It does not matter how much money you make here, your social agenda or your stance on muffler exhaust, emissions and the environment.
Because one thing is for certain: there is no short answer to the question of whether you should or should not buy a car while living in the UAE.
When we first arrived here, we rented a basic sedan from a company called Fast Car, which has offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Pretty cheap deals for long-term rentals but their customer service was soft and I had more than one disagreement with the manager at the Airport Road office. For the record, he's a complete ass.
When it comes down to do it, I really believe that taxis in Abu Dhabi are pretty great. They are abundant, work around the clock and best of all, they are pretty affordable (compared to most major metropolitan cities I have visited).
I would say if you are a single male or female and you are here for the next year or so, the taxis are your best friend and -- unless a car is provided for you by your job -- then you should be pretty set.
But for our situation, my wife and I work almost opposite schedules and we both need transportation. She needs to be a little bit more mobile because her job in the hotel & hospitality industry requires her presence for meetings around town during the day along with some social events during and after work as well.
As for me? This is the first time in my journalism career where I arrive at the office at 4pm and leave around midnight just about every night. Standard. Straight forward.
Between us, we needed to have at least one set of our own wheels. We needed to have that freedom. Especially on the weekends when we just decide, on a whim, to drive to Dubai or something like that.
So after renting for nearly 18 months and feeling pretty confident about our immediate future here, we realized it was time to stop throwing our money away and buy a vehicle.
There are a lot of amazing cars on the roads here (and gas is very cheap) so it's important not to get sucked up by all the eye candy.
Some other big issues for us were that we wanted something affordable and big enough to comfortably fit my 6-foot-2 frame. Because this is such a transitional place, re-sell value was also high on our list. Because let's face it, you never know when it's time to take off and sell everything that's not tied down.
So our first instinct was to buy new. The timing worked out well because we also thought we could take advantage of the Ramadan deals that were floating around. Only problem was even though the Ramadan deals were in full effect, the showroom hours were completely whack because well, it was Ramadan.
For the longest time, I was really just holding out and hoping someone at my office would need to leave in a hurry and a sweet deal would just fall into my lap. Never happened.
A friend of mine took us out to the Motor World, which is in Al Shamkha, just outside of Abu Dhabi in the middle of the desert. They had all types of used cars there for sale but if you don't like dirty people barking at you because you look like a potential buyer, then don't waste your time.
Finally, we took the very popular route and logged on to Dubizzle, which for you Stateside folk, is the equivalent of Craig's List here. This is where people sell their cars privately. But it can also be shady because, let's face it, people are shady sometimes.
But we got lucky and found this sweet lady, Loridana, who was from Italy and was trying to sell her 2011 Kia Sportage.
It checked all our boxes, the price was right and when we took it out for a test drive, we learned she only drove it around town a few times a week. So it had only 24,000 kilometers on it. Boom!
She later had us up to her apartment to sip on some Irish whiskey (in the middle of the day, mind you) so we could get to know one another and talk some business. Of course, I'm an American and I just wanted to get down to brass tacks. OK lady, how much?
But every time I started to get antsy inside this random person's home, my wife subtly elbowed me in the ribs and whispered, "This is how some people do business. Just shut up and drink your whiskey..."
Eventually, we struck a deal. But that was only half the battle.
Next up was switching the insurance and registration over. A few days later, I met Loridana at a nearby mall and like we were old friends or something, just took a relaxing Sunday drive together to the Department of Transportation. What a fine place it was.
While Loridana spoke Arabic to the workers there -- thank goodness she knew Arabic -- I enjoyed hours of people watching in what I can only describe as a your typical DMV, but with a pulse. Business deals were going down everywhere. Open-market commerce in its rarest form!
It only took a few hours and then it was time to drop off Loridana and drive away in my new car. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Especially when it ends with me giving her a very fat personal check.
She invited me up again for some more whiskey but the transaction was complete and I was ready to show off my new wheels.
It was one of the rare times I would pass up a strong drink offer from a stranger.
P.S. Don't drink and drive.
Because one thing is for certain: there is no short answer to the question of whether you should or should not buy a car while living in the UAE.
When we first arrived here, we rented a basic sedan from a company called Fast Car, which has offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Pretty cheap deals for long-term rentals but their customer service was soft and I had more than one disagreement with the manager at the Airport Road office. For the record, he's a complete ass.
When it comes down to do it, I really believe that taxis in Abu Dhabi are pretty great. They are abundant, work around the clock and best of all, they are pretty affordable (compared to most major metropolitan cities I have visited).
I would say if you are a single male or female and you are here for the next year or so, the taxis are your best friend and -- unless a car is provided for you by your job -- then you should be pretty set.
But for our situation, my wife and I work almost opposite schedules and we both need transportation. She needs to be a little bit more mobile because her job in the hotel & hospitality industry requires her presence for meetings around town during the day along with some social events during and after work as well.
As for me? This is the first time in my journalism career where I arrive at the office at 4pm and leave around midnight just about every night. Standard. Straight forward.
Between us, we needed to have at least one set of our own wheels. We needed to have that freedom. Especially on the weekends when we just decide, on a whim, to drive to Dubai or something like that.
So after renting for nearly 18 months and feeling pretty confident about our immediate future here, we realized it was time to stop throwing our money away and buy a vehicle.
There are a lot of amazing cars on the roads here (and gas is very cheap) so it's important not to get sucked up by all the eye candy.
Some other big issues for us were that we wanted something affordable and big enough to comfortably fit my 6-foot-2 frame. Because this is such a transitional place, re-sell value was also high on our list. Because let's face it, you never know when it's time to take off and sell everything that's not tied down.
So our first instinct was to buy new. The timing worked out well because we also thought we could take advantage of the Ramadan deals that were floating around. Only problem was even though the Ramadan deals were in full effect, the showroom hours were completely whack because well, it was Ramadan.
For the longest time, I was really just holding out and hoping someone at my office would need to leave in a hurry and a sweet deal would just fall into my lap. Never happened.
A friend of mine took us out to the Motor World, which is in Al Shamkha, just outside of Abu Dhabi in the middle of the desert. They had all types of used cars there for sale but if you don't like dirty people barking at you because you look like a potential buyer, then don't waste your time.
Finally, we took the very popular route and logged on to Dubizzle, which for you Stateside folk, is the equivalent of Craig's List here. This is where people sell their cars privately. But it can also be shady because, let's face it, people are shady sometimes.
But we got lucky and found this sweet lady, Loridana, who was from Italy and was trying to sell her 2011 Kia Sportage.
It checked all our boxes, the price was right and when we took it out for a test drive, we learned she only drove it around town a few times a week. So it had only 24,000 kilometers on it. Boom!
She later had us up to her apartment to sip on some Irish whiskey (in the middle of the day, mind you) so we could get to know one another and talk some business. Of course, I'm an American and I just wanted to get down to brass tacks. OK lady, how much?
But every time I started to get antsy inside this random person's home, my wife subtly elbowed me in the ribs and whispered, "This is how some people do business. Just shut up and drink your whiskey..."
Eventually, we struck a deal. But that was only half the battle.
Next up was switching the insurance and registration over. A few days later, I met Loridana at a nearby mall and like we were old friends or something, just took a relaxing Sunday drive together to the Department of Transportation. What a fine place it was.
While Loridana spoke Arabic to the workers there -- thank goodness she knew Arabic -- I enjoyed hours of people watching in what I can only describe as a your typical DMV, but with a pulse. Business deals were going down everywhere. Open-market commerce in its rarest form!
It only took a few hours and then it was time to drop off Loridana and drive away in my new car. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Especially when it ends with me giving her a very fat personal check.
She invited me up again for some more whiskey but the transaction was complete and I was ready to show off my new wheels.
It was one of the rare times I would pass up a strong drink offer from a stranger.
P.S. Don't drink and drive.
