Carspotting In Abu Dhabi – Leave The Excess To Dubai

Text and photos by riveranotario.

I had just a couple of weeks’ notice before taking a short trip to Abu Dhabi for work. Just a little under 48 hours in Abu Dhabi, less than it took me to get there and come back. I didn’t care, I was so lucky to be given this trip at all!

The oil rich boom towns of the Middle East have never been high on my traveling wish list; with them being so far from Chile, and flights being expensive and lengthy it’s hard to justify the case of the whole enterprise. But as a company-paid tour? Sure!

Being the big nerd that I am, I already knew a little about the United Arab Emirates and its capital, Abu Dhabi. So unlike most people I told about the trip, I had some references beyond the one mention the city gets in a 1980’s Garfield cartoon song.

I’m always touring around with my camera, so obviously I took thousands of photos on those two days. Mostly of cars. Not that it was a stress-free mission, as I was sometimes afraid of upsetting some locals. Yes, I’ve read it can be a problem to take photos of people without permission. However, nobody complained or made any ugly faces when I photographed cars and buildings.

My flight arrived to (and departed the next day from) Dubai. Both at night. So I only got to see glimpses of the city’s excess: The row of skyscrapers, strange monuments and buildings, and dealerships for brands like Bentley, Ferrari and Mansory (yuck).

Upon arrival, I saw this Rolls-Royce from my taxi, which seemed like a tuning job by those companies that make cars look worse. But before we get too far with this tour, the little “research” I did before arriving showed me that, unlike what I expected, supercars do not abound everywhere in the United Arab Emirates. Still, I expected to see at least a few… though I ended up seeing none at all.

Only one Rolls-Royce, a Cullinan. Because Corvettes don’t count, right?

Neither do this kind of Bentleys, I think.

And is not like the guys in this Continental in front of the glamorous Emirates Palace Hotel are not living the good life!

Maybe this Brabus counts as a supercar?

Because sure, there are lots of expensive cars in Abu Dhabi, but they tend to be posh Mercedes, mostly, like this Mercedes-Maybach. However, I left with the impression that BMWs were significantly less common than cars from the tri-star.

But that is not for a lack of trying: BMW UAE even launched a special edition X7 to celebrate the 50 years of the United Arab Emirates in 2021.

I saw a couple of new 7 series for the first time. I like them better than I expected.

While I welcome the new lightning bits on grilles and emblems (how come nobody thought of cribbing Wolseley in all these years?), this one grille might be too large for such treatment. Or too awkward a shape. By the way, don’t you hate that trend of having DLRs and blinkers be the same bulbs?

Since we are talking about German cars, there was a cool old Porsche 911 GT3.

Is the new Supra a supercar?

Turns out middle-class vehicles dominate the car scene, as I guess I should have known. Goes to highlight how distorted one’s idea from this part of the world can be.

Because what I saw in Abu Dhabi was a very diverse car market, including many Chinese makes and quite a few EVs, including lots of Teslas. That despite this being a petrol state. (Gasoline is not as cheap as I imagined, around 2,5 AED per litre, about half the price it was in Chile).

There are even VW ID.4 EVs, which are not only not listed on the VW UAE website… the company has a notice up on the site denouncing the fact that the ones around are illegally imported!

This is in fact an ID.4 X, which I was told is only sold in China, by the SAIC-VW JV.

Land Cruisers are not as dominant, as I imagined, either. There are lots of them, but I think the Nissan Patrol is more popular.

Nissan does indeed seem to be well-liked by the Emiratis. There are many Nissan Altima, Maxima, and Sunny -what the Versa is called in the UAE.

Here’s a Sunny alongside a great-looking new JAC from China.

Back to the Nissan Patrol, those are super popular and, as I said, dominate over the Land Cruiser. Like the Toyota, there are many variations with options not sold in other markets.

Even better, the Patrol Super Safari.

And even the rare pickup version! I don’t remember even knowing these existed before seeing this one.

Meanwhile, almost all taxis are Toyota Camrys. I rode on a bunch of these Camry taxis and they are great! They feel new, are air-conditioned, and the fare is in view at all times on the dashboard’s screen.

You see plenty of Corollas as well, and Camrys used for “civilian” duty.

In summary, I wouldn’t say a model or brand dominates in the city. To exemplify that, here are some parking lot photos.

Sure, there are some luxury cars around, but most of the cars seen are just what I see every day in my hometown of Santiago, Chile.

There is even a market for the cheap Mitsubishi Attrage, the sedan version of the Mirage, built in the Philippines.

Chinese brands are doing well, as in many other markets outside the US. I saw quite a few of these Jetour T2, an attractive SUV that looks like a Defender but is of course, much cheaper. Jetour is one of the (probably way too) many brands from Chery, a company more known by their version of the Daewoo/Chevrolet Matiz.

Sadly, I didn’t get to see many cars from brands I know exist in the UAE but not in Chile. Among those I did see were at least three HongQi H5, the entry model to the luxury brand from FAW, the oldest and largest Chinese carmaker.

Like other big state-owned Chinese automotive corporations, they don’t excel at exporting their cars, nor at launching the most innovative models, as tech-heavy EVs tend to come from smaller, privately owned startups.

I have yet to see a H9. The Chinese ambassador in Chile uses one, so I might get lucky one of these days in Santiago…

From the same parent corporation of HongQi comes this Bestune B70, part of a brand formerly known as Besturn in English. They used to be built over a Mazda6 platform, but they supposedly rode on a new self-developed platform by this third generation.

Another great Chinese spot was this Polestar 2; the new retro Land Cruiser next to it looks fantastic too.

My favorite sightings were these three: a CMC Veryca from Taiwan (in the foreground),

a Chevrolet Lumina S (The rebadged Holden Commodore from Australia. Many of you surely know about this Chevy Lumina already, and damn GM for not sending it to the US as they did to some Middle East markets.),

and Ashok Leyland buses.

I knew the Leyland brand and logo were alive and well in India as Ashok Leyland. But I had no idea they sold them in the UAE. I was so excited to take these pics, all while worried somebody would not be so happy about some random guy taking photos of school buses.

We don’t get this Dongfeng Forthing M4 U-Tour either. The Chinese have a thing for minivans that doesn’t translate that well into export markets.

You might notice there are not many «classics» on this post. Not that I don’t like classics, of course, but I just saw very few “old” cars during my stay.

Something tells me there must have been lots of Mercedes like this one back in the day.

Lexus are the most popular among the oldies, by far.

New Lexuses (Lexii?) are probably the most popular luxury brand as well, many of them sedans,

but also Land Cruisers in disguise.

US luxury offerings, Lincoln and Cadillac, are way less common.

I saw a couple Infinitis too.

Curiously, GMC does great. I think GMC must have been promoted in the region over Chevrolet back in the day since they are still more popular in the UAE. Even Brazilian Chevrolet C-20 trucks were sold under the GMC brand in the Middle East in the 80’s.

That white Yukon hails from Saudi Arabia.

Another shocker was the following: I had no idea the UAE gets the Chinese Mondeo (first from the left), and sold as a Taurus. It looks absolutely deserving of that name. Also, behind it a Chevy. Malibu or Impala?

Also, a couple Panthers that might have been more common when they were new. I think those are Saudi license plates on the Crown Vic.

On the commercial vehicle side, what caught most my attention were the small Mazda trucks, these E2000s. They look like an old design, and indeed, according to Wikipedia, this generation of Mazda Bongo was launched in 1999 but built until 2010.

You do see many Hilux, Mitsubishi and Nissan trucks, of course. I love how they’ve kept the 90’s style of stripes alive.

Almost all trucks have those cage-like contraptions over the pickup bed.

I didn’t see many pickup trucks used as luxury/leisure vehicles as is so common in the US. Here’s a single-cab Tundra.

During the short free time I had on my last night in Abu Dhabi, I walked by a Mitsubishi dealership and went in to ask for brochures. As usual nowadays, I found they no longer print them.

However, their lineup is the same as in Chile, so SUV/crossovers, including the Xpander Cross, built in Indonesia and developed for ASEAN markets.

Don’t think I only saw cars while in Abu Dhabi, though my sightseeing was limited. In any case, I recommend going to the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital if you have the time. Feeding a falcon resting on my arm was by far the coolest thing I got to do; if a little gory and definitively not vegan-friendly.

Of course, going to the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque is a must.

The Presidential Palace, Qasr al Watan, is impressive too. But if you are looking for history, there is not much, as the building was opened in 2019. And if you wonder, the Grand Mosque isn’t much older either.

The former residence of the sheiks of Abu Dhabi has a little more in terms of heritage, having a watchtower from 1761, but most of the surrounding construction dates from the 1930s. You can learn about the lives of the royal family inside.

After less than 48 hours in Abu Dhabi, I was back in Dubai for my flight to Santiago, via Paris. And in that last chance to see some of those famous Dubai police supercars, I got to spot this one instead (not my photo, but you get the idea). Turns out Dubai can be sensible too.