Stealth Bomber

The might of the American CIA stems from its agents being able to move about and mingle with its target in a rather inconspicuous manner. A bunch of highly trained individuals watching over their target sometimes for moths and years without their 'prey' ever having a whim of just what danger lies ahead.

The C280 Elegance 2000 model fits the description above perfectly. A deadly weapon that is totally underrated. In today's Nigeria, driving a Mercedes of any sort is a rare privilege. Unlikely as is the case of a repeated thunder strike at the exact same spot, it sometimes happens. I get a chance to drive what i consider to be the best value for 'money car' in Nigeria, The 95-2000 generation C class. 

C280 Elegance

This weeks test car packs a 2.8L V6 with a punchy 194Hp**Just about the same power as a  V6 2000 Camry or Baby boy**, a 5speed automatic transmission, 1 touch up/down power windows, Central Lock, cloth seats and 1 button touch rear head rests recliners. Mercedes Benz made the internal combustion engine, technically it means they made what we know as cars. That edge is still evident even after 1 century.

Mercedes Benz C Class Elegance 2.8L V6

Key Fob

Entry to the car is strictly via remote access. in the event, the battery's in the remote access suddenly goes dead, there's a key embedded in the Key fob with which you may open the drivers door after which you slide the Fob into the slot and turn lightly. You'll be greeted with the sound of a pleasantly sounding V6. Shifts between positions are short and precise. Proponents of weight loss should buy this car. It takes a fair amount of effort to actually depress the accelerator pedal. Unintended acceleration which plagued Toyota a few years back can never exist in this Merc, a reasonable amount of effort is need to get the accelerator pedal to travel any distance.

When last did you drive any car with this sort of pedals?

Flooring the accelerator pedal is a very rewarding experience. You're thrown back into your seats that grip you rather well and you suddenly are hurled towards the horizon. The acceleration in this car is very, very potent. As fast as you can say GEJ, you're already over a 100Km/H. Stopping is probably more fun, Mercedes has spared no expense to fit very good brakes on it. You get a definite reassuring feel that these brakes can be called on time after time.

Verdict: Great value. Cheap to purchase and affordable to run.A registered very well used model goes for about 600,000 naira
Pros: loads of power, great handling
Cons: Tiny glove box

Puny Glove box

Lunch break

A typical lunch break for almost every lagosian on paid employment in VI/Ikoyi, involves hitting the lunch room and eating some overtly expensive meal and rushing back to your desk all within ‘the hour’. When your lunch break permits you doing something else you love so much, chances are that you have the best job in the world.

My lunch break on for the last day of the 1^st month of 2013 involved reviewing a 2007 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. G.O Gbo showed up at my office around mid day after a prior engagement with his entry level spec’d Highlander. It had Toyota’s 3.3L V6 mated to an electric motor, milk colour cloth seats and a 6CD stereo system with steering mounted controls. I’d never driven a hybrid ever, so needless to say I was excited!!!!

2007 Highlander Hybrid

Hybrid logo

1^st time starting the car leaves everyone who attempts it embarrassed. Cranking up the engine a the turn of the key is made with an electric motor. It leaves you confused as you would expect from driving a conventional petrol engine at start up, some kick off noise. Slide from P-D and u aren’t even sure if the car is on, switch on the AC though, and the petrol engine comes alive. The car makes use of a drive by wire system, so throttle modulation takes a lil getting used to.

I eagerly waded through Ligali’s traffic as we left the car park letting the battery power the car; we were soon gonna be on water corporation road where at 1.30pm, I knew I’d have a few seconds to experience just how much power lurked underneath the hood. I finally get my chance and my fat right foot flattens the throttle; Gbo is thrown back into his seat and boy did that needle climb!!! **why do people hate the prius**??? This is 1 hybrid I can own. Power is smooth, linear and instantaneous.  Unfortunately, all this power is routed through a CVT box, so I panic when at 130Km/H I’m still waiting for 2^nd gear to kick in. I now understand why several Murano owners drive so ever slowly on the road. It’s a very uncomfortable and un-nerving sensation which goes against every known feeling you’ve ever felt behind the wheel or in a car. It’s a continuous long hum that never seems to end.

Hybrid Synergy Drive

My joy ride is cut short as I approach 150km’H by a sluggish Range Rover Vogue coasting at about 40Km/H. not being a dual carriage way I am mandated to call on the brakes that happen to use regenerative technology felt very spongy** like you had loads of air in the servo** for the 1^st second or there about, you get the feeling the car wont stop. Just when you’re about to freak out, you actually feel the car coming to a halt.

The on board trip computer returned a fuel consumption average of 16MPG in real hard world use*EPA ratings are 28MPG*. In comparison to a friend’s Murano with a trip computer average of 9MPG, this baby is alright.

Verdict; The Toyota Highlander Hybrid for 2007 provides a different approach to building a hybrid car. It has loads of power. Engine start and stop are barely noticeable.

Would I buy1: YES. With a return MPG of 16, it’s a nice way to join the trending Eco green party

Backstab

By the end of the year, a large percentage of migrant residents in Lagos are expected to have relocated to their villages. This is in no small measure due to our dear Governor BRF.

In BRF’s bid to ‘sanitize’ Lagos, 1^st came the new traffic laws, then the okada ban and a rumoured TV and Radio license for every Lagosian who owns the aforementioned device is expected to purchase. As much as I hate to admit it, I dare say especially the Okada ban has worked. i.e. “there aren’t any bikes left on the roads of Lagos”. It was so harsh for those of us working on the island that my very dear colleague had to go and buy a car!!!!

I have always insisted that we do things half measure in Nigeria, otherwise, how do you explain how it’s illegal to drive and eat and it isn’t for a lady to drive and make up??? Which requires more concentration? Its difficult enough to get women to drive as well as they can, which isn’t much anyway. when combined with the task of squinting into a 3” headliner mirror while driving on the ever busy Lagos roads you simply invite chaos.The bans have in no way made driving on our roads more secure or reduced the carnage on Lagos roads.

As far as this new ‘sanitation’ bro-haha goes its lip service. Its little surprise though, BRF campaigned on Lagos roads with the same bunch who massively supported him*integrity check*.

BRF and the ghost riders

If we ever had leaders and not rulers that listened, they’d know that what needs to be done is to provide infrastructure and not ban or make illegal every single item in the state.

Foundations

‘My sons teacher asked me today if I’m interested in getting extra lessons at school for him’, how does a 2 year old get extra lessons? The sentence above set the tone between I and colleague about foundation in life being extremely important and the basic building blocks for a successful individual. ‘I thought that was the job of a cell?’

Her argument was thus, a good foundation sets the tone for an individual to make it in life and is always a plus. Being a beneficiary of a good foundation, the evidence is forensic. A 1^st class graduate at the age of 22, an employee of a top 1^st generation bank taking on tasks at her age that took me years to master.

Her line of argument gave me a eureka moment that has bothered me for a dastardly long time. Why are women such bad and terrible drivers? The answer is simple and direct: Foundation. Driving a car overtime has grown to be seen as a fairly mundane task. A driver is among the most poorly paid jobs in Nigeria. In actual fact, however short the duration of a journey, the lives of the occupants of such vehicles rests in the competence of the person driving the vehicle irrespective of the social or financial status of the occupants. 

Driving a car is far more demanding than it is made to appear. For women which this piece is centred on, 70% do not have any formal drivers training. 95% have never seen a highway code let alone open one. A more abysmal 99% only learn how to move a car using an automatic transmission; they never get learn to drive a manual transmission. If you ever dare ask why they choose to ‘move’ only an automatic transmission car? You’ll definitely get this response, ‘a manual car is way too complicated’. 

‘Moving’ a car isn’t complicated, driving one is……’ the faulty foundation of taking an easy out approach to driving comes to play through the life of 99% of women drivers. Terrible drivers are a menace on the roads. ‘Moving’ a car goes beyond taking the car from point A to B. it involves steering, changing directions, braking as well as accelerating and obeying certain rules and regulations that govern road use as is documented in the High way code for which every driver in the committee of nations observe.

Get the ladies back on the test track, no fancy cars just the basics. A rickety beetle!!!!!!

Style Star

The long break I have had from blogging has given me d opportunity to go into a venture my wife encouraged me to selling cars. ‘You might as well enrich the lives of others by helping them acquire good cars since you have a vast knowledge about cars and get off on them’, those were her words precisely!!!

From my little experience Japanese cars sell like hot south African hookers and d golden egg among the japs is Toyota.A dead beat Toyota will sell  much faster than an A spec BMW of comparable age and price. In Nigeria, the Camry is Toyota’s most popular model and its greatest rival is the Honda accord. In the brand new car segment the Camry has mostly had the upper hand in terms of sales numbers haven sold 440,000 cars in 2012 against the accords 330,000 in God’s own country *source www.motorintelligence.com *

  
However in the styling dept d accord has always been miles ahead( Honda halla is still being purchased in decent numbers till date in Nigeria, the Camry equivalent is dead and extinct just like our good old  dinosaur friends from Jurassic park).
This disparity in styling is ever more evident in the latest offerings from the greatest rivalry from the ancient fareast nation.

2013 Honda Accord

2013 Honda Accord interior

2013 Toyota Camry

2013 Toyota Camry interior

As is evident from the pictures above, Toyota maintains its philosophy of focusing on reliability and usability rather aesthetics and visual cues.  The current edition of Toyota's Camry is a vast improvement from the fifth generation*aka Big for nothing* which was as interesting as a baboons Butt.

2003 Toyota Camry interior

An African proverb says ‘when the elephant fights, it’s the grass that suffers’. In this case, the grass has gained a great deal. Hyundai and kia have in the last decade, closed the gap on the big Japanese two. The Hyundai Sonata offering superb styling, improved handling and no longer the whooping boy it once was for the Japanese, the Korean’s have their heads out of the sand.  Its no news that Hyundai and Kia are sister companies and as such share parts. The top of the line sonata offers a Direct injected, turbo charged 2.0L 4 cylinder engine delivering 278Hp that thwarts the best efforts from Toyota and Honda’s equivalent engines in the form of 3.5L V6’s that put out 268Hp

2012 Hyundai Sonata

Point, if you keep doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different result, its known as madness.