MOTORING: Who will influence your next choice of car?

Most car choices in the Kenya market are now made by…Japanese motorists. If car buyers in Tokyo or Yokaohama have a passion for musical wing mirrors or pink seat fabric, several years later that is what will be on the streets of Nairobi. For some 80pc of our vehicle supply is the hand-me-down choice of new car buyers in other markets, delivered to us between five and 10 years later as a used import.

The choice is wide; but it’s a Japanese domestic market choice and it’s a matter of chance whether their preferences are good or bad for our national fleet; not just because they have smooth roads at sea level and we have rough roads at high altitude, but also because of even more dramatic differences in their culture, usage patterns, social styles, fashion trends, economics and supporting infrastructure.

That changes the most appropriate choice of everything from the seat fabric to suspension ratings, from radiator capacity to gear ratios, from the hardness of rubber bushes to the strength of ball joints, from computerised cleverness to mechanical robustness.

Happily, at least one trend that is now almost universal in Japan is also very positive, even for us:  automatic gearboxes. They are now proliferating in our mitumba market (indeed, manual gearboxes will be increasingly hard to find) bringing with them several major benefits and only minor drawbacks.

Modern automatics are smooth, reliable, and quite clever at selecting the right gear. The most modern automatics (which we already know will arrive here in greater numbers in due course because the Japanese have already bought them) have computer-managed and electronically operated (microswitch) systems, too, to make them even smarter.

Automatics are now routinely catered for here, and facilities and skills and parts will expand in parallel. There is no significant strength, reliability or durability difference between manual and automatic. Both will invariably last as long as the rest of the car, without a problem. Automatics do absorb fractionally more power (the pressures and resistance of the hydraulic operating mechanisms) but the difference is so small it would take a lab test to measure it. Theoretically, an exceptionally skilled driver might be able to wring a bit more distance per litre from a manual;  in practice, an automatic will make more sensible gear selections than most drivers, and hence usually give equal or better fuel economy – much better than a manual driven by a clutz.

The biggest benefit of an automatic is comfort, especially in slow, stop-start traffic or negotiation of a very potholed dirt track, and when edging into a tight parking space or close-control reversing. One drawback is that you can’t push-start an automatic when its battery/starter fails (carry a set of jump leads).  

In practice, in the driver’s seat, it’s really very simple. A minute to learn, 10 minutes to practice, and you’re an automatic pilot. Changing gear manually is no big deal for a fluent driver, but neither are pushing an indicator switch when turning, or switching on lights when it gets dark, or dipping beams when there is oncoming traffic, yet fthese tasks are apparently too mentally demanding or too physically strenuous. So anything that reduces the multi-tasking burdens must be welcomed.

[email protected]