Category: Automotive

Today afternoon I went picked up a red Mercedes SLK from the dealer so I could review it over the weekend. Originally I was supposed to get the G55 but it was out with a potential buyer so I got the SLK instead. Which by the way isn’t a disappointment at all since the weather is perfect for a convertible.

I have had a crush on the SLK for a long time now but the original one, the first model that came out was a bit girlish while the new model looks more aggressive. They gave me the SLK200 which is the low end version of the car meaning no power seats, no navigation and the smallest engine but all that really doesn’t matter when flying down the Gulf Road with the roof down.

The first thing I did once I drove out of the dealers lot was to bring down the hard top with a click of a button. My Wrangler needs like 15 minutes and 2 people to be able to remove the roof and here I was sitting in my car and with a flick of a switch, 30 seconds later the roof was off. How I love technology. I am extremely disappointed that BMW still use soft tops which I really hate.

The color of the SLK is red which matches my Ducati nicely. It was dark by the time I picked up the car so I couldn’t take any decent pictures so I will take better ones tomorrow. While at the dealer waiting to pick up the car I spotted an SLR on display. I was surprised they were displaying it since I thought you needed to order the car. The price is KD150,000 which the dealer assured me is a good deal since it was previously priced at KD165,000. Thats still a bit over my budget.

Why can’t places in Kuwait have decent websites? Speed Zone is a used car dealership located on the Gulf Road opposite Showbiz. They always have interesting cars parked out in front of it and so when I found out they had a website I was excited. I don’t pass by Speed Zone often so I figured I could keep track of all the cool cars they get via their website.

Turns out I was wrong, their website is a mess and contains practically no information whatsoever. I even checked the Arabic version of the site figuring it might be more complete and still ended up with nothing. It would be cool if they had a live webcam over looking their cars but thats asking to much when they don’t even have a photo gallery.

Also whats with the weird spelling and grammar. They have an animated flash saying “Speed Zone which you can’t catch up”. What does that mean?

Check this out also taken from their site:

prief about Speed Zone
This is Speed zone company on Kuwait which care about speed & luxury vehicles. we will provide the new cars, motorcycle and their spare parts which will give you the optimal performance and speed, so don’t miss our site it would be up to date with the new stuff so catch it up or you will miss it with speed zone.

I really hope they fix things because they do get some really cool cars all the time and their site isn’t doing them any justice. [Link]

A user commented under my post on the G55 AMG yesterday that TopGear had reviewed. So I checked YouTube and I found the video. According to Richard Hammond, the G55 AMG is “The coolest car in the world”.

I just got back from the Mercedes SUV experience awhile ago. The event is being held near the ice skating rink parking lot.

So I am parking my car and I spot a Mercedes G-Class doing a climb decent. I was thinking wow they actually have the G-Class here. For those of you who don’t know, my favorite SUV is the G-Class and my favorite SUV list actually goes something like this (notice they are all boxy):

1- Mercedes G-Class
2- Land Rover Defender
3- Land Rover LR3
4- Jeep Wrangler

So I get into the main tent and sign up for a ride in the G-Class and then head over to the car. Once I got close I realized this wasn’t the regular G-Class, this was the freakin 500HP AMG version! This was like the motherload. Sadly I wasn’t able to drive the car today because they had professional drivers taking the guests around the track BUT, I was promised by my Mercedes contact that once the event was over and the car cleaned up I would be able to have it for a test drive. When that happens be sure I will post about it here.

Just saw the new license plates live, it looks kinda boring.

I was on the Gulf Road yesterday driving towards Salmiya when I saw a bright flash light go off around a 100 meters in front of me. The speed camera just before the gas station and Texas Chicken was installed again over the weekend…

The interior of the M45 is really spacious specially for the rear passengers. There is a lot of legroom in the back plus the passengers have their own control station where they can control a few options including their seat position, the radio, the rear curtain and more.

The interior is also really cozy, the seats are big and comfy and its all very quiet inside the car once you roll up all the windows. Many times I would be cruising on the road only to look down at the speedometer and notice that I am way above the legal speed limit.

Other then the exterior styling though my only other issue with the car is the rear windows, they don’t roll down all the way which might be annoying for some people. The sound system could probably use a sub in the trunk but then again it could be just me.

The video was shot in Egypt, I am not going to ruin it by telling you what happens.

Starting Saturday, Kuwait will be issuing new license plates for the cars. I just saw an article in the Daily Star newspaper about it and I think the new plates look better then the current ones we have, but I don’t think they are better then Dubai’s. I just hope the new plates come in the really wide size also because this squarish one looks really weird on my Beemer.

The M45 is a nice car but its not a G35. The car isn’t as fun or as cool, its a family car. Its got a powerful V8 engine and all, but unlike the Infiniti G35 which they lent me last week, I don’t want to speed in this car. The G35 actually made me want to trade in my car for it but so far I haven’t clicked with the M45 like that. Maybe if I was older and had kids I would prefer the M45 over the G35 but at the moment I am not swinging that way. Its pretty comfortable though and I love how smooth and quiet it is on the highway.

During my lunch break I headed over to Infiniti to pick up the M45. Its going to be with me until Wednesday evening. I wasn’t really looking forward to it that much because I was expecting it to be slow and heavy but luckily they gave me the V8 362HP version which so far seems to be as fast as the G35 I drove last week. Styling wise the G35 wins hands down. The G35 looks sportier and sleeker but thats probably because the M45 is targeting a different more mature group. The M45 is a bigger car and its noticeable from the larger interior but they still try to make it look sporty by giving it 18inch 19inch wheels and 4 exhaust tips at the back. I didn’t have time to take a picture yet, just took this one from their website.

Dent Xpress have redesigned their website. It looks nicer and the gallery section works better. They also just launched a new promotion. For every KD20 spent at Dent Xpress you get a chance to enter a draw to win one 4GB iPod Nano every month. The promotion starts today and the first draw will be on Wednesday February 27th. Winner will be notified directly and also announced on 248AM and the Dent Xpress website. Here is a link to their website if you haven’t checked it yet. [Link]

K.TheKuwaiti sent me a note that the Gulf Run pictures are now all online. There are tons and tons of pictures and a lot of very hot cars but my favorite is the Noble of course. [Link]

I would like to welcome Mercedes Benz to the site, they are one of my new sponsors. They’ve taken the skyscraper ad on the bottom of the sidebar and will be us for a few weeks. I hope they will lend me one of their cars to try out, maybe the new S Class, or an SL, or CLS or even an SLK. The weather is cool and I wouldn’t mind driving around in a convertible, hint hint.

So I have had the 2007 Infiniti G35 for three days now and its really grown on me. There are a couple of things I like about it and a couple of things I dislike about it, here is my list so far:

– Key-less entry. I have a small key chain I keep in my pocket, once I touch the door handle the car gets unlocked. Whats cool is when I had the key chain in my jacket pocket and I kept my jacket in the car and I tried to lock the doors it wouldn’t lock, the car knew the key was inside the car not outside it. What I dislike is when I touch the door handle only the driver side door unlocks, I need to unlock the other doors using the door unlock button located inside the car.

– Reverse camera. I first saw this on the Infiniti Q45 two or three years ago and now its becoming standard on more and more cars. If only there was a way to activate it without going into reverse, it would be a cool way to spy on the people in the car behind during traffic.

– Sound system. Its Bose which I dislike but surprisingly its pretty beefy. Loads of speakers scattered all over the car and the bass isn’t lacking. Car also has video and audio RCA inputs so you can hook up your iPod Video and just watch videos or listen to music on the screen.

– Steering wheel. Its covered in thick hand stitched leather and it gives the car a very lush feel.

– Center console. Its a love hate relationship. It feels very Japanese which I dislike. I prefer the design of the Europeans. The interior of the Infiniti reminds me a lot of the Lexus which makes sense since its also a Japanese car.

– BLS or G35? Easily by far the G35. I think I will post a more detailed comparison later.

– Acceleration. 0 to 100km in just 5.3 seconds, do I need to say more?

I can’t believe I have to give this car back in a few days.

update: found a bunch of settings I can change using the settings button on the console. I figured out how to turn on the option that allows all the doors to open when I touch the door handle, I also found other nifty options like how dark should it be before the car lights automatically comes on and other little things like that.