Barry

Like Saleem says, it's the little touches. Things like leather being hand stitched and parts being assembled by a person rather than a robot. Heres me in a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti I worked on. No other reason for posting other than to show off.

Yes, there are some guys out there who enjoy rolling in their own dung.

Out of your list, I have owned BMW and Mercedes. BMW 318, 2 M3s, Mercedes C180, C220CDI and 190E. I didn't buy them new, I could never afford to, I'm a mechanic. I bought them when they were older and depreciation kicked in. To me, the BMWs were nothing special, they felt cheap and just had that badge that everyone seems to list after. The M3s were fast. Properly fast. Around 300 bhp, rwd and lsd. Good fun to lift the handbrake at 70-80 mph and do big slides but in terms of engineering, very basic. The Mercedes were in a completely different league when it comes to engineering and comfort. You don't really drive a Mercedes, you gently waft along in it. With regards to engineering, I was forever noticing little things that must have taken hours to design like the way the heater linkages were so over engineered when something simple would have worked or the way half the dashboard had to come out to change the radio. I've never owned Porsche or Maserati but I have driven them. The 911 was probably one of the worst driving cars I've driven. I'll never understand why they thought it was a good idea to hang the engine out over the back wheels. Very prone to snap oversteer. One wrong move and you're sliding backwards. The Maserati is a wired one. It's like a Ferrari but it's not like a Ferrari. Half the engineering is there but it feels like they got lazy come lunch time and wanted to come home so they started cutting corners. When it comes to expensive cars versus really expensive cars, I think 90% of it is just showing off and saying I have more money than you because most of the time there is a cheaper car that will easily outperform it.

I recently went to a job interview for the position of service advisor. I was surprised at how much of the salary was made up from sales commission. If you're making 6k per month you can easily bump it up to 8-9k by selling unnecessary ac regas, engine flush, injector cleaner etc. not to mention the bigger stuff.

I know for a fact these points are definitely not true. There are many many more wearable components in an automatic transmission than a manual. In a manual, only the clutch plate, maybe the pressure plate and flywheel if the driver is bad. In an automatic transmission, the clutches and bands are constantly wearing, regardless of the driver. Even more so off-road because it's running hot. Torque converters break down and fail. Cost to change manual clutch 1500 vs 3-5000 to repair automatic. Automatics are dangerous for rock crawling. They're jerky and uncontrolled. In a manual, you control the power, in an automatic, it is controlled for you. Water still gets in around the torque converter. It can enter the transmission through all the various seals. A bit of water in an automatic transmission will do a lot more damage than a bit of water in a manual transmission. Some manufacturers recommend that your change your gear oil along with transfer case oil and diff oil for this very reason.

It's a case of the customer knowing more about cars than a mechanic with many years of experience. The internet is to blame a lot for it. People thinking mechanics are dumb just because their hands are dirty is another part of it. Let's see them take an ECU apart, find a bad solder joint and fix it. A little knowledge can be very dangerous. People are always telling me this part is faulty or that part is faulty. I've learned not to listen and ask what the symptoms are and make my own mind up. However if someone doesn't want to listen and insists I change wrong parts even after being advised, I'll do it and take their money with a smile. A particularly funny one a couple of weeks ago, I had two guys in. Driver and his friend. There was coolant in the engine oil, oil in the coolant. I knew straight away that the vehicle needed a new radiator, there was a leak in the oil cooler part. The friend proceeded to tell the driver that water in the oil was normal, all oil had some water in it from the manufacturing process. I stood back and listened, laughing in my mind as he justified how it was all possible. I also had another guy last week who just bought a new car. He told me the brakes were finished and needed changed. I took a quick look through the wheel and told him the pads were brand new, probably less than 1000 kms, I'm honest, I'm not going to rip someone off. No, no he insisted and went to nabooda and bought a full set of brake pads and brought them back to me. I put the car on the lift and pulled the old pads out and showed them to him compared to the ones he just bought but he insisted they were finished. Ok no problem I said, give me 300 dhs and I'll change them. Back to brake discs, they rarely need skimmed. I can count on one hand the number of times I've done it in U.K. but here, it seems to be every second car 'needs' to have it done. They should be visually inspected. The runout should be checked with a dial gauge. Thickness should be measured with a micrometer or a disc caliper, the minimum thickness is stamped on the disc. Only then can you make a decision as to wether they need skimmed. But UAE, it needs skimmed, send it to the machine shop.

What if you used it with one of these?

Saw this on YouTube and thought you might be interested. Looks like an interesting piece of kit to use when you're all alone and stuck. Although you do need something to tie the other end to which isn't always possible in the desert.

Some people say automatic is better for the sand because an auto box can change down faster than a person so there is always power going to the wheels and less change of getting stuck. Personally, I prefer manual. You have more control, better throttle response. When you put your foot down from standstill, the car moves instantly. You don't have to wait for a second like in an auto. You can choose what gear you want to be in rather than having the gearbox tell you what gear you have to be in. You can do clutch dips to either get the wheels spinning or bring the engine into the torque band as and when required. You have more control going down hill due to engine breaking. Plus you feel like you're actually driving when you have a proper gear stick and clutch rather than just a go pedal and a stop pedal. You should really try both and see what suits your driving style. Some people can't drive auto and some can't drive manual and some people will be biased because their own car will be the best in the world at everything.

Yes the instrument cluster. What you could try first is going to one of the mileage correction guys (the clockers in Sharjah) and ask them if they can flash the clocks with GCC or Australian software. If they're any good at their job they'll be able to tell you if it's possible but I'm guessing most of them only know how to use their software for anything other than rewinding the kms.

We just took the tops off the dunes so people could see better what's on the other side. It's a community service.

The TPS does give problems sometimes. Usually you'll notice a difference in the way your transmission shifts if it's an automatic.

I don't know if I could handle that much power, I'm just a beginner.

Firstly a big thank you and much love to my brother @DiamondDallas for letting me drive his car. It was my first time driving in the desert and I got stuck twice in the first 10 minutes in the 2wd section but I got myself out with a bit of clutch control. I soon learned and didn't get stuck again. Thank you to @Gaurav for his excellent teaching. I learned a lot from him as a passenger on a previous drive and I picked up a few useful tricks yesterday such as digging underneath the car and how to read the sand which came in useful when I exited the desert without an escort. Getting stuck when alone would be no fun at all. The whole experience has motivated me even more to buy a 4x4 and has swayed my interest from track driving to off roading.

If the dealer won't sort it, try writing directly to the manufacturer and asking for goodwill. Sometimes manufacturers will pay all or a proportion of the repair cost if you can prove it's a manufacturing fault. If it's up to yourself to fix it, make sure the surface is thoroughly cleaned and degreased and a high quality plastic primer is used before any paint is applied.

Have you tried going through the onboard computer to see if there's a setting to change it?

I'm in just to see the bicycle.

Takata must be making a hell of a loss on this one.

You can buy sticker kits on eBay. You can even change the color of the dash clocks if you want. I've had to do it the other way round before, kph to mph with imports coming from Japan to U.K. Bear in mind that if you do this, your odometer will be wrong as it is reading in miles instead of kilometers.

I won't be able to make any events this weekend. I have had plans made for me

Meh. I've worked on hummers before. I was less than impressed on test drives. Put your foot down and watch the Nissan sunnys fly past. The first time I drove a hummer I was actually scared, oh Jesus did I break something? But no, it was just slow and shite!

I'm up for a fishing trip. I love fishing.

I am a mechanic. My honest opinion is that these cleaning additives don't work. I know because I had a tie up with an oil company and gave some customers free samples to try. Nothing changed anything. As a mechanic, I've rarely seen injectiors giving trouble. When they do, the only solution is to take them out and either clean them manually or do ultrasonic cleaning. Dont believe the hype. If the fuel being supplied was so bad that all the cars were breaking down, we'd be in a constant traffic jam.

@DiamondDallas we're due another fishing trip soon. My favorite fish is BARRACUDA 😂 😉

Which is the best out of the box 4x4 for desert driving? By out of the box, I mean completely standard, as the factory built it, no modifications other than deflated tires. And why? Old cars, new cars all inclusive. Anyone can spend thousands on something and make it good but I'm interested in what is good without spending anything other than the purchase price. And also interested in different cars according to price range too.