How to buy a car in Qatar

If you live in Doha you’re going to have to buy a car, no two ways about it. As previously mentioned, there is no public transport to speak of, cab drivers are notoriously dodgy, you can’t walk anywhere, and it’s not practical to ‘call your driver’ or request an Uber every time you realise you’re out of toilet paper.

Admittedly, there are some people who steadfastly refuse to play along and will lean on friends to give them lifts. This is unacceptable and shows a selfish disregard for ‘the way things work’. It can be particularly troublesome in the morning when you’re forced to carpool someone from work and feel compelled to maintain a ‘conversation’ even while you’re dying on the inside from the previous night’s binge drinking.

So yeah, buying a car. First up, if you have a British or Australian passport you can simply go into the transport department and have a local driver’s license issued on the spot. Trying to do this without any Arab language skills is an exercise in fortitude, so the best thing to do is find a local ‘fixer’ and have them deal with the paperwork and the ladies at the department on your behalf.

Thankfully, there are plenty of friendly Arab men loitering outside the transport centre who will happily assist you — for a small fee. Save yourself a lot of trouble and pay them. Oh, and don’t worry about finding them, they’ll see you, the confused westerner, coming a mile away…

If you’re from the U.S. or elsewhere then you’ll have to actually take lessons and pass a driving test before they’ll give you a local license. From all accounts this is a hellish process that will take years off your life. If you already know how to drive your best bet is to try and find a local fixer who can ‘deal with it’ and get your international license converted to a local one.

Or you can just risk driving on your international license. Technically you can drive around Qatar on one of these for three months. It’s not going to help you much if you get into a car accident (which happens, like, A LOT in Qatar), but, if you’re stopped by police for one of their roadside checks, you should be able to continue on with minimal fuss. Not that we’d recommend this approach…

Also, if you’re from a country where people drive on the left hand side, or just follow the road rules in general, it’s probably best to adjust to Doha’s roads with a rental car. Compared to most places, renting a car in Doha is dirt cheap, a basic compact will set you back around USD $500 (2000 QR) for the month, and that includes insurance. You can then crash your underpowered Chevy Sonic (or whatever) as many times as you like and simply leave it by the side of the road while you go get another one.

Actually Buying a Car

It’s important to realise that you can’t outdo the Qataris when it comes to cars. They all make more money than you. The best you can really do is go for something mid-range and respectable. Obviously this is a matter of personal opinion, but you’re not going to get any respect on the road pushing a Nissan Tiida or a Sunny.

The thing about the Qatar car market is that luxury cars tend to drop in value pretty quickly after a few years. That means a BMW, Audi or Mercedes with a couple of years on it can look like a bargain. Which it is — until it develops crippling mechanical faults that cost a fortune to fix.

Look under my bonnet

Car dealerships in Qatar have a complete monopoly on whatever manufacturer they represent. The lack of viable alternatives means these service centres can charge whatever they want for parts and service. They exploit this ruthlessly.

If you purchase a luxury car out of warranty you better hope it’s in good condition. Simply driving your car into a service centre and having someone look under the bonnet can easily run you USD $500 (2000 QR).

They also have a tendency to give you apocalyptic, worst-case scenarios on the state of your car. In one instance, an oil leak in a five-year old BMW 3 Series was diagnosed as a need to replace all the engine tubes, and estimated as a USD $4000 job (12,000 QR). When asked to identify the exact source of the leak, the consultant backtracked and grudgingly admitted they could probably just seal up the problem for USD $500 (2000 QR).

In other words, you should approach all repair quotes with deep suspicion. If you feel like they’re trying to bleed you dry it’s because they are. This is particularly galling when it comes to ‘labour costs’. While the mark-up on parts is significant, these guys make their real money with ludicrously inflated service charges.

How they justify several hundred dollars in labour costs when everyone knows the mechanics are imported from South Asia and paid a couple of bucks an hour is one of those GCC mysterious which is too horrible to contemplate.

Dealerships and Private Sellers

There are used car dealerships scattered throughout Doha, but they tend to be small, hole in the wall places, where some guy has simply parked a bunch of LandCruisers on the footpath and retreated to an adjacent office where he can chain smoke in air-conditioned comfort. This blasé approach to selling cars can be somewhat unnerving for westerners, and you have good reason to be suspicious.

A better way to track down used cars is via websites like QatarSale.com, which allow private sellers to post their cars and offer a huge selection of models and price ranges. That said, buying a second hand car is always a gamble, especially when you’re in the Middle East, super especially if you don’t speak the local language.

A couple things to keep in mind:

1. If you buy a vehicle that’s older than five years you’re required to get an annual inspection in order to keep it on the road. More importantly, the desert air has a tendency to seriously damage cars not built to withstand it.

2. The Middle East loves to import cheap used cars from the U.S. and the market is flooded with GMC and Chevy 4WDs. The problem is these cars have absolutely no resale value and are known for chronic problems. Japanese and Korean cars tend to be better built and will retain their value a lot more. The luxury European cars are somewhere in the middle.

Regardless of where or how you find a car, make sure you get it checked out before handing over any cash. There are a number of specialist car centres on Salwa Road whose sole purpose is to check cars for defects and potential death traps. They’ll be able to tell you if a vehicle has been in an accident, has its original parts and is roadworthy. For added peace of mind, you can also check with the dealership that sold the car to see if it has a service history.

A cautionary tale

Dealing with local mechanics and having them certify a car is a slow and tedious process, but the alternative can be far worse. One optimistic expat found a BMW X5 with a few years on it selling for USD $13,000 (55,000 QR) — a lot cheaper than the usual price. He bought the car without an inspection and everything was fine… for the first month.

When he took the car to a mechanic because of strange thumping noises under the bonnet he discovered that the previous owner had rebuilt the car following an accident and filled it with random car parts from old Skodas. Getting it back into a driveable, roadworthy state was quoted at USD $10,000 (30,000 QR).

The LandCruisers

For lots of boring reasons (i.e. conformity, reliability, general on-road presence), most Qataris drive a LandCruiser. Or several. These 4WDs are totally inescapable in Doha and can make driving on the roads feel like something out of a Mad Max film, since local Qataris simply Do-Not-Give-A-Fuck about road rules.

Seriously though, LandCruisers — and associated vehicles such as the Nissan Patrol or Lexus 4WD — are a menace. Drivers treat the roads like it’s still 1998 and barrelling through a round-about at full speed while smoking a shisha and not looking is acceptable behaviour.

Other awesomely shit driving habits you can look forward to include:

● Tailgating drivers and flashing their lights at the vehicle in front to showcase ‘ownership’ of the lane

● Riding the shoulder to avoid traffic jams

● Mounting curbs and driving across footpaths

● Swerving across several lanes of traffic without indicating

● Muscling into non-existent spaces

● Showcasing displeasure at a fellow driver’s actions by cutting them off and then hitting the breaks.

The basic rule of thumb while driving in Doha is to expect death and carnage at any given moment in time. Between the Qataris who believe they ‘own’ the roads (and have the giant SUVS to prove it), the terrified expats and the south Asians with a death wish and a Bangladeshi license, it’s basically Hiroshima out on the streets.

You can find more tips on living and working in Qatar in my book — God Willing: How to survive expat life in Qatar.