Originally Posted by norsk (Post 11635527)

fast track as a recommended garage! really? for oil changes and rubber sure, but come on. unless you have a right old banger surely your car deserves something slightly higher up the scale. or am i going crazy and this is exactly the level of servicing a pajero needs?

re servicing of german cars there are plenty of good specialist garages in dubai to use once they have gone out of warranty. or even before if you cannot deal with the shit from the dealers.

if you want to go in the desert of course you should buy a desert car but not buying a jetta just because some guy told you there is an issue with glue (wtf?) on german cars in middle east and you have to buy radio knobs on ebay is seriously f**cked up...

Originally Posted by cba (Post 11635514)

Don't get me wrong, Jettas are sweet cars if you have a good warrenty/service package to cover repairs. Or if you just love Jettas then get one.

But I think you're right about the Pajaro. All the maintenance that would ever conceivabley need to be done on a Paj can be done well and for reasonable cost at petrol station garages. I recommend fastrack on sheikh zayad road btw. All garages have loads of exp with Pajaros and order parts for them on a daily basis.

The Jetta on the other hand could also be done at petrol station garages but it would just be much more expensive and jobs would take longer because mechanics will lack experience on them compared to a Paj. Eg- petrol station garages usually have pajaro Brake pads, oil filters etc ready stocked and the brake pads cost around 300aed I think. For a Jetta you would have to wait an hour or so for them to be picked up from the dealership and they would cost around 600aed for Brake pads I imagine. Also, the volume knob and radio buttons on VW's start to get mushy and weird after as little as 2-3 years. This is only a small thing I know, but replacing them means ordering new ones off ebay in the case of a VW.

If you own a Jetta or any car for that matter and you don't want to pay the high premium on parts at the SZR dealerships, you can always drive to sharjah on Saturday and buy parts yourself for cheap, but petrol stations won't install parts that you give them. FYI OEM (original quality) parts in sharjah cost at least half of price the dealerships charge. You can also buy duplicate parts for practically any car in sharjah for a fraction of the price. For example, original Brake pads for Mercedes e500 cost 380aed in sharjah, but 700aed+ in Dubai. A 30 minute drive is worth it and once you've done the journey once, it's easy next time.

Owning any car is as expensive or cheap as you want it to be depending on how much effort you put into learning where to buy parts and get repairs done.

Originally Posted by cba (Post 11635559)

For general maintenance fast track do a straight job with original parts. They represent one of the largest chains of the UAE's service stations- therefore they can't mess about in terms of quality. Obviously for anything other than general maintenance a proper garage would be better but if you've got a well maintained pajaro 5 years or younger then it's highly unlikely to require anything other than general maintenance..

You're right there are some excellent German car garages in Dubai- they're just a lot more expensive. For Mercedes, Silberarrows in Al Quoz is where I go. Expensive but unbeatable quality.

Hey the glue thing is a pain; it's a very common problem here for European cars. It's not something that might happen to a VW, it does & will definitely happen. It took 10 years for the roof of my merc to start sagging from new, but it still happened sure enough. It's comparable to death, you can enjoy life now but you know death is definitely coming at some point. Although unlike death, you can remove your headliner and pay 300aed in Satwa for new upholstery. Just something owners should know if they're going to buy German.

Originally Posted by Scamp (Post 11637282)

A trip to a petrol station just now has reminded me; You should only consider a car with the petrol cap on the right hand side.

Originally Posted by DXBtoDOH (Post 11637309)

Another factor in favour of the Pajero.

Currently driving a rental Tiida. Petrol on right side. Brilliant. Avoids 95% of the queues, except in AD where you can fill up on either side and makes you wonder why Dubai stations won't install the extra long pump hoses?

Originally Posted by Scamp (Post 11638052)

I hope Dubai never does. It's nice to force queuing cars out the way so you can drive to the empty pumps :thumbup:

Originally Posted by DXBtoDOH (Post 11637309)

Another factor in favour of the Pajero.

Currently driving a rental Tiida. Petrol on right side. Brilliant. Avoids 95% of the queues, except in AD where you can fill up on either side and makes you wonder why Dubai stations won't install the extra long pump hoses?

Originally Posted by Millhouse (Post 11638111)

several stations in dubai do have the long hoses and will fill both sides.

Originally Posted by Scamp (Post 11638271)

Still easier to have a right-side filler upper hole.

Originally Posted by Scamp (Post 11637282)

A trip to a petrol station just now has reminded me; You should only consider a car with the petrol cap on the right hand side.

Originally Posted by Tockalosh (Post 11641419)

Unless you're Indian don't buy a Pajero