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I partly agree with your statement, but have the following things in mind: Tesla technology is beyond anything what's currently on the market, which begs the questions: * Who is even remotely skilled to service these cars ? The battery packs are a potential bomb if not handled properly. * Every time something happens with a Tesla, be it in auto-drive or serious failures, we read about it in the news. Imagine the potential risks of a freelance company servicing these cars and fiddling with the software and settings. Serious deadly accidents could happen and it would again reflect badly towards Tesla itself. I think that in the future Tesla might create franchised workshops with trained people and might slowly open up a bit to the market. Especially now all the big players are coming onto the market with Electric vehicles. That brings me back to the same question: imagine we buy an electric BMW or Mercedes, to which independent workshop can we take it now to get it serviced/repaired ?? Nobody wants to burn their fingers on technology that is so advanced. (just thinking about the I8 now)...

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One thing I do is , its a bad idea to buy a Tesla, not because its a bad car but because of the company and CEO treats their customers like shit. First you couldn't even buy a single screw and install it yourself, Only Tesla sells tesla parts and no one else ( hence the big market in salvage Teslas to be used as parts ) and all work to be carried out only by tesla approved shops and last I heard now they are saying all body work will only be done at the Tesla factory. So if you ding your car, you have to send the car to the Tesla factory in california to get it repaired, not to mention when in 3-5 years you need to replace your entire battery, thats going to cost you your left arm and right testicle. Too expensive and too much of a hassle to be driving.

There are some pretty awesome EVs being built in garages with all of that stuff on board. So can't really say that it is only possible through Tesla or some other major manufacturer. Its too bad that we don't live in the US, where such projects are possible. I mean finding a scrapped Tesla over will be near impossible.

Creating a basic EV in your garage is indeed not so difficult. But the generation of electric vehicles that are popping up now have stuff on board like energy recovering brake systems, and a ton of software to keep all those things working properly, thousands of sensors, data cabling, etc etc... i’d love to get my hands on a scrapped Tesla to rip it apart and learn, but without access to the CPU it’s a black box with trial and error.

I tend to agree. Most independent shops mostly focus on simple head unit installations, speakers, etc. Nothing majorly electrical. What is even worse is that they are so rooted and set in their ways, they are even willing to give anything new a try or won't even apply simple common sense into whatever they are working on. However you tend to notice that if someone can create and EV in his garage, and Rich can work on Tesla by himself, there isn't much to it, except understanding the engineering; to which most mechanics are even bothered to try. They more or less presume that oil and gas aren't going to go away in their lifetimes and they would rather continue with what they know than learn something new.

Pretty much anyone with a good grasp of engineering and electrics.... YES, i can include myself into that. But most independent workshops that i've encountered only have basic electronics experience, and i don't say that to bash them, but merely pointing to the fact that their training is currently still more mechanically inclined. And a guy that is just able to connect an OBD reader to the car is NOT an electronics engineer...

@Frederic Nuyttens / @desertdude You should look into this youtube channel, Rich Rebuilds This guy proves the while there is quite a lot about Tesla that is brand new kind of tech, it isn't extremely new and pretty much anyone with a good grasp of engineering and electrics should be able to handle the whole thing with ease. There are people in various parts of the world building EVs using tesla batteries... https://youtu.be/fXsQGWWz3Is Look up the White Zombie on youtube. Previously electricians used to handly those large television tubes with relative ease. My dad told me that if you don't handle it probably, an old TV tube could kill you. This is just Tesla being the Apple of the car world.

Most of the developed countries are encouraging the car sharing or even the ride (taxi) sharing ideas now so that they can reduce the traffic, pollution, reduce emission, reduce use of natural resources etc. I humbly request RTA and Dubai Police to find a better way to deter crime or abuse possibility than this blanket rule. Everyday during morning and evening office hours we see over 90% cars with single person inside means, not good. Possibility of using the public transport is a good idea, but it need to be capable in handling end to end solution and not take 1 hour instead of 15 mins drive. Carpooling with friends and colleagues should be allowed if they are living in same or nearby area and going to work in same office.

Hi to all, after a long time … I would like to join you guys in this drive. Really miss you all.

This is the same point auto experts in the last automechanika were discussing and realizing that aftermarket auto industry and auto servicing workshops should need to take adequate steps to keep pace with growing EV in the market

It was the same in uk. Diesel was half the price of petrol so everyone invested in Diesel engines. More torque, more miles per tank, what’s not to like? Now all this emissions stuff is happening, the people who invested in diesel are getting penalised hard with fuel tax, road tax. MPG still makes it worth it (kind of) but the introduction of euro specs with DPF and Adblue can make it expensive if something goes wrong. I don’t know how it is everywhere else but back home we have 2 grades of diesel. Normal road diesel and agricultural diesel. Agricultural diesel is the same as road diesel with a red or green diesel (depending which part of Ireland you live in). But the thing about agricultural diesel is that it’s a quarter of the price of road diesel so naturally many people put it in their cars. Sometimes you will come across a her majesty’s custom and excise checkpoint where they will dip random cars to check the fuel but the savings far outweigh the fine. Many people also run illegal diesel “laundering plants” where they pass the agricultural diesel through fullers earth aka kitty litter, which removes the dye and makes it “legal” again. Massive profit to be made at such operations. Diesel cars can be fun contrary to popular belief. I was looking for something reliable and cheap to drive to work, it was a 2 hour drive, so I bought a cheap Mk 1 Renault Clio for a couple of hundred pounds to go to work and back. To my surprise the engine from the scrap Volvo 440 TD in my yard, same as the Laguna bolted straight onto the mounts so me and a friend did it one weekend for a bit of fun. The car was a real POS but nobody knew it was a TD and I beat many Nova and Corsa SRIs at the lights. I should have thrown a few pink slips down 😂

This is what I’m confused about. Before I shifted to outside Dubai I used to travel with my colleagues every day. Of course we all shared petrol costs evenly and if the car broke down we made a team effort to fix it putting in our own labour specialities but it wasn’t a profit driven agenda. It was just getting to work and splitting the cost and not having to stand next to someone in the metro for 45 minutes who hadn’t showered for 4 days. I think this is more aimed at the “car lifts” aka the illegal taxis. The people advertising their services of Facebook and the like need to be the ones worrying. Maybe.

That’s down to the dealer and their PDI process. Go out to DIP and see all the new Audi’s waiting to be delivered to the showroom. They’re pretty dusty and scratched up too. It’s all down to the dealer. If you buy a new Audi from Al Nabooda, they will polish it to within an inch of its life before handover, whereas if you go to Al Futtaim and buy an new Toyota, they will drive it out of the car park, wash it and throw you the keys.

Indeed it's a great move and I remember one of the jokes happened early this year on this exact issue. While transferring my Range whose ex-owner an investment manager and heading some blockchain related big things in Dubai. While giving the Range transfer paper to Wasl guys in renewal center, he said all this all will be online in next few years. To this response, the desk guy said "affirmatively" No, we need these papers and without this, we cannot even renew and staple all papers with a big grunt. We both were smiling and laughing inside. It's perhaps less than six months now......!

@Rahimdad had his pajeros timing done at ours with less then half of that price and also we used all original parts