desertdude

Jap imports are pretty sweet and in very good nick and worth every penny, good climate, no sandy weather and heat and usually pretty well looked after. I've bought jap imports that looked like they had just rolled of a factory floor, well majority of them are like this, most of them have a Japanese auction sheet and there are tons of sites where you can learn to decode them and thats pretty much a very decent pre inspection sheet, if its not available there is not much to fret here. Like this example, is a 4.5 out of a total of 6, 6 is a brand new vehicle. https://prestigemotorsport.com.au/auction-guide/ But be aware some people and a shady dealer or two sometimes try to sell a jap import thats already been registered here in the UAE, driven here for a year and two and then been tried to pass off as a fresh import, but they are pretty easy to spot and don't have custom papers but rather local papers. Just an example video here, and those who love JDM crap this is an awesome channel featuring a lot of jap domestics

You seem to be confusing diff gear ratio with trans gear ratio. Two separate things.

Specs wise yeah, its just a myth. But here Ive ran a bodyshop plus garage in Shj Saniya and know what goes on here. There are a lot of really bad write offs and then repaired as cheaply as possible to sell as fast as possible. But if you know what you are doing, there are deals to be had. Specially on older cars as insurance and repairs are expensive out there and older cars not worth much, even small fender benders are enough to write them off. So buy a damaged/salvage car directly from the importer or import one yourself if you can and then have have it repaired to your satisfaction. Bought a late model jeep xj for a friend in pretty neat nick just needed a new front grill and condensor and some work on the steel bumper. Bought it for 9k way back in thr day, didnt need more than 1500 in parts and repairs and he used it for donkey ages and then sold it to his cousin. 10.5k is not bad even today for a late model XJ Then bought a late 90s or early 2000s model 4 dr Rav 4 for a friends uncle , which just had a tiny dent above the rear taillight. Think it was for 12k or something back then. But have to be careful of rust with US imports and a through checking needs to be done. Buddy almost got stuck with a fully modified TJ wrangler. It had just some tiny spots of rust on the frame, nothing that couldnt be cleaned out. But when we went to register it the VIN number in the frame was too rusty to read, and when it the rust was scrapped off it took a few digits with it! Lol That became a slight mess, but eventually were able to register it.

Don't need to, ton of online VIN checkers

Not age of the car but age of that part. Many times while DIY'ing and ripping apart bits I see parts that are far newer than the car, which I then know must have been replaced somewhere along thr line. Similarly you sometimes find older parts and then you know someone replaced that bit with a used bit if its too old.

The Pajero has 26" wheels and a 24speed transmission!

Details, specs, price

Its pretty much the norm in these parts when faced with an expensive rip out your dash to fix a leaking heater which you will never use here or just bypass the system.The choice is obvious. I've driven and done this myself to many cars really doesn't effect the engine cooling, a few feet of extra pipe can only provide so much more cooling, pretty negligible. The same is done to the Range Rover L322 I drive but here the reason is the auxiliary heater cooling pump and its housing has literally turned to dust! LOLAnd I couldn't give a rats ass about spending $$$$$ to fix the heater, which I will never use here.

If car is overheating while standing then its the engine cooling fan, maybe the replacement fan is not as good as the original or the second fan is on its way out, Also keep in mind last couple of weeks its been really hot too so a few degrees up and down while stationary shouldnt be too abnormal as engine is getting heat soaked just standing and just as a good preventive measure I would replace the radiator if it hasn't been changed for a long time and/or not flushed every few years. it cab start to clog up with dirt and deposits and lose cooling capacity.

whenever encounter such a problem. I just shoot a mail to [email protected]. And it has worked many times

Sorry mate they have a very bad repute among the Land Rover community here, so wouldnt recomend them to anybody. Its just bloody hot man. What do you expect. If its not overheating or running too cold and running fine, then its fine

Only thing I liked about Smokey and the bandit was the firebird. There is a company in the US that does a current gen Camaro to firebird conversion and I really dig those https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G18hMtpPNA&app=desktop

That's because Tesla won't even sell you a screw, all repairs have to be done at Tesla or authorized shops and even they cant sell you any parts, so for DIYs or out of warranty no stealer repairs writes off are the only source of sparesparts

Call my buddy Noor on 0553032040. He is close to Hor Al Anz and Rashidiya. We were friends long before he became my mechanic. Around 20 yrs now. Tell him the guy with the white range rover from ras al khaimah sent you. He'll get it ( Don't like giving out my name and details on an online forum )

lol at radio mirchi!

Hangers and Beggers on is a really nice track from the snake pit.

Problem with GnR other than Axl and his antics ofcourse was they set the bar so high with Appetite for destruction even good stuff they did after that sounded mediocre. They practically sabotaged their own success with a over the top debut album and were never able to out do it. Illusion I and II were OK but not AFD material. Even though You could be mine is still my fav GnR track but one good track makes an album not.

Chinese Democracy, god that took so long to come out and specially after that crap the spaghetti incident when it actually did had lost all interest in Axl and his band. Think might have heard one or two tracks from it and skipped the rest.

Fat Axl is still at it? Is this the proper GnR or just Fat Axl and his band pretending to be GnR?

Liked it and evened out the score to 40 40 no promise to share 500 with me from the prize money and I will get you an extra vote! LOL

I would give you another like if I could just for the way you have plugged your review and kept it alive all this time!

LOL boy talk about cryptic messages. I wouldn't have guessed in a million years the discussion was suppose to move in that direction! But yes ofcourse its a very valid point. When you say off roading people in Europe think Mud plugging. when you say offroading people in US think rock crawling or dusty desert gatch tracks of the mountainous deserts of the south or snow covered tracks of the north. When you say offroading in Africa people think of jungle crossing in washed away muddy tracks. When you say offroading in the middle east new european expats think Going for drive in the wadis. lol. Only old potatoes like us and locals understand off roading in the middleast to be "dune bashing" Whole point is it means different things in different parts of the world. And most of todays girly suvs cuvs crossovers with their crappy front wheel drive biased 4wd systems can cope pretty much alright in most of versions of offloading mentioned above. And since real hardcore desert duelers are in the super minority not many manufacturers cater to our actual off roading needs. Neither can most of us afford or put so much money towards the few remaining real desert ready cars. Next appropriate question I guess would be to list the few remaining desert worthy 4x4s as in new out of the box without any mods. Think thats going to be a very short list!

I think thats the homeopathic cure i.e it's neither god for you neither bad for you but pretty much a hassle and waste of time, unless you have done some work in the engine recently and might want to get rid of possible left over foriegn particles or fluids.

Ah! Our old safari route, white sands as we used to call it. its a great area where you can adjust the level of drive on the fly from easy to technical to some nice big dunes to long high walls for sideys. Maybe I should buy myself another P38 RR just for desert drives. It's been a while

I just said personally I dont like the term dune bashing. It just sounds to brash and negative to me. Also you haven't been on drives with some of the companies. Like now out of business FTC was a disaster drive from the word go. They use to start from big red and blaze through their route. Hitting almost every peak in that side of the sanbox till faya and then back because their camp was in nizwa across the road. Also you forget our regular safari was for 2hrs actual drive time of 1.5 hrs plus 0.5 hr drinks and sunset break. Also I like to dispel the myth that Safari Company Desert Guides are just lame drivers and can do short fixed routes only. This is actually true for most working for small operators. The kind that offer 60dhs safaris on Groupon. But the bigger more organized tour operators had I say had because most of the old guard has left now very skilled drivers, some even working today with big car names to day for their hot weather and desert testing. Evening sun downer tours was just the bread and butter but we had a lot of trips of many other types. From 3 day liwa excursions to 15 day desert trials in liwa. Overnighters in Shuwaib and sweihan. Trips to Khatim in Abu Dhabi And we all drove according to the kind if guests we had. Some liked it rough and some preferred a relaxed cruise. Surprisingly middle aged women enjoyed the most "bashiest" rides and young big buys who always said they wanted the hardest drive were the first to stop the car and throw up. Anyways just though I clear this misconception that all desert safari guides just plonk through a fixed easy route ans can't drive for shit. As professionals we drove for our paying guests so they get to experience the desert, not to show off our driving skills. But when the guests wanted a ride of lifetime they also got that. And repeat customers asking for the same guide went with last time over and over again is testimony to that.