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!
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