Category: Automotive

The photo above is of the first large Al Mailem showroom which they opened back in 1971. Al Mailem if you aren’t aware are one of the largest retailers of tires in Kuwait and they have a whole bunch of locations up and down Canada Dry st.

I’ve actually been trying to find old photos of Canada Dry street from the 60s and 70s but can’t seem to find any and not sure where to look anymore. But, I just thought of an idea while typing this post up of trying and putting together a post with old photos of car dealerships similar to the photo of the first AlBabtain dealership pictured above. If you work at any of the car dealerships in Kuwait please email me!

I’m very routine-oriented so every year when my car registration expires I take it to the same traffic department in Jabriya and go through their long clumsy process to get the papers renewed. What is the process? First I have to go to an insurance office to renew my insurance. Then I then need to head to the traffic department in the morning, wait in a long line for my car to get checked. If it passes I then need to find a place to park my car so I can go to a small office in a shack to get my papers stamped. Once that is done I then need to leave and come back in the afternoon and head to the super busy main traffic department building (the mornings are only for Kuwaitis) and buy a stamp and then submit my papers to have the registration booklet printed. If I have a fine I’ll have to get my papers back and head to the fine payment section upstairs, wait in a long line and then head back down and submit my papers again. A very complicated and inefficient process.

But years ago private car inspection centers started popping up but I never thought to try them out until now. Due to Covid and not wanting to deal with large crowds, I decided to try a private center and all I can say is WTF, I can’t believe it took me this look to go the private route!

I just renewed two of my cars last month and the process couldn’t have been easier. I went to a place in Al-Rai called Super Service and both times I was in and out in under 30 minutes. The first thing you need to do is drive your car into the center and leave it running. You then head inside and give your registration booklet to the receptionist who photocopies it and then tells you to hand over your documents to one of their employees at a counter. That employee will fill in all the paperwork, renew your insurance, and also let you know if you have any fines to pay. You then pay for everything (fines included) using Knet and go sit down and wait. 10-15 minutes later your car is done getting checked and your new registration is printed and you get in your car and leave.

That’s it!!

I paid KD29 to renew my paperwork which is very reasonable considering how fast, smooth and anxiety-free the process was. There is no way I’m ever going back to renewing my car registration the old-fashioned way at the traffic department, not unless I have to. There are a number of private inspection centers but if you want to visit the one I went to, here is their location on Google Maps.

So two things here. Firstly I wasn’t aware that we had Skoda in Kuwait, or maybe I was aware but because it’s such an unexciting brand I might have forgotten about it.

The main story though is that Behbehani who are the VW and Porsche dealers just announced that they’ve acquired the Skoda brand which makes sense since Skoda is part of the VW Group. The brand previously was with Fouad Alghanim & Sons Automotive (@skodakuwait), the same dealers as Audi and Lamborghini (which also fall under the VW Group).

Skoda is considered to be a cheaper alternative to Volkswagon. The cars are made in the Czech Republic, China, Russia, India and Slovakia so producing them is cheaper due to lower labor costs. As I already mentioned, I personally don’t find their cars to be exciting, but anyone looking at Skoda’s is probably doing so because of value and not looks. If you’re interested, the Skoda Behbehani Instagram account is simply @skodabehbehani

Thanks Fahed

This is a post for google since I know a lot of people want to powder coat or electroplate parts but don’t know where to go. I found out about a place in Shuwaikh that offers these services when I wanted to powder coat my wheels, but they also zinc-plated all the nuts and bolts for my 240Z that I’m restoring and I might be getting my 240Z metal bumpers re-chromed by them. The place is called Anmar Advanced Services but they’re on Instagram as @pcoatkw and @tankelkw.

The services they offer are:
Zinc-Plating
Tin-Plating
Nickle-Chrome Plating
Powder Coating
Sand Blasting

I don’t have all their prices since it depends on various factors like size and quantity, but for powder coating car wheels for example they charge KD90 for 4. I think I also paid 35KD to galvanize (zinc-plate) all the nuts and bolts of my 240Z but I can’t find the bill. If you’re interested in any of their services, here is their location on Google Maps (they’re in the back left corner of that street). You can also get in touch with the engineer, his name is Maher and his number is ‭66475000‬ DM them on Instagram @pcoatkw and @tankelkw

It’s been over a year now since I got my 1970 Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV and I’ve put over 10,000KM on it. That’s a lot considering it’s one of 4 cars I currently own, I didn’t drive it in the summer because it doesn’t have AC, and we had curfews last year and a full lockdown. But it goes to show how much I’ve been loving the car. It’s beautiful to look at and it’s so much fun to drive.

But, it hasn’t been problem-free, the more mileage I put on the car the more old parts break and need replacing. As I type this post my car is sitting in my basement waiting on a new rear differential since mine broke a couple of weeks back. At the rate I’m swapping parts out I should end up with a brand new car by the end of the year. I’ve mentioned this on one of my previous posts but I’m still surprised at how easy and quick it is to get parts for my 51-year-old car, classicalfa.com is a lifesaver. I’ve been doing most of the work on the car myself or with a help of a friend and it’s been fun, I describe it as Lego for adults. The first step is always figuring out what’s wrong with the car which is not as easy as it sounds, and then the second step is ordering the parts and swapping them out. The mechanic I had previously been using to work on the car got stuck outside Kuwait when corona hit and since he’s over 60 he can’t come back in. The fact he was old is why he was good at what he did and this goes back to my other post on how we are gonna lose a lot of experienced people with this ban on 60+ year old expats.

Anyway, so a few years ago I posted about how I highly recommend getting a classic car, well I’d like to revise that statement now and add that it isn’t for everyone. When you do buy a classic car you need to be fine with the idea that the car will eventually breakdown and leave you stranded in some random parking lot or on the side of the road. You also need to have some basic car knowledge so you know when something is wrong, and definitely have a good mechanic you could take the car to when it breaks down. Keep a bunch of tow truck numbers saved on your phone and before you buy a classic car check and see how easy it is to get parts, if it’s not easy then look for another car to get. Oh and you need to be patient and calm when things do go wrong (which they will). If you’re fine with all the above then yes, I highly recommend getting a classic car.

While I’m on the subject of classic cars, my 1972 Datsun 240z is nearly done and as you can see it’s no longer blue. The 240z is basically going to be a new old car once done since I’ve basically rebuilt the car from the ground up with brand new parts. Hopefully, it should be ready and on the road in a few weeks time, it will have air conditioning so I will be driving it throughout the summer. I can’t wait.

CityBus has introduced 80 new eco-friendly buses onto our roads and one of the new features of these buses is that they now have a ramp for special needs passengers. I actually didn’t realize that up until now our buses weren’t wheelchair friendly, and other than these 80 new buses, none of the other public buses have ramps.

Although it’s kinda odd that we’re only just now introducing wheelchair-access to buses, it’s still pretty cool that we are. If you’re interested in public transportation make sure you check out @kuwaitcommute as well if you haven’t already. Also, check out the Alqabas video below where one of their journalist’s decides to use public transport and share her experience.

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I got my Garmin dash cam back in 2014 and it’s been working perfectly fine ever since, or at least I thought it was. The camera comes on and starts recording when I turn the car on and then stops recording when the car turns off, and since I can see it working, I thought everything was fine.

A few days ago I’m on the 4th Ring Road driving on the left lane and a guy in the middle lane cuts me off and starts speeding ahead of me. What was weird is that I could see traffic was at a standstill ahead of me but the car that cut me off wasn’t slowing down. So I backed off a bit because I had a feeling something would happen and I was right, around 2 seconds later the car that cut me off slams into an SUV that was in traffic. It was bizarre because before the guy slammed into the back of the SUV I could see he was looking straight ahead and not down at his phone. So I decided I’d rewatch the accident except when I checked the memory card later that day it turned out my dash cam had stopped recording videos sometime back in 2019!

I basically now need a new dash cam. I was going to order one off Amazon but decided I’d check and see what was available locally first. What dash cam do you have and where did you get it from?

Update: Turns out my dashcam isn’t broken and it was in fact the memory card that was damaged! I got a new memory card and the dashcam is working normally again. But, I did order one of the cheapest and most popular dashcams from Amazon to review, and I’ll post that up soon.

I recently stumbled on the Lamborghini pre-owned cars section and noticed they had a Lamborghini LM002 for sale. The LM002 was nicknamed the Rambo Lambo and it was and still is such a beast. I called Lamborghini up to ask about it and it turns out the car was sold a few months back for around 70K which is actually a pretty great price since they’re fairly limited with around 300 only ever made. Oddly the website says the car model is 1980 but they were only produced between 1986 and 1993 according to Wikipedia. If you’re into cars you can check out a lot more photos of the car on the Lambo pre-owned website here.

Update: So turns out the person I spoke to at Lambo didn’t have the correct info. The LM wasn’t sold, it’s still available and the asking price is a lot higher than 70K. Also it’s a 1986 model and turns out it was purchased from the same dealer I bought my Alfa from.

Over the weekend the ‏Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced that the importing of car exhaust systems would be banned. Like every normal person, I also hate it when I’m sitting somewhere quiet only to have some asshole in a Silvarado pickup truck with a modified exhaust system rev his engine loud as if he’s about to take part in a drag race. But, banning the import of exhausts doesn’t solve this issue!

Why is it that every time there is any sort of problem the first solution is to apply an outright ban? People are riding electric scooters on the street? Let’s ban that. Some expats are using their private pickups for commercial work? Let’s ban them from owning pickup trucks. People might have sex in the back seat of their cars if we allow dark window tinting? Ban that! Instead of taking a bit of time to think of a proper solution, things just get banned and that sucks.

Firstly lets be clear about something, banning the import of car exhausts doesn’t solve the issue of people being loud with their cars. There are a lot of ways to make your current exhaust existing system loud and it’s easy and cheap to do. You can for example remove your car’s catalytic converter or your muffler and that would make your car really loud. You can cut holes in your muffler and that will also make your exhaust loud. You can even go to a local exhaust shop and have him fabricate you a cheap exhaust with the purpose of being loud if you want. There are lots of options without having to import an exhaust system from abroad.

I’ve personally imported two exhaust systems and both times it had nothing to do with making my car louder. The first exhaust I ordered was for my first Lotus, I didn’t like the way the stock exhaust looked like so I ordered a new one with carbon fiber tips (pictured on top). It didn’t make my car any louder and it came with a valve similar to the factory system that would stay closed for normal use and keep the car quiet. I simply ordered the exhaust for looks. The second time I ordered an exhaust system was for my 1972 Datsun 240Z which is currently in the final stages of restoration. The exhaust that came on the car was a poor quality aftermarket exhaust that was in terrible condition, so I ordered a new high-quality hand made exhaust all the way from Japan (cost me around 600KD and pictured below) to try and keep my restoration authentic. I know people who order exhausts for performance reasons as well, some exhaust systems add horsepower to the car and some are lighter and reduce the overall weight of the car.

More importantly though, what is considered loud in the first place? In Europe and other parts of the world, cars have noise limits that are measured in decibels. It’s not based on some cop’s opinion of what he thinks is loud, it’s actually a specific db number that if your car exceeds is then considered illegal. When they started cracking down on cars with loud exhausts last week nobody mentioned any db limit, just that people with “loud” exhaust would be fined and possibly have their cars impounded. But loud could mean one thing to one person and another thing to another.

Anyway, like every new law that gets announced in Kuwait, this will probably last a couple of weeks before it’s forgotten about and everything goes back to normal, so maybe I shouldn’t be so frustrated with this.

This is one of those posts meant for someone to find one day while googling. I had an issue with my Alfa Romeo’s starter last year and ended up buying a new one off the internet and shipping it to Kuwait. My starter broke down once again a couple of weeks ago but this time I found out about a place called Malek Al Dynamowat (King of Dynamos) in Shuwaikh that can repair them. It cost me only KD10 to fix mine compared to around 100KD I paid last year for a new one so a pretty good deal.

If you’re ever looking to fix your car’s starter or alternator, here is the location on Google Maps.

Charged is a local company that sells electric car charging stations for commercial and home use. They popped up on my Instagram feed last week and then spotted one of their charging stations at the Mishref Coop this weekend while picking up pastries from Caesars. Then randomly, yesterday someone on Reddit linked to their website where they’ve compiled a list of charging stations around Kuwait. I noticed they had a bunch of places missing so it gave me the idea to put together a more comprehensive list which I’ve shared here:

Abudllah Al Salem Cultural Center
Al-Hamra Tower
Arraya Tower
Environment Public Authority
KFH Auto Showroom
Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre
Mishrif Coop
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research KISR
Porsche Dealership
Public Authority for Applied Education and Training
Sabah Al Salem Univerisity City
Shaheed Park
Society of Engineers RFID
The Avenues
West Misrif Coop
X-Cite – Al-Rai

If you’re aware of a charging station that isn’t listed above, let me know.

Thanks Regis839

Over the weekend I passed by the brand new KTM showroom in Al-Rai. If you haven’t heard of KTM, they are an Austrian company that produces some of the best dirt bikes as well as the popular track car the X-Bow. Their new showroom is pretty big and composed of two floors as well as a service garage and spare parts area in the rear. They had a brand new white KTM X-Bow RR on display in the showroom (pictured above) selling for around KD41,000.

Other than KTM the new showroom also has Husqvarna and Gasgas motorbikes on display and they also had a large selection of Bell helmets for sale. For a full list of brands they carry click here.

If you’re interested in checking the place out they’re located in Al-Rai on the same strip as Jarir and right next to the newly opened Eureka. Here is the location on Google Maps.

Last weekend I signed up and took part in the first open track event at the Kuwait Motor Town. It was probably the only sport left in Kuwait other than bowling that hadn’t restarted and I couldn’t understand why. It’s a sport where everyone is alone inside their cars driving around an outdoor circuit, so it’s pretty much perfect for social distancing. After taking part in the first event last weekend, I ended up leaving really impressed with the whole experience.

For this COVID era, KMT has introduced some new rules and changes to make things even safer than usual. Here are some of the important ones they’ve introduced:

Number of Participants
The number of participants at a race has been reduced to just 30. Previously it was anywhere from 60 to 90 participants per open track event. This means a lot less people everywhere and even spectators are no longer allowed at the events.

Registration
Previously on arriving to the track, you had to park your car, go into the reception area and wait in line till it’s your turn so you can sign in and collect your tags. You then have to go back to your car and drive up the scrutineering area where a group of guys run a number of safety checks on your car. The new process now is when you enter the parking lot you register at the gate while still in your car. While registering the scrutineering team will check your car and then when they’re done you enter the track. You don’t have to leave your car and really this process was so much more efficient than the previous way, they should permanantly have it this way.

Pitlane Garages
Pre-COVID, you’d enter the pitlane and park in any of the garages you wanted to. Now every garage is assigned to an individual and the separators between the garages are closed. So you basically park in a large garage by yourself and you don’t see anyone or interact with anyone. Every garage has it’s own bathroom and they’ve also provided gloves, masks and hand sanitizer for you.

Briefing
Before a race, every participant needs to attend a briefing session. Previously we’d all squeeze into a tightly packed overcrowded room. Now the number of participants has been reduced down to just 30 people and on top of that, the briefing session has been split into two groups. So there is plenty of social distancing during the briefing.

Other Points
Due to the number of participants only being 30, the track was pretty much empty the whole time with no traffic. KMT have installed new digital flags all around the track so we can now see the various warning flags when they’re shown. KMT now also has a fuel station and they accept Knet!

Really the only negative thing about KMT right now is the lack of proper night lights. They’re using regular street lights around the track which barely light up the track because they need to be positioned behind the safety barriers which are quite a distance from the track. There has been talk every year about getting proper flood lights but it hasn’t happened yet.

As I said at the start of the post I left the event impressed. If there was a local sport that is setting a good example of how to host an event safely during COVID, it’s KMT.

Earlier this week I posted a list of car and bike brands that were acquired by BNK and one of the brands I listed was Vanderhall Motor Works. Vanderhall is an American vehicle manufacturer that produces three-wheeled roadsters and yesterday I took a spin in one around the block.

I’m really not a big fan of three-wheeled cars but was curious to try one, and having tried one now, I’m still not a fan. It’s not a motorbike or a car and there is no way to avoid potholes in a three-wheeler. The roadster is hot looking but would look ten times hotter if it had four wheels! Definitely a toy car.

If you’re interested, they’re going to sell for around 10-14K at the local dealer depending on the model and you can get more info by visiting their instagram account @vanderhallkw

Over the weekend I picked up the brand new Porsche Taycan to review. I’ve been curious to try the Taycan ever since it launched because I think it’s the best looking fully electric car on the market right now by far (sorry Tesla owners). I was hoping the color combo of the test drive car was white exterior with a black interior similar to the launch photos, but the car I picked up was a metallic blue with a beige interior. Not the most exciting color combination and I was actually worried it would be difficult to shoot but the shots eventually came out great.

The Taycan is Porsche’s fully electric car. It’s not a hybrid, meaning, it doesn’t run on a combination of electricity and fuel, this is a 100% electric car similar to how Teslas are. My worry with electric cars always obviously is running out of power and being stuck on the side of the road. The Taycan fully charged has a range of over 400km, but when I picked up the car from the dealer, it only had a 77% charge. Kinda sucked cuz it didn’t help with the anxiety of running out of range. When reviewing cars I tend to put on a lot of mileage on the cars very quickly so I can get a proper experience with it. I had a whole day of errands to run and I wasn’t going to let a partially charged vehicle change that. So I decided I’d not focus too much on the range and just enjoy the car.

The interior felt very familiar right away because it still resembled a normal Porsche although all the buttons had been replaced by a large touch screen and the gauges were fully digital. There was a feeling of familiarity because it felt like a regular car and wasn’t stripped out like a Tesla where all the car controls moved to a tablet-like screen. The interior looked hi-tech with three displays, one in front of me where the analog gauges would usually be, a large screen in the center of the dash, and finally a large screen built into the center console which has all the controls. There is an extra option to add a passenger screen which I think would make the interior even more futuristic but the car I drove didn’t have it. I’m generally not a fan of touch screens for controls, but I wasn’t too bothered by the controls on the Taycan. The screen was large enough to make all the buttons big and easy to touch, plus there was haptic feedback so I could tell if I had pressed a button properly or not.

I started off by heading to Shuwaikh to quickly take some photos of the car in case I didn’t have time later that day but also so I could post some photos on my Instagram story. I then headed to Avenues for some Christmas shopping before heading to Bayan and different parts of Salmiya for some more errands. Anytime someone would message me on Instagram to ask me how the car was I had one response and that it was fast. The model I drove was the Taycan Turbo which does 0 to 100 in 3.2 seconds, that’s faster than my Lotus which is a difficult idea to grasp. It’s also not only fast 0 to 100, the car keeps acceleration effortlessly as long as you have your foot down on the power. One cool Porsche feature is the fake electric sound that you can get on the car. Electric cars don’t make sounds but for an extra KD150, Porsche will fit the car with the Electric Sport Sound option which adds a futuristic humming-like sound that makes the car sound like you’d expect an electric car to sound like in an 80s movie. It sounded super cool and I obviously had the option turned on all the time. I tried capturing the sound but didn’t have any luck but you could check out this video on YouTube if you want to hear it.

I ended up driving quite a bit of distance on the car, even headed over the Kuwait bay bridge to the other side to take some more photos of the car and by the time I had finished with the car and brought it back to the dealer, it still had around 28% battery left (120km range). I loved the car and if I was in the market for an electric car the Taycan would be an easy choice for me over the Tesla because of the looks alone. But, I wouldn’t go for the Turbo model which starts from KD47,300. Nobody needs a 4 door sedan to be that fast. Instead, I’d recommend the 4S model which starts from KD33,900. When I built my own car on the Porsche website with all the options I wanted the car came out to KD42,000 which is still way cheaper than the base Turbo model. So that would be my recommendation, get the Taycan 4S pimped out with all the options you want.