Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Give us a break



Another uneducated guesswork government ruling by UAE authorities leaving no time at all for us to breathe since the last few (one week from gardeners ban, two weeks from obscure Visa rules, and three weeks from company with multiple licenses requiring multiple offices ruling at Dept of Economical Development)

Not that banning 20 year old cars is a huge problem for anyone, but what on earth is banning transfer and sale of vehicles that are older than 10 supposed to be about? Would I be from January then either stuck with my 1999 Discovery or off with it to the junk yard?

That's going to be some new business for car-dealers: "I'll give you 5000 dirhams for your model 2000 Mercedes SL500 because whomever buys it is stuck with it." Reminds me of my 6th grade English Lit story "The Bottle Imp" where everyone is trying to unload the damned thing before their time comes so as not burn in hell.

Have this been done before? I searched around and found no such rule anywhere in the World.

Would UAE authorities at least consider letting us residents get our heads around what's going on here before giving us new rules to mesmerize about?

A break is what we need!


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They tried the 10 year old car thing 3 or 4 years ago and it died a death then, so fingers crossed.....

Why can't we just have a strict road test every time the licence gets renewed? There are some real death traps out there that need to be got off the road - lorries with bald tyres being the biggest issue - but there are some 10 year old cars which have been well maintained and are just fine - mine included!

The most environmentally friendly car is one that has already been bulit, so this has nothing to do with green issues!

Dubai Warrior said...

The concern is they're passing stranger laws and rules these days than they ever did 3 or 4 years ago. They might actually just go ahead with this.

What will people do when someone is leaving and owns a 99 or 98 (if not a compact sunny or short life piece of junk, then they would be perfectly fine cars with considerable value still attached)? What do they expect? That 50,000 dirham BMW's and Land Cruisers will be sent to the crusher?

We sure need an answer and explanation.