The Saudi Caprice
A very common sight on the roads of Saudi Arabia is the Chevrolet Caprice. In fact, it's the ubiquitous Saudi car, and pretty much the modern day equivalent of the camel! To illustrate this, here is an extract from the Aramco private vehicle sticker request form, which recognises 4 types of vehicles. The Caprice has a category of its own!
Caprices have big long-lasting V8 engines, either the 5.0 litre '305' or the 5.7 litre '350' and a straightforward rear-wheel drive mechanical layout. They are so common, that it is said even repair workshops in the remotest parts of the Kingdom will have Caprice spares available off the shelf. Combine that with labour charges at local workshops being very low and petrol being only SR0.90 (GBP0.17) per litre, and you have a car that can be kept running very cheaply even in the harsh conditions of this country.
The cars survive all kinds of
abuse as can be seen from the video still below (courtesy of a friend). It shows
a Caprice being taken through its paces on the sand dunes at Half Moon Bay!
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Impossibly beat-up examples, seemingly straight from a 'Mad-Max' movie set abound. Resplendent in typical Saudi off-white, the featured model below
(vintage early 1980s?) was captured in downtown Dammam in May 2001.
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