Thanks evan, I already decided to stay away from Jeep until I get a big hike in my salary . now decided to buy a pathy for time being. Was your pathy US spec?

I don't think there would be any use in changing anything until you notice that it needs changing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!! (My wife keeps reminding me of this when I buy jeeps, I never listen!)

Hi, mine was GCC spec but I also drove a friend's American one offroad once with 3.3 engine which went well - this was an Infiniti and had better interior. Not sure about AC and cooling but generally I think the old Nissans are pretty strong and easy to repair if needed. Advice would be go for a gulf spec if possible - such as:

http://abudhabi.dubizzle.com/classified ... D%3D&pos=3

http://abudhabi.dubizzle.com/classified ... bnQ9&pos=8

http://abudhabi.dubizzle.com/classified ... 0%3D&pos=7

The reason why they have GCC specs is that there are special circumstances in the GCC that require thses GCC specs......so its really not a good idea to buy non GCC spec cars.

Firstly the GCC cars will have uprated engine / gearbox / interior cooling which you will really require if you are going to do some off roading

Wasif Ahmed wrote:The reason why they have GCC specs is that there are special circumstances in the GCC that require thses GCC specs......so its really not a good idea to buy non GCC spec cars.

Firstly the GCC cars will have uprated engine / gearbox / interior cooling which you will really require if you are going to do some off roading

Wasif,
Did you know that GCC specs are actually inferior to US or European Specs, with the exception of the cooling system which must withstand the extreme summer heat here?
For example, US specs do not allow recycled metal, their safety specs are higher than GCC and their love of power means their Japanese or European imports are actually more powerful, i.e. Mercedes we have S500 they have S550, the idea of a six cylinder Honda Accord is because Americans wanted it and reluctantly, Honda obliged.

Yes, GCC specs are lower, except for luxury cars. For example, many models with GCC specs have no cruise control, no side airbags, no USB slot, etc.

Some models do have beefed-up cooling, but nothing exceptional (like, they don't put in a high-flow water pump, or 3-core radiator, or external oil cooler... just a bigger fan, or a lower temp thermostat)

Al Kurby wrote:Wasif,
Did you know that GCC specs are actually inferior to US or European Specs, with the exception of the cooling system which must withstand the extreme summer heat here?
For example, US specs do not allow recycled metal, their safety specs are higher than GCC and their love of power means their Japanese or European imports are actually more powerful, i.e. Mercedes we have S500 they have S550, the idea of a six cylinder Honda Accord is because Americans wanted it and reluctantly, Honda obliged.

Yes Nasser in a few areas like safety and comfort the US & Euro spec cars may be better but since the heat is a major factor here it is always a great idea to stick to GCC spec cars if you are planning to use them extensively in the GCC

Now coming to the love of power you pointed out, thats truw they love powerfull machines but the actual reason why they have the S550 and we dont is that the emission equipemnt on the US spec cars eats up a lot of power so they need to have higher displacment / number of cylinders to make up for the loss.

The US spec S550 has alsmost identical performance figures to teh GCC Spec S500. This has always been teh case with Mercedes cars, their US specs always have bigger engines to compensate for the power loss due to emission standards that need to be complied with.

PR wrote:Yes, GCC specs are lower, except for luxury cars. For example, many models with GCC specs have no cruise control, no side airbags, no USB slot, etc.

Some models do have beefed-up cooling, but nothing exceptional (like, they don't put in a high-flow water pump, or 3-core radiator, or external oil cooler... just a bigger fan, or a lower temp thermostat)

Not sure about other cars but the US Spec FJ has a radiator that is just 1.5 inch thick while the GCC spec FJ has a radiator thsi is double the thickness.

Better not buy an FJ if you live in Texas!

I saw a post by PR in another thread about LR discovery. Is it good for daily office drive and offroad? It falls in my price range, but what about the maintenance cost? can Musaffah garages repair it or do i need to go to the dealer? if we consider a scale of 1 to 10 (1->cheapest maintenance and 10->expensive maintenance) by considering the price of parts, frequency of repair, easiness to fix etc, where can we place pathfinder and discovery (though it's ridiculous to compare luxury LR and normal pathy ).
BTW drivearabia.com points out a lotta troubles for LR cars.

Thanks all for the advice. It's always good to read and learn more about cars.

Ali