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First of all, Hello to everyone! I am in the USA and several of us are having a conversation about the window tinting market in Dubai. I myself have been in the tinting industry for 18 years here. 1 question is, what is the legal limit? I see a lot of people saying that it is 30% Does that mean 30% coverage or 30% light transmission? Here everything is based on light transmission. 2nd, Is it only the sides and rear windows that get tinted or are the cars having the front windshields tinted too? Is there tint that people prefer over others? What is the pricing and quality of the installations like?

Thanks for any input.

Mike

tintguy wrote:Does that mean 30% coverage or 30% light transmission?

Sounds like the same thing to me?

30% "coverage", as you put it. So technically, 70% light transmission. But people here like to quote the opposite, so you'll hear the "30% allowed" always.

Wow!! They dont allow for very dark film there at all then. Now is that only for the front doors of a car or for rear doors and back glass too? I would imagine that V-Kool is used quite a bit there then for their very good heat rejection properties.

tintguy wrote:Wow!! They dont allow for very dark film there at all then. Now is that only for the front doors of a car or for rear doors and back glass too? I would imagine that V-Kool is used quite a bit there then for their very good heat rejection properties.

Actually, a lot of rich or naive people still stick on near-opaque dark tint. Every shop offers them. Once in a while, police crack down on it, and that too mostly the less-fancy cars. I once had near-opaque tint on my first car (by mistake), and I went an entire year like that without getting caught.

Sunglasses work well for me, and I can remove them when it's dark

gtmash wrote:

tintguy wrote:Wow!! They dont allow for very dark film there at all then. Now is that only for the front doors of a car or for rear doors and back glass too? I would imagine that V-Kool is used quite a bit there then for their very good heat rejection properties.

Actually, a lot of rich or naive people still stick on near-opaque dark tint. Every shop offers them. Once in a while, police crack down on it, and that too mostly the less-fancy cars. I once had near-opaque tint on my first car (by mistake), and I went an entire year like that without getting caught.

I don't know anywhere that allows more than 30%. Is it more in the US?
You're right. V-Kool is very popular, but 3 times the price for little benefit imo.

I thought that the 30% rule only applied to expats and was always told that locals were allowed to use whatever tint they wanted.
At the other end of the spectrum is Oman which was forcing people to peel the tint from their back window at the border. Luckily I have factory tint. I told the guy that he is more than welcome to try and remove it from the glass and he gave up after a while and let me in with tint.
Speaking of crackdowns, the police were talking about one just recently.

On my previous car I had a 50% tint and never was caught, but it wasn't a smart move as my sister wrecked it eventually as it was quite dark and hard to see through it. Lately the police have been having several crack downs all out of a sudden (Perhaps they didn't make their financial budgets from speeding tickets so they are making up for it via other means and ways ), a friend's friend was stopped and forced to remove the tint although it was only 30%, another friend was literally chased by the police because of his tint (I think he had more than 50 percent though)...

On a more general note, what is up with the heavy police presence out there these days?!

The legal limit is 30% color darkness... however, you can have 70% protection with a colorless tint without any problems.

I have on my car a 55% I have it fixed by 3M and it is so clear and soft that no body including police could not notice it is more that 30% infact everyone who gets in the car can see how clear is the vision from them. I have them for about 2 years on my car without any problems and they have 5 years warranty.

How much this 3M costs? The honda people told dhs 450. they told it doesnt resist heat and only Vcool does(dhs 1100 to 1500). is it?

trafficlinq wrote:How much this 3M costs? The honda people told dhs 450. they told it doesnt resist heat and only Vcool does(dhs 1100 to 1500). is it?

For 450 bucks, it better be resisting something. 3M costs 700+ outside.

trafficlinq wrote:How much this 3M costs? The honda people told dhs 450. they told it doesnt resist heat and only Vcool does(dhs 1100 to 1500). is it?

I got my Tucson 3M'd. They have 3 types. Crystalline (the most expensive type) 70 for front and (I forgot the type, but second best) 30 for sides and rear. They charge total 1650 AED and I think the same for all SUV. Although they should charge my car for a sedan/saloon type (if counted by the square centimeter/inch surface area), which is couple of hundreds AED cheaper.

The number indicates the percentage of light transmission by the way, not the percentage of darkness. 5 (the lowest) means almost dark, 70/80 (the highest) means almost clear.

tintguy wrote:First of all, Hello to everyone! I am in the USA and several of us are having a conversation about the window tinting market in Dubai. I myself have been in the tinting industry for 18 years here. 1 question is, what is the legal limit? I see a lot of people saying that it is 30% Does that mean 30% coverage or 30% light transmission? Here everything is based on light transmission. 2nd, Is it only the sides and rear windows that get tinted or are the cars having the front windshields tinted too? Is there tint that people prefer over others? What is the pricing and quality of the installations like?

Thanks for any input.

Mike

Hi Mike,

We are the Authorized 3M dealers for window tint and auto detailing in Sharjah - UAE.

In regards to your question on whether the legal limit is 30% VLT (Visual Light Transmission) or coverage, the limit, as is always the case, is based on VLT. However, there is a common misunderstanding in the UAE that the higher the percentage the darker the tint. Although we have been trying to create awareness, it has proved to be quite difficult as most tint shops (including the better ones) use a flawed explanation in their customer presentations.

As tint shops are aware of the 30% VLT legal limit, the "30%" that they install for customers is indeed 30% VLT. However, to aid customers existing understanding they tend to play along with the notion that the higher the percentage the darker the tint. What they state as being 40% - 50% is actually 20% VLT, and what they state as 70% - 80% is generally 5% VLT (both illegal). As you can tell, there is no real relation between the percentages that they state and the actual darkness of the film according to the technically correct measure of VLT, i.e the numbers they state are completely random and innacurate.

My advise to UAE based customer would be to request your tint salesman to state the percentage in VLT and not just any random numbers as this is the only way to truly guage whether your tint is legal. Once you know the VLT, ensure that number is ABOVE 30% on the side and rear, and ABOVE 70% on the front windsield.

On a similar note, Wheels magazine have just interviewed 3M in regards to a feature they are publishing in next weeks issue (18th April 2008). I would recommend reading the article as it would contain a comprehensive explanation of the concept of VLT and tint darkness and well as other tint FAQ's.

Also, I will be opening a seperate forum on this site explaining this issue in greater detail.

Thanks.

Regards,

Salman Quraishi
Managing Director
3M Authorized Autocare Center
http://www.agefilms.com

xty wrote:

trafficlinq wrote:How much this 3M costs? The honda people told dhs 450. they told it doesnt resist heat and only Vcool does(dhs 1100 to 1500). is it?

I got my Tucson 3M'd. They have 3 types. Crystalline (the most expensive type) 70 for front and (I forgot the type, but second best) 30 for sides and rear. They charge total 1650 AED and I think the same for all SUV. Although they should charge my car for a sedan/saloon type (if counted by the square centimeter/inch surface area), which is couple of hundreds AED cheaper.

The number indicates the percentage of light transmission by the way, not the percentage of darkness. 5 (the lowest) means almost dark, 70/80 (the highest) means almost clear.

Hi XTY,

You are spot on in your understanding of window film, 5 is indeed the darkest and 70/80 the clearest.

For your info, you had Crystalline 70 (top of the line) installed on your front windshield and Color Stable 35 (mid - range film) installed on the sides and rear. In regards to pricing, you are right in that we quote prices according to approximate square footage, i.e. the larger the car the higher the price.

The price you got was excellent, good job with the negotiating skills !

Thanks.

Regards,

Salman Quraishi
Managing Director
3M Authorized Autocare Center
http://www.agefilms.com

SQ wrote:In regards to pricing, you are right in that we quote prices according to approximate square footage, i.e. the larger the car the higher the price. The price you got was excellent, good job with the negotiating skills

What negotiation? The price was fixed.
And as I told earlier, I should have got cheaper (price of saloon car type) if you really measure the sqft/sqcm. The third side window (compartment window) of a Hyundai Tucson is very small (not much bigger than saloon's car triangle window) and it's charged (categorized) the same as if my car was other big SUVs like Landcruiser. See this picture for comparison only.


So, about the pricing, not quite happy (overcharged). About quality, Ok but expected better especially with the Crystalline (I start to feel the heat inside even on April sun). I don't think there's huge different than other brands. Lastly, when I got the time I'd ask for replacement (of 5 years warranty) as I got 10cm scratch on front window (I don't recall how it was scratched). Was it supposed to be scratch proof?

Hi XTY,

3M Authorized Dealers try to charge per size as much as possible, thus there are 5 categories: small cars, medium cars, large cars, 4x4's and Extra Large 4x4's. It would get quite complicated to have a different price for every vehicle in the market and measuring every car that drives into the showroom would be an administrative nightmare which is why we leave it at 5 categories.

Regards,

Salman
http://www.agefilms.com

xty wrote:

SQ wrote:In regards to pricing, you are right in that we quote prices according to approximate square footage, i.e. the larger the car the higher the price. The price you got was excellent, good job with the negotiating skills

What negotiation? The price was fixed.
And as I told earlier, I should have got cheaper (price of saloon car type) if you really measure the sqft/sqcm. The third side window (compartment window) of a Hyundai Tucson is very small (not much bigger than saloon's car triangle window) and it's charged (categorized) the same as if my car was other big SUVs like Landcruiser. See this picture for comparison only.


So, about the pricing, not quite happy (overcharged). About quality, Ok but expected better especially with the Crystalline (I start to feel the heat inside even on April sun). I don't think there's huge different than other brands. Lastly, when I got the time I'd ask for replacement (of 5 years warranty) as I got 10cm scratch on front window (I don't recall how it was scratched). Was it supposed to be scratch proof?

Be happy you didn't go with VKool. They make it seem like you'll freeze to death in July. Heat can't be beat.

SQ wrote:Hi XTY,
3M Authorized Dealers try to charge per size as much as possible, thus there are 5 categories: small cars, medium cars, large cars, 4x4's and Extra Large 4x4's. It would get quite complicated to have a different price for every vehicle in the market and measuring every car that drives into the showroom would be an administrative nightmare which is why we leave it at 5 categories.
Regards,
Salman

I understand it's not possible to have each price for each car brand. But I didn't know and wasn't told that there were 5 categories. I didn't see the 5 categories in the brochure/price list either. They just asked "what car?". I said "Hyundai Tucson". They said "SUV/4x4 right?" I said "Yes". After I chose film types, they quoted the price.

The point is, what "4x4" has to do with pricing? If I had 4x2 Hyundai Tucson (it exists here), what would the price be? If I had a soft-top convertible with only one front glass window, what would the price be?

Could it be just small, medium, large, extra large? Not the car size/type but the window surface area (in sqft/sqcm ranges). For example if a car (specific brand/type) approximately has 500 sqcm, it falls into a medium category (300-800), and so on. After all, the cost (apart from labour) is how much/big the film you spend, right?

I think it's fair for the customers and can be a competitive point on your side against competitors. Just my suggestion. Nothing personal to 3M but to other brands as well.

I would suggest everyone something... Trust me people being from Alain ive compared the prices for various tints with Dubai... the price difference is huge, here in Alain they charge very less compared to Dubai, if you're looking for the cheapest it cud cost you 50 Dhs in Buraimi, but if you're looking branded ones there are many to choose from, ive fixed 60% from Shadow Car which gives a 5 year warranty for just 300 Dhs.
Even the V-kool compared to Dubai would cost you alot cheaper than the one in Dubai, so whenever you come here on the weekends, drop by some tinting shop and checkout the prices, they're open in the afternoons too.