As every day we do, this weekend we also went to the park to play with the dog(s). Yes, Dogs is the right word, as we have 2 accompanying Momo currently. Our Japanese friend left for Japan and another Croatian family entrusted us to look after their dog. This means we have 3 dogs, actually had 3 dogs as today the one of them went back to the Japanese owner. This morning, while still having all 3 of them, we took these pictures at the park.
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Just leave your car outside while you go for vacation, and this is what you get when you return. This also applies to cars that are waiting in the dealer’s parking lot to be sold. Often time people pay 50,000USD or more for a car that is covered in dust so bad that you can barely say what model that is.
I found this car in the parking lot while walking the dogs, quite shocking. It wasn’t there a week ago …….., this is what the desert does to everything.
In Dubai, all cars are encouraged to be taken for service at every 5000KM, and if you fail to do so, your warranty is void. My car was just at Service before purchased, but as I found the AC not cooling enough, I took it to Nissan for a checkup.
Infiniti being the high end Nissan much like Lexus for Toyota, has a different treatment at the Service center. I was serviced first, and a waiter showed up with a selection of cold drinks to make the wait more confortable. They also assured me that I wont have to get in line with the other Nissans for long, as they are making a separate service aisle for the Infinities, so the owners can feel a more exclusive treatment. To be honest, I had no problem being with the other “plain” Nissans, in fact the service was superb for them also. Its a very typical Dubai thing, if you can afford to pay more, you expect to be treated as a VIP. Me being a simple Hungarian kid, I couldnt care less for the exclusive treatment, although the cold drink did feel pretty good in the heat 
Once I get in line, they put a cone shaped object on top of the car with a number printed on it, which will be your service tag number. Then a technician came who was wearing an Infiniti shirt differentiating himself from all the other Nissan shirted guys. He took my complaint down on a piece of paper, checked the car around for body damage in case I would claim them for doing some damage to my car while at service, and then took the keys and drove it off.
As we are in the peak period of the summer, the service took 2 days to get my car fixed. They drained the AC coolant from the car (poor mother nature, I wonder what they did with the dangerous gas they drained), flushed the system with high pressure water, refilled it and adjusted the compressor. On top, they replaced a so called Micro Filter, which blocks all dirt entering the passenger cabin through the AC system. This all costed me 150 USD, as AC servicing is not included in the warranty. Should the compressor fail, they will replace it for free, but just refilling the system is on my account. Nicely enough they gave me a day-pass to the Dubai Ski as part of their promotion, and cleaned the car inside out.
The AC is good as new, and throws ice cubes at me while driving. This particular Infiniti comes with a dual AC system, which means the Left side and the Right side can be adjusted independently. It is also Digital and automatic, like all modern cars are.
This is a picture at the service center, while waiting for the Infiniti technician to assist me.
The service tag I got looked like this. It was hanging on the key-ring when I got the car back. This is actually a fine example of how mobile numbers are important here. They even use my mobile number instead of my name on the tag. In the Driving school they also identified me by the phone number, at fuel stations they identify you when paying for your road toll, etc etc. Its an interesting concept in Dubai, but seems to work very well. Your number is your identity.
Cheers, more on the car later
Dubai summer is at times unbearable hot, and since I need to park my car outside on the street, I wanted to get some protection against the heat and car interior damage.
Most cars in Dubai have tinted windows, which helps the case, and I decided to do some research and go for some quality tint while remaining within the legal boundaries.
In the “Wheels” magazine I found a couple of ads, and the best companies seem to offer heat resistant tinting as opposed to only darkening the windows. Tints range from AED 50 (approx 15 USD) to AED 3500 (approx 1000 USD), which is quite a large window of selection. The top players are LLumar, V-kool, 3M and Solar Gard. They all seem to be efficient in fighting heat, so I decided to get the one that has the best promotion currently. LLumar was offering a full (Side and rear) 30% (Dubai legal limit) tint job with a fully transparent (0% darkened) windshield foil making it an all around foiling for AED 1200 (Approx 300USD). I booked a slot for Saturday 11AM, and drove the car there. We took a taxi and went for shopping and lunch to Wafi Mall, and came back at 1:30PM to find the Infiniti almost ready with the full tint. The guys seemed to be professional, and the tint so far works like a dream. Of course it cannot keep all the heat out, but it helps reducing it by 50%, and the UV and IR rays at 99%. UV rays damage the interior, causing ripped leather seats and faded dashboards. With this, I should be good to go leaving the car outside all day.
Here is a picture of the car at the tint-shop, getting the driver side foil sized and cut out.
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