I truly admire your lack of brand loyalty...

Mr Baraza,

As always, your column dispenses quite a lot of useful information and the occasional comic relief in the neighbourhood of “ raised, wide tyred, heavy duty, masculine Demio!”. I hope my Note will not try your patience further. My car history is quite chequered. Renault 16TS, Peugeot 504 and 405, Mitsubishi Chariot, Hyundai Elantra, Subaru Forester, Nissan X-Trail, Toyota Land Cruiser Prado and an Isuzu D-Max and Ford Ranger T6 for my farming misadventures.

As you can see, I‘ve had no brand loyalty. Now that I’m getting rather long in the tooth, I want to shift to something easier on my bones, and I’m looking at a 2015 Mercedes ML350 courtesy of Cars.co.za. The only acquaintance I’ve had with Mercs was as a passenger in my old lady’s 220S back in the 70s. So, ML350... will it be a solid buy, or am I setting myself up for misery?

Hi,

I have to agree, yours is quite the colourful automotive history… did I just see a Renault 16 in the line-up? And not one but two Peugeots? I admire the lack of brand loyalty, it is something a lot of people would do well to pick up from you. Brand loyalty tends to be an impediment to objectivity and critical analysis. Anyway... 

The Benz ML350 is a bit comme çi comme ça, — ranked ninth in some American survey on a list of luxury SUVs, prestigious badge, crossover class, all that jazz — so I won’t dissuade you from getting one, but let us instead focus on the last word of your correspondence: “misery”.

I’m not saying misery awaits you, but then again I’m not saying it isn’t. This column once featured a complainant who did not have pleasant things to say about his experience trying to get a similar one repaired, but there was a caveat: his car was not new.

A 2015 car is relatively new, by comparison and also hopefully. Unknown provenance is a fickle and cruel master. This is where I pause things to ask you: Must the car come from South Africa? I noticed the “.co.za” suffix in the URL you provided, which means it is a South African website.

There is a closely guarded secret that DT Dobie may or may not be pleased with me revealing, but, as hard to believe as it may sound, it is true: brand-new Mercedes-Benz cars are not as expensive as people think they are.

I’m not referring to the recently launched G63 AMG urban assault war machine: that one costs 37 million shillings and is clearly meant for the heavily privileged who also buy ships and aircraft — I’m referring to more “normal” Mercs: they really are not that expensive.

Darken the doorway of your nearest DT Dobie branch and ask for a price list of Mercedes-Benz cars, then get your socks knocked off when you realise a GLS500 costs Sh4 million less than a Toyota Land Cruiser VX. Whaaaat? And that is not the only example...

There is a reason I’m asking you to look closer home. First, you could land yourself a certified pre-owned ML350 (later renamed “GLE350”), which means a dealer-maintained or at least dealer-approved vehicle that will be niggle-free for the most part. They dare not sell you a ramshackle. You can’t get this kind of certainty from an offshore import.

The dealer may even accept a trade-in if your cash reserves don’t quite meet their asking price for a new-ish ML/GLE, again another benefit the South Africans don’t and/or won’t offer. If a trade-in is not in the offing, there could be a financing option — but you say you are getting on in years, so having you repaying a car loan at this stage in life may not make much sense.

I don’t know how much you have saved for your prospective ML/GLE, but if you could stretch a bit further, who is to say you can’t get a brand-new one? It comes with a warranty, which is the best insurance a car-shopper can hope for against future maintenance-related headaches.

I once said in this column that the best German car is a new one, once the problems start, bitter tears follow shortly. Minimise the risk by buying something you can vet before forking out your hard-earned money.

Surely those three mechanics could not have missed this tell-tale sign...

I drive an Allion 1.8 old model. It has been vibrating slightly, sometimes hard when accelerating. The vibration is especially hard in the morning and on low speed, but is hardly noticeable on high speed. It will vibrate and then once it picks up speed, it goes quiet. I have tried three mechanics so far, but the issue still persists.

What could the matter be?

Hi,

If you only just discovered this column, then you have missed out on a clean nine years of analytical and critical excellence in the local automotive industry. Anyway, self- aggrandising soliloquies aside...

What did the three mechanics say? I'd expect all three to make a beeline for the transmission because the symptoms match a temperature-related problem, whose origins we could start searching for in the folder marked “Low or bad ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid)”.

The cure usually means topping up or flushing and replacing the current fluid, this is why I think you have low transmission fluid levels. When cold (morning), fluid volume is low and density is high. The fluid does not perform its functions as it should, hence the vibration.

As the fluid warms up from continued operation and at higher speeds, its volume increases — this is basic physics, all matter, including fluids, expands when heated, and its density reduces, making it have more “body” and fill out more to the point it attains the minimum level required for normal operation. That is the point the vibrations disappear.

So, check the level and quality of ATF in your transmission. I’m fairly certain that is where the problem lies.

One is a handsome car that can plough the mud like a tractor, the other is a stylish bank vault with no local dealer support – which will you pick?

Hello JM,

I am an alumnus of JKUAT, a big fan of your column as well as a Subaru Legacy owner.

I’m seriously considering acquiring either the XC60 or Freelander 2, 2014 preferably. I can tell from your past articles you’re not a big fan of Freelander 1 and my research reveals Volvo’s scanty support in Kenya.

Which one of the two would you recommend as a family SUV/a mid-thirties guy car all things considered? Your recommendation will operate within town and a regular dash to the off-roads in the village.

Ken

Hi Ken,

I see we have a lot in common, what with the alma mater and personal mobility solutions matching on both sides of the fence. However, I think that is where our commonality ends. I’m a big fan of powerful wagons and don’t care much for crossovers.

You are right, I’m not a big fan of the first Freelander. Like a lightly educated first child, it wound up as a half-baked disappointment whose conception had nothing but good intentions. It could have been better. It should have been better.

You are also right about Volvo not having much support in the country, “outside of the truck business”, you should have added. Once upon a time these were sold by Amazon Motors, if I’m not wrong, but like a lot of other ambitious but hopeless franchises, it slowly faded from the public eye. That has not stopped people from importing their own Swedish chariots over though. The safety-conscious among you have not been backward about coming forward with Volvo imports.

I have spotted the newest XC90 roaming somewhere in Nairobi, and I must say I was impressed.

I like the Freelander 2, but don’t take this to mean that it is a better car than the Volvo. It probably isn’t, if your commute does not involve some roughhousing. There is something about it — I like to think it has that rugged, butch Defender DNA somewhere in it. It is comfortable, powerful and luxurious. I had one demonstrator some years back that I ended up putting 900km on, to the consternation of the local dealer. It really is a good car.

It is a good car when it’s working. Chances of it not working are worryingly high and this may be a sore point in your family’s driving life. It will get worse when you discover that repairs are neither cheap nor infrequent, so perhaps one child will have to surrender their opportunity at quality education in a private school just so you can keep the Land Rover on the road.

The XC60 is a lot softer than the Freelander in light of your regular provincial pilgrimage, but as a plus to your family (you do have a family, no?) it is as safe as safe gets. Volvo lately has been bragging about the near-zero deaths from road accidents in their cars and I must say as a family man myself that is exactly the kind of heavily padded auto-motor that I’d love my most precious to be driving around in. Don’t ask why I don’t have one, this is not about me.

I think it is fairly obvious: On the one hand you have a handsome money pit that can plough the mud like a tractor, and on the other you have a stylish bank vault that has no local dealer support. Get the Volvo.

Cars eventually age, and when they do, they become fickle

Hi Baraza,

I am in the process of searching for a vehicle for a lady driver. Her preference is a vehicle that will last long without her thinking of a replacement or upgrade in the next 10 years. Reliability, comfort and safety are also of great importance as well as consumption and spare parts.

I am getting recommendations of the Mitsubishi RVR, Nissan Dualis, while I think the Mazda CX 5 got the looks but the cost is way above budget. Which mid-size crossover would you recommend from the above or another to suit the requirements?

Hello,

Ten years is a long time to plan to own a car. Economic situations change, so does automotive technology. I am also guessing the shopping is for a used car, which means at the end of the decade she could be having the automotive equivalent of a legally recognisable adult human living with her and festooning her parking space.

As cars age they become fickle and unreliable. In that vein, I don’t have high hopes for either the Nissan or the Mitsubishi. By sheer force of brand reputation, I don’t see either of them lasting that long. There is such a thing as planned obsolescence, something I explained here in a previous article whereby manufacturers guarantee return business by building products that fail after a certain time, forcing you to buy a replacement.

This planned obsolescence is very rampant in the electronics industry and the automotive industry, which makes heavy use of the aforementioned electronics. Long story short: just don’t plan on owning a vehicle for 10 years. You will hate it towards the end of that decade. Buy a car for your immediate needs and see where fate takes you from there.

So, what are these immediate needs? Reliability, comfort and safety, you say. Well, reliability will not be very good as I have just pointed out, especially towards the tail end of that ownership period. Comfort is fairly even but the Mazda has a much nicer interior than the other two, with the Nissan having the most underwhelming ambience steeped in blandness.

For safety, I consulted my good friends at the IIHS, which I visited in Arlington, Virginia a few years back, and this is what they had to say:

Mitsubishi Outlander Sport (a.k.a the RVR): The score is “good” for most crash impacts and roof strength but “acceptable” for the driver in an offset frontal crash. It gets a score of 9.0.

Nissan Dualis: This wasn’t tested, but its sibling, the Rogue, was tested and scored “good” all through on its way to a silver “2015 Top Safety Pick” accolade.

Mazda CX5: This too scored “good” in almost all categories, outshining the Nissan as far as the ease of use of child seat anchors is concerned. This one got a gold “2015 Top Safety Pick” star.

(The vehicles are all 2015 models because soon that is what will be allowed for importation.)