Category: Automotive

Last week a friend of mine was telling me how he’s recently been getting into cabs and the drivers use the taximeter instead of making up their own fee up and yesterday the same thing happened to me. I took a cab and when I got in, the driver right away turned on the taximeter. Is this like a normal thing now? Because nobody was using the taximeter previously.

Someone posted the ad below in the classifieds section and I thought it deserved a mention on the main page just because of the effort they put into it to try and make it creative:

Are you tired of paying to have taxi drivers take you from point A to point B? Are you tired of climbing into taxis only to find that the inside smells of bad body odor or smoke? Do you want the FREEDOM that comes with car ownership, but the thought of possible future maintenance expenses has got you scared?

Well let me put your mind at ease, car ownership in Kuwait does not have to be scary. The key to SUCCESS with buying a used car in Kuwait is to find a car make and model that’s AFFORDABLE and RELIABLE. Ever wondered why so many taxis in Kuwait drive Mitsubishi, Lancers? Well I’ll be the first to tell you, it’s by no means because they are as glamorus as a Mercedes Benz, it’s because they are AFFORDABLE and RELIABLE. And now’s your chance to own one. That’s right, we are selling our super sharp 2012 Mitsubishi Lancer GLX that has only 70,000km (43,495mi) (1.6-litre, Automatic Transmission, Power Windows, Power Steering.)

We bought this car new directly from Mitsubishi and have taken care of all the routine maintanace. The car has never been in any major accidents and we just put on a new set of tires this year. It’s immediately available and with a price of only 2400KD obo, this opportunity won’t last long. Call Joshua today at 6653-9801 to set up a test drive.

Here is the link to the original posting [Link]

Over the past few months I’ve been on a rigorous search for the perfect classic Datsun Z. By perfect I mean one that fit into my budget, had an original and intact interior and one that required some work but not too much. Finding an original series Z was not an easy task since there were so few of them popping up for sale and those that did either had been modified heavily or were in terrible condition. Then last Monday while jumping from one instagram account to another, I found a small car collector who had a beautiful orange 240Z in his possession. I decided to leave him a comment randomly asking if it was for sale and to my surprise, the next morning I woke up to find a reply that if I was serious to give him a call. So I did and after I was done with work I headed over to his place to check the car out.

The car had one owner for the past 11 years, the exterior was in great shape and the interior was all there, even the original tape player. After taking the car for a small drive around the block I knew this was the one for me. The asking price wasn’t very far off from what I thought was reasonable for a 240Z in this condition and after negotiating with the owner for a little bit, he agreed to drop down the price and take my offer with the stipulation that if I was ever to sell the car to let him know in case he wanted to buy it back. And so just like that, next day we got the paperwork done and I was a proud owner of a 1973 Datsun 240Z.

The car is mostly stock except for the engine and gearbox which are from the newer 280z, a common modification since engine and gearbox parts for the 280z are more readily available. For such a physically small car, the interior is actually spacious. I’m 6’1 and don’t feel squeezed in the car at all, in fact its pretty comfortable. I’ve been driving the car non stop since Wednesday and it’s just a ton of fun on the road. As a pretty OCD this car should in fact be driving me insane since there are a ton of rattles and so many imperfections all ovre. It’s like utter chaos but I think thats why I’m loving the experience so much, it’s the opposite of what I usually am.

[YouTube]

Right now I’m not planning any major work on the car, I’m just going to drive it the way it is until the weather gets too hot for it and then will start working on it. I don’t have any plans yet but I did get inspired a lot last night after watching the video above. Come summer I’ll probably do an engine rebuild, replace all the bushings, install an aftermarket AC system and also get a new suspension. I managed to make a deal with ProTech Monte-Carlo and I’ll be dropping the car off to them tomorrow for some extreme detailing. I’m really curious to see how the car comes out after that since it should look factory new especially the interior.

My dad used to have a similar 240Z back in 1973, it was the first car he purchased when he moved to Kuwait and I just recently heard the story on how he got it. My dad’s an interior designer and was working on the interior of one of the properties for Abdulaziz Al Babtain. Al Babtain were the dealers of Datsun and so most of his meetings would take place at the dealership. One day while walking into the dealership he saw them rolling in a 240Z onto the showroom floor. My dad asked Abdulaziz what that car was and he told him it was the new 240Z. He then asked my dad if he liked it and wanted the car. My dad told him it was beautiful but he had just moved to Kuwait and couldn’t afford to buy one right now. Abdulaziz then called the sales manager over and told him to take my dad’s ID and register the car in his name. He told my dad to pay for it whenever he could which my dad ended up doing over time with small installments. The picture above was taken back in 1973 on Plajat street in Salmiya and my dad wants me to reshoot him now in the same spot but with my car. That should be fun.

I hope the weather stays like this for just a little bit more so I can enjoy the car as much as I can. If you see an orange 240Z zooming down the Gulf Road, that is probably me.

There’s something about this instagram account that I find very liberating. The account belongs to a guy called Ahmed Abou Hameed and I found it by chance while looking for old Datsuns in Kuwait. Ahmed owns a beautiful classic Skyline GT and the account is just pictures and videos of him and his car traveling around the region. The guy seems very chill and also a poet since most of his captions are full of poetry.

Just flipping through his account kinda makes me want to take a road trip with him. He seems to love his Skyline and also picnics in the desert. It’s all so odd, I mean most of the photos look vintage because of the car and the way he looks but then you have his choice of music and all this poetry that just tops everything off. I love it and can’t get enough of him and I respect him a lot for actually driving his pristine condition Skyline everywhere instead of parking it to gather dust.

I think I’m the only guy who writes in English on his account although most of the time I’m tagging my friends who don’t understand what I find so fascinating about this guy. I like him, I love his car and he seems like a cool guy so check out his instagram account @a.a7mad.1973

Update: Ahmed somehow found out about my post and shared it with his followers on his instagram account along with the poem below. Now I need to give a call and see if I could have tea with him somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Last month I posted about a rumor that Alghanim was acquiring the Ford dealership for Kuwait and now it turns out that rumor was true. Ford sent out an email over the weekend letting their customers know that Alghanim is now the official dealer for their cars in Kuwait. Here is a link to that [Letter]

This means Alghanim now have the following car brands split between their two three automotive divisions:

Alghanim Automotive
Chevrolet
Cadillac

Alghanim Auto
Ford
Lincoln

Alghanim Motors
Honda
Lotus

Update: Added Lincoln to the list. Also a reader made me realize that Alghanim Auto is not short for Alghanim Automotive but is in fact a completely different division. So updated post now reflects that.

Thanks Osama

Alghanim Motors have officially opened the Lotus dealership in Kuwait. I passed by yesterday to check it out and they’ve got two models in stock, the Lotus Exige and the Lotus Evora. The Exige starts at KD27,000 while the Evora starts at KD34,000.

For those interested, according to the salesman they’ll have two test drive vehicles available in the next couple of days (pictured above). Here is their location on [Google Maps]

Alghanim Motors are bringing the Lotus brand to Kuwait and they’re opening their first showroom in Shuwaikh opposite The Historical, Vintage and Classic Car Museum. Lotus is a British car brand and currently have some really hot looking cars like the Exige and Evora range. They aren’t a mainstream brand but they do have a bit of a cult following.

I’ve also heard rumors that Alghanim Motors acquired the Ford brand but I haven’t been able to verify that so I’m treating it as just a rumor for now. I heard that Ford and the current local dealer weren’t getting along and so Ford gave the brand to someone else. We’ll find out soon enough, I’m just glad that someone finally brought Lotus to Kuwait.

It’s been just over two weeks since I started looking for a classic Datsun Z and what an experience it has been. I’ve been mostly using the 4Sale app to find a car and I’ve noticed a few things in common between all the sellers:

– None speak english no matter how basic I kept my language as you can see above. So, I resorted to installing the Arabic keyboard on my phone and with the help of Google Translate communicate with them. In the end I realized it’s just easier to call them since I talk better than I write Arabic.

– All the Z sellers I called up (and by all I mean ALL) had the Koran play when you called them up instead of the usual dial tone

– They all lived in areas I had never really been to like Omairiya, Dahar, Qurain etc..

Qurain is one of the areas I went to twice, first time to meet an owner of one of the cars I wanted to check out and the second time to the used car lots in “Aswaq Qurain”. Those car lots had a bunch of interesting cars for sale from the latest Range Rovers and Ferraris to classic 70s Porsches and 60s Stingray.

While there I spotted a like new condition red 1983 Datsun 280z with only 52km on the clock which is basically 0 mileage (pictured above). The price? KD7,000 which honestly isn’t THAT expensive for what is essentially a brand new car from the 80s.

But while I was originally looking for an 80s Z, during my search I started falling in love with the older 70s Z. The simple wooden steering wheel by itself was enough of a reason but combined with the much simpler interior with less electronics and what I now think is a nicer exterior, I knew thats what I wanted. But they’re also harder to find, I just found 4 over the past two weeks and neither one of them were in great condition with all needing a lot of work. I was actually pulling the trigger on the silver blue one pictured on top of this post but backed out an hour before I finalized the paperwork because I realized it would need a lot more work (aka $$$$) than I was willing to put into it.

So right now I’m going to continue looking for the perfect Z. I’ve heard their prices are going to increase since they recently allegedly got banned from being imported into Kuwait because of the shenanigans involved with the cars. But hopefully I’ll end up finding what I’m looking for.

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been looking for a clean Datsun 280zx to buy and I’ve noticed that the cleanest (and closest to stock) models I’m finding all have Saudi plates. Does anyone know what the process is to register the cars in Kuwait? Is it an easy process or do I need some sort of wasta? All the cars I’ve been checking out are older than 25 years old so they should be considered a classic for importing purposes.

If anyone can shed some light on this I’d appreciate it.

Update: If you know anyone selling a clean 280zx or even a 240zx or 300zx let me know as well!

Around KD1 million of those fines is from me alone. [Link] (it’s in Arabic)

via Sala6a

The Prius is Toyota’s Hybrid car (electric + fuel combo) thats pretty popular in the US and surprisingly is being introduced and launched in Kuwait. I say surprisingly because Prius owners usually tend to buy the car to save on fuel costs which we really don’t have an issue with here. The Prius is available now starting from KD8,200 and from tomorrow will be on display at The Avenues for the next week.

A friend caught this accident on video using his dashcam. The whole emergency lane rule is honestly confusing. Either open it up and let everyone use it like a normal lane or just keep it an emergency lane. Having it open during certain hours and giving it a different speed limit than the other lanes just complicates things. [Vimeo]

Thanks Nibaq

Recently I’ve been doing a bit of maintenance work on my car and one of the things I badly needed to sort out was my windshield. The windshield had thousands of tiny pits that were mostly invisible unless the sun hit the windshield at a certain angle and then my visibility would completely get killed. Last time I swapped out my windshield was at the dealership, it cost me around KD180, I needed to book an appointment and I needed to leave my car with them overnight. It was just too much of a hassle which is the main reason I had put this job off for some time. But, last week a friend of mine snapchatted a video of his windshield getting fixed at a place called Glass Clinic so I decided to pass by and check them out.

When I got there and started talking to the employees I realized the place was legit so I told them to go ahead and swap out my windshield. There are plenty of places on Canada Dry Street that can swap a windshield but majority of them are pretty sloppy with their work, reuse your rubber moldings and most importantly, use silicon instead of a windshield polyurethane sealant. Glass Clinic solves all those issues.

Firstly the place is pretty clean with a waiting area upstairs that overlooks your car. They covered my interior seats before they started any work and the employees wore latex gloves the whole time while working on my car. Instead of using a silicon sealant, Glass Clinic use the Totalseal brand of sealant which is specifically made for automotive glass and is a lot safer and stronger than regular silicon. If you’ve ever replaced a windshield on Canada Dry Street you probably had to suffer with the horrible smell for days after installing the glass, thats the smell of the silicon. With a proper polyurethane sealant there is no smell. The whole installation process took around 2 hours, which is more than double the time it would usually take you on Canada Dry Street so you get an idea of the amount of care they put into the job.

I opted not to install an original Toyota windshield since it was going to cost me KD135 without installation. Instead I went with an OEM version and the final cost with installation was just KD55. Slightly more than what it would cost me on Canada Dry Street but a fraction of the dealership cost. They also fix tiny windshield cracks and they also offer the service of coming to you wherever you are for an extra KD3. If you’d like to find out more, they’re on Instagram @glassclinic and here is their location on [Google Maps]

The intro is hilarious! No idea who this guy is but he’s actually a pretty entertaining host. FYI it’s in Arabic. [YouTube]

A couple of weekends back I borrowed the Lexus NX 200t from the dealership so that I could review it for my blog. I had emailed them requesting it since I’d been admiring the car for awhile now and was curious to try it out. Lexus weren’t really know for exciting or breakthrough designs but the NX completely changed my perception on them.

My favorite color on a car is usually black, but not in this case. I was actually disappointed when I picked up the car to find out it was black. The NX is designed with a lot of sharp lines and black just hides all of them. Not only that but one of the nicest design elements in the car are the rear lights which stretch across the side of the car over the rear tire. But in black that part doesn’t show and instead blends in with the rest of the car. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to show off how beautiful the car really is in my photos because of the color, but I also figured there are tons of them on the road already so more than likely you’ve come across a lighter colored version.

The NX is a cross over vehicle which makes it smaller than a proper SUV but slightly larger than a standard car. They always feel like oversized hatchbacks to me and the NX isn’t any different here. It’s a 4-cylinder turbo engine with front wheel drive but it never felt like it lacked any power on the road. Obviously the fact that we don’t have any mountainous roads helps a lot with that. In the States they have a hybrid model which comes with an electric motor for the rear wheels turning it into an all wheel drive car. Not sure if we have that option in Kuwait, I didn’t see any at the dealership and I forgot to ask them if they had any.

Like all Lexus cars, the interior was plush with leather all around including on the dashboard. The entertainment system interface still feels outdated which is disappointing. They’ve also replaced their finicky joypad with an even more finicky trackpad. I hated the trackpad, it seemed like anytime I accidentally tapped it the car would change a setting or forward a song or perform some other unwanted action. The trackpad along with the outdated interface were the only things I actually didn’t like about the car. Actually come to think of it, the sound system wasn’t that great, mostly because if there was any bass in the track the rear trunk door would loudly rattle annoyingly. For the passengers sitting in the rear, there’s pretty good legroom. I’m over 6ft tall and as you can see in the photo below I didn’t have any space issues.

Like I mentioned at the start of this post the NX is a pretty hot looking car. Lexus have managed to carve out a look that can’t be mistaken for any other car on the road except possibly their larger RX series. The starting price isn’t that bad at KD12,950. It kinda seems like a good deal considering you’re getting a good looking Lexus with a nice all leather interior and Lexus reliability. They have an F-Sport version which looks even better with larger wheels and slightly more aggressive styling, but that’s priced at around KD16,000. It’s a great car overall, but Lexus should definitely give their entertainment system interface a major overhaul. If you’re interested in test driving the car you can do so by contacting the dealer. Here is a link to their [Website]