desertdude

Another one of those eye roll moments. Not everyone just wants to go fast. Trying to compare the character, opulence, luxury, comfort, street cred, styling of a Jag XJ with that of a Ford bucket. It's not even in the apple and oranges ballpark range. Maybe if everything was measured in just one category, speed.

You see you just don't get it. Just being fast isnt a priority to me at all. It's how you get to 100 or 200 and how you stay there is more important for me. With a silky smooth motor you are gently taken there and then when you reach there you waft along on a nice quite comfortable magic carpet-esque cushion of air. In the euroweenies and jap rice cakes with soda bottle sized engines with a dozen turbos strapped on screaming like stuck pigs and rattling so hard you feel its going to shake itself to pieces. That is the difference. Just raw stupid speed is no quality at all. That you can get by strapping a a 3cyl to a wheeled office chair and it would be fast too. So whenever you make any reference why would anyone want something like so and so when a smaller tin car with a chainsaw motor go more fast at 1/10th of a price just wants to make me roll my eyes! Search my posts I've already posted videos of my safari days colleague Marshall taking the Bentayga through its paces in the desert here.

Don't get me wrong, got huge love for Jimny but at 80k its just not worth it.

P.S : Im really starting to fancy the Merc W220 V12 nowadays. So you never know. Yup that's me, I like big cars with big motors And that will also be the last day he has his License here.

You see, I don't care for any of that. So its a V8 for me all day long even if it is producing 120hp. Than a tiny jap rice cake or eurowenier with a lawn mower motor making a zillion hp.

WOT! 80,000! For 80k I'd get my self a real G Wagon or Defender and not some pygmy bastard love child of the two!

Hence Im on very good terms with my scrappy, new parts guys and workshop guys and get prices other people lose their minds when they find out how much I paid. Or do me favours they usually don't for others. Like I wanted a 2" lift kit for my Disco1 you don't get here, so he just ordered it with his next shipment of parts, I didn't have to pay shipping as it was in their bulk order ( anybody who has paid shipping for heavy car parts know just how much of a saving that in itself is ) and I only paid the price of standard suspension bits and ofcourse I got my usual discount on that too. Or the scrappy will scrounge through his collection for the beat bits to let me take my pick, let me know if fresh bits are coming so better to wait a while. Once the poor guy late on Friday, a holiday, went to his shop just for me picked up an alternator my p38 and then I went to his house and picked it up from his house in the middle of the night, because I didn't have a working car to go to his shop and his place was closer to mine. Also helps that Ive been driving only Land Rovers for 12-13 years now so have a long term repo with the guys. This is another reason why I don't really want to change vehicle brand, I got a sweet network for my Landys going, which Ive built over the years. I know exactly what's wrong where to get it, how much its gonna cost, new or used and if I can fix it myself or will have to give it to the shop. With any thing else I'll be just as clueless your average joe about everything.

Yeah not much of a closing by saying on I got it fixed. What was wrong? How was it diagnosed, what parts were needed and where did you get them from amd for how much. How long did this all take and how much of dent in your wallet did it create etc etc etc so on and so forth

I I think there is whole world of difference to see a 600hp V12 hit 8k than a puny 2.0 Honda hit 8k.

And hence the myth continues of the jap eco boxes. If you buy the mid level boxes or their top specs, they come with the same bells and whistles as any one elsw

Think of it as a blessing in disguise, there are so many nice areas to drive in, why would anyone want to drive in those chewed up off road fish market in the first place Even when I was actively involved in off roading I avoided these faya, maliya big red fish markets. A zillion fools descend on these and shit is bound to happen. P.S : Im just translating the text in the pic, nothing else. Although source of that info is unverified.

Sheesh didn't know I even had them, since I always skip notifications and pretty much hated here all around.

Oh finally a modern Ferrari I like the looks of, if you exclude the front end that is. I will have to declare my grumpy old man card here and say not a fan of exotic, super or hypercars. 99% of which spend all their time sitting in a climate control garage in some rich old farts collection and one or twice a year taken to the golf course for the annual celeb charity game.

Yeah I assume there arn't that many Mustangs in SA, so people don't stock the bits. But the thing is this place is crawling with jap eco boxes. But without sounding insulting and stereotyping people, people who drive said jap eco boxes are the kind who are really careful with their money to say it politely, vehicles are just transport white goods to them or they have bought them second hand at dirt cheap prices and don't want to spend a penny more on them than needed to get them back on the road. Even if the patch up job is going to last a couple of months at most. Also a big factor here is people not doing so well economically and living paycheck to paycheck, and get dragged into buying these jap eco boxes because of the general impression people have here of excellent MPG and dirt cheap repairs, When something goes wrong on the said abused and hack job patched up jap lemon they just bought, they really can't afford any decent repairs as they just can't afford a one time proper fix, But can afford cheap fixes a few times a years. So parts people just stock the real ass end cheap bits, So the vicious cycle of crapped out old jap eco box lemons and shitty aftermarket junk parts continues.

Well I've just heard Shj Police has blocked off Maliha, Fahya and Bidayer for off road use and will impound for good any vehicle that is "modified" and according to the text in the pic it includes headers and aftermarket air filters

The thing with Japanese cars in this market is its either the original bits from the dealer or authorized sellers or total junk fake crap. Like 5dh oil filters and 20dh brake pads if you get my jist. With European and American brands you have good after market parts most of the time its actually OEM parts just in the company who produces the parts for the manufacturer owns packaging but with a much cheaper price tag. For example from the top of my head Like Textar who do the OEM brake pads for the Range Sport or you could pay a lot more and get the same Textar pads in a Land Rover box. The pads themselves still have the Textar logo on them.

1st task to make sure its not a US import as majority are insurance write offs and/or flood damaged and cheaply repaired here, you can run the VIN through carfax at a slight cost if an import to get a service and accident history. Also you can run the VIN number through copart and autoio websites and see the actual pics of the state of damage it was in. ( if the car was sold through them, since they are the biggest auction house of salvage us cars the chances are high of that happening ) Requires some legwork if you spot a deal, not all US salvage imports are total junkers, sometime the insurance companies will write off cars with minor damage like a small fender bender

A little tip which still might be relevant. Back in my cruiser days I noticed a lot of parts were similar to the land cruiser but just in Lexus for the LX470 branding packaging but much more pricier Like brake pads for example. Car manufacturers love to cut costs and share parts and platforms with other vehicles so you could see what parts the LS shares with other Toyotas and sake some money

I'm guessing with an upgraded sound system on the top line jero, you probably have a factory fitted amp somewhere too. Have a look around that too. See everything is plugged in properly. Check all audio related fuses too.

Not really, a front strut for a 1996 toyota tercel cost the same as the air spring on my range rover. Well it did the last time I asked. Honda and Mitsubishi parts are notoriously expensive.

I don't have an issue with the concept, I'm fact I'm all for it and all the P38As Ive owned have been special or limited editions. I was just mentioning how these super car companies like Ferrari are actually deceiving people by saying they are making an X number of cars and then actually go and make more. Not many people are aware of this.

Spotted another unicorn. The Foers Ibex based on the LR defender. https://dubai.dubizzle.com/motors/used-cars/land-rover/defender/2018/11/19/1994-land-rover-defender-260-2/

The team prepping the car before the event. Peter 2nd from right.

IMO comprehensive tests are not worth the paper they are printed on. Even if the car is in top notch condition but because you paid so much extra they feel obligated to fill up the sheet with stuff. Plus they can tell you anything a good 20 minute test drive and poke in the engine bay and under the car won't tell you.

This video is very old just when they introduced the new sport, and knowing peter he's old skool and doesn't rely on GPS or tracks and as far as I know this area with the star dunes is off limits and on the Saudi side of the border.