Before we left, the car policy was a bit of a gray area. Janelle wasn't sure if we had a company car for a few weeks or for the year. It is for the better that we don't have the pool car for the year! Although it is convenient and would've saved us some cash, the car can't have more than 2 cylinders and a gearbox that is almost 'capute'! This is a bit of a long story...may want to grab a coffee or tea...
Within the first day of touring around that we noticed the majority of vehicles were SUVs and cars. There is hardly a pickup truck to be seen! A vast change from AB/SK....The brands are similar - Toyota, Jeep, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, and BMWs. However, they have models that aren't offered in North America. By far the Prado (Toyota, similar to a 4-runner) and Jeeps are the most popular. There are 2 reasons for that - 1 so that you can off-road, and 2 so that you are up a bit higher up and have more metal in case of an accident. I won't digress about the driving just yet, but it is pretty bad. One of the highest motor vehicle accidents per capita (I have a theory for this which will come in a later post;).
We had discussed options with fellow expats, but basically no one could relate to being here for only 1 year. Most people go down to the dealership and buy a new or slightly used SUV. They also advised to buy from an expat. Easier said than done, most expat own vehicles were out of our price range. We started looking through used car websites and found that people don't start selling vehicles until they hit 180,000 km +!
We found a Jeep Wrangler with 160,000 km and decided to meet the seller. It was the perfect off-roading Jeep with big tires, soft top, and all black. It was pretty cool but after a test drive, we could tell it was in rough shape. (It all made sense after learning that the locals tend not to maintain their vehicles and drive them hard). The seller was a reasonable character, we could understand each other ok, and he was a used car dealer who had 2 branches, 1 in Ruwi and 1 in Barka (map below).
We decided to continue looking on the generic used car website and a few days later saw a Land Rover Discovery come up for sale. Wouldn't you know it, we called to inquire and it was the same guy! So we agreed to meet in Barka, which we though we just on the outskirts of Muscat. Turns out, it was 45 min out of town!
Oman isn't very big, naturally we wouldn't think twice about driving to the next major city or even across the entire country for a long weekend trip....however, throw in huge speed bumps on every single residential road and roundabouts every 5 km on the major highway...it turns your 30 km trip into 45 min of stop and start. Back to the story -
We had a communication breakdown, I had heard Barka (knowing that he had a dealership there), but he had said Bousher, which is within Muscat...45min drive later, 30min of waiting, and a dead cell phone, we decided to call it a day and head back to Muscat. We connected with the fellow later on that evening and decided to meet the follow day, same place - Bousher, which we found just fine. The 2004 Discovery had 176,000 km, needed new tires, and the 4x4 was a bugger to get into. I didn't trust that the 4x4 was going to work when we needed it or at worst would be buying a new transmission or gearbox.
We decided to pass and were getting discouraged about finding a used car. We had also called a few people, but couldn't understand anything after hello. The reasonably new cars (2005-now) all had minimum 150,000 km and were asking an exorbant amount of money compared to what we were used to at home.
We decided to head down to the Chrysler dealer to look at leasing, knowing that the Jeep was a good starting point for SUVs. The dealer was too funny, he said 'What are you looking for?'...in reply.."a Jeep, preferably used if you have any." He kind of looked at us,"I have 1 used - the one right there for 10,000 rial. You take it?" We were taken aback..."uh no, we are just looking". He said "oh, how about new? I have a shipment coming in on Jan.25th and they are all sold. So you'll have to wait until Feb.3. 11,000 rial new." We finally got through to him about 'just browsing' and found out that he didn't offer leasing, but he did give us the name of a company and the fellow to contact that buys Jeeps and leases them, called Zubair automotive. We were starting to see that 'one stop shop' establishments are very North American.
So down to Zubair automotive...took us a bit to find the right building and fellow, but we finally found him. We assumed that a year lease wasn't going to be great and that pricing will likely be slightly higher compared to at home. Nope, double! And ziltch for selection, only 2 options. A used Cherokee or Patriot for $800/mth.
At this point we weren't sure what we were going to do...surely renting would be even higher, why even bother checking.
Within the week, we saw a new For Sale ad at Club notice board. A 2006 Subaru Forester, expat owned, lady driven, just over 100,000 km, servicing done every 10,000km, and with our price range! The ad had been posted that day, so we took the number and called right away. It was owned by a Canadian, who had spent the previous 6 years in Oman and was getting ready to head home. We were sold after said she took the car everywhere - Wadis, through the mountains, to the Wahiba sands... that cleared my only skeptism about a car over an SUV. Sure, we can't do the extreme sand duning, but it fits our basic adventure needs! We take ownership Feb 3 and are looking forward to having more than 90 hp!
Within the first day of touring around that we noticed the majority of vehicles were SUVs and cars. There is hardly a pickup truck to be seen! A vast change from AB/SK....The brands are similar - Toyota, Jeep, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, and BMWs. However, they have models that aren't offered in North America. By far the Prado (Toyota, similar to a 4-runner) and Jeeps are the most popular. There are 2 reasons for that - 1 so that you can off-road, and 2 so that you are up a bit higher up and have more metal in case of an accident. I won't digress about the driving just yet, but it is pretty bad. One of the highest motor vehicle accidents per capita (I have a theory for this which will come in a later post;).
We had discussed options with fellow expats, but basically no one could relate to being here for only 1 year. Most people go down to the dealership and buy a new or slightly used SUV. They also advised to buy from an expat. Easier said than done, most expat own vehicles were out of our price range. We started looking through used car websites and found that people don't start selling vehicles until they hit 180,000 km +!
We found a Jeep Wrangler with 160,000 km and decided to meet the seller. It was the perfect off-roading Jeep with big tires, soft top, and all black. It was pretty cool but after a test drive, we could tell it was in rough shape. (It all made sense after learning that the locals tend not to maintain their vehicles and drive them hard). The seller was a reasonable character, we could understand each other ok, and he was a used car dealer who had 2 branches, 1 in Ruwi and 1 in Barka (map below).
We decided to continue looking on the generic used car website and a few days later saw a Land Rover Discovery come up for sale. Wouldn't you know it, we called to inquire and it was the same guy! So we agreed to meet in Barka, which we though we just on the outskirts of Muscat. Turns out, it was 45 min out of town!
Oman isn't very big, naturally we wouldn't think twice about driving to the next major city or even across the entire country for a long weekend trip....however, throw in huge speed bumps on every single residential road and roundabouts every 5 km on the major highway...it turns your 30 km trip into 45 min of stop and start. Back to the story -
We had a communication breakdown, I had heard Barka (knowing that he had a dealership there), but he had said Bousher, which is within Muscat...45min drive later, 30min of waiting, and a dead cell phone, we decided to call it a day and head back to Muscat. We connected with the fellow later on that evening and decided to meet the follow day, same place - Bousher, which we found just fine. The 2004 Discovery had 176,000 km, needed new tires, and the 4x4 was a bugger to get into. I didn't trust that the 4x4 was going to work when we needed it or at worst would be buying a new transmission or gearbox.
We decided to pass and were getting discouraged about finding a used car. We had also called a few people, but couldn't understand anything after hello. The reasonably new cars (2005-now) all had minimum 150,000 km and were asking an exorbant amount of money compared to what we were used to at home.
We decided to head down to the Chrysler dealer to look at leasing, knowing that the Jeep was a good starting point for SUVs. The dealer was too funny, he said 'What are you looking for?'...in reply.."a Jeep, preferably used if you have any." He kind of looked at us,"I have 1 used - the one right there for 10,000 rial. You take it?" We were taken aback..."uh no, we are just looking". He said "oh, how about new? I have a shipment coming in on Jan.25th and they are all sold. So you'll have to wait until Feb.3. 11,000 rial new." We finally got through to him about 'just browsing' and found out that he didn't offer leasing, but he did give us the name of a company and the fellow to contact that buys Jeeps and leases them, called Zubair automotive. We were starting to see that 'one stop shop' establishments are very North American.
So down to Zubair automotive...took us a bit to find the right building and fellow, but we finally found him. We assumed that a year lease wasn't going to be great and that pricing will likely be slightly higher compared to at home. Nope, double! And ziltch for selection, only 2 options. A used Cherokee or Patriot for $800/mth.
At this point we weren't sure what we were going to do...surely renting would be even higher, why even bother checking.
Within the week, we saw a new For Sale ad at Club notice board. A 2006 Subaru Forester, expat owned, lady driven, just over 100,000 km, servicing done every 10,000km, and with our price range! The ad had been posted that day, so we took the number and called right away. It was owned by a Canadian, who had spent the previous 6 years in Oman and was getting ready to head home. We were sold after said she took the car everywhere - Wadis, through the mountains, to the Wahiba sands... that cleared my only skeptism about a car over an SUV. Sure, we can't do the extreme sand duning, but it fits our basic adventure needs! We take ownership Feb 3 and are looking forward to having more than 90 hp!
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