Motor Insurance in Doha
Having read a lot about about the 'hectic' driving in Doha I was wondering whether car insurance is quite costly. I'm a 25 year old male from the UK and I've never made a claim, am I likely to be paying through the roof to insure my V8 4x4 that I intend to buy when I move to Doha next month?
First off, the legal limit for alcohol is ZERO. The alcohol clause is an agreement between you and the insurer only. It basically gaurantees the insurance company pay out third party liabilities if you are involved in an accident whilst having alcohol in your blood from previous days drinking. The limit will be advised to you by the insurer.
The law is a different issue altogether. ANY alcohol in your blood and you face prosecution followed by a jail term and deportation.
Respect
GIASI
When you take out full insurance, you will normally be offered the choice of insuring the driver and ex-number (you chose) of passengers.
Additionally, as stated, you can insure against being over the limit (excess alcohol), although I do not know what would happen if a driver was drunk and had an accident.
Car Insurance is quite different from Western practices. As noted above, you insure the car, not the driver, which is one of the reasons kids here can afford to drive massive landcruisers, despite the slaughter of pedestrians. (Blood money for non-Moslems is pretty minimal, anyway.) For cars over a certain age, (2 years? Dunno) 3rd party is the only option. however, and again as noted above, cover for passengers is not automatic so check these things carefully with your Insurance Broker. Even the possibility of having residual alocohol in your bloodstream when some idiot slams into you some morning has to be specifically covered, so it's not a bad idea to go to a reputable international Insurance company if you think you might occasionally have non-family passengers or drink beer of an evening.
Beware.
I think you will find that the car is covered for accidents but not people in the car. You may need to take out seperate insurance for the passengers.
Fully comprehensive in Qatar is not the same as fully comprehensive in the UK
Novita,
That is to be understood per annum or as a monthly fee?
Raggers
Life only can be understood backwards, but must be live forward.
Car insurance not really that bad. In the UK you insure the driver ... in here you insure the car. So anyone can drive the car and still insured. If you know what i mean.
We pay around 2000 QR for our cars. Again our car are not a posh car. :-)
I think people who choose to drive huge SUV's should pay a premium.
Call it "no peripheral vision" clause...
Well, it is 3% in the first year anyway. I think the insurance companies might have agreements with the insurance carriers and direct buyers to a particular insurance agency. Invariably you will return to the insurance company you used when you bought the car.
When the annual renewal comes up though you may find that it is way higher than 3%! Or else we weren't skilled/persistent enough to negotiate it down to 3% :)
Here is a short blog about our experience with car insurance renewal.
http://tinyurl.com/elmrk
from my blog about life in Qatar:
http://www.xanga.com/BBetz
Yep...as a percentage of value of car. I recommend you first hire a car for a week or two so you get used to the roundabouts with someone elses wheels *g*
Is that a percentage of the cost of the car?
It can't be much worse than the M25 in the UK during rush hour, that's pretty much a 80mph free for all anyway!
Insurance is between 3% and 4% a year...and seriously, while the driving keeps you on your toes...it isn't THAT bad!