desertdude

58 minutes ago, Danny said:

Buying a Range Rover is a money pit man and believe me for what I am saying. My 3 different friends had extremely sour experience in upkeeping of Range Rover's that spend more time in garage than on road. Range in early 2000 years were still rock solid, but anything after 2008 is made to last max 5-7 years and after that you spend same amount of buying price in two years of ownership in maintenance. I know mechanic's here are expensive but how come all of them are expensive and rip off, there must be some solid reason behind of RR bad engineering or difficult to work due to too many electronics stuffed for smallest nutbolt science. My choice in same price range will be Cadillac Escalade or Chevrolet Tahoe - as newer model as you can afford. 

Goes to show you have no clue what you are talking about. 1995-2002 were consindered to be the most unreliable, all because of the Air suspension system which could only be reset and brought back to life only by the dealer even if you had repaired it.
End of 2002 the 3rd generation Range Rover was introduced which lasted till 2012, with a engine change from a BMW to a Jaguar unit in late 2005 for the 2008, and upgrade of the ICE system almost everything else remained the same save for slight face lifts in 2006 and 2010.

So you saying anything after 2008 blah blah holds no water because from 2006 to 2012 the car is pretty much the same. And in general 2003 to 2013 are also very alike sharing over 60-70% components and parts

That sounds about right, I did some calculations back in the day when I use to drive a Land Cruiser and I used to get around 30kms for 10dhs worth of gas. 

1 hour ago, HSD said:

@desertdude Many thanks again!!! Thats a whole lot of information. The passion you have for Range Rovers seems to be extremely contageous!! Now let me start my Range Rover search in full swing!!! Many thanks Again. Have a great Week ahead. 

My only advice would be if you want to get the complete Range Rover experience then go for the what us commonly known as the Full Fat Range Rover and not the Sport, go for the end of the line of the L322 shape, i,e 2012. Supercharged or non supercharged is up to you, if you like fasts beasts then the Super Charged. Although even the normally aspirated RR is no slow coach either. 

By the end of the production run of any car all known bugs are pretty much sorted out and its pretty solid and Land Rover usually like to thrown in all the bells and whistles in the last year for an any generation last production run. They did that with the Classic in 1995 and the P38 in 2002, not 100% sure about the 2012.

I say test drive all four ( RR, RRSC, RRS, RRS-SC ) and pick the one you like best and then hunt for that one and buy the best one you can afford. 

Its a good time to be buying cars in this economic downturn and a very slow and sluggish new and used car market, so don't be afraid to negotiate a deal 

R.I.P dear old passat battery. Hope you are powering a supercharged Passat in battery heaven now

Riiight, like that ever gets followed. I've been failed on things which say that don't need approval ( bumpers )and passed on things that says it needs approval ( modified suspension )

I really wouldn't know as I usually do them myself or at a friends place, a service is what, oil and filter replacement, air filter cleaning or changing. Checking up on coolant and top up if needed. See if any hoses, pipes or belts need change, slide under the car to see all's well. 

Filter original costs around 50-60 dhs you can get aftermarket for 35. I put in synthetic oil at 120 per gallon, you can use any good synthetic oil with in the 40-50w range and even 30w in the winter months. although I think LR recommends castrol. , air filter was also around 60. Diluted coolant was around 35. belts and all, all under or around a 100 each, the most expensive thing i found was a paper gasket for the transmission pan with was 100 dhs, just for a piece of paper cut in shape! The gear oil filter itself was around 50. Anyways the sport SC doesn't have that, the filter is built into the pan and you replace the entire thing, not too pricey either. 

Once you drive a Range Rover, you'll forget Cruisers and Patrols, because literally nothing rides like a Range Rover. After a decade of driving Land Cruisers, around 10 yrs ago I got my first Range Rover and now I literally don't like anything else I drive, totally spoilt now !

I would also strongly recommend you get one of these 
http://www.icarsoft.com/web/icarsoftus/allproducts/landroverscantools/2012/201212/20121229123158a6ef0_1.html
You can get one from ebay for around $150 and will save you a lot of headache, heartache and holes in your wallets if you end up with monkeys who don't have a clue whats gone wrong with the ride and just keep throwing expensive parts at it. 

Plus it can reset quite a lot of systems if you ever get stuck in a situation, like your suspension freezes for whatever reason, ( and it will tell you exactly whats wrong, so you can get to the heart of the problem right away instead of aforementioned monkey trial and error method, that alone is worth it

Before our resident mechanics come and scare the living daylights out of you, and force you to buy a 1990 corolla as a "safe bet" I say go for it, suspension parts are not all that expensive anymore, were when air suspension was a new thing, now almost all luxury cars have it, there are even places that will redo your air spring with a new bladder for as little as 500dhs a corner. And Land Rover has learned a lot about air suspension reliability since the 1990s and its not that common anymore, something that gave LR a bad name in the 90s as unreliable cars. I know three cars now model year 2002 ( 1st year the L322 generation LR came out ) still riding on original air bags which it came out of the factory ) but like tyres they are made of rubber and will eventually need to be replaced. Another thing is the air compressor for the air suspension failure, which is usually a few cheap fix, garages here will instantly tell you to get a new air compressor i,e $$$$ but its just the piston ring that gets worn out and you can order one from ebay for as little as $10 and its an easy non greasy and getting DIY fix. I even have a cheaper fix which will cost you a grand total of 2dhs, no thats not a typo and I kid you not.  

Sharjah has now atleast half a dozen parts shop dealing exclusively with Land Rover parts, which sell original as well as aftermarket parts at very reasonable prices, there are also a couple of Land Rover scrap yards and bits and bobs are plenty. 

Although I myself prefer the full size range rover the sports is my second choice, and the SC goes likes the clappers, be ready to see a lot of cars eating your dust in the rear view mirror.

The Jaguar derived V8 is a solid tried and tested motor and you can put another 200k on it without worrying much if you just keep regular with the services. 

Just take care of the engine services and make sure to service the transmission at 100k, with a complete fluid flush and new gear filter and be 1000% of sure of putting in the right fluid as it does not like anything else. Don't trust the service history even if its says its been done. Just go ahead and do it anyways. The oil is a bit pricey starting from 30 to 100dhs per liter depending where you buy it from. 

Saluki in Al Qouz run by Mark Powell is a pretty good garage and they know their Land Rovers and so does Capital Auto also in Al Qouz. Avoid AAA and A2B

 

Thats correct, as you can buy performance cams for some engines which have a different lobe profile than OEM. 

On a ending note after having said all that Im going to quote the great Carol Shelby, some one who knows a thing or two about power.

"There's no replacement for displacement" you can tune, modify, turbo or supercharge a tiny 4 cyl engine to pump out more HP than a V8 but there is nothing like a real V8 with all its natural grunt.

Oh and Im talking proper displacement, not my engine has 50cc more than yours

1 minute ago, Gaurav said:

It's not mental hurdle, but experience. I kind of agree that now Japanese are not as great as they used to be before, but they are still FAAAAAR better than US cars in terms of durability, reliability and resale.

All I read was Japanese blah blah blah ! LOL

Fuel Economy and Large 4x4s with big engines don't belong in the same sentence. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

If he's worried so much about fuel economy then get a 4cyl Kia sportage 
 

On 7/6/2017 at 1:29 PM, adil said:

Both are ugly now, I use to like older land cruiser looks a lot

I agree, both are now big tubs of plastic. And there is so much more you can get for that much money, only if people get over that mental hurdle of only Japanese because blah blah blah blah

21 hours ago, stelita said:

Thank you guys. I'm not thinking of getting another car for now since I don't need it. And no, I'm not ready for a bargain, I'll rather keep it. I don't need to sell, it's just a big expense for my current situation as I am starting my own business. I'm in love with the car, it works great and never gave me a problem!

I'll check the prices in the market, put the add and wait until someone gives me what I want.

I didn't know they stopped the FJs. It doesn't make sense, it's a fantastic car.

Well not everybody shared that sentiment, I know 3 people who sold their within 6 months of buying it from the dealers, they hated it, and myself I'm not a fan either.

8 hours ago, Rahimdad said:

Hey!!! I loved my Jeep Commander 5.7 Hemi, it had the looks of a bouncer with a black suit.

Ahem ...lets just say it woudln't win any beauty competitions

Seems like you two got into some kind of argument over the weekend!

Comparing a proper 4x4 with a 3.5 V6 with a gay 4 cyl FWD shopping trolley!

Watching the market since last year and with the current economic downturn, its a pretty bad time to sell. Its basically a buyers market. Usually during the cooler months the prices of 4x4s appreciate slightly. So uts bettee to hold off until then. 

But I still doubt youll get anything to close to what you are looking for so be ready to make a bargain deal. 

5 hours ago, adil said:

Very well said and also like to add, that don't take brand new cars to offroad as it will increase your maintenance cost eventually.

Unfortunately the current Jeep Cherokee is not off road worthy anyway. Its basically a front wheel drive, like most crossovers nowadays.

And did I mention its ugly as fek!

6 hours ago, Barry said:

I've seen the rows of skylines in Al Awir. All half way through or waiting to get LHD conversions

Yes I know those shops. But we were talking only about the names mentioned earlier and Nissan wasn't among those, Skylines don't come in LHD to they do get converted but you can't register them anymore, earlier you could get conversions registered only in Umm Al Quain. Back then a lot of RHD Land cruisers were also stacked in those shops. But now UAQ also has stopped. proof is many Skyline R34s do you see on the roads here ? And why only Skylines how man LHD popular JDMs conversions driving around ? 

So anything getting converted is either being re-exported or for people who have some special connections,  if you know what I mean.  

4 hours ago, Barry said:

Here's another problem. If the engine is in a front cut and you can verify the kms, how do you know that's the original engine that came in the car? It could still be a higher km engine fitted because the original blew up. You have to remove the engine and clean it so you can read the serial number then ensure it corresponds with the vin. How many breakers will let you do that? It's not always easy to get an engine in a front cut either. Front cuts take up space and space is at a premium for the breakers. Engines are ripped out and stacked as soon as possible. Then the breaker can tell you however many kms you want to hear. I worked in a breakers yard for 5 years and every engine we sold had done 70k. 

How do I know its a real person who wrote this and not some bot !!!! Sometimes to you got to put some faith in some people or you'll go through life a paranoid basket case. I know what I'm talking about because I know someone like that and he doesn't trust anybody with anything.

I have a great scrappie. He gets whole cars from Japan, and break them right there in his shop. Plus I know he wont buy local cars for breaking and he refuses to buy them. 

And sometimes you have to do have to take some people for their word. if you are going to be so paranoid in one's life, probably end up in the cuckoo house! 

Its a good idea to build up a good relation with your parts supplier and scrappy.  

On 7/5/2017 at 6:55 PM, Barry said:

I've worked on a couple of Japanese import Mercedes here. Both had half assed LHD conversions.

 I've been dealing with Jap imports in some way or the there since the mid 90s and never seen a conversion. Must be some crap imports, Japanese prefer LHD imports as it a sign of an expensive import with more street cred even though RHD variants are available for the same car. Hence you'll find factory LHD Mercs, BMWs, Audis and even VWs imported from Japan. Other cars which come in LHD here are Jeeps and Chevy trucks  

Just visit the complex right across from Aweer used car complex where most of the RHD imports are and parked in between you'll see these LHD gems parked, not conversions. 

For example 
https://www.dubicars.com/2002-mercedes-benz-s-500-l-k60-lorinser-kit-101183.html

16 hours ago, hAwX said:

i mean my w211 for example.... its head unit is still japanese here and there even after converting to english. it also have the weird toll gate ETC thing and is a japan import..

Mercedes is a European car so its a LHD Import 

More like

6 minutes ago, treks said:

Has there ever been a Jeep that was not ugly?

Good question!

10 hours ago, Barry said:

I used to hate the Juke but it has grown on me since I saw the Juke-R. Can't argue with 600 horsepower.

It could have a billion BHP but it will be still ugly as fek. 

I dunno much about the new Cherokee but one thing I do know its one of the ugliest things ever made. Is right up there with the Nissan Puke