Just over a year I was looking to buy a car. A German colleague was moving out of the country and was selling his Nissan Patrol Platinum SE 2014 (Y62 model).
As many other people I was under a fallacy, that German people disciplined and efficient. Obviously, the colleague was aware about this fallacy and capitalized on it. He stated that he was taking it regularly to Nissan service and if anything was required to be fixed, it was only in the approved service.
We agreed on the price and I bought the Nissan Patrol Platinum SE. At the time car had 77,000 km on the odometer. The car had number of the stone chips as he was driving mainly on the highway to work and back. I thought that 77,000 km (48,000 miles) for seven-year-old car is a low milage. Since I bought it, I drove about 7,500 km (4,700 miles a year).
A day before the colleague was going to handover the car to me, he caught a chip to the windshield, resulted in a crack. As he was going to leave the country, he said that insurance will be transferred to my name and it would cover it. He was reluctant to reduce the price and I already had paid the deposit.
After spending some time with the insurer, he realized that it was not transferrable. He refused to pay for the OEM windshield and replaced elsewhere at half price. It was a slopy job but point of no return was passed.
I have had the car for 16 months now. Managed to get the service history from Nissan from 2018 until today and relevant costs. I thought it would be interesting to share how much does it cost to run Nissan Patrol in Middle East.
Table. Cost of Nissan Patrol maintenance in the Middle East (Kuwait):
For two years and three months the previous owner spent 792 KD (2,622 USD) or 352 KD (1,165 USD) a year on the service. He was skipping the 5,000 km and 6 monthly services until he realised that he will be selling the car (beginning of January 2020).
Also, his refusal to purchase OEM windshield is quite appalling. Here is myth of german discipline, punctuality and doing it proper goes away.
Since taking car to the same service I was told that the guy even refused to replaced spark plugs (it should be done after 5 years) in 2019.
I am taking the car every 5,000 km or three months (which ever comes first). I have seen what stated of the filters and oil. They are full of dust and the oil is literally baked. Since purchase in the past 16 months, I spent 2,414 KD (8,000 USD). Assuming that next two services will be uneventful the average annual cost will be 1,300 KD (4,300 USD).
After 7 years Nissan Patrol air conditioner had to be replaced, together with the heating unit (it got blocked and according to the service could not be cleaned). So, A/C campaign does not extend the life of the air conditioner nor prevents the heating unit from being blocked.
Kuwait has a lot of speed bumps and many of them unpainted, so sometimes not noticeable. There is also no standard how high a speed bump should be. When a car is going over a speed bump shocks are unable to absorb the energy so rapidly which leads to links and suspension being damaged. Ideally you should not go over speed bump faster than 20 km/h. Speed bumps also through your wheels out of alignment.
So, lessons learned so far:
- Ignore Nissan Car Service A/C campaign service. Every time you come (potentially every 3 months) you spend 13 KD (42 USD) and it does NOT extend the A/C life, in my experience. After 7 year you spend 364 KD (1,200 USD) and still need to replace the A/C. Save your money.
- Be very careful at the speed bumps in Kuwait. Many of them are extremely rough and they will lead for you to replace suspensions (your shocks are unable to absorb the energy that rapidly) and arms at 700 KD in a few years’ time. Cross them at no more than 20 km/h.
In the next post I will talk through other expenses – tyres and car exterior and interior maintenance in the Middle East.