Cars in Oman

Cars here are interesting. I guess I never really paid much attention to cars just because overall I view them as nice ways of getting from point A to point B. Here I've paid more attention to them. We currently drive a Yaris, a nice car considering we're on a tight budget. Except we also have a corolla and another Yaris. The cars have no power and are unable to brake well. The Corolla also doesn't have anti-lock brakes which has proven to be an issue in bad times. Yet, the Yaris's are pretty new, probably only 1-2 years old or so. Overall, in Oman you will never see old cars. It's a weird phenomena to be constantly surruonded by new cars. Also, most of the cars here are nice. There are many models, like Lumina, that they have here that most Americans have never heard of. Yet, these models are mostly from well-known American and Japanese brands.

Talking about Japanese cars, Toyota owns this town. The Bahwan Group (2 brothers) own one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the world, and the largest Toyota service center in the world. It really is that Toyota owns this town.

These cars though have rules to maintain their integrity. It is not allowed to drive a dirty car, and you will be fined by police if your car is dirty. The police here are both male and female, something I did not expect. To get your car washed by someone during work hours is only 1 riyal or so, very cheap. Something else that is cheap here is gas. We fill up the car on only 4 rials. This is the equivalent of 10 USD. VERY CHEAP! The cheap gas also means that there are many people here that drive 4WDs and SUVs. Except, unlike in the US many people actually do offroad with these cars. Or if you're an Omani, and you rent a car (even a Yaris) you still take them off roading. Most of the used rental cars have major damage from people just trying to off road with cars that were not meant for it.

The cars here also have specific license plates. The license plates are a way that people use their disposable income. License plates here have numbers and letters separate. The numbers range from 1 to 6 digit numbers. When you get a new car you get a license plate with probably 6 numbers. Yet, you can pay and get a "prettier" number. A number that has less digits is considered better. Also, the smaller the number is the more expensive it is. This has its exception though, people will also pay more for a number that looks good. This would mean something like 454 would be more expensive than 452 just because the first number looks better. Also the number affects the price of the license plate. A license with an A or AA would be better than other letters. It is ridiculous how expensive these license plates can be. Something like a 2 A might cost several hundred thousand rials (times 2.5 for USD). Also, the best way to show your wealth is to have an expensive license plate on a cheap car. This implies that you have better cars waiting for you in the garage. It's a weird world over here.