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Always, always look at the painters work before you give in your car for any paintjob. Visit the workshop, see what kind of prep work is being done, see a car thats already in the booth being painted and look at some jobs that have been done and waiting for delivery. There are tons of good painters here who have learned from years of experience if not decades, but if you go to the workshop and insist on paying absolutely the bottom dollar then expect crappy work. Not always the case but in majority of the cases. @Gaurav got his Pajero repainted around year or so back we went had a look at the shop first, once satisfied only then gave the car in for the job. I think he went and asked or actually supplied a better quality paint later on. Job was a good one from what I recall. @ Barry's borderline racist comments, the less said the better.

In what way do you mean superior? I've seen plenty of audis and bmws with crazed lacquer. If you mean the quality of painting here is crap then I totally agree. If you want to be a painter in Europe you have to go to tech school and complete an apprenticeship under a qualified painter. Here they just hand a spray gun to any fresh import and say, ok habibi, paint. It's the same as mechanics. I been to a few European countries and I can say the standard of work here is the lowest I've ever seen. And it will always be like that because people chase the lowest prices rather than pay a professional for a good job. My friend got rear ended a few months ago. Should have been a simple fix but it wasn't. He got the car back with different colored reverse sensors. The broken bit of the tail light was stuck back on with silicon. The bumper didn't line up. You could see the sanding marks in the body filler through the paint. The paintwork was done in an oven but the door was left open so there were telltale signs of silicon/oil contamination, orange peel effect everywhere. When they were done with the paintwork, they didn't even bother to flat it down with fine wet and dry, it looked like an acne scarred teenager. The paint was also full of baked in dust. I don't get these garages who spend money on a paint booth then don't use it properly. The number plate wasn't even put on straight. I was glad I was with him when he went to pick it up. I gave them so much abuse and got them to redo it. Second attempt wasn't much better but he needed the car back to go to work so what to do. This was an insurance approved supplier too. The painting process is remarkably simply but for some reason they refuse to follow it here. Instead they would rather mask everything with newspaper and blow paint on in a dusty environment. On the other hand, if you're paying someone only 2,000-3,000 dhs a month to do a highly skilled job, why would they care about the job. A good painter makes that in a 3-4 days in Europe. I once met a British guy who was asked to train a load of new painters. I won't mention their nationality or I'll get called out as racist but let's be honest, there are some nationalities who have a reputation for bad work. It might be a stereotype but stereotypes happen for a reason. Long story short, the new guys all knew better and refused to listen to anything they were being taught and the teacher was so frustrated. He asked them something simple, rub the paint down between coats but they just kept on painting and building layers up. The new guys all decided they knew better than a painter with 30 years experience. To summarize, painting in UAE is crap because people have little to no training, crap salaries, crap employers, no sense of pride, no interest in the job. The materials and equipment are available but nobody cares. Just make it cheap habibi.

Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) is best known for introducing new policies and procedures to make the lives of an ordinary Dubai’s citizen convenient. Following the introduction of a new way to pay the fine in installments through the credit card, RTA has now launched an ‘automatic vehicle registration renewal’ service which is totally online. The automatic online vehicle registration renewal service was previously available only for the corporate sector but is now officially accessible to the private individuals as well. The move is a part of the RTA’s grand plan to migrate most of its services to digital platforms. So how do you take advantage of this service? It’s fairly simple! Just visit the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) website and click on the ‘Licensing’ service tab. After that, you can sign up with your personal details including the vehicle’s plate number. It is also important to have the e-wallet service which is absolutely free and allows the motorist to pay for the services online. The e-wallet service can be obtained by signing up on www.nol.ae. You can easily renew your registration 90 days prior to the expiry date and pay online through the e-wallet. A confirmation SMS will be sent and the registration card will be sent via the postal company. Do share your feedback with us regarding how beneficial do you think this service is for the Dubai residents or whether it will create a hassle for those who are not too comfortable using modern digitize methods.

Sorry all gone for the Takata recall.

Sign me up for the one with the biggest airbags

Well you can then also get a house maid, who will cook, clean and take care of you i.e Corolla