Driving in the Middle East

[FaisalJ]

Just back from a week in the UAE, thought I'd share some observations. I'm out there once or twice a year but don't normally bother to hire a car, this time I did.

Beyond all the obvious stuff (every other car is a mahoosive 4x4, petrol cheap, most vehicles are white, nobody can indicate or has any lane discipline), I noted the following:

- The motorway between Al Ain and Dubai has a 140km/h limit (87mph), and it also has a minimum speed. Great idea. It meant I could drive past a police 4x4 doing 90ish with no problems, and then saw him in my rear view pulling over a car for going too slow! Good.

- Glorious V8 sounds everywhere. Diesels relegated to commercial vehicles/mini-buses. As it should be!

- It is safer to have a more powerful car than a less powerful one. There is so much merging into traffic on your average drive out there, and you can really get yourself into trouble if you can't merge or pull off an overtake quickly. My 2.0 Corolla was pathetic!

- If you think the UK has aggressive drivers, we have nothing compared to UAE drivers! On a previous trip, my brother in law had a guy cut him up and then slam on the brakes and come to a stop on the motorway! No idea what provoked him. I had numerous incidents of tailgating, attempts to intimidate etc

- Bad modifications. I've seen some badly modified cars in the UK, but not like the UAE. It was pretty funny. Brand new C63 with a massive Nike logo and "just do it" decal. Hummer covered in checkerplate. Terrible custom paint jobs and incorrectly badged cars all over the Shop. I even saw a Range Rover sport on a previous trip that had been entirely covered in pink diamanté crystals. Funny <beep>.

- Your own car never feels as good as when you get back into it after driving a hire car for a while!

That is all.

[Harris.]

Id want armored plating driving over there

[stevo55]

Having worked in the ME for 8 years driving is one area where you really are taking your life in your hands! There are some excellent Arab drivers but it's really the minority. Mix that with drivers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (the downtrodden in effect slave labour who have a very poor existence) and it's like whacky races...the rich Arabs drive their hyper cars like complete tools (and do so in Knightsbridge through the year as well) as there is no recourse-crash the Lambo? Buy a new one etc etc.
In the UAE if you get into an accident then expect a lot of trouble with regards to blame, also during Ramadan the accident rate goes through the roof as drivers who haven't eaten or drunk anything since the previous evening or very early morning are all over the place. Surprising amounts of drunk driving rates as well-Kuwait used to be infamous for it.
Funny thing about driving is they drive like complete tools and yet everyone just gets on with it-over in the UK you'd be dragged out of your car for doing some of the <beep> they get up to. Strange place.