One of our readers sent in photos of yet another car that went up in flames in the UAE for no apparent reason. It seems to be becoming a common occurence, and is simply being blamed on heat and bad maintenance. While some cases have been due to age or bad stereo installations, others can simply be attributed to the source of the cars. Take this Jeep, for example. I also drive a Jeep, but mine is a GCC-spec version with full service history. The one in the photo is not.
The American-spec bumpers give away the fact that this burnt Jeep Grand Cherokee was probably bought from one of the UAE’s used car dealers in Dubai or Sharjah. It is now time to bust some myths.
There is nothing inherently wrong in buying an American-spec import. Except for the gauges in “mph” instead of “kph,” most of the mechanicals are usually the same nowadays, and there are many people who are happy with their “grey” imports here. The used car dealers are happy too, since resale values in the United States are comparatively much lower for every car there, so they buy low there and sell high here.
The problem comes with the used car dealers who get greedy and try to make even more money. It is a given that there will be no service history with these imports. Even more disturbing is that many dealers are buying up cancelled cars from the U.S. at auctions. These cars were either in major accidents, hurricane-season floods or even fires. I’ve seen the state of these scrap cars myself, and I am pretty sure people died in these accidents, considering how badly they were crushed. I think I spotted blood a few times too.
There are garages dotted around Dubai and Sharjah that are openly repairing these cars using cheap Indo-Bangladeshi labour, effectively building these cars up again from scratch. For the accident-damaged cars, they weld hooks onto the chassis and pull them straight enough to pass annual police inspections. Then they cut off these welds, beat the dented body panels flat, slap on some “maajun” bondo to smoothen out the body, replace the rubber and glass, and add a thin layer of new paint that will probably fade in a year or two.
The flood-damaged cars are in visually-better shape, since they were only dunked in salt water for a few weeks rather than suffering a crash. Of course, half the electronics have fried by then and there is probably rust forming in unseen parts of the car. Electrical problems will only make themselves known randomly, while new paint will hide the rust underneath.
The worst part is they sell these fixed-up cars at regular used-car rates. For example, I spoke to a garage selling a destroyed-but-fixed imported 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee V6 for Dhs 100,000, while a new one costs Dhs 115,000.
It may seem hopeless now for those looking into imports. Fortunately, there is an online service in the States called carfax.com, where one can enter a VIN number for any American-market car and come up with its full history, provided you don’t cheap out on the small fee, payable by credit card.
Indeed, it is not that hard to buy a “good” import. My old 1990 Mercedes-Benz was a Japanese import, and it ran safely for four years before I sold it in 2008. And I have a nagging feeling that my latest BMW is a European import too, as it has been repainted and lacks a service history. The trick is to know how to spot a “good” import, but that is a lesson for another day.
As for why the “bad” imports catch fire? All it takes is a loose fuel line and some static-electricity sparks among badly-placed components in a botched repair. Or the guy just drove it until it overheated. But would you want to be in something put together completely by ultra-cheap labour? Let’s not divert to a discussion on the local property market now.
When cars catch fire like above, will insurance pay up anything? Or the owner is just doomed if he ever survives.
Good question. Check your insurance papers I guess.
Yup the insurance papers should state, but provided you got full comprehensive insurance..
you r better off not buying these cars….
that is way I prefer to buy new car then used car.
espeically in this region where people are known to abuse the car.
only if it low milage and a European driven I will think of buying 2nd hand from them.
how bout doctor driven cars ? are they safe to buy ?
how bout an european doctor !?
I am only saying about the statics and mostly the things I see.
other 2nd hand I would buy is if someone I know him.
I own a us import grand cherokee 4.0… I checked in on car fax… found out it was a salvage car.. Already started noticing the signs of how it was badly crashed on time as i was naive & in a hurry when i got it..
Maybe you can list out problems you’ve had. Would be interesting to compare.
Hey mash… looks similar to your car… hope it wont explode one day… no effence… but clearly the reason is heat, i never trusted any car that is not GCC specification…
When I was looking for a car 2 years ago, I was searching gulfnews classifieds, and found so many cars imported from the US.I used to take the VIN (Chassis number), and found that more than 90% of them are totalled (canceled) cars, that were bought from the US for almost scrap prices. Please search for the car history before you buy it. One month subscription will cost you around $20, which is better than losing thousands of dirhams. All you need is the vehicle identity number, and subscription to a website like carfax.
Be Safe
Dear Gladiator..
With professional help, you can modify the car to GCC specs. In some cars, you need to switch to a bigger radiator, and a whole new set of fan switches and thermostats. In addition to that it is important to change the tires, since some of those cars come from very cold states. My father bought a US imported Caprice back in 1993. It was the best car he ever drove, all he did was changing the radiator and thermostat, and he used it for 12 years after that. Please don’t forget that some American spec cars come with some luxury options and modifications that never exist in this region.
using cheap Indo-Bangladeshi labour??? where u from dude? do u get better labourer than them? If u think u r rich why don’t u go and buy a new car instead of buying a used car? BLOODY CHEAP!!
Retard. If you had half a brain, you’d understand the meaning of the sentence. And if you read this site long enough, you’d also know that Mash is bangladeshi and has close friends in the working-class community. Morons like you get offended at simple things like this, and yet keep quiet about injustices that Mash is exposing.
@ dr. Ankesh… why are you angry man… just because we are only like text friends and propably we would never see each other, it doesnt mean to be angry and act like a big guy… this site is meant to discuss cars and ralated subjects…. if you dont like what you read, then say it in a polite way….. and i agree with aws about his comment… he said it all when he said (With professional help)….
My name is Steve. I am a licensed independent car dealer on the East coast of the United States. With my contacts I can locate any car you can dream of and at dealer only pricing. My dealership does not buy and resell salvage cars. We sell clean, low mileage, late model American specs, pre-owned cars. We are happy to provide a Carfax with any car we sell. There are plenty of dishonest car dealers. There are plenty of dishonest people in general all over the world. If you are interested in what we can do please do not hesitate to call or e-mail us and give us a chance to show that all dealers are not alike. Thank you for your time.
Steve Martin
SUN CONSULTING LLC
steve@smoothsayer.com
1.804.216.3414
Hi,
My name is Siraj. I am in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Got an offer for a Canadian imported Chevy Trailblazer LS 2007 model, which was used in Jeddah last 3 months.
Is there any alteration needed in Saudi Arabia? Does the spare parts will be available in KSA?
Please advice.
Siraj
I presume i too was trapped by the used car dealer in sharjah and bought a 4×4, but a price lesser than the market price…later i realised the car was met with an accident in which the full driver side airbags were inflated…they didnt let me take the car to Tasjeel for electrical checking the reason was they didnt hv a number plate for the car…i got it checked with 2 local shops …who certified the car to be good for that price….it had a full service history in it …I wish to know if Consumer Protection Law prevails in UAE to punish these type of cheaters who cheat ppls hard earned money…?
Most cars in SHJ r totalled & sold to people…
can anyone tellme if the cars sold on SOUQ.COM or GULFNEWS.COM, are reliable or not? as most of them are sold by private owners…or how to check if the car was accidented or not? apart from service history.
That’s a long story. You’ll have to post in the MyRide forums for a proper answer.
take car to dealer, pay them about 300dhs and they can tell you if it was serviced by them and if there are any accident repairs done to it.
you can also call the insurance company and ask if there was any claims.
good luck, do take care while buying cars everyone
Hello All,
I’ve been trying to check the VIN of a Nissan Infiniti G35 I’m interested in buying from someone…problem is, all of the VIN checking websites (carfax included) require US-based Credit Cards, and I can’t seem to get around it.
Any ideas?
Okay, just checked it, and turns out the car was a salvage. At least it wasn’t in a flood or fire, but still, the car was damaged seriously. When I drove it, it ran so well.
I recenty bought an Americe specs Honda Civic. Had it transferred from Sharjah to Dubai. Although Tasjeel passed the car, they say that the car has been repaired and these remarks are mentioned in the passing report. Will i have any problems passing the car next year?
What do you think ” Salvage” is?
It is to retrieve, restore or rescue something from fire, danger etc. Now, If a car is saved this way, what is wrong with that. If an engine catches fire, you report it to your insurance company in the States and labor is so expensive in the States that insurance companies total those vehicles instead of fixing it and pay the driver it’s fair blue book value. Then insurance company informs the department of Motor vehicle that this vehicle. If I buy that car cheap, replace the engine drive it. Car is going to be fine with the new engine but the title will read as “Salvage Title”. I see no problem in that. Have you ever been sick and had an operation? Were you saved by your doctor? Should we label you Salvaged person like a car?
^ You forgot the part where you tell the next buyer that the car has been fixed up by a random garage.
Idont think there is any harm in buying american spec cars only that they are not serviced by dealers ,but u have options of lots of garage to get servicing done ,i have seen GCC SPEC cars catching fire ,no big deal ,these dealers out here just frighten u ,i own a toyota camry american spec ,and its just going good and has better options than that of the gcc spec
You can check on the net.. There are some sites that offer salvage reports for a car.. Usually by entering the VIN no. they will tell you if the car was once salvage.. A full report can be purchased also but by knowing i have a salvage report on a car is more than enough..
Can any1 tell me how i can order a VHR from carfax.com without having a US credit card.
hi,
To all american specs owners in dubai, where do you service your cars from, i drive a Nissan Murano 2009, and it keeps giving me an indication of ‘Service Engine Soon’, thought i have chaged the engine oil and stuff.
1- how do i reset this indication ?
2- Please tell me if there are any workshops that service American Specification Vehicles ?
Thankyou,
regards
Hi all
My friend had bought a 2007 Toyota Fortuner last thursday…he found out that the car had been in an accident. When he asked the seller (many times) they said nothing about being in accident. So the moral is check the car throughly before buying it..don’t trust some the sellers…they are out to get your mone…is there any law that protects the buyers?