desertdude

Personally not a big fan of the SLK, hair dresser/girly car Perfect for the wife though. Also be careful of the roof, they tend to go wrong often and its a huge $$$$ bill to sort them out. I knew a guy who had a CL500 he got new, he was so spooked bout the roof that he never opened it once for the whole time he had it. Later his ABC suspension started to give him issues. And the dealer refused to fix it under warranty making up some excuse, case went to Germany and even they refused. was qouted close to 30k to fix it. After a lot of fighting the case went to Dxb police who later said either replace the car or fix it FOC. So yeah even new cars have issues and big ones at that. And finally after scaring you congrats in thr new ride. Great color though. White is awesome for this country, Doesnt get too hot i.e less fuel consumption and doesnt require to be washed as often either.

Sorry for the late reply, but my point here is that this is for a US spec flat mirror, just like the mirror in your bathroom, rest of the world including here use convex which give a bigger field of vision, from the edge of your car to your peripheral, virtually eliminating blind spots. I actually have tested this many times on long boring drives in my old p38 which had pretty small mirrors for it sides. Watch a car come up behind me in the center mirror in the overtaking lane then overtake me and I never lost sight of it it. Adjusting convex mirrors to flat mirror standards is asking for trouble.

I think a good analogy would be restaurants. Any restaurants that offer a ton of dishes on the menu usually at best do an OK job at all of them. But there are speciality restaurants that offer only a certain type of dishes, it also not uncommon to see a place offering only one dish, that's right just one dish but they do that one dish perfectly. Same with medicine you go to certain specialists for certain aliments. A general practitioner can only diagnose and treat common problems for anything else you are referred to a specialist. There is a reason why the saying A jack of all trades master of none.came about. Not all cars are built the same or use the same parts or tech. Ok an internal combustion engine works on a certain principle, transmissions, brakes etc etc also a capable mech can handle basics, but not every detail of everycar. .

Been there done that. Although there was a time I wish the loaded LWB dually Chevy pickup I had to drive to Alalin had those side mirror extensions, as changing lanes at highway speeds on a busy highway is not something I would want to try very often again.

I know its frowned upon just like asking a woman her age. But honestly if it someone well I know or am friends with. I have no issues with this, excluding random strangers ofcourse.

Well that's just my own personal quirk which wont go away no matter how I set them. I guess can also be attributed early on to having switch multiple cars during the course of day. Also this reminds me my Sheep Xj also had the same issue, driver side flat mirror and pax side regular good ol' convex. That was my first time and it annoyed me to no extent, so much so I bought a convex mirror and about the same size and stuck it on the other one. This WHOLE DEBATE ABOUT BLIND SPOTS is virtually eliminated with the use of two convex mirrors, which was implemented by everyone because of that, which the yanks refuse to follow because of NHTSA "safety" reasons because it "changes the size of the car and thus making it hard to judge how far it is" Hence they have those objects in the rear view mirror may appear smaller than they seem warnings on the one passenger side mirror. My whole argument here is, people who have regular both convex mirrors should not follow this as this might actually create a blind spot closer in where there was none before ( Cant check confirm because my own stupid car has a flat mirror ) And as usual to dump some hate on flat rear view mirror setup. Oh and all new cars in the US now have to have a rear camera by law. Chalk that one up to another weird NHTSA regulation. https://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/in-defense-of-convex-drivers-side-mirrors/

This is mostly for US spec cars which ave flat rear view mirrors rather than convex wing mirrors. Although some GCC cars have a weird setup like my L322 range rover where the drive side wing mirror is flat and passenger side in convex. Which makes for an awkward situation to say the least, but now am used to it. And dunno ever since I started driving I have a weird habit of leaning as forward as I can when doing big lane changes or when I need to see blind apots as I can when looking into the mirror, a friend used to do it I guess I picked it up from him but this weird quirk of mine negates the habit of messing with the mirrors too much

Easy to figure out with the new Nissans. If its not a Patrol or Armada. Then no. Also general rule of thumb for other cars is, if it looks like an egg with wheels then its most probably a no.

If I only had a dollar the times I've been approached for the Saudi scam thing. Cant say its the car I drive because Ive been approached on foot even before I got a car. Actually the first time way back in the mid 90s it was a Omani plated car and even then I didn't give him shit. I had a dirham coin in my jeans which I pulled out a said this is all I had if you want it, you can have it. In the 2000s it became Saudi plates plus I was driving a relatively new Land Cruiser and I guess I look like an Arab ( dont ask me even till date grocery guys, cabbies etc etc see me and start talking to me in Arabic!, personally I don't see it nor do I wear Arab garb ) and every so often a Saudi would pull up at the lights, gas station etc etc and start off in a thick Saudi Arabic accent Other scams similar Ive been subjected to like a young clean shaven smart guy walks up and says he's here on a visit visa looking for a job and hes exhausted all funds but has an interview in Abu Dhabi and needs to get there, so here take my watch its a blah blah and give me a few 100dhs. But during a time I used to go every evening to Crowne Plaza on Shk Zayed in the evening to pick up my wife from the office and this chap approached me, offered me some like tiny tiny 2-3 page booklets with religious scripture, I said no thanks but he said they are gifts so not wanting to be disrespectful. I took one. Then he stood there ....waiting. I said what? You said they were gifts. Then he laid on a big sob story blah blah and how he needed money. Said domt have money and returned his booklets. Then again after a week or so, same guy comes up to me, I told him no again, didnt seem to recognize me. Then again after a week or so same guys comes up to me while I wait. I'm like WTF dude this is the third time now, he was kinda taken off guard. I asked him what's the story man. Then again another sob story, he's here looking for a job etc etc so I asked what is it that you do. I think he thought of what would be a weird profession where no one could help him out and he said he's a florist. Well I said you are in luck there is a florist shop right in Crowne plaza with a help wanted sign, he definitely gave got caught off guard and started making all sorts of stories so I also gave him a piece of my mind. Then he saw he wasnt going to get anything from me, so he asked if he could at least use my mobile phone to call his mum back home. I was like seriously dude! Even after all this your still trying to get something off me. Well didnt see him after that time though!

I wouldn't call getting "consoled" by a fat goth chick a silver lining. I Would call that it thats when the day got really bad Lol. Probably her lucky day, but since you went back for seconds and lots of third I guess you're into that. Hey each to his own, no judgement here. And I can understand the other customer as well its a vaxhall Astra. Slightly above a non working washing machine!

Well that's why the Darwin Awards were created. People die doing useless and totally stupid and unnecessary shit all the time, like taking selfies! Or in search for the next big adrenaline rush. Like those crazy Russian kids hanging of mile high towers with just two fingers and then one day they slip and end up all splattered over the concrete, sorry no sympathy there!

Well in India its a different case as I read a few people actually ended up dead as false religious and racial news had been spread via WhatsApp which just incited a mob for some lynchings We as humans can always find a way to fuck up a good thing. Like social media in this case. Now if only someone could get Donald Trump off twitter!

Could be that, since I've never paid by card since the self service thing came along.

Well we have today who have driving licenses for decades now and still don't know how to drive. Long ago I had a friend Bharat, educated guy, smart, nice job well settled, but couldn't drive for shit. But somehow he had managed to get a license and drove for many many years without ever getting into any sort of accident! Someone up above was truly looking out for him.

Yeah some people. Buddy once told me a guy rolled up in some jap ecobox he had owned for 3-4 yrs for some crap ( can't remember) So he asked him before even opening the hood, when was the last time he changed the oil, guy just had a blank look on his face and said. You're supposed to change the oil? How do you do that! Although I myself am guilty of wearing away the pads so much that the pad totally got worn away and it was just metal on metal. It was on my safari lane cruiser and I knew the pads knew changing but was procrastinating about it. Because you are pretty much working throughout tue week and the one odd day you do get off you don't want to spend working on the car. But then all of a sudden got suuuuper busy. I knew the pads were toast by then as I could hear a nasty grinding noise every time I braked. But for an entire week I didn't get anytime to sort it out. Day, night trip after tripe including some overnighters. Driving a manual. I used the help of down shifts to help me slow down. Needless to say the discs were also toast when I eventually got to them.

Not a big deal, since Adnoc rolled this out 3 months ago here in RAK. Been filling my own car since, because of this usually less longer cues and you are done faster as you don't have to wait for the attendant to come and remove the nozzle and close the cap long after you are done, because he is busy. But the moot point of all of this is. You still have to wait for the attendant to come and beep you in before you start filling. Because the pump doesnt work until the guy swipes his ID on the pump.Maybe this will change now? Although I doubt it. So its still not 100% self service and attendant free like in other countries.

Yeah that's the unfortunate side of a slow market, cars are not moving and end up sitting for long periods of time in the sun without much care other than a wash outside every other day by the tea boy. You leave any car sitting too long in this weather and its going to show. But I guess of you really looked hard you could find the right one. I'm the opposite of you. I would buy a fresh import rather than one driven here where greasy mechanics already their hands on it. To me there is no used car from anywhere you just buy and drive, regardless of how much the seller says it's the case. There is always something that needs to be done, I call it the teething phase

Adding to that forget all the driving aids and modes, learn to drive without them. So if tomorrow you have a car that doesn't have "sand mode" you'll be just fine. It's like rear cameras and parking sensors. I know a few people now who cant park or reverse a car if it doesn't have them. Relying too much on automation just makes you lose your own ability and skill. Very soon we will have people who won't be able to change lanes if the car doesn't have lane assist!!!

There are many stories like that I can tell, example a woman in a new camry which wouldnt start, turns out gear was in D. A woman's Prado which she said was driving heavy and had a strange light on the dash, turns out the 4wd button was pressed. A guy who brought his car in on a flatbed, turns out the coil wire from the distributor had come off, causing a crank but no start condition. So on and so forth.

No not really, just call one of them ask

Stay off dubizzle, these are the big dealers trying to make a bigger profit, best it to just visit the place and walk around. Its right behind Aweer used car complex and closed on fridays! P.S : Not a fan of the CLK because of its stubby fat ass, never liked it, just makes it looks really weird.

Well I've had my brown pants moments in the Cruiser pick up, like the aforementioned 3 ton generator. It was so big, the rear gate would close, so had to strap it in and on 30 PSI the tyres looked like they were deflated to 15 PSI, so had to pump them up to 45. They were rated upto 50 ( I checked ) and then off road had to drop back to 30-35 and the find the smoothest path to the camp 5-7 kms inside the desert including a final climb, not a hige climb but aweer sized dune. It had no issue pulling the gene and making the climb, it was just the tall and long load that made it drive real wobbly and we were are praying for it not to get stuck!

Yes, jap imports are a great choice unlike US imports, I know tons and tons of people who have bought all sorts of jap imports, including mercs and never had any issues , just make sure its a fresh import and not registered in the UAE before. Jap imports are not damaged or insurance write offs like US imports and usually very well taken care off, low mileage and go through a very strict auction process in Japan. You can learn to decode the jap auction sheet and most sellers have it, so you can ask to see it. This site use to deal strictly with the jap import market behind Al Aweer used car complex but now it has a few private sellers mixed in so don't assume all are jap imports, but majority still are. Here is what you can expect in your budget https://www.dubicars.com/search?view=&o=&l=&ma=69&mo=0&c=new-and-used&pf=&pt=20000&yf=&yt=&kf=&kt=&b=&co=&ci=&s=&gi= Oh and the only annoyance with Jap import cars is if the car is a bit modern and has displays, its usually in Japanese. So can be a bit weird to navigate through menus and all. My dad bought a jap import Cadillac STS and all electronic displays were in japanese ( Trip meter, fuel consumption etc etc ) but he eventually had it changed by just getting someone to change the language via a diagnostic computer. He bought it at around 45k kms and drove it almost 300k kms before it sold it. So stop looking for crappy jap eco boxes and get something decent.

Yes correct, but calling it a waste was also not correct since like mentioned earlier it has its uses.

Since I've been living here for the past 1 1/2 years. I think this was one of the cool aspect of the easy going unrushed small town life. Not too many weird rules. There are many many abandoned cars here, but not that cause any hazard or impediment to traffic or pathways. Most are just tucked away in side streets or covered parking in front of houses. just in walkable distance from my house there is a cool early 90s Range Rover classic with a factory fitted brooklands kit( in fact right in front of my villa gate and is sort of a landmark now for delivery people! Lol ) A 70s Land Rover 110 pickup, a beetle, A 2dr Tahoe etc etc. All cool cars which give the place character in my opinion. I've only seen a Honda Coupe CB6 in white ( rare colour ) as almost all were in dark brown, parked on the main road close to a S500 but both cars parkerld properly, at worse you can say they are taking up parking ( also no paid parking here in RAK )