Can only speak for our experience, with the exception of housing, everything else is very reasonable:
Housing is getting cheaper by the month and you can get an Al Raha townhouse 180k, reasonable spot and close to the office.
Al Raha electricity was relatively cheap but the chilled water bill can be expensive in the summer months, friends had an 1800 dirhams bill in the month of august last year however in the winter months this drops to almost zero.
We only bought one, found the new dodge durango for 89k however we would buy used next, just our experience.
Quite a lot of choice of supermarkets, we did not like the abela as the selection was not great nor all that fresh. We prefer the spinneys at mangrove village, close to al raha and well stocked.
We did not count costs and enjoyed the lifestyle in AUH, golf, hotel retaurants, weekends at beach resorts etc and spent about 11-12k dirhams per month. That being said, summer months dont allow for anything but indoor activities so escape when possible.