Greetings from the Middle East!

Doha DB

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Hi everyone,

I’m a first time merc owner living in Doha, Qatar and due to take ownership of a 2012 E63 AMG shortly!

I’m not ashamed to admit I know next to nothing about this monster, other than what research I was able to do, which suggests it’ll be a lot of fun! So you’ll forgive me if I’m on a fact finding mission a lot of the time, but the Mercedes service centres here are not entirely forthcoming...

Anyway looking forward to trawling through the forums and getting involved!

Darryl
 

A.J.

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Hi Doha, welcome to the forum :)
 

SRE

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Hello and welcome!
 

Chrishazle

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Doha has changed a lot since we lived in Dukhan 1976-79 and shopped weekly in Doha, and I understand their police have some seriously quick cars and are a bit unsympathetic, so beware the speed limits! One early memory is a Sheikh's son who ordered a turbo 911 without Dad's knowledge - drove the car home, got rollocked by Dad so straight back to the dealership, mate of mine bought it "second hand" at a substantial discount!! Even funnier, when it needed servicing he airfreighted it back to Germany to Porsche (it was really cheap as the planes came out full from Europe but returned empty, same happened with our "seafreight" when our contract ended, cheaper to airfreight than seafreight!!) then drove it back to UK. IIRC his wife divorced him as he loved his cars more than her!
 

AMGeed

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Welcome to the forum Darryl.
You'll enjoy that E63 and I'm envious of the price you'll be paying for fuel.
 

John Laidlaw

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Welcome....so in 2012 it will be the na beast?
I’m over there most months maybe I can look it over?
 
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Doha DB

Doha DB

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Doha has changed a lot since we lived in Dukhan 1976-79 and shopped weekly in Doha, and I understand their police have some seriously quick cars and are a bit unsympathetic, so beware the speed limits! One early memory is a Sheikh's son who ordered a turbo 911 without Dad's knowledge - drove the car home, got rollocked by Dad so straight back to the dealership, mate of mine bought it "second hand" at a substantial discount!! Even funnier, when it needed servicing he airfreighted it back to Germany to Porsche (it was really cheap as the planes came out full from Europe but returned empty, same happened with our "seafreight" when our contract ended, cheaper to airfreight than seafreight!!) then drove it back to UK. IIRC his wife divorced him as he loved his cars more than her!

I’ve only been here 3 years and the place has changed a lot already, so I can imagine what close to 30 years would look like!

Can’t say I’ve seen many high performance police cars, most seem to drive the regional favourites of Toyota land cruisers and Nissan patrols.
 
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Doha DB

Doha DB

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Welcome to the forum Darryl.
You'll enjoy that E63 and I'm envious of the price you'll be paying for fuel.

Can’t argue with 40p a litre
 
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Doha DB

Doha DB

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Welcome....so in 2012 it will be the na beast?
I’m over there most months maybe I can look it over?

That would be cool. What brings you that regularly to Doha?
 

John Laidlaw

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That would be cool. What brings you that regularly to Doha?
STS operations , or to be more precise providers on LPG and LNG - mostly in the gulf of course too
 

Craiglxviii

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Hello Darryl and welcome. Cor,40p a litre still? It was something like 30p back in Kuwait in2003...
 

C350Carl

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Welcome to the Forum. Also living in the Middle East here, although not Qatar. Do make the odd trip over there on occasion though.

40ppl is very good. It's 75ppl here.
 

rorywquin

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Welcome - I lived in Doha for two separate stints (early 2000s and a couple of years ago)......First time I had the 5.7L Hemi Dodge Durango and the traffic was not too bad......Second time I used limos and taxis. Semi permanent traffic jams, lousy cops, rude ME drivers and lots of really bad (non-ME) foreign drivers put me right off driving there. I was a much happier person being driven around.

Be very careful about what you buy, a colleague of my was sold a car that had been rebuilt out of 2 cars and was not told about it. Most performance cars there have been thrashed by people with too much money and no respect for their cars.

Not sure about services now but they used to be done in the industrial area ......probably 1 hour each way from Doha......if you go during the day. My car had to go every 6 months because of the heat and dust.
 
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Doha DB

Doha DB

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Hello Darryl and welcome. Cor,40p a litre still? It was something like 30p back in Kuwait in2003...

There may have been some inflation....
 
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Doha DB

Doha DB

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Welcome - I lived in Doha for two separate stints (early 2000s and a couple of years ago)......First time I had the 5.7L Hemi Dodge Durango and the traffic was not too bad......Second time I used limos and taxis. Semi permanent traffic jams, lousy cops, rude ME drivers and lots of really bad (non-ME) foreign drivers put me right off driving there. I was a much happier person being driven around.

Be very careful about what you buy, a colleague of my was sold a car that had been rebuilt out of 2 cars and was not told about it. Most performance cars there have been thrashed by people with too much money and no respect for their cars.

Not sure about services now but they used to be done in the industrial area ......probably 1 hour each way from Doha......if you go during the day. My car had to go every 6 months because of the heat and dust.

Hi Rory,

There’s been a number of major infrastructure projects completed recently that have vastly improved the road network, so traffic is getting better. Can’t say much to the quality of driving though

I’ve done all the checks I can, but as it’s still under warranty and the condition seems to have been validated, I cant see what more I can do. Fingers crossed!
 

rorywquin

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Hi Rory,

There’s been a number of major infrastructure projects completed recently that have vastly improved the road network, so traffic is getting better. Can’t say much to the quality of driving though

I’ve done all the checks I can, but as it’s still under warranty and the condition seems to have been validated, I cant see what more I can do. Fingers crossed!


Yep -- big improvements since the early 2000s but I ended my second stint, working there, last year and found the traffic was worse that ever. If you are buying from MB you should be OK........would be wary of any non-MB dealer.....that is how my colleague got caught ----good luck and enjoy.
 

rorywquin

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Hello Darryl and welcome. Cor,40p a litre still? It was something like 30p back in Kuwait in2003...
It is still cheap, but prices keep going up, the oil companies in the ME have been struggling with the low oil price.......major projects shelved and massive mergers and lay-offs. I believe that Qatar will soon be introducing VAT..........
 

davemercedes

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Hello and Welcome, Darryl.
 

sonic

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Welcome, been to Dubai several times never saw a C class all E & S class cars. Same with BMW all at lease a 5 series.
 


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