Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

As is the thread title anyone know or dealt with this company ?
They have a couple of cars I am interested in.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

I have no experience with that particular company, but I would say that you need to be even more vigilant than usual when buying a used car from anywhere in Ras Al Khor. It's the prime area for selling repaired wrecks shipped over from Europe and the States and rebuilt in the Sharjah industrial area.

Get the reg number and VIN of the cars you're interested in and run them by the service departments at the relevant main dealers. If they don't exist on their system, you know that they're unofficial imports, so you need to ask more questions, and preferably do a Carfax (or equivalent) search on the VIN in the country they came from. There's a good chance you'll find they were written off/totalled there.

If they do exist, you'll find out their service history and mileage to the point that they stopped being taken to the dealership. That may or may not tally with what the odometer and salesman say now.

Lots of people have been saved from buying rebuilt wrecks that way.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

Thank you for the information. They are older Land Rovers and matching VINS with the original engine type is a basic requirement for us.
I always get the VINS decoded.
They look to be ex military Rovers.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

Surely it would be cheaper buying them from a military disposal specialist in the UK then

Landies are silly money over here.

Also, unless they are specifically marked as for export as far as I remember you have to 'own' a car (and therefore have it registered against your name - so a residency visa is required) before you are able to export it.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

1. Never buy from Alkhor
2. If you MUST then you already know the VIN / carfax route so stick to that
3. Never agree to take the car and have it tested at the RTA facility next door, they are on everyone's payroll. So if you are selling a car then it will always magically come up with problems and if you are buying something then the report will never show any problems even if it is missing an engine! :D
I know one dealer there and despite him being a decent chap, he himself has told me that never buy a car from that lot.
I have been told theres a used car bazar once a week somewhere on the outskirts of Sharjah (Fridays I should think) but dont know where though. Would be fun to visit atleast once, there should be some decent bargains to be had if you know your cars.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

I think theres a couple of auctions here and there. I agree it would be good to go and have a look. The problem here is written off cars being imported and fixed and also clocking of cars. They all do it. Also think you need an Arabic speaker for the auctions.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

Went to the car auction near to Emirates Offices, opposite the airport. Interesting night out, very clean and hi-tech bidding room. You wouldn't need to understand Arabic to buy but I wouldn't trust any of the cars for sale :)

From what I gathered it seemed to be mostly Ras Al Khor/Sharjah Automall types and I assume independent traders reselling on Dubizzle. Some great prices though.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

The 300 plus ex MOD Rovers at Witham have been sold as a batch to Africa, there are a few left at resellers. I bought one of the last LHD Tithonus soft tops they had.
We only deal in left hand drive 110 / 130 vehicles and import into the USA so it must be 25 years old with the original type of engine giving us a narrow range .
One vehicle is a LHD V8 high capacity pick up most ex MOD versions are the standard bed with the 2.5 NA diesel which is slow to say the least.
We have exported from Saudi, Jordan and the Oman with no issues, the only place where exporting is very difficult is Turkey.
Prices in the Middle East are in Line with Europe.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

Out of interest, who wants these shitty old trucks?

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

In 1993 around 510 Defender 110 5 door Station Wagons were imported into the USA a few were burnt up with oil line fires, no 130s were imported so they are few and far between.Hence the demand for legal trucks, they are scrutinized by CBP typically held for around three weeks.
Any import must be over 25 years old or be imported as a 1993 and be modified by a Registered Importer.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

Do you refurb them or just import/sell? It sounds like an interesting business.

There's a similar flow of cars from USA to the UAE. We buy all your water damaged and insurance write offs, tart them up and sell them in Ras Al Khor. Some new stock coming soon, I guess. (Hence the never by from Ras Al Khor posts)

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

There's a place on the E55 just outside Al Daid that does land rovers, went with a friend of a friend who was having some work done on a 1971 LR that he had bought privately elsewhere . Lots of SWB RHD that had been imported from U.K. Also had some interesting vintage vehicles on show.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

ottotheboar

Did you do as I suggested in my (unanswered) PM?

If not I do hope you get skanked.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

We bring them up to be daily drivers going through all aspects with a 1000 mile road test to be sure we did not miss anything.

Re: Anyone know Alhamar Automotive Ras Al Khor
 

Defenders are expensive (relative to Europe) over here in the US, because only 500 110s and 7500 D90s were imported by LRNA (Land Rover North America). Lots of people tried bringing them in , as grey market vehicles whos legality may be of a dubious nature. For a lot of Americans, their rarity and rugged looks is appealing. Due to their high original cost, relative to the comparable Wrangler, they were a fav. of the well to do and hip.

Your jaw should drop if you google the prices dealers are asking for these old vehicles, but I don't know if they actually get close to asking price. Absurd high prices for Defenders on Ebay seem limited to NAS90s and NAS110s (NorthAmerican Spec). The prices for sold (on Ebay) non US-spec Defenders seem way way less.

I lusted after a Defender for a long time and in the mid 90s , while living in London, seriously looked into bringing one over. In the end I gave up on the idea after finding out how very expensive it would be to federalize. In the 00s I bought a genuine NAS (North American Spec) Defender110 here in the US. It is 1 of 500 imported into the US.

Last year the MOD auctioned off 2 Wolf 110s ; they sold for around 15K pounds.

I intend to do a full frame-off on mine; replacing the weak Rover V8 with the diesel offered on the new Dodge rams.