Frederic

I am currently thinking about going for a budget lease instead of racking up too many miles on my 1999 Pajero. I do about 110kms every day and taking into account the fact that a 20 year old truck slurps up petrol at a rate of 14-15 l/100km, there are some savings to be made when going for a cheap budget lease. Going for a smaller 1.5 liter engine would basically half my consumption to +/-300 dhs per month, while you can get a lease for about 1200-1300 dhs per month that includes maintenance and insurance. At the same time my Pajero can be kept for offroading and camping trips and gracefully go on for another couple of years as weekend warrior. Instead of going for a lease, i could buy a 10,000dhs semi reliable budget car but that scares me a bit because again it will come with its own costs like maintenance and insurance and possibly breakdowns along the E611 Would a basic Civic or Corolla of max purchase price of 10k really cost less than 1200dhs per month in cost of ownership on a yearly basis ? Appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Thanks !

Agree with @Rahimdad on this one. If you're planning to sell the car in 2-3 years, then you should look at a car with the best resale value or you will lose too much money. But then we are talking Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Nissan. With regards to Korean cars such as Hyundai and Kia, have friends who drive Korean cars and they are very satisfied: * One friend drove an old Kia Opirus in KSA. He literally drove it into the ground. It has 680,000kms and was still going strong, apart from the regular maintenance. * Another friend drove a Hyundai Veracruz 3.6. Was a great, fully equipped SUV, and last time i checked on him he was way above 280kms and without any big issues. This all depends of course on the maintenance and care you take of your vehicle, and a bit of luck. If you buy new, the Korean always have great extras and good warranty schemes. * The very cheap Koreans such as Accent and Rio are nippy and reliable but i heard they suffer a bit from under-powered AC units. In some cases such as yours when racking up high mileage in short time, leasing a budget model might come in handy. You don't have to worry about a thing, and pay a fixed amount that includes maintenance, insurance, etc.. After 2-3 years you give them back the keys and choose another model. No questions asked, no discussions about resale value, and so on. 100% hassle free. But i advise to steer away from leasing above 2500dhs per month. In that price region you might be better off buying something and paying off the loan.

Hahahaha I feel the same, but be aware that lots of things are “set up” for the show, and is not always fully realistic. But I love Fred his approach to cheap cars and especially their budget fixes and road trips.

Anyone using Tapatalk on Carnity ? Several years back when I was on multiple message boards it was a good way of posting messages and getting quick updates. It seems to work for Carnity too, but I find myself using the Carnity website directly on my phone.

Funny that GAC was called Trumpchi before but they decided to change that name when they entered US markets Do you want to go for the 2WD or the 4WD version ? There is a definite price difference according to Drivearabia website. Considering that you are in the same price region of the base Pajero, or a Korean SUV like Hyundai or Kia, i'd be a bit more inclined to stick with the more well known brands, but that is just me. They won't come with all the bells and whistles of this Chinese SUV. The 2.0 Turbocharged 4 cylinder will be more economical than a 6 cylinder, so that is a good thing to have on your commute. On the other hand, having a 4 cylinder in such a big SUV might mean that the Turbo will have to work hard, and in this climate this might not be the best thing. It's definitely worth a try, and it is a fact that the Chinese are coming up strong. Have you checked the HAVAL H9 ?

Two of my colleagues lost quite some money from their creditcards over the past few months. It is still a mystery how they were able to use the creditcard details to access their account. Thanks for the link !

Really nice feature. Carnity unites people, cultures, and countries

I’m a fan of the Dirt Every Day show with Fred. He’s done Baja too on a few episodes. Great stuff.

Yes very good topic. I would only see the purpose of putting the air inlet higher as it’s further away from the engine (cooler), and maybe takes up less sand. The cold air intake units take their air from underneath the wheel fenders, where I can imagine there is lots of sand. I like the look, but a fake one is really form over function.

Level would be advanced i'd presume ?

My wife also has it on her 2008 Pajero driver side, but not severe. Probably some wind turbulence due to the big shape of the mirror.

I remember the discounts because of Ramadan. Every year they come up with something. I have the feeling that most hardcore overspeeders are now laughing out loud, and will take another car which has another license plate (wife's car maybe) for a while to avail their discounts. But on the other hand, kudos to Dubai Police for at least starting these initiatives and thinking out of the box mentality. It shows that they are progressive thinkers and open for new systems.

Should be depending on the type of fine. For smaller fines like parking tickets this system is a great idea. For serious offenses like speeding way beyond the legal limit one should be punished hard, and no discount should make up for the risk you’ve brought upon others.

Thanks buddy. If ever somebody invents a way to X-Ray or analyze an engine sitting on a pallet he’d be a very rich man 😂. Now it’s buying and trying....

Yes I forwarded number of Jabal Tokyo to Rishi, the guy that runs the workshop where my car is. He’s been calling around and going to Sharjah on a daily basis to source engines. Please do forward the other places, I might go and check myself in Sharjah on Saturday. I work in Jebel Ali so i can never reach Sharjah during the week.

The workshop installed two engines that were shipped in, unfortunately both are not running properly. We are now sourcing another one and at the same time opening my original engine to see if a rebuild would make sense. So definitely itching to get back off-road 😣

If only.... two engines installed and both were bad. Now on to third engine 😥

How do you shout Yallllaaahhh in Chinese when going up the mountain ?

We should go and rent a Chinese 4x4 and explore the area. Like a Carnity school trip

I made a very similar system myself a while back, It worked fine but i ran across some issues when clipping on the hose to the tyre. Due to some wear and tear on the valve the air came out faster on one tyre in comparison with the other. As a result of that i would have the front tyre at 18psi while the back tyre was at 14psi. From what i see the INdeflate clip-on system looks a bit better so you might not have that problem.

Nope no rear diff lock button on the dashboard at all.

It’s a bit strange. The 2008 LWB gold edition I bought for my wife is a 3.8 but without rear diff lock option. Apparently that gold edition was made for Qatar market mainly according to the seller but I haven’t seen that confirmed somewhere. The Pajeros in other countries got their rear diff lock replaced by LSD and other electronic gadgets from what I’ve read.

I was the idiot waving like crazy at the lakes driving my wife’s Pajero. We went camping ⛺️. Have a safe drive !!

I'm still waiting for my car to emerge from the dark and greasy bowels of hell, or also called UAE workshops...