Is there fun with a first car any more?

I look at the range of cars available today to first time car buyers and I recall my first car with a trace of nostalgia given that the choices in the late 1980’s were very limited.

My first car was a Toyota KE 70 panel van. I was proud of it and it cost me the princely sum of Kshs. 90,000.00 through a bank loan. The price was courtesy of my father who had bought it from his employer once it had been fully depreciated in their books and as he had another vehicle he sold this one to me at a good price which was actually just below valuation.



A replica of my Toyota KE 70 panel van. The two rear panels were modified into sliding windows

In those days, there were no reconditioned vehicles from Dubai, Japan, UK, Singapore and what not. All vehicles then were used cars that had been bought brand new from a showroom somewhere in Kenya. This particular model was an experimental locally assembled car from AVA in Thika (I think) meant for the local market and it had been a best seller for The Motor Mart Group (Toyota East Africa Ltd today) then for many years being attractive to a wide variety of users.  My panel van was therefore about 9 years old (just below the threshold of 10 years for a vehicle to be financed then) by the time I bought it. I did not have a fancy name for it, it was just my car!!

It was one of those models that had three doors, the two front doors and the rear boot door through which you loaded luggage or any excess passengers that you had to carry. Being a panel van it had a modified passenger seat behind the driver and co-driver that could seat three. I have intentionally avoided using the word “comfortably” after three because that would be pushing the reality too far. Entry to the passenger seat was by lowering the driver or co-driver seat to gain access.

The rear seat could also fold down to increase the boot space for extra luggage where 5 children could comfortably sit if need be which we had done many times in the previous year’s as we grew up. The passenger rear had sliding windows as a result of knocking out where the rear panels had been, much like what some of the bus windows are like, but the waterproofing had been done so poorly that every time it rained, whoever sat at the window was sure to be drenched. Locking these windows was through a simple lever that jammed the window shut!

As is wont to happen and given that with one’s first car one hardly has the extra cash to maintain it in tip top condition, with time the car aged (more!) and developed many problems starting with the hydraulic boot system failing, breaking the spring mechanism that kept the driver’s chair at a comfortable 60 degrees angle, the handbrake cable snapping, the tires wearing out, the battery always on the fritz etc. In addition, none of the gauges worked. Not the fuel gauge or the speedo or the temperature gauge.

With all these problems the most serious incidents were a torn fan belt while on a lonely stretch of road between Nyeri and Naro Moru that entailed three back and forth trips to Naro Moru each time coming back with the wrong belt and the second time being stopped by a shop security grille one late night in Nairobi after the brakes failed thanks to a ruptured brake hose with my brother in law in the driver’s seat.

It meant that I had to have a collection of broom handles, stones, masking/electrical tape, jerry cans, bottles of water and tools with me at all times. The broom handles to hold up the boot or engine hood and the drivers chair to stop it collapsing, and the stones to prop against the rear tyres to prevent it from rolling backwards were the gear to disengage while stationery. The bottles of water would prove very handy were the radiator to spring a leak and become extremely thirsty while the jerry can was to salvage my pride when I ran out of fuel, a frequent occurrence. The tools – spanners and screwdrivers of all sizes - off course were to tighten anything that may have come loose along the way while the masking/electrical tape to tie any wires that had come apart.

The litany of problems bedeviling that car was like a classic “how not to maintain a car” manual. The silver lining of all this was that I became an accomplished trouble shooter who knew most of the time where the problem was with the car. I would take it for repairs and quickly isolate where the most likely problem was given the banging noises, or the rattling, or the change in engine tone a skill that helped me become a ‘hands on’ fellow ever ready to ‘do-it-yourself’ at home.

That car was my first experience of managing anything and despite the problems I faced on that maiden journey with that Toyota it took me to places and parts of Kenya that I could not have been able to visit with public means…….pun fully intended!

That is why when I look at the range of vehicles available to the first time car buyer today; I wonder if it teaches them to be a ‘do-it-yourself’ guy and an accomplished trouble shooter and if it gives them the fun of having a problem riddled car that keeps you constantly on your toes as you wait for the next hole in the pocket!

Hazardous Driver Attitudes

Someone called Jay Hopkins who writes a regular column on safety for Flying Magazine gave a talk a few years ago at the Aero Club on safety and highlighted certain hazardous pilot attitudes as a particular risk to all pilots. He could as well have been talking about the vehicle driver on our roads today and more so the Kenyan ‘matatu’ driver! Judge for yourself!

Do you recognize any of the following attitudes in yourself or in others?

·         ANTI-AUTHORITY “Don’t tell me what to do!”

Antidote: The rules are there for good reasons. Stop and ask yourself why you want to break them. Is the gain really worth the risk?

·         IMPULSIVENESS “Do something now!”

Antidote: Think before you act and deal with a problem carefully and deliberately.

·         INVULNERABILITY “It won’t happen to me!”

Antidote: That’s what they all said, just before it did! Factor in a safety margin for the uncertain.

·         MACHO-COMPLEX “I can do it, especially if you think I can’t”. The need to impress others. Ties in with Anti-Authority & Impulsiveness.

Antidote: A poor reason for doing anything. People are rarely impressed by Macho, they are impressed by good judgement and sound decision making.

·         RESIGNATION “There’s nothing I can do about it!”

Antidote: What happened to your training? Apply your skills and stay in command.

·         COMPLACENCY “I’ve done this a thousand times and it’s always worked before, so it’ll work this time!”

Antidote: Assume nothing – check everything!

? There is a difference between skill and judgement and the second is more important to survival than the first.

? The less skilled, but conscientious and reasoning driver will probably outlive the highly skilled driver who pushes his or her skills to the limit.

? If you are not aware of your limits and leave no margin for error, your first serious mistake could be your last.

Finally, remember driving is not inherently dangerous, but can be terribly unforgiving of carelessness, incapacity and neglect.

-       Reproduced from Aero Club News of December 2007 (with pilot in the original article being substituted with driver in the above article!!)

Celebrating a milestone:

Sometimes an idea is long in fruition but eventually the required commitment and dedication kicks in and a still born idea becomes an active engagement.

In June 2012, I blogged about a visit to the Masai Mara with some friends “The weekend in Masai Mara” and the fact that one of the outcomes was that we would explore the possibility of forming an association for investment purposes as well as to socialize with each other having taken the cue from our wives, our gals as I called them, friends over many years.

Early this year after a planning process that progressed in fits and starts over much of late 2012 as we could not seem to get everyone together at once so as to make the necessary decisions, our limited liability investment company was born. It was formed through an all inclusive process where all were involved in the initial decision to craft a name for the company and in raising the required funds to incorporate the company.

 It has ten shareholders in total being the nine guys whose wives have been in a chama together for many years, and the 10^th being the ladies chama group as a unit.  The rationale for including our wives in the company was because they were the reason why we had formed a lose bond of sorts over the years and hence should also be part of the successes of our investment vehicle.

The culmination of this union was a get together on 30^th April 2013 that was dubbed the launch party of the company, where all the members invited their spouses and we settled down to a meal and some drinks in an establishment owned by one of the members. The highlight of this occasion was a speech by our chairman, a respected advocate in Nairobi, that set out the aspirations and goals of the company without getting into too many details and urging members to espouse the ideals that he had enumerated and which we have discussed over the preceding months.

Members were urged that in as much as we also had a secondary motive of socializing, we would in the interim endeavor to grow the company kitty with our regular contributions, but socialize on a cost sharing basis. Our wives agreed to be the social side of the company and to plan and arrange team building and bonding sessions where possible.

We have already opened a bank account and the account balance is already quite healthy given that our objective is to complete the capital raise by the end of December 2013, so the outlook is quite promising!! The goals have been defined, the momentum has started and the only way is up, to paraphrase a popular song in the 80’s.

It is now upto us the shareholders of our newly formed company to dedicate ourselves to the promises that we have made to one another as we start on the journey to success together as a group because people tend to go further in a group than as an individual!