Car Shopping... and Formula 1

So, we only have the one rental car. And, I've been the chauffeur long enough. Lindsey and I were both so "over" the shared vehicle experience. It was time to get a second set of wheels.....

But what to get?

Should we just get another rental for the next year or should we actually consider buying a vehicle? Something that can hold the whole family or just a little commuter thing for Lindsey to drive? And if we buy, do we go used or new? Plus, how hard is it to have your own vehicle? Up keep, insurance, etc... how does all THAT work?

Lots of questions.... I started asking around.
Lindsey checked with our current car rental company & started checking on dubizzle...

In then end, we decided to at least go look at a few of the cars up for sale online. Maybe we would buy? We ARE here for another 12 months. What we'd pay in rental fees for another rental car would be equal or more than what we could buy a little used number for... so, why not at least look around a bit? What do we have to lose?

Plus.... Lindsey LOVES to car shop.... ug.

Turns out, buying any car... new or used... is a bit of an experience, in and of, itself.

Rumor has it that some Emirati here doesn't like the "look" of car lots. He must be pretty high up, too. The rumor is that he decided that there would be no automobile lots inside the city. He didn't like them; he didn't want them; so there are none.

Period.

You won't find a "car lot"  or "dealership" (like we'd expect in the states) anywhere INSIDE the city. They've been banished to the outskirts... in the dessert! There are businesses in the city for the major car brands: Mercedes, Ferrari, Bentley, VW, Honda, Nissan, etc, but they are more like "samples" and often only the "top of the line" car is on display... the one and only model with all the bells & whistles! There may be a few cars onsite, but most of the store is empty. And by "store" I want you to picture a little shop housed at the bottom of a high-rise building limited to 2000 square feet or less.... You are welcome, however, to order whatever you want for delivery... at a hefty fee, of course.

Some dealerships (the local BMW, for instance) does have an off-site storage area where they keep limited stock. They actually had a stand alone building (but most of it was for doing automotive repairs). The whole "store" is really more like a BMW approved auto REPAIR shop rather than a dealer.

And sometimes there is a "secret" underground storage lot that will house a limited stock.  I've heard of these underground lots, but I've never actually been to one...

So, Lindsey finally decided that our best bet would be to look online and find cars listed by dubizzle... it's actually used by both individuals AND the dealerships for listing cars!

Lindsey also decided we'd probably go with a used 2-seater. He really just wanted a little car that could take him to and from work. But, with this is mind, why not get something fun?

So, that's how we spent a weekend in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai looking at convertible Porche Boxsters.

First, we tried to see what Abu Dhabi had to offer. There were several Boxsters of various ages listed around town. We decided to see the one located in MotorWorld first.

MotorWorld is legendary in these parts.... well, at least to expats. It's kind of one of those places you go to just to check it off your "Yup, been there" list.  Here's how best to describe it. Think of sand.... lots and lots of sand... surrounded by a really tall wall... then drop 6 rows of stripmall style buildings inside. All the buildings are identical. Each building houses 11-15 independently owned used car "dealerships" (for lack of a better word). The cars are all parked (um, packed), like Tetris game pieces, in the limited space in front of each store. Some stores have a few cars inside their limited building space....

We were looking for a specific Boxster, reportedly located somewhere at MotorWorld. The online ad had pictures of the car and a phone number. The guy on the phone just said it was "on the lot" but couldn't tell us the name of the dealership! LOL!

Needle in a hay stack! Seriously!!

We saw lots of crazy things.....

But we did finally find the Boxster.... and it was in awful shape. The exterior looked great (those were the only photos online and now we knew why!), but the interior was shredded.... literally. We didn't even drive the car.

None of the other people in Abu Dhabi who we called about their cars would call us back, so we decided to go to Dubai to see a car or two listed there. Here's the ONE "touristy" shot I got for the day... The Burj Khalifa. Shot from our moving car... as we sped past it on the highway....

Turns out, the whole car shopping experience in Dubai is pretty close to our experience in Abu Dhabi.  It wasn't quite MotorWorld, but it was close!

We met the guy at a mall (big surprise) and he drove us to a dirt lot... no lie! The car was listed as being sold by a "dealership", but the guy took us to a "pay by the hour" car lot! I couldn't make this stuff up. Obviously, he was an "independent" dealership!

This was the first Boxster we were out to test drive with kids in tow, so Devin's eyes lit up when he laid eyes on it. He jumped right into the passenger seat ready for the test drive.  We had to kick him out so the salesmen could ride shotgun with Lindsey.

The car looked... okay. It definitely needed work on the ragtop and the clutch. When we asked the guy for the service records, he sorta paused. Then he claimed that we could download them from "the website".  Uh huh.... It was a very disappointing day.

In the end, we didn't do anything that weekend other than learn some of the ropes to finding used cars and how to test drive them. We also learned that some of the online descriptions were a bit... optimistic... in their wording. It would be later in the week before we could try again.

So, I was bit surprised when Lindsey called me to take him to test drive another Boxster near his work in Abu Dhabi with a day or two. Lindsey had managed to get ahold of one of the guys who never answered over the weekend. Turns out, he listed his work number on the website. He works AT the Porsche "dealership" in town. He is selling one of HIS personal cars so he can buy another one. Apparently, his wife draws the line at four.... (Men and their obsession with automobiles!)

So, I drove Lindsey to the meeting place near the Fairmont hotel, the test drive went well, the service history was perfect, the negotiations went even better, and a handshake sealed the deal. We would just need to pay in cash & the guy offered to walk us through the title, insurance, & plates part. Awesome!

I should remind you we don't have a local bank. We knew we'd need a day or two to get the money together. The guy agreed to hold the car.

So now, all we had to do was get the cash... I had noticed that Citibank has ATMs here in Abu Dhabi.  It's the ONLY bank that I recognize from the States; everything else is local to the Middle East. We have Citibank credit cards. We figured we could get a cash advance. We just weren't sure about our limits. Lindsey called the number on the back of the card, explained the situation, got confirmation & instructions, and off we headed to the downtown branch... the ONLY branch with a teller counter.  And according to the 24 hour call center, the only way to get a cash advance is via a teller at a full service bank location.

Guess what? The downtown branch can't do cash advances... No, really. It's a full bank. It's their ONLY full bank branch in Abu Dhabi... but they don't actually offer all the services.  Getting a cash advance is not provided...

What?! Only in the UAE....

After a very heated phone call with the the 24 hour call center, a rather tense discussion with the manager, and some hair pulling, we left the bank... still with no cash in hand.

As it turns out, our only option (for such a short time frame) was to go to the ATMs and pull cash. But, there is an AED/day/card limit here in the UAE. In addition to that, we ran into the somewhat baffling issue of finding ATMs that were empty! Over the course of two days, we used over 5 credit cards and 8 ATMs to pull the necessary cash. Frustrating? Absolutely! It really was pretty funny. I mean, it's laugh or cry....

So, FINALLY we had cash in hand and Lindsey called the guy to meet us. It took another 2 days to get the insurance, title, and new plates. Which is a WHOLE other experience.  Who knew, but the insurance is tied to the car. Which means when you sell the car, the insurance goes with the car. Lindsey had to have the insurance switched over from the guy's name to Lindsey's name. That took a whole day... even though the whole process is done online. THEN new plates had to be created b/c they no longer fit the UAE inspection... even though they DID pass the same inspection only one month ago.

The only thing consistent in this country is the inconsistencies....

Lindsey finally had his very own wheels... a "new to him" Porsche Boxster. It needs a good deep clean, but it runs like a dream.... just in time for the big Formula 1 weekend...

We didn't have tickets to any of the 4 days of F1 festivities, so we made our own fun...

But, we were out on a date in Lindsey's Boxster when the big fireworks display went off on the last night. We sorta felt like it was just for us... in celebration of our car buying success...