desertdude

Next you'll tell us you have the obligatory token black friend too right

If you've worked on Nissan's you'll realise most V engines have that sucker buried inside.

Errr...price. Go to youtube and search for and look at how a rolls royce is manufactured and then search for some other cheap mass produced car and see how they are made and painted.World of difference. Dipping is not actually painting the car, its a series of chemical baths for corrosion prevention and sometimes a final bath for primer. Its the type of paint and how many coats of paint and clear are sprayed on then polished by hand and the post paint inspection in a special room with bright lights and gone over by a team of inspectors, imperfections marked and either sent back for polishing ot even repainting.

Don't think any survived LOL

Always, always look at the painters work before you give in your car for any paintjob. Visit the workshop, see what kind of prep work is being done, see a car thats already in the booth being painted and look at some jobs that have been done and waiting for delivery. There are tons of good painters here who have learned from years of experience if not decades, but if you go to the workshop and insist on paying absolutely the bottom dollar then expect crappy work. Not always the case but in majority of the cases. @Gaurav got his Pajero repainted around year or so back we went had a look at the shop first, once satisfied only then gave the car in for the job. I think he went and asked or actually supplied a better quality paint later on. Job was a good one from what I recall. @ Barry's borderline racist comments, the less said the better.

Easier said than done for you but with a population whom 90% can't even change a tyre on their own, you expect them to dismantle a dashboard? And garages here charge an arm an a leg for something like that. That's where I'm getting at. I've done a few dashes in my time and still would rather bypass the useless ( in this climate and country) heater rather than waste time and money trying to fix a heater, which I will never use. Can't even remember the last time I thought I needed one in my car. No wait, actually I can remember very well I needed a heater, it was Jan 2009 very early morning around 4 am on the Hamim road heading down to Liwa to set up base camp for the around the UAE off road event. It was very cold that morning and my Land Rover Discovery Series I engine wasn't even reaching temp, so did the old trucker trick of blocking 3/4th of my front grill with a piece of cardboard. So yeah 9 years ago I needed a heater in my car, haven't needed one since. So clearly something one can live without in these parts.

Yup you got it, no love for oil burners here, thought you were going to post something interesting, diesel related. Just go to Emirates road and you see loads of trucks. My interest in trucks is only limited to playing Eurotruck 2

Sorry all gone for the Takata recall.

Overheating! That needle is on the first mark on the cool side. What makes you think your car is "overheating" I think you have other problems, get a diagnostic code reading and live data feed before you start throwing more money and Parts at it.

Yeah so this VS A simple bypass :D

I've done my self on a couple of my cars, a simple piping reroute with 0 side effects in this climate vs $$$$ to rip out the dashboard to get to tge heater core replace or even if it is a small leaky O ring still the dash has to go for something you will use perhaps once or twice a year or maybe not at all even. The choice is pretty simple everytime

That's not its intended purpose but it does work to cool down an overheating engine a bit. But a few feet of piping isn't going to effect the cooling of the engine. In these parts its just not worth it to maintain your heating system once its starts to leak or blows

was just going to say that, and there are no GCC 2drs all US imports.

Yaris Sport!

Well you can then also get a house maid, who will cook, clean and take care of you i.e Corolla

lol..ok lets put it this way, would you marry a woman who was beautiful, voluptuous charming, great personality, wicked sense of humour, interesting and whenever you looked at her you smiled but every once in a while, got upset and sometimes even angry and just wanted some TLC from you. Or someone, who was bland looking, boring, was as charming as a door knob, did what she was told, but never got upset or angry and you could go on business trips on months and didnt have to worry about her, not even call her to check up on her if she was doing fine because you knew she was. Knew even if you didnt see or talk to her to a year she wasn't going any where because she was a loyal and "reliable"

Yeah you are pretty much spot on, once a car breaks traction the tail end will try to overtake the front end. Fishtailing. Nothing to do with driveshafts and balances. An unbalanced drive shaft will cause nasty vibes even when driving like a nun above a certain speed.

As you might have guessed, not a fan. Relax mate, no need to get all emotional, I was just havin' a bit of a laugh. didn't see the " " in the end?

Probably what is know as a poor man's peel. When the rear LSD clutches are worn out and only one tyre is doing the peeling. Leaving big 1's in the parking lot instead of 11's

Ok if you insist. Ok small and cramped on the inside. Not much going on the outside too, a good name would be stubby bob. Nothing to write home about under the hood. Overall pretty charmless and characterless. More in the same category as white goods, like a washing machine or toaster. It does what is says on the tin tough, so can't fault it for that that

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.