Buying or selling your precious auto is always a fun process, and you'll enjoy it in Dubai as much as anywhere. Take a few posh cars for a test drive - you'll find second hand dealers a lot more willing to throw you the keys to a Mercedes or BMW than in many other countries. New car dealers are usually pretty good too as long as you look halfway sensible.

What follows are details of where to buy, how to buy, how to sell, how to register, etc. Remember that cars seem to age more quickly in the arid climate in Dubai and look old sooner than you might expect elsewhere. Maintenance tends to be fairly casual too, FSH (Full Service History) usually means the car had a service every now and then, and there's no record of it. At the end are a few suggestions to consider (it's not advice but just a couple of ideas to get you started on your car shopping adventure), and a few tips on what to look out for when shopping for a second hand car (it's not comprehensive, and it's no replacement for a proper test or check up by someone who knows what they're doing).

You may wonder about the heading here but it's not completely unheard of for private individuals to sell a new car - quite a few are given away as raffle prizes. You'll be offered a ridiculously low sum of money from a second hand dealer (or even the original dealer), and will probably do much better if you sell it through other means. A difficulty is that you can't test drive it unless you register it - which makes it second hand then.

A choice many new arrivals to Dubai shy away from but there are a number of things going for this option.

• New cars are relatively cheap compared to many countries (probably not USA, NZ, or countries in Europe where cars are cheaper - France? Germany?)
• A bank loan is often cheaper than you first expect and usually, most working expats have more disposable cash compared to previous country of residence.
• New cars have some protection with the warranty. Some come with service agreements or contracts included (eg 3 years or 100,000 km worth of servicing, not usually transferable when selling car).
• You don't have to wonder if it's been looked after properly or not.
• Usually you can choose your preferred color.
• Often there'll be a good promotion on something close to what you want - especially unsold one year old models just before the new ones come out.
• The downside is the loan (if you've opted for that) and the depreciation (insane, like anywhere).

There's usually only one dealer per car manufacturer due to the Sole Agency law in the UAE. So the lack of competition does mean you're stuck with that dealer for servicing if you want your warranty to remain valid. This applies to 2nd hand cars also if they're still under warranty. That law applies on a per emirate basis so you will find some automobile manufacturers with a different agent in different emirates. Some of the bigger car dealers in Dubai are:

• AGMC - BMW
• Al Futtaim - Lexus, Toyota
• Al Ghandi Auto - Chevrolet (Dubai & Ras Al Khaimah, from January 2008, previously was Al Yousef Motors), GMC
• Al Habtoor Motors - Aston Martin, Bentley, Mitsubishi
• Al Majid Motors - Hyundai, Kia
• Al Nabooda Automobiles - Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen
• Al Rostamani Group - Citroen/Citroën (31 May 2010 agreement signed for all emirates)
• Al Tayer Motors - Ferrari, Ford, Jaguar, Landrover, Lincoln, Mercury
• Al Yousuf Motors - Chevrolet (changed to Al Ghandi in Dubai & RAK from Jan 2008), Daihatsu, Daewoo
• Arabian Automobiles (Al Rostamani) - Nissan
• Galadari - Mazda (used to have Ford also but Ford paid them a few million dollars to get out of the agency agreement in about 2001 or 2002).
• Gargash - Alfa Romeo, Mercedes, Saab
• Liberty Automobiles - Cadillac, Chevrolet, Hummer, Opel
• Trading Enterprises - Chrysler, Dodge, Honda, Jeep, Volvo

It's possible to buy grey imports - new cars from second hand dealers at cheaper than new prices. Usually come from other Middle Eastern countries, sometimes further afield. Often advertised as "unwanted prizes". The difference is the grey import "unwanted prizes" might have warranty problems with the UAE agent, the real "unwanted prizes" won't.