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If anyone ever shipped your a car to Dubai, please share your experience. Thanks.

Welcome to the forum....

Liban might be able to help you with this one

well the obvious question would be .... "why bother???"

i've been here for ages and have never heard of anyone wanting to bring thier car with????

I just got my new car and if I move to Dubai for let's say 3 years, I can't leave my car here and selling it would be a waste.

But think of the other side of the coin... the used car market here will not return you much in 3 years time and bringing a 3+ yo car back there is not going to be worth the effort either.

If your vehicle has been bought under finance there then that just makes the problem even worse cause financing a car is much cheaper here than it is in Canada.

Prob best to cut your losses now than lose more over time down the road - no pun intended.

I shipped my brand new car from Canada to Dubai late last year.

Lets say I do not regret it. Cars in Canada cost roughly the same as here and in Canada you can get 0% financing which is non-existant here.

It costs $2500 CAD roll on roll off basis.

I got my car at dealer cost in Canada. The same car would have cost me $4000 more here and that includes the $2500 transport that I added to the cost of my car and the interest payments.

What is your car, what year, what model, and your financing rate.

the cars are cheap in dubai...buy a new one.

My 2 fils,

I was kinda in the same boat, I had a new car in Canada, unlike Liban I did not end up shipping it, for me it was reasoning, like my car does not exist here so parts would be difficult to source and for the ~4k CDN to ship (from Calgary) i felt i could just buy a cheap/disposable car here for the cost of shipping. Plus I sold the car back to the dealer for only about 2500 less then I bought it for and it was a year and 20,000 kms later, so I was lucky.

Now the things you need to factor in.
1. is your car suitable for Dubai,
2. do parts exist here, well anything does but how expensive and difficult would it be to get
3. if you have financed the car and the loan is on the car, i.e. a car loan as opposed to a personal loan, you legally would not be able to remove the car from Canada (how'll they ever know though?)
4. if you buy a car here can you ship it back to Canada? Canada has BS rules where you can't import a car back unless it is > 15 years old.
5. How long are you planning to stay in Dubai?
6. you'll pay a duty tax of ~4% on the value
7. is the duty plus the cost of shipping compared to the cost of selling and suffering depreciation more favourable?
8. For most cars, they are cheaper here than in Canada.

Good luck in your decision
well maybe like 4 fils, hope the information helped though.

Most Car financing is 0% now adays (well a year ago) for new cars so I'm not sure i agree with XRW on cheaper financing here, here if you shop around it is 3.75% and NOT on a reducing balance,

fayz wrote:6. you'll pay a duty tax of ~4% on the value

As for the value. You pretty much tell them what you would think it to be worth... Lets just say that I asked they make mine worth 25% of what the market value is....

I paid nearly nothing in duty...

Liban wrote:

fayz wrote:6. you'll pay a duty tax of ~4% on the value

As for the value. You pretty much tell them what you would think it to be worth... Lets just say that I asked they make mine worth 25% of what the market value is....

I paid nearly nothing in duty...

it is a rebadged Daewoo, it depreciated by 75% during shipment:P

LOL....

No but seriously, they told me what the market value is. I bitched and complained that it was more than I spent for it (lie)... They then just asked me what I wanted to pay for the duty, I told them and we negotiated from there...

Helped we both speak Arabic.

fayz wrote:Most Car financing is 0% now adays (well a year ago) for new cars so I'm not sure i agree with XRW on cheaper financing here, here if you shop around it is 3.75% and NOT on a reducing balance,

Check the loan structure. It might not be called interest but as with everything else in this world, nothing comes for free.

Lucky for me my interest is calculated based on the reduced principal amount.

0% means 0% in Canada.

I used to work in automotive industry. I worked for GM and know how GMAC, Honda Credit, Nissan Credit, Ford Credit Company, etc... all work. The way they do it is that a good percentage reneg on their fees and they charge those people full interest.

Also dealers have a margin from $400 to $1000 depending on the model that they use and cannot go below no matter what price of the car is. This is paid to GMAC or the credit company.

Usually, PDI is about $500 to $1500 and should be assumed by the dealership. A bad negotiator in Canada will end up paying that. This money is then trasnfered over to GMAC as operating revenue...

I did not pay PDI on my car, got 0%, and got it at dealer cost.... And this was 5 years after leaving GM

Liban, you're saying exactly what I am implying. 0% interest often means based fees are built into the price - whether at point of purchase or through agreement. Amounts paid from the retailer to creditors have in fact already been passed onto the consumers - yourself excluded, as you know how the game is played.

The car we bought here would cost at least 10,000 CAD more if we bought it in Canada - so for those of you who didn't already buy a car just before moving to Dubai - buy your car here.

kanelli wrote:The car we bought here would cost at least 10,000 CAD more if we bought it in Canada - so for those of you who didn't already buy a car just before moving to Dubai - buy your car here.

No GST, No PST, alot of pluses to buying a car here

XRW-147 wrote:Liban, you're saying exactly what I am implying. 0% interest often means based fees are built into the price - whether at point of purchase or through agreement. Amounts paid from the retailer to creditors have in fact already been passed onto the consumers - yourself excluded, as you know how the game is played.

I agree with you, companies do like to add interesting charges at point of sale, going back to my example, after a negotiated price was finalized they tried to charge me a $395 bank application fee for me 0% loan, (hmm is that Canada's version of Sharia????) I refused to pay it and eventually they waived it, I was fortunate enough to have cash in hand but they wouldn't give me any better of a price so I took the financing, in my case, I consider that 0%, if you factor in the bank fee it would have worked out to ~3% over 2 years.

XR, do you mind if I ask you what percentage you are paying for your reducing balance loan? The cheapest I saw for cars was ~7% at Standard Charter if memory serves.

Fayz, habibi, no worries - 4.95%. I end up paying very little interest over the life of this loan as compared to 3% of initial principal over life of loan.

XRW-147 wrote:Fayz, habibi, no worries - 4.95%. I end up paying very little interest over the life of this loan as compared to 3% of initial principal over life of loan.

Wow that is a great rate, Mabrook. Yes you are way better of at 4.95/reducing balance then with 3 non-reducing.

Interesting thread folks!

My car situation is actually causing me headaches. I have a Dodge Caravan bought in 2003 with 0% of course and I'm making monthly payments until 2008 that's a 5 year plan.

Would it be better to just sell it here and buy one over there? are you guys saying there's NO 0% financing in Dubai at all?

Advise, comments are always appreciated!

Acebravo wrote:Interesting thread folks!

My car situation is actually causing me headaches. I have a Dodge Caravan bought in 2003 with 0% of course and I'm making monthly payments until 2008 that's a 5 year plan.

Would it be better to just sell it here and buy one over there? are you guys saying there's NO 0% financing in Dubai at all?

Advise, comments are always appreciated!

2003... Its starting to get old. My car was practically new with 8000 kms on the dial so it was worth it....

See the loss difference in selling it there vs. shipping... Cars here last a LONG time in Dubai..

Liban wrote:

Acebravo wrote:Interesting thread folks!

My car situation is actually causing me headaches. I have a Dodge Caravan bought in 2003 with 0% of course and I'm making monthly payments until 2008 that's a 5 year plan.

Would it be better to just sell it here and buy one over there? are you guys saying there's NO 0% financing in Dubai at all?

Advise, comments are always appreciated!

2003... Its starting to get old. My car was practically new with 8000 kms on the dial so it was worth it....

See the loss difference in selling it there vs. shipping... Cars here last a LONG time in Dubai..

Thanks Liban,

I'd say the loss here is greater due to depreciation value. At best, I might get 10-11K if I sell it here in Canada and the amount owing on it is still higher.

Looks like shipping is the better choice for me

What is the amount owing?

Roro shipping from Montreal to Dubai costs $2500 CAD.

If the difference is greater than that, then ship. You car will last you double the time it would in Canada here if you do the proper maintenance to it and use sythetic in summer and do not drive like 90% of the population

The amount owing is definitely more than that.

Thanks Liban as always

Thanks everyone for replies. My car is 2005 Toyota RAV4 (brand new with 6.2% financing) - is it a good fit for Dubai?. I was thinking that if employer pays transportation fee as part of the benefit, they may as well pay for the shipment (any ideas?). How long did shpiment take?

Whether your company will fork out for the transport depends on your company's policies and flexibility. Part of my relocation involved a 20ft container - basically what ever I could fit in there. However, deciding to keep my house back in Oz meant I only had about 13 boxes shipped here - about 5% of the space. Could have fit a car in there, but our transport policy clearly states the company will not pay for car shipment. So ended up leaving her in the garage and forking out for another car here.

then add to that the cost of registation for the car, the paperwork and typing, as well a the rest of the beuracratic red tape...

also check out the thread on "gulf spec" vehicles, if any modifications need to be made to it

I dunno, maybe I was lucky... But my Canadian car respected all Gulf Specs without any modification from the Canadian Specs (according the GM Middle East).

Also I am getting much better mileage here for some odd reason.... Technicaly I shouldn't because I drive much faster here than in Canada and I am stuck in traffic more and I run AC all the time now... hmmm...

Better grade petrol?