website thanks to people researching various models for purchase. Here is a list of the top 10 most researched vehicles on our website this Ramadan,

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While some say that car sales are picking up around the world, the recession is busy taking names and beating up stragglers in the automotive marketplace. Manufacturers are keen on cutting models that are underperforming in terms of sales, either because demand has subsided or because they were niche models in the first place. Here is a list of eight good cars that have either been confirmed for cancellation soon or have rumours circling in the media about their demise.

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The Chevrolet Suburban is, or was, very popular in the United States and continues to be popular in GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia, where the ability to carry your ten children over rugged terrain is a daily necessity. Surprisingly, the Chevrolet Suburban has been in existence for 75 long years, and GM estimates that up to 2.4 million have been built. General Motors decided to celebrate by bringing together all the iterations of the Suburban over the years for an American media jaunt, while conveniently ignoring the rebadged GMC version. Models from 1936, 1946, 1951, 1966, 1972, 1990,

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“Vroomm…whoa!!! What zoomed past me just now? RX-8? Naah, the badge says..oh wait, it reads Mazda 6…WHAT?” Well, that was sort of an exaggeration for a car like the 6 – mind you all, I am making mention of not the Ultra but the smaller and cuter Japanese variant here; no, I am not underestimating it either. But unlike what Mazda boasts about the 6, the car isn’t really all about zoom-zoom (in a positive sense).

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Few companies offer media drives of their all-new models in the UAE itself before they become available to consumers. And we don’t get invited to most of them because they are afraid of us. However, Fiat is making a comeback in the region, and they did invite us to their 2010 Bravo unveiling in Abu Dhabi, complete with a fleet of European-spec test cars for the event.

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We took our first ever 2010 long-term car on a trip from Dubai to Ras-Al-Khaimah, partly as an excuse to test the highway behaviour of the Chevrolet Malibu LTZ on a long drive, and partly to meet our resident desert-safari-driving friend, who happens to live in that rocky city.

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The Range Rover, one of the most significant vehicles in the history of motoring, will celebrate its 40th birthday on June 17, 2010. It was the world’s first vehicle as good on-road as off-road. The Range Rover was the first capable luxury 4×4 in its time and was a milestone in the development of the SUV.

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We’ve had in our possession a 2000 BMW Z3 M Roadster since the beginning of 2008. It is as close as limited-income people like us can get to owning an exotic car without selling off kidneys and limbs. But in the past decade, the Z3 was replaced by the Z4, and then came a second-generation Z4 in 2009. So for a few days in 2010, we had in our possession a BMW Z4 sDrive30i. Ironically, the new mid-range Z4 now costs as much as the M Roadster used to cost a decade ago. So is a regular Z4 really at the same level as an M-tuned Z3 of the past?

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You know that all those years of being a good boy is paying off when people suddenly call up to offer you a black 2010 Chevy Camaro SS for the weekend. With an LS3 V8. And a manual transmission. For a second round. The manual SS is initially hard to drive, but having just about mastered the clutch-gearbox combo the last time, we figured we’d do something different this time around. We’ll do the first-ever fuel economy test for this car, while still driving in regular traffic at regular speeds.

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The General organised a little two-day trip for journalists to the Le Meridien Al Aqah, with some scuba diving, private rooms and Chevy Tahoes thrown in for good measure. I was a bit perplexed as to why they were promoting the unchanged-for-2010 Tahoe, but heck, who are we to argue.

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