UNREST IN UAE

[Ajmalian]

Fellow brother Camaro owners of UAE. As you know, Sharjah has come down hard on vehicle modifications...and Abu Dhabi is soon to follow by the June 10th and I would not be surprised if Dubai decides to do the same.

As someone who has not done any modifications with your dealer/agency..meaning authorized modifications...how are you dealing with this problem? Have you found a way to get the legal permission to do as you want on your car or are you removing everything from your cars to avoid any trouble.

If anyone has any solutions, please be kind enough to share.

[dynosteve]

Originally Posted by Ajmalian

Fellow brother Camaro owners of UAE. As you know, Sharjah has come down hard on vehicle modifications...and Abu Dhabi is soon to follow by the June 10th and I would not be surprised if Dubai decides to do the same.

As someone who has not done any modifications with your dealer/agency..meaning authorized modifications...how are you dealing with this problem? Have you found a way to get the legal permission to do as you want on your car or are you removing everything from your cars to avoid any trouble.

If anyone has any solutions, please be kind enough to share.

I think you will find it will come down to wether the vehicle will pass a emmissions test alot like the california smog tests or E checks etc, depending on the modifications your going with i dont think it will be a major problem and alot will come down to tuning as well, best part though it that your driving a gm so it is one of the easier vehicles to make pass

Thanks Steve
RDP Motorsport
www.rdpmotorsport.com

[Ajmalian]

Unfortunately Steve, the guys here in the UAE have gotten way too anal about modifications. They have random check points where they will ask you to rev your engines to see how loud your car is or maybe they'll ask you to pop your hoods, and if you even have something as simple as a CAI, your car gets impounded and then exported. You never see your car again and you don't even get to pay the fines and release your car.

BUMMER HUH??!!?!?

[dynosteve]

thats crazy

[iHasCamaro]

That sucks. Pay 2X what we pay here and you can't even mod it how you want it. I Feel for you guys.

[Brutal SS]

Dayumm! :(

[Corvette-camaro]

Originally Posted by Ajmalian

Unfortunately Steve, the guys here in the UAE have gotten way too anal about modifications. They have random check points where they will ask you to rev your engines to see how loud your car is or maybe they'll ask you to pop your hoods, and if you even have something as simple as a CAI, your car gets impounded and then exported. You never see your car again and you don't even get to pay the fines and release your car.

BUMMER HUH??!!?!?

Dont worry , i got alot of modifications on my car and they never stoped me. But dont make ur car very loud , i did it once and they stoped me in jumaira,
I had borla atak cat-back and borla long tube headers it was very very loud!!! , but passed that time!!!
Now i changed my cat-back and it's better, no problems with the police at all.
It's camaro man do what ever you want

[dynosteve]

we have just opened a store in kuwait and will be servicing duabi qatar etc, so if anyone gets stuck with any issues please feel free to give us a call and we will do all we can to help

[MoeIv]

Same problems here. They want us to be sport cars and keep them stock

[Dent RS]

I recently got my camaro from liberty , and decided to order an axle-back just before couple of days , but they told me that it has been causing alot of headaches for everyone , and even the certificates they are giving for parts order by Liberty Motor Sports are being refused by the police , but then i talked to Mitch he Said Maybe they are discussing some special regulation for American cars as to have some aftermarket parts adding abit of non-oem sound...so hopefully this thing cools down after abit ><"

[Anwro]

Originally Posted by dynosteve

we have just opened a store in kuwait and will be servicing duabi qatar etc, so if anyone gets stuck with any issues please feel free to give us a call and we will do all we can to help

where in Kuwait ?

[Ajmalian]

Originally Posted by Dent RS

I recently got my camaro from liberty , and decided to order an axle-back just before couple of days , but they told me that it has been causing alot of headaches for everyone , and even the certificates they are giving for parts order by Liberty Motor Sports are being refused by the police , but then i talked to Mitch he Said Maybe they are discussing some special regulation for American cars as to have some aftermarket parts adding abit of non-oem sound...so hopefully this thing cools down after abit ><"

I sure hope what you or rather Mitch is saying is true man. The only reason that calms me down is because you claim Mitch has said it. If anyone else from LMS had said the same, I'd say they can go screw themselves cuz the ppl at LMS are full of bullshit more than half the time!!

[sasj316]

Hey Ajmalian and fellow UAE Camaro lovers/owners.

Just when I was thinking of getting some mods done, these guys come along with tougher regulations. Isn't there any legal way to get them done? All I want is a simple muffler delete. Any idea where I can get that done from?

I've been trying to find Camaro owners in Dubai at an internet forum but no luck so far to share tips and tricks with. Finding any parts ranging from proper detail accessories to interior/cosmetic accessories is pretty tough here.

Thanks in advance!

[Ajmalian]

@ sasj316

You can take your car to Fox exhausts and they'll do your muffler delete. However "doing modifications legally" is a concept that no longer exists in the UAE. There's two guys who had gotten a corsa exhaust from the agency with permission from RTA....yet according to my sales advisor at my agency....both those Camaros were confiscated by Sharjah police.

If you want, what you can do is have your modifications done, but that would mean you would restricted to Dubai only. You can't go to Abu Dhabi and neither can you go to Sharjah. So all of Duabi basically would be your play ground.

As for the club, there is www.uaecamaroclub.com but its only useful if you can read and write arabic. I barely ever see any english being used there.

So good luck, keep in touch. I've got a few friends in the club who let me know whenever there is a meet. I'll keep you posted.

[Ultrakiller]

Now this is another reason added to my long list to leave UAE for good. How is it that almost everywhere in the world you can tune your car, add so much stuff in it, and still not be on any authority's bad side, unless you **** around with the exhaust like making holes in it. Confiscating cars that are permitted in Dubai in Sharjah, even if you're just crossing the emirate or had to do something urgent there is one thing that not only started a chain reaction, which will spread to AD soon, it's just the sole purpose of having the freedom to buy not only a great car, to also tune it which was one thing that would have kept me staying in this country for a longer time that does not exist.

[Ultrakiller]

Now I've been discussing this with an attorney in Dubai, and I've came with the solution to save your asses from getting impounded by the Sharjah police. Here it goes:

The point is that if you have a Dubai car, with a Dubai license plate and that card of the car issued in Dubai, you can legally sue the Sharjah police due to the fact that the legislation (in other words, tuned sports cars not allowed in Sharjah) applies only to Sharjah-registered cars, not the cars outside the Emirate. If you want an example, imagine that you walk in Carrefour with a can of Pepsi and the security comes right at you and arrest you for theft suspicion.

To summarise this, Sharjah police can't just impound cars registered in Dubai due to so-called "illegal" modifications as the Sharjah police operates solely on Sharjah and their jurisdiction does not apply to Dubai cars unless there's been something like an accident or similar.

Good luck getting your cars back, those who got them impounded or your friends', keep the lawsuits coming and hope some reach Gulf News so justice will prevail.

[xx_ED_xx]

Shoot i could live with strict regualtions if i had your gas prices

[ZL1_Alkindi]

Originally Posted by xx_ED_xx

Shoot i could live with strict regualtions if i had your gas prices

No ones ever happy are they...

[Ultrakiller]

Originally Posted by xx_ED_xx

Shoot i could live with strict regulations if i had your gas prices

Petrol is still cheap there in US because of your government's lack of taxes on petrol, just imagine your prices being somewhere like in Europe, where even if they extract their own oil, they pay 1.50 euros+ per liter! Even though here in UAE petrol prices are very low, ou have to cope with countless other things, both about cars and lifestyle. For example, your car must have a special A/C system (which is why most cars here are GCC-spec, except a very few like Nissan Altimas which are US-spec), be corrosion-resistant if you live in Abu Dhabi or Dubai, find a good mechanic that won't **** around with your car (these things do happen, from putting lower-quality parts to letting your car wait for maintenance even months if you don't remind them constantly to service your car) and many more other small things. Living here in UAE or anywhere in the GCC (except Saudi, never make the mistake to go there unless you get a fat-paying contract) is nowhere close to living in US or even Europe, so keep all the preconceptions aside, and even if you document yourself very well, you will still have many things to learn regarding society, economy, jobs, lifestyle etc. This is why, if you stay here for long enough, you gain the so-called "GCC/UAE experience" which is basically how long you stay in the country for, and your resume is seen better by employers at home or anywhere else. It's been said that "If you manage to live in Dubai, similar to New York, you can make it anywhere" and believe me, this does apply.

[Cyber Gray]

I cant believe that such a thing could happen in Emirates !!

[ramiloutfi]

Hey guys so let me just try and understand this. If I have a Camaro ZL 550 SLP, which already comes modified from USA with its own certificate, and it has passed the RTA and CID authorities. Does this mean I cannot drive it in AD or Sharjah?
I have not added anything to the car, it comes modified!

Please pm me if you know the response

[Ajmalian]

Get a letter from the Agency stating that the car came from factory like this with RTA certification and you should be good to go anywhere my friend. Welcome to the Camaro club!!