I agree that the border building and some of the procedures are some of the worst around ...

But here's a bit of hope for anyone planning to come this way. I crossed in the beginning of December 2013, and it was far better than I had imagined after reading reports of other travelers. The Egyptian side took about 6 hours (immigration + customs). The immigration guys were friendly (guiding me around, offering tea), but the process and the state of the place is something that will be remembered ;-) The fact that I did not have a visa certainly didn't accelerate things, but they do now have the ability to issue visas at the border. After the 'special interview' they were very proud to show that I had to pay only $15 in total as it says on the visa. The most annoying thing is unpacking all your stuff about every 50m, but humor can accelerate this a lot.

Customs is more of a mess, but I managed with about 100 EUR total cost, and 3h time. That included insurance, plates, Egyptian license, official fees, and the other 'fees'. I argued my way out of a lot of the other 'fees', but then I didn't want to stay there forever, so gave in to some of them ...

I'm not sure what makes the difference in treatment, whether it's the political situation, your nationality, the moon phase, your attitude, how much love the officer's wife gave last night or whatever, but just try to smile a lot and do your 'look I'm going around the world dance' with showing pictures and flags, and you should be fine :-)