vhl71

Thinking of getting my car shipped from Canada to bahrain..
How about the my car not having the "gulf specs" - was reading in some forums regarding this..the cards in middle east are customized for the climate on things like air condition, air filter, seals to withstand the heat etc..

will i have trouble with my Canadian car which is made for extreme cold??
have you had any issues with your north American imports?

shiva

You'll need to drain and change your coolant fluid, possibly the same with the engine oil. Check your cars manual as it will have the various specifications for fluids etc.

Probably cost you more to ship it than buy a new one so unless its heavily modified and or you love it its probably not worth the effort

vhl71

thanks shiva for your help
you sound like a guy who knows a lot about cars..
so if i do the oil and coolant cange etc, will I be ok??
i read somewhere the aircon is of bigger capacity in the gulf vehicles etc..will my aircon be enough for that heat?

its a merz ml 320..2001 model ..all loaded..
from what i've checked this one costs about BD15,000. in bahrain..(which is almost double of what I'll get for it here)..that's why i'm looking at this option.

shiva

dont know much am learning though.
dont know really but noticed most car manuals have specifications for ambient temperatures and which fluids to use.
is that price for new and what will be the shipping cost

Bob

Would you even be allowed to import it? Or doesn't Bahrain have the same thing against driving cars with the steering on the wrong side on public roads?

I'd have thought it be better to chuck it because it'll be worthless if the steering wheel is on the wrong side, and then you'd have to think of return shipping down the line...

shiva

good point bob. I dont know but their road rules are probably similar to here so it s likely its illegal. Canada on the right then is it?

uk4uae

Bahrain as I recall allow you to drive right hand drive cars, but it is a nightmare. Esp on Fri and Sat with all the loonies from Saudi on the Roads you need the best view possible

The other thing to consider is that if you take it there you will be stuck with it as people are reluctant to buy an imported car.

otterlake

Vehicles in North America have the wheel on the left. What is Bahrain?

uk4uae

In Dubai you can drive but only UAQ will register them.

vhl71

it is a left hand drive vehicle..so that is not a problem.

the price is for the similar used car in bahrain..in other words if i have to sell this here in canada and buy a similar one i might have to spend about 6-7 thousand dinars more there.

shipping costs pretty much nothing as i'm bringing the 40' container anyway for my furniture..so it is only a little bit extra.

so if i don't have an issue with anything else other than the fluid change, i'm still winning in terms of the price right?

even after 2 yrs i sell for say 25% less than the then market value in bahrain, i would still be better off as i can get pretty much nothing for this car here (compared to what it costs there)

anyone has done this before from US or canada?

Bob

Canada is left hand drive.

Just thinking about it, when my mate use to live in Bahrain as a kid, they use to have cars with either side, depending on if you lived in the US or UK quarter would be where you got the car and at the time, no one could drive so it didn't matter what side of the road you decided to tackle...it's improved since then, but probably means they don't have a restriction like DXB has.

Bob

Grey imports are worth nothing, so if your going to keep it for a couple years, right off any value on the motor.

As for imports, from the US, there's been threads in the US forums about what to do for bringing them back and the like, but not from the ME.

uk4uae

Dubai and Sharjah second hand car markets are flooded with cars from the USA from the recent Catrina, they import them here after they have purchased them from the insurance companies, there has been a bit slack in the market though as people are becoming wise to it.