American Specs Vehicles

[FARAZ MOHAMMED]

What is the advise for purchasing American specs vehicles for offroad? Is it worth or is it a strict NO NO? does anyone owns American specs vehicles in the club? 

[munkybizness]

There is a similar post on this from a year ago that has some valuable insight - @Frederic can shed more light (as he has on that post)

https://carnity.com/forums/topic/15476-non-gcc-spec-cars-pros-cons

Edited February 6, 2022 by munkybizness

[Cha]

Two things to check if the car is FOB (fresh off the boat - never owned used UAE locally):

1: check if the car has a major accident, no affect to chassis/frame, engine, not flooded burnt - search the car vin number on google you should find the accident images and relevent information before UAE.

2: make sure the car is 4x4 - the car must have 4x4 control knob/lever of 4high 4low

 

US cars are cost effective options, and they tend to have higher spec than GCC ones. My dream is to find a V8 pathfinder R51 here, it was only available in US market

Edited February 6, 2022 by Zixuan Huang - Charlie

[Joseph Raju]

I am sharing mine past experience of using non GCC spec vehicle here in UAE.

I had a Europe spec Car which provided by my company. Unfortunately I damaged the front bumper and bumper bracket. Mine insurance was agency repair so I went to Authorized Dealer workshop for the repair and the new bumper which is GCC spec is not suitable with my car. Appearance is same but the mounting points are different.

This happened because the production of Europe spec is from Slovakia and GCC spec is from Korea.  So sometimes GCC spec spare parts will not suitable for other spec vehicles otherwise both should produced and assembled from same region. I heard that some American and GCC spec models are from same region, in that case I think this will not be an issue.

And also maximum temperature capacity of automobile components will be different in each spec. For example consider the maximum operation temperature of a component is 100 degree Celsius in 27 degree Celsius (ambient atmosphere temperature). When the ambient atmosphere temperature increases (in case of UAE around 47 degree) the operation temperature also tends to increase and sometimes it will exceed the maximum thermal capacity of the component and led to the failure of the component. In case of same region production I think this will be ok.

So in my humble opinion those American vehicles which produced from same GCC vehicles will be good.

 

[ShereenMK]

On 2/6/2022 at 1:46 PM, Zixuan Huang - Charlie said:

US cars are cost effective options, and they tend to have higher spec than GCC ones. My dream is to find a V8 pathfinder R51 here, it was only available in US market

Hello Brother,

I would like to know more about your R51 in the sand as there are not many R51 riders. I have one 2011 model with me now and would like to take to sand some time. I know that engine is same as Xterra, is there any issue that you faced. Can you shed some light from your experience.

[Cha]

2 hours ago, ShereenMK said:

Hello Brother,

I would like to know more about your R51 in the sand as there are not many R51 riders. I have one 2011 model with me now and would like to take to sand some time. I know that engine is same as Xterra, is there any issue that you faced. Can you shed some light from your experience.

Hi Shereen, for occasionaly NB FB level is ok without modification, FB+ and above you will need to improve the approaching angle and clearance. i have faced overheating issue during peak summer. and rear independent suspension did cause troubles during self recovery, solid axle does better job,but trade off is much better onroad handling for full independent suspensioned R51

Other than those R51 is powerful, heavier longer wheelbase than Xterra but not too long

I would stick to the LC100, its better than R51 in general.

[ShereenMK]

21 hours ago, Zixuan Huang - Charlie said:

 

I would stick to the LC100, its better than R51 in general.

Thanks @Zixuan Huang - Charlie for the insight. actually i am not going to sell LC100, gonna keep it, but got an R51 in hand so wanna give a go with that too. Just want to know what to expect, coz maintenance is on me.🙄