Category: Automotive

I saw a BMW X6 for the first time on the road yesterday. The V6 is selling for KD24,000 while the V8 version isn’t available yet. I like the way it looks, its like a sports car with big wheels.

I got a new car over the weekend and today I went to transfer it into my name but like everything dealing with the government, it always turns out to be a complicated and adventurous process.

Me and the previous owner of the car who’s a friend of mine first went to the Government Mall (thats what its called) to do the transfer there. Once we went in they told us if the car has old plates we need to go to 3aseema branch and do the transfer from there.

So we drive all the way to the end of the 4th ring road where the 3aseema branch is located and after running around from window to window, they told us because I live in Salmiya we need to go to the Meidan Hawalli branch.

So we turn around and drive back all the way to the other end of the 4th ring road to the Median Hawalli branch. After signing a paper the car got transfered into my name and we went to collect the new plates. I don’t know how the system works but my plate number turned out to be 11617 which I am guessing means the person 6 places ahead of me ended up getting 11611 which would have been a pretty cool number to have. If I was one place ahead even I would have ended up with 11616 which would still have been pretty nice.

On my way back to the car there were a bunch of people outside that offered me the service of installing the plates for me. The plates don’t come with any holes so for KD1 they will make the holes and fit the plate on to the car. This whole process of running around from place to place took around 2 hours and a half!

I was just checking Q8car and I couldn’t access it, when I tried Q8showroom I also couldn’t access them. Can’t be a coincidence that both sites are down. They’re both hosted in different places so I am guessing they’ve been hacked?

Update: Q8car is now back up, Q8showroom is still down.

Update 2: Both sites working fine now.

As some of you might have read on SomeContrast, Mishary posted pictures and information about the availability of new gasoline and diesel introduced at the Bayan Station. The prices are 120fils for pink gasoline and 100fils for orange diesel.

I initially thought that this would be a step-up from the current green gasoline, ultra (98 octane). It turns out that someone (insert big name) requested that Kuwait should introduce Euro-Spec petrol (environmentally friendly); and KNPC agreed. Afterwards KNPC realized that their refineries are not ready for producing Euro-Spec petrol, so they imported it from the Q8 system in Europe; hence the higher costs.

The pink gasoline (Ultra-Euro) is 95 octane (lower than green) and the orange diesel is most likely the same as the Kuwaiti garden variety. The only unproven benefit if used on our engines is lower emissions.

Link to SomeContrast. [Here]
Link to Al-Watan (arabic article). [Here]

Posted by K.

The ugliest Maybach has to be this Russian luxury cab. [Link]

I was talking to a friend who is trying to get her driving license here in Kuwait and she told me its as if the system is set up to fail you unless you have wasta. That comment reminded me of the written test Nat and I took over a year ago when getting our motorbike license in which we both got the same question in the test except my question didn’t have a right answer. Here is a larger picture showing what I am talking about. [Picture]

Other than my motorbike I am also selling my BMW so I just called both Q8Car.com and Q8Showroom.com to see how much it costs and whats the process of having my car published on their site and this is what I found out:

Q8Car
– Cost for placing your car on their site with one picture for a duration of one month: KD5
– Cost for placing your car on their site with four pictures and the ad will remain until you sell the car: KD10

Q8Showroom
– Cost for placing your car on their site with three pictures and the ad will remain until you sell the car: KD5
– Cost for placing your car on their site and Waseet newspaper: KD10

Both Q8Car and Q8Showroom send a mandoob over to take a picture of your car, collect payment and get the details of the car. I think Q8Showroom’s KD10 offer is the best deal but Q8Car does get a lot more visitors to their site. I will post my car on both and see which gets me more calls then post my findings on the blog.

If anyone is interested in my car its a 2001 BMW 330ci with 102,000KM mileage. You can [Email Me] for more details.

Ten days ago I placed an order for five steel Cragar wheels for my Wrangler from Quadratec and today they got delivered to me. They would have gotten here sooner but they were out of stock and had to wait till Quadratec received a new batch. As I mentioned previously, the five wheels cost me KD57 combined, shipping them to Kuwait cost me KD94 and I just paid KD22 for customs. So after shipping and customs each wheel ended up costing me nearly KD35 which isn’t that bad.

Now I need to have the wheels painted matt black since they’re currently glossy black and have blue and red retro looking lines. I will probably have AutoTech in Shuwaikh do that since they will be installing my suspension lift once it arrives.

Update: Just dropped my wheels off at TriStar to get painted since they gave me a price that was 70% cheaper than AutoTech. It should get done in 2 days and then I will have the tires mounted.

When I read the title of the video I didn’t think they literally meant a Volvo over a Modena. This happened on the Gulf Road. [YouTube]

This device seems too good to be true. Its an emergency jump starter which you plug it into you lighter socket when the car battery is dead and it would help start the car. Its a tiny device and costs only KD8 but it seems to work so I’m going to order one and just keep it in my car for emergencies. [Link]

Spotted this new orange wheel lock today. Its a lot smaller than the previous bulkier version which is why I am predicting people won’t notice it and try to drive off with the lock.

Update: Here is a closer look…

Q8showroom.com is now launched although I think its still in trial stage since there are a lot of things that aren’t working right or not working at all. Some of the things also feel like they’ve just been ripped off from Q8car like the drop down list for the car models. In Q8car they have a mistake where they listed Range Rover as a brand on its own instead of it being under Land Rover, on Q8showroom they’ve made the exact same mistake. Even the “All Years” drop down list is a duplicate of Q8car’s.

Overall though the site is much better than Q8car’s but they still need to add a lot more cars to their database. What I want is an option to view larger pictures of the cars (like at least 640×480) and a better search function, maybe I’ll get that in the new Q8car redesigned website. Speaking of which, Q8car had a link up a week ago where you could get a preview of the new look but since then the link has disappeared.

Here’s a link to Q8showroom [Link]

I just spotted a new Jaguar XF on the road today. I think its the best looking 4-door in the market at the moment. I was never a huge fan of Jaguars but the new XF really looks cool. If anyone at Jaguar reads this blog, I want to test drive the car for a day or two! [Link]

I am planning to lift my Wrangler and install larger 33″ tires on it. Late last month I got the tires which I expected would be the hardest thing to get until recently I realized getting new black steel wheels are even harder. I wanted either American Racing or Cragar black steel wheels. I found an American Racing dealer in Kuwait but they didn’t have anything I was interested in and if I wanted to place an order for wheels they would only be delivered in August or September. So I decided to check and see what I could find in Dubai, I gave Icon Auto a call and they didn’t have what I wanted either. The only option I had left was to order the wheels from the US and ship them to Kuwait but 5 steel tires would weigh a ton.

Each wheel weighs 12KG and five wheels would mean a total weight of 60KG. Shipping them with Aramex or USWS would cost me around KD200 which is a ridiculous amount to pay specially when my five wheels combined would cost me only KD50. Surprisingly though it turns out its a lot cheaper to have the stuff shipped directly from the supplier in the US to Kuwait. I just ended up ordering five Cragar 342’s (pictured above on the Wrangler) for $215 from Quadratec and shipping them to Kuwait will cost me only $353 with Fed Ex. Thats not really bad at all and I am extremely surprised. Once my wheels get here the third and final thing I need to do is order the lift kit.

Update: Added more pictures of the same rims on other Wranglers which you can check out by clicking on continue.

For those of you following up on this years F1 races; Applebees with Renault, is going to be airing all F1 races at 8.30pm on the day of the race (at all locations). In addition to winning prizes during each race at Applebees Bneid Al-Gar; you can also enter the draw to win a Renault Clio RS.

The first race of the season in Melbourne, Australia will be airing at 8:30 pm at Applebees on Sunday 16th March.

Good to see that local companies are local race-oriented events.

More information at the Facebook group [Here]

Posted by K.