Living in Egypt

[dave99]

Originally Posted by awahee123

The fuel is silly cheap but cars are silly expensive,anybody know what the duty and taxes would be for anybody taking a used car to Egypt?.

Cars cost about same as UK - may not be same spec but close enough.

Priced a few cars that I know in the UK before we bought one - servicing via "main dealers" is a bit of a problem - had to go to Cairo from Hurghada for FREE servicing.

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[awahee123]

Originally Posted by dave99

Cars cost about same as UK - may not be same spec but close enough.

Priced a few cars that I know in the UK before we bought one - servicing via "main dealers" is a bit of a problem - had to go to Cairo from Hurghada for FREE servicing.

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Hi dave99,
I suppose it's swings and roundabouts fuel is cheap and cars are not,I suppose as we found out about the cost of broadband we will have to live with some costs which are the same as or dearer then the UK.

[dave99]

Originally Posted by awahee123

Hi dave99,
I suppose it's swings and roundabouts fuel is cheap and cars are not,I suppose as we found out about the cost of broadband we will have to live with some costs which are the same as or dearer then the UK.

It's all relative - the price of cars and other things that we take as normal in the UK are maga expensive for local people who earn very little compared to average income in the UK.

EG a car costing £10,000 in UK may be about 1/3 rd of UK annual gross income pa.

In Egypt the same car would be more like 5 years worth of annual income, even if basic things are much cheaper.

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[propertastic]

One thing that struck me in Hurghada was how average the cars were. I can't remember seeing anything much fancier than a Toyota.

The contrast with Eastern Europe was very interesting to me. Here the middle classes live in tiny crumbling apartment blocks yet drive BMW's and Mercedes, whereas in Hurghada the middle class lives in wonderful villas, yet drive around in Toyotas.

[dave99]

Originally Posted by propertastic

One thing that struck me in Hurghada was how average the cars were. I can't remember seeing anything much fancier than a Toyota.

The contrast with Eastern Europe was very interesting to me. Here the middle classes live in tiny crumbling apartment blocks yet drive BMW's and Mercedes, whereas in Hurghada the middle class lives in wonderful villas, yet drive around in Toyotas.

You must come over again and take a closer look.

There are lots of BMWs and Mercs parked outside "ordinary" apartment blocks.

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[dave99]

Originally Posted by Peter Mitry

We have heard a lot of contributions from those buying property for investment or just for holidays but it would be really great to get the views of non Egyptians who have moved to the country permanently.

Why Egypt?
How different was it from your expectations? Better or Worse?
What are the good bits and the bad bits?
What do you miss about your home country? Would you move back?
What is the health service like? Do you need private health insurance? How expensive is it? What about dentists? Good or not? Expensive or cheap?

Loads of questions but great food for thought and the biggest question of all...

Is your standard of living better or worse than your home country and how much would you say you need to live well for a month? See poll above

Good thread - be interesting to learn about the "real costs".

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[Peter Mitry]

It may not be very 'green' but the car is worthless second hand in the west but would be perfect in Hurghada.

[awahee123]

Peter do you know if you are going to have to pay any duty to take the car into Egypt at all as a resident let's say.

[Peter Mitry]

At this stage I have no idea; I was hoping someone on the forum might know!

[GM43]

All I know is that it is not worth the money and the effort to import a car in Egypt!
For used cars you have to pay a lot of tax or you have to use it only an half year and then put in tax storage for ?? months. Btw you can only drive it yourself.