Gaurav

Thanks @Barry for sharing this, as I missed it last time so I am really hoping to see it this time.

Recently I explored few automatic and manual car wash in Dubai and Sharjah while putting kms after my engine rebuild and found massive price difference with very little impact on quality. I have been going to ENOC full wash (Quality: 9 out of 10) or Grand Service Center (Quality: 10 out of 10) manual car wash in Dubai. ENOC manual car wash cost 105 AED and GSS full car wash cost 126 AED. As we all get full manual car wash often, so it was a good exercise for me to put some kms to a good use. In my recent experiment, I have personally check the facility, size, rush, workmanship and location of more than 10 different car wash in Dubai and Sharjah. I found that Havoline Car Steam Wash in Sharjah is one of the cheapest place for getting the Manual Car Wash for 37 AED with minimal rush, as they have 8 bay and with reasonably good workmanship (8 out of 10). Of course they aren't as flashy or shiny like Grand Service Center, but for quarter the price I was quiet happy and satisfied. They also clean the under body very well with Diesel as it has loads of engine oil leaking wet and dry stains, so tipping the right guy is worth getting extra attention - Thanks @Srikumar. https://goo.gl/maps/r21a981fwpCvdvSBA Please share your favorite manual car wash place with their pricing and quality details.

Welcome @Nayan Shenai to Carnity and it's off-road club. The basic minimum requirement for Carnity offroad drive is to have a 4x4 vehicle: With minimum of 10-12 inches of ground clearance and Front and back tow hook in good usable condition. Apart from that everything else can wait for your next drive. Once you join the first drive, you will be given detailed brief on how to drive off-road with all the tips and techniques. Towards the end we will also show the importance and how to use the offroad and safety gears. After your first drive, it is advisable to buy two-way radio, shovel and flag if you like to continue off-roading. It is usually advisable to drive alone for absolute first timer so that you can focus on learning skills and techniques without any distraction, but it's completely your choice at the end.

It's one of the best place to get freshly baked ideas without any boundaries. And most of them dies as soon as you walk out. I actually wanted to buy huge Petrol tanker once: To use after 20 years, but later realize how ineffective its additive chemicals will be after 20 years of sitting in one place. If you replace Will Smith in "I am legend" plot what will you be doing most of the time when you discover that you are the last men left in your city/country? I started with cars & money, then to drinks & foods but after a minute I realize that I will be done with all these stuff in first 3 days...... then what.....? I will pursue my long lost hobbies - photography, building something special like car or house, shooting aero/gun whatever is available. Build some giant communication device to reach others or help others. If like Airbnb idea renting your car is legal and possible in UAE, will you rent your car to a complete stranger? Me: No.

Go as far or as top as you are comfortable of doing a U turn and come back. Record the track so you can come back safely to tarmac. If any of the vehicle hear the bottom scraping noise, mark that as a limit and find a sweet spot near that area. Rocks and mountains usually mark there strength with rough and narrow path to climb up, if vehicles are stock (not lifted) then you got to take mountain offroad with a pinch of salt. Advice all drivers to hold steering with both hands and thumb position outside the steering wheel. Deflate to 25 PSI to have better traction on loose boulders as 35 PSI will spin tires faster. Carry warm clothing as on mountain it does get 5-10 degrees more cooler than city.

You can do off-roading here through out the year. When summer kicks in June - Sep/Oct we switch to night drives and they are equally fun, exciting and relaxing to break from hectic schedule. Same goes for camping too, that nights are quite cooler in desert that you can easily plan bbq and camping session. Do share your wadi sena experience and feedback, whenever you make it.

Too bad I missed this one, due to a bad day start. Looking fwd to see you and all new faces soon next week. Actual fun just starts with newbie drives and more you hang out more fun you gonna sign up for. Life is too boring for tarmac for 7 days, half a day off-roading should be under every doctor's prescription.

I'm actually game to do a recce trip, as its been long time we have done mountain drive here. @Asoke Sen if you want to go before your planned date, just to explore the area and see if it fits your camping criteria, I can accompany you. Thanks @Chirag S. for the heads up and finding this place.

Al Qudra Desert is a very good and versatile learning ground for absolute newbies for their first time desert driving thrilling experience. If you have already driven in sand before then you can learn more from experts having decades of offroading experience in the UAE. This area offers a good mix of playable long set of dunes and broad ridge to test your off-road control. Drive will start with detail briefing, followed by 2-3 hours of driving in sand dunes and then break for refreshment over a feedback and assessment session for each offroader. All first timer absolute newbie drivers will receive a detailed briefing before the drive starts to learn the basics of desert driving, techniques and etiquette. They will also receive the safety advise, recovery procedures, best practice and debunking the myth of desert driving. Newbie briefing will end with an individual advice on your 4x4 vehicle gearing, tire pressure, traction control and SRS options to enjoy your first desert drive thoroughly and safely. When: 31 January 2020, Friday Meeting time: 6:45 AM, the convoy will move at sharp 7:00 AM Where: Solar Park, Dubai GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/YH1SWQYNFiMjyaPW7 Level: All levels (Absolute Newbie and Newbie). Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 10 inches of ground clearance. Plan: Drive, train and enjoy till about 11:30 AM What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 12:00 PM - (much before Friday prayer) Friday Prayer Mosque: The Endurance Masjid - https://goo.gl/maps/SXmkx2jntnK85DzB7 MUST READ: First off-road drive checklist Off Road Driving - Roles & Responsibilities Off road Driving Etiquette's Off-road Convoy Rules Off roading - Everything you need to know Please RSVP on the below calendar.

Hi Nitin, welcome to Carnity offroad club, which 4x4 do you drive? Usually most of them has the required tow hooks, if not we can advice further but they are mandatory for any offroad drive.

Looks like he worked out recently, while switching on the wipers.

I need to copyright this term too. lol. "Timed Spare Parts" - They are timed to fail "EXACTLY" after the fixed period of time or engineer will loose the job to design them if they last any longer than their warranty period. Prime example: AC Delco and Solite Batteries - 1 year and 1 month. Solargard tinting - 1-2 years Dunlop grandtrek - 30-40k km

With present approach of timed spare parts and built to fail cars from almost all car manufacturers, very soon we might have an expiry dates on the cars even.

Second one is the best answer, lololol.

At least he is better than mobile glued driver, who keep slowing down slowly as they are busy texting or reading while driving. Now if car in front of me slows down w/o brake light and I can see that there is nothing in front of that car, I change lane or give little beep to those sleepy head.

I guess its something to do with size of population on any given road. In 1970-80 with few thousand cars in UAE, no one was honking here in Dubai and not much red lights were there. I'm in Dubai since 2000 and remember reaching Internet city in 10-15 minutes from Bur Dubai. Now with 5 million cars everyone at least honk here almost daily. Now imagine with 300+ million cars in India. @Frederic how is China? Do they also honk a lot?

Set the budget first, so that you end up with a fair comparison and not like many buyer start from 50k and then end up buying 90k car. Tiguan is compact SUV vs Touareg, so space wise Touareg wins. If daily kms fuel usage is not of big concern for you, I would suggest Touareg any day, being proven through the test of time unlike Tiguan or any other recent release. Also, Touareg is a VW flagship model, so chances of cheap material or timed spare parts will be far less. Last but not least, whichever option you buy, make sure its well serviced and if its with full dealer service history then its worth more in its value, so you can buy at premium (worth it). German cars are good for first 5 years in GCC, then next 5 years are totally dependent on how well they were taken care previously (not forgiving like Japanese and US marque).

Hi @Rajeevan Vickneswaran, @Denver Martins, @Michael sammy, @Gawie Herholdt, @balaji0007 Welcome to Carnity Off-road Club. Could you please share the following details: Which 4x4 vehicle you will be driving? Do you have any previous offroading experience? Ensure that your front and rear recovery points (tow hooks) are in good condition.

Which year model you are eyeing and for what exact purpose will it be used? Of course daily drive (can't be off road) but how long you drive daily? Have you set the max budget yet? If not do that first before comparing.

I would say show it to two LR specialist and get the diagnosis done, so you know what it is. Get the pricing with parts and without parts to compare how they both stack up and also share here so we can advice further. If it's something simple you can still opt for non specialist, if it's too technical and require programming after parts change, better stick to specialist. LR4 is not too complicated like RR but being 2014 I'm little concerned having too many sensors and gizmos. @Halit Mert Issever please advice how complicated your LR4 is and which garage you are working with?

Found these two LR boys in business listing here:

Which LR is this and which year model? Depending on that I can advise that you actually need a LR specialist or not. I recently sold Range Rover Supercharged and my experience with Al Tayer was same as yours and when looking for minor service from LR specialist it become 2k instead of 4K. Having said you can still shave off lot of cost if issue is confirmed of bushing or mountings (I doubt), then you can get the original OEM parts from Gulf star with free delivery and get it change to any decent workshop near your area instead of LR specialist adding marking up 20-30% on parts and with double the labor cost.

I'm not really sure to be happy for Hummer (Iconic brand) come-back or be sad to be back in an electric avatar this time! Although it's still a story, but sound quite real and relate-able when they are preparing for super bowl commercial. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30473542/hummer-returns-electric-gmc-pickup-report/