Advice for buying my first car in Dubai

[FaezRoger]

Hi! I'm planning to buy my first car in Dubai and am very attracted to the older German cars available in the 15k to 25k range...Audis and BMWs. My only concern is that I don't want to be stuck with a car that will cost me too much in terms of periodic maintenance and spare parts. I know that Japanese/Korean cars are much more economical, but I'm looking for a win-win situation. Any advice on what i should go for?

[Gaurav]

Avoid German cars in that 15-25k budget like a plague, as they have a low resale value for a reason. In German cars, max safe age to buy is less than 5 years. After 5 years till 10 years is 50% chance of getting troubles and if you do, they aren't cheap AT ALL. Anything above 10 years, don't buy unless you have same model donor car handy, as parts will cost you a fortune to maintain.

Germans and American cars after 10 years are very risky to own and that's why they loose value overtime too fast as opposed to the Japanese car, that comes with 15-20 years of usable life with reasonable expense.

[Frederic]

As a classic BMW lover myself i fully agree with Gaurav. I wanted to buy a 540i Japanese import first but realized that it would take me many trips to the Sharjah workshops myself to keep things economical for this type of cars. Where i come from in Europe we have more spareparts and knowledge available to keep these cars on the road and also the climate is less demanding. If you're not doing too many miles on a daily basis it might be worth taking the risk, but be fully aware that it might cost you another +15kAED the first year to get the car in the condition you want and to repair the critical things.

I went for a 2013 316i because the resale value is indeed very low, and it was well looked after. 

A decent Japanese brand with more spare-parts availability will give you more ease of mind. Did you consider an Infiniti G37 ? It's japanese, and it's fast. Not sure about the reliability though but my colleague drives infiniti and is really happy with it.

Good luck.

Edited November 20, 2017 by Frederic Nuyttens

[FaezRoger]

Hey Gaurav/Frederic, valuable advice indeed. Will keep you posted on what I end up buying. As much as I love German cars for their road presence, I might just end up going for a more practical Japanese/Korean option.

[shadow79]

better japanese then korean....