We arrived to Dubai with only half of our personal effects as we have left our family home in Budapest somewhat in tact so our return visits are as comfortable and home-like as possible. With that said, our shopping list (more on that later) is endless!
The first thing on our list that we needed to purchase was a vehicle. In Budapest, we survived on one car as my husband is
an avid cyclist and would cycle (or take public transportation) to work. On days he didn’t feel like either, he carpooled to work with me (yes we work together and yes, for reasons unknown, it works… most of the time… but that’s another blog article
. In Dubai, public transportation is not very good. There are buses all over that often seem full but are hard to navigate around. As my son pointed out, they don’t get you anywhere faster (like in many cities where public transportation is huge) as there are no special bus lanes. They have to manage to stay on their route and keep up some sort of schedule amongst the continuously changing roads. Not the best solution if you are going anywhere in a hurry…
The metro is incredibly unique. Not only is it above ground – not your typical metro – but it is also very slow and
incomplete. It’s a great idea and when finished it may become a popular method for travel. However, most of the stops are not yet open and it only runs alongside Sheikh Zayed Road.
As for bicycling around town, no chance! My hubby wouldn’t last 30 minutes without becoming road kill! So, we had to go car shopping for two family cars. We decided on new, however, I know many people that have bought second hand used cars and there are lots of great options. Start on a site like Dubbizle and search the internet as you will find lots of options.
Lucky for us, we found all the new car dealerships in the same general vicinity on Sheikh Zayed Road. We also were happy to be able to go out on a Saturday car shopping (and this was during Ramadan). When we come over for work, it is hard taking time off to do these personal tasks so we had to spend a lot of weekends and evenings visiting showrooms, test driving, meeting with sales reps, etc. What a daunting, boring task!
We would come home and research the cars we looked at. Many times we were surprised at our findings after test driving and online reviews. My husband is an avid fan of Top Gear and relied on their site for a lot of feedback. I, on the other hand, emailed and asked friends.
Going into our car shopping adventure, we both had decided that after 5 years of driving a 7 passenger vehicle, we wanted to stick to the same body type. Many cars that seemed popular or looked perfect, were unusually tight and cozy inside. My husband and I are both very tall so we needed space! We have 3 kids and wanted to spread them out as much as possible to avoid the ‘He’s breathing on me!’ or ‘Her arm is on my side!’ comments.
After a long, long search, I was very close to buying another Land Rover Discovery. This is my car in Budapest and I love it. It’s huge, safe, easy to drive, comfortable and simply the perfect car for our family. We drive a diesel so it’s not such a gas guzzler as many other cars of it’s size and strength. All in all, I was ready to buy another one. However, there was one indifference. None of the 2010s or the incoming 2011s in the UAE came with built-in media centers. Now, if you are like me, and have grown to adore your built in DVD player – to the point of feeling like it has saved your marriage – you will not be able to ever go back in time to a car with no built in entertainment. Hence, for this reason only, we had to return to the drawing boards!

picking up the new car
Long story short, we have chosen the following two lovely cars: a Toyota Sequoia and an Infiniti (not sure the type but it’s the big one with 8 seats!) They are both great. The Infiniti has so many features that I feel somewhat intimidated as I haven’t had the opportunity to figure it all out. The Toyota Sequoia, my husband’s car, is fantastic. It’s very cool and masculine. I love driving it as it is SO big! My Infiniti is pure luxory.
The funny thing is we bought both cars from sales WOMEN. I felt most comfortable with them both and they scrambled to meet our needs. However, keep in mind that they will all scramble while making the sale but it’s after the sale is complete when you will need to really be careful.
After an awkward situation with Curt’s Toyota (car didn’t have all the features we had been promised), we have learned to have a check list. Often in Dubai, you will feel confident with someone’s word. To get things in writing is difficult. Now I know why… Like anywhere, if it’s not in writing it’s one word against another. This is what we were faced with when we realized Curt’s Toyota was missing the entertainment center that was in the showroom car (car we chose) and also the built in cooler boxes. In the end, we managed to get one of the two (cooler boxes will be sorted later) but it was still a lot of work and effort to get this straightened out.
Additionally, when buying a car, a check (or cheque – depending on where you are from) is the standard payment. This will require time as they will need it to be cleared into their bank – sometimes plus 2 or 3 days – before releasing the car to you. We had to follow up daily, hourly to convince them to give us our car as we knew the check had been cleared on our end.
We are now so happy to have our own means of transportation and to be rid of the horrible rental car that we had our first 2 – 3 weeks. I will blog again soon about the additional points of having a new car: Salik card (for the tolls), insurance, window tinting, etc.