For a while now I have been considering getting a new car because my lovely Materia has spent the last six years getting bullied on the UAE roads.
In general I have a thing against buying used cars in this country since people tend to abuse their cars and then lie about the usage. Also, not to be too racist, but there are certain groups of people here whom cannot be trusted.
Still, I wasn’t sure I could afford the larger kind of vehicle I was in search for.
I started with visiting some dealerships where I might be able to find a deal. Of course, I went with the dream options too because you just never know here.
First up was the Land Rover dealership where I fell in love with a 440,000dhs ($120k) Range Rover Sport. So that wasn’t happening! Then, I thought I might be able to make a 220,000dhs ($60k) Range Rover Evoque work on my budget, but still wasn’t sure.
Next, I visited the Toyota showroom as I am generally a Japanese make kind of girl. Well, they were offering a 20% discount for teachers on a Lexus RX350, but still the same price as the Evoque. It was nice, but screamed soccer mom with a lot of extras that I didn’t need (i.e. Video screens in the backseat = total soccer mom!!!!).
After a bit more thinking and visiting my folks, I considered the option of a short bed truck. It would be different from the soccer mom image and give me the size that I want on the roads. So I went to the Chevy and GMC dealers nearby my apartment. They had more reasonably priced options, but still nothing ideal to me.
I decided that I would go to the Ford dealership out in Mussafah the next time I took my car for servicing, which was coming up soon – i.e. When I got up the motivation to drive out there to do it!
Just as I was determining this, an ad appeared on one of my FB groups for a Land Rover Freelander at a very good price. I followed up and talked with a nice expat Austrialian who gave me the entire history of the car.
It seemed nearly too good to be true, so I asked M to go check it out as a man for me just to avoid any of the initial issues. He came back with a positive report though he said it’s not ‘new’, which was fine. So I agreed to a deposit and went out to check out the car myself. After a talk with the owner and a test drive in the parking garage, I decided to go for it.
So, after getting new insurance and transferring the registration I have a “new” SUV that doesn’t scream ‘soccer mom’ and is in the high end range that I first fell in love with.
Of course, my first day out with it would require breaking it in… OR have a small accident for the first time ever in this country…..
That story is for another post!
More to come,
~T
