Men vs. women Drivers

It’s amazing how men tend to fall in love with cars. They treat them as an extended part of themselves, cleaning, tweaking all the time ensuring the car is in its most graceful state.
Women on the other hand tend to feel such passion for shoes, clothes and bags. Small wonder men tend to start driving at a much earlier age than women and as such become better drivers. Sharp contrasts when you consider women attain puberty earlier than men.
Personally I believe that there are a lot of bad drivers in Nigeria. The reasons are numerous and diverse. One being that many people aren’t taught properly at the start. Another being the nasty habit of many drivers not reading the Highway Code; you also have fear (of what I can’t really tell). Don’t also forget bad eye sight; hearing etc. the list is endless.
By default, men are better drivers but occasionally you find a few exceptional women that can take it to the men, anytime, anyplace. An awesome example is Dana Patrick who became the 1st woman to win the Indy 500. As my Dad once told me in Primary school, there are two categories of women drivers. 1st the ones you never, ever want to be behind (either in traffic or on the free way) and the “killer kind” whom you never see coming and will embarrass you as you try to show off your driving skills to your buddies. (My brother has fallen victim to such an unsuspecting woman).
I clearly recollect following a colleague home one evening from work. We were leaving the car park, her car was deep behind several cars, and so being a gentleman I offered to drive all 6 cars and hers out. On getting her car out, I handed the keys back to her. We left the Marina and we headed towards Lekki. On getting to VI, we got off Ozumba (I figured we were avoiding traffic) when we got to Oniru, I was a bit confused when we didn’t get back on the expressway. At that point, I asked why we were not joining the highway. She then told me we were taking the “Jeep Route”( the shoreline from VI to Epe). She drives a Jeep Liberty. On the Jeep Route, she brought that “killer side” I mentioned earlier. Her driving was simply flawless. The Liberty ate everything that was thrown at it. There were SUV’s falling by the way side, ohhh nooo not us. Ada would not permit that. She conquered the tracks and dropped me off at Alpha Beach, yes on the shore line. It was simply the most brilliant piece of driving I had seen. I was more than impressed at her driving and I must say she had done excellently to curb my bias for women drivers.

What the Japanese have done for us!!!!

The internal Combustion engine was made by Carl Benz (German), the revolution in the automobile industry came with the Ford Model T. These cars were made in large numbers thus ensuring many people could afford them: Thus the start of the modern auto age.
The American dominance of the Auto industry continued for many decades. The Germans concentrated on precision engineering; developing brands that were so detailed they became an engineering marvel (most Heads of States ride in Mercedes Benz). The British were responsible for cars meant for speed because of their winding back country roads (jaguars and Astons) but the Italians took it upon themselves to perfect this act. Today they make some of the best super cars in the world. The French have never really been good at anything (the only thing they made that ever made sense was the 504, and that’s hugely debatable if you’re not Nigerian).
It wasn’t until after the 2nd world war that the Japanese started making cars. Their country was so torn apart that right from the start, the emphasis could only be to make light, efficient cars. This paid off after almost 60 years when Toyota surpassed GM to become the number 1 car manufacturer in the World!!!
The Germans had as far back as the 60’s made performance models of base brands (AMG of Mercedes). Japanese however joined the league of extra ordinary cars in the 90’s with launch of the Lexus. Nissan’s infinity following. Honda’s Acura and Mitsubishi’s Ralliart having come in the late 80’s but failed to make the kind of impact that Lexus made with the LS 400.
Let me give you a clearer picture of the Japanese presence, 4 out of every 5 visitors who read this blog and own cars will own a Japanese car!!! On your way home today, look around you; I’m sure the vehicle to your left, right, front and back at some point will all be Japanese.
The Japanese found an efficient way to make mass produced, hugely reliable cars that were so miserly on fuel when other car manufacturers made guzzlers thinking fuel like beer was always going to be cheap.
For everyone who has driven a German equivalent of a Japanese car (say a camry against a Passat, or a 316 BMER against a full optioned corolla) I’m sure you’d give it to the Germans everytime. But how come these Japanese cars are everywhere? I’ll tell you why; because they’re cheap and reliable. A modern Japanese car can guarantee you three things
1. It will start in the morinig
2. It will take you out
3. It will bring you back
( it doesn’t always guarantee any form of driving excitement though)
In a world as crazy as the one we live in, what more can you demand from your car on a regular basis? This is ofcourse if you’re not a Petrol head that doesn’t care about how much Horse Power his car has or its weight, or how well its planted while cornering at hair raising speeds.
Nope, the vast majority of the populace don’t care about all that, and until they do which I don’t foresee in the near future, the Japs still have the winning formula.
Way to go Japs!!!!

Your Dream Car…. No, the Car you really dreamt of buying!!!!!

As a kid, growing up in my house playtime for us was in the garage learning of tales of timing combination, the awesome power of V8 engines which at the time, were present mostly in American Cars. Our Dad was a trained and practicing Automobile Engr. As such, our knowledge of Cars was vast and practical in every word.
Now, I’ll ask, how many of us while growing up dreamt of driving/ owning cars with wings that could fly (back to the future) or propellers with which could submerge in water (the spy who loved me) or engines so powerful that made the ground shake when started? But today, global warming, High Fuel prices and the almighty “global recession” has left us living our dreams short. For most, we basically drive cars that are as interesting as toast machines.
Please get me correctly, I don’t expect you go out and buy a car made in Mars: no, no, no ,no. what I’m saying is if you loved the Citreon CX pallass (it had Pneumatic suspension which lowered once the car was parked) go out now and look for the C5 and buy it. Period. If you loved the pointed star from Stuttgart, buy one. I can’t understand why on earth someone will for the sake of wanting to buy a new car will go on and buy a QQ??? Buy a Golf instead!!!!!! A used golf has more value than a brand new QQ!!!!!
I have a friend who drives a jeep liberty, full optioned and all the works, to beat traffic home, we’d take the “Jeep” route (the beach line that goes from oniru all the way to Alpha beach. It’s as close as you’ll ever come to driving the Rubicon trail in Nigeria. It’s a massive adrenaline rush). And so on a faithful day,on our way home, we hit a ditch, punctured the radiator. Total repair costs were over 350,000. Once repaired, I said, I now understand why people buy Toyota’s. I bet you can’t guess what she said, “life is short do not dilute your dreams”. The liberty offered her an off road driving experience the likes no Japanese 4x4 in that class could. At that point, I realized even I was guilty of cutting short my dreams.
So there it is, I charge you. Be brave, be bold be different and even if it costs you a fortune be sure to buy the car you’d seen in your dreams!!!!!

German Supremacy!!!!!

Friday night, time is 10.45PM, venue Lekki Expressway and the participants, my bro and a flat mate and I. We were done with a good night of beautiful 1759ing. We were on our way home. I was in a hurry because I wanted to speak to my boo before she slept for the night. There was mild traffic around Mobil. As suddenly as traffic builds up in Lagos, there was a repeated buzzing of a uniquely sounding horn right behind us and it refused to go away. At that point the ‘Horn” caught our attention, I turned around and it was a Volkswagen Passat( made in 2000, 130Hp) 2.0T, we were in a 99 Camry V6, (194 Hp,3.0L engine), we didn’t pay attention to the “white” driver in the passat until he drove right beside us and waved a bottle of Henessy at us and beckoned that we come get it. At that point we’d been “Served” and it was on!!! Pedal to the metal, we attempted to catch up with the “white” guy and as he was teasing us, he’d let us pass and then turn the heat on. Driving the Camry was my Bro, who in our circle, was a seasoned driver, time tested, “high” tested (he could always handle his high and still drive excellently well).
Now if you know the V6 Camry, by Nigerian road standards it’s a pretty fast car. Behind the wheel you feel like you can take any, any car on! We had done this repeatedly and seemed to get away with it every time and we thought tonight was going to be a similar case. The Passat guy was hot on our heels, for us it was Pedal to the Metal, yet we never seemed to pull so far away from Him. He was right there behind us!!!
By the time we got to the 2nd round about, the brakes in the Camry was Squealing and singing. You could perceive the smell. Now let me put this in perspective, we were in “the more” powerful car, V6 vs. 4 cylinder, a 3.0L vs. a 2.0L engine. Driver competency wasn’t a question as I had mentioned before, Jigga my bro who was driving, was capable!!! So basically the competition here was between the Cars!!! As was in the case of JayZ’s video, “Money aint a thang, the Chase was full of Lane Changes. As we approached Jakande estate, there was little traffic building up, Jigga was slow in making up His mind, (wrong move) the passat blew right passed, He’d guessed right, he got into the other lane and it was our turn to play catch up. At this point I have to re-emphasize that this wasn’t a fair fight. We were in a more powerful of two similar cars, and even at that the passat seemed to have the upper hand. The futile catch up game ended when we got to Jakande round about due screams from me and my flat mate on what would have been an embarrassing loss in the battle. At this point my bro overtook dangerously and the dude in the passat surrendered his lead. We knew victory was certain because our branch off point was just around the corner.
At our branch off point, we slowed down, our new found friend drove right beside us screaming in very poor pidgin English “Una try” “Una try”, in response both cars honked violently in respect of what just went down, fingers in the air, not flipping the dude in the passat off but in respect, hazard lights on, our brakes at this time was singing a tune in Pavarotti. We all jumped out of the car as we got off the expressway, barely able to catch a breath after an exhilarating adrenaline filled race.
At that point, it was a unanimous verdict that if we couldn’t beat the Germans in an unfair fight, it was best not only to join them but convert others!!!!!
Germans Cars I love you!!!!!!!!

Official Photo's of the 2011 Hyundai Sonata

Not bad you'd say?

Here's what the 2011 Hyundai Sonata wil look like.

Powerplant for the US model will be a 190Hp 2.4L while Japan will have to settle with a 163Hp 2.0L engine.

And another 1!!!!!!

I'm short of words.....
The picture you behold are previews Hyundai relaeased ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show taking place later on this month.....
Thats an idea of what the next Tucson will look like!!!!!
Get your Cheque books ready cuz this thing is a stunning beauty!!!!!

Spy shots from the 2011 Hyundai Sonata

Yes let your Eyes bleed!!!!!
These are spy shots of the upcoming 2011 hyundai Sonata......
All you camry and Accord faithfulls... keep your eyes wide open.
Final model may however be tuned down, but i have to say, this is an aggressive approach by the Boys from Korea.

My 1st Bash!

‘You don hit my car, Oyibo repete, as you don bash my car gbese repete’. The once famous Naija Hit song. And one not so loved by anyone who’s hit or been hit before. ‘Bashing’ a fairly regular occurrence on Lagos roads where you’re considered a ‘real’ driver for just driving there. In the city of Lagos, God help you if you ever ‘bash’ someone’s car. There’ll you’ll hear all kinds of grammar (Ikoyi and V.I) or when the parties involved are from areas such as okoko, iyana-paja, Ebutte-meta, they instinctively start fighting before they even say a word. Talk/ fight for as long as you like and block the free flow of the already dense traffic and no one seems to bother.
Everyone at some point in time will always have a bash every now and then. ‘If you no bash person, person go bash you’, as the popular saying goes in Lagos. As a reference point, I drove for 14years before ever ‘Bashing’ anything. Mine was simply a case of break failure (truthfully, I remember the brakes were bad). Facing a trailer head on at 30Km/H with absolutely no brakes (in my BMW 5 series), I opted to swerve away from the trailer that made no attempt to slow down. In the process, I brushed the side of my car violently against the side of a ‘Vanagon’ picking passengers at the bus stop which slowed me down before finally hitting an ‘Okada’ man who’d remain stuck to his seat from shock ( I guess) .Due to experience and some luck, my car suffered most of the damage, breaking off an already broken pointer light on the Vanagon. The bus driver being so kind as to let me go (after telling him I had no money of course?). I got back into my car with my friend who was visibly in shock and headed off to our original location (it was almost 1759) and I am never late.
Unlike my 1st bash, my bother’s 1st bash happened at the onset on his driving days. Luckily for him, our dad was very understanding and rather than reprise him for making an honest mistake, he was given all the encouragement needed and today he is a far better driver than I am. That seems to be the fatal mistake most parents make. I have friends who are in or close to their 30’s who cant drive because their parents were either too scared of them damaging their cars or stopped them out rightly from touching their cars for fear of ‘Bashing’ it. This long term effect of ‘leave my car’ has left these ‘Men’ not wanting to drive even after buying their own cars.
Be careful, be vigilant and be patient so that when your 1st ‘Bash’ happens, it can be something you can talk about. (With pride).

Slush Box

Most kids while growing up get to hear tales of the ‘cunning’ tortoise. In my house we heard tales of cars that could change gears by themselves. In 1986 when my aunty brought back a Peugeot 504 GL auto from the US, I saw this ‘imaginary’ miracle for the first time. Unfortunately, it had brain box problems and it never worked. In 1993, when my dad told me he was buying a Mercedes Benz 200 aka Regular which was automatic transmission, I knew there was a God that answered prayers and dreams. The following year he bought a BMW 520 auto, I became uncontrollable with joy!
At that time (early 90’s), it was so un-cool to own a ‘slush box’ (derogatory term used to describe cars with automatic transmission). People had all sorts reasons for not buying them; like ‘what if the battery runs flat how do I push it?’ you get a good battery and ensure the car is always in top shape that’s how! Why buy a car hoping to push it when it brakes down? Till this very minute that perception beats me.
In 1997 I told a friend that one day ‘all cars’ will be automatic. I was just a kid at the time, but like martin Luther king and barrack Obama that were motivated to say the ‘unthinkable’ at some point in time, my comments were likened to theirs. It drew strong criticisms from my peers. The basis of my comments hinged on the fact that F1 cars (the ultimate devices on 4 wheels) were not manual transmission. I believed that it was only a matter of time before the gains and advantages in F1 technology trickled down to every day cars and for a fact I knew that auto’s had been around since the early 1900’s.
One of such numerous advantages is the shift time between gears. In modern auto’s transition between gears takes place in mere milliseconds. What this means is that you can quickly accelerate through gears much faster than an equivalent manual box would. My fathers Benz 200 had a 3 speed box, today Mercedes has cars having 7 speed auto, Lexus has an 8 speed box. Gear change is seamless in these cars when compared to my dad’s jerky and violently hard changes in the Benz 200. In addition to their seamless shift, this new auto’s also incorporate a manual mode into its normal shift gate or via paddles mounted behind the steering wheel, as is the case in the Golf Mark V GTI. Fuel economy may arguably be another advantage. In theory, manuals will always achieve better mileage when compared with a similar model auto. The reason being in the way these boxes are built. The manual has a direct link from the engine to the engine to the wheels, while the auto relies on oil pressure and a fluid connection between the engine and the transmission to supply the drive. This causes a loss of energy leading to observed difference in economy between the two boxes. In the real world however, most auto’s achieve better milage numbers. The reason being that in large number of people, most do not shift their manual cars at the right time, they either shift too early or too late. A classical example is 2 exact Honda 2002 models (baby boy) in traffic on 3rd mainland bridge for over 3hours. After a while both drivers will get tired and may not pay complete attention to what they are doing. While in the auto this will not have an effect, as the car is preprogrammed to shift at specific conditions, the manual will suffer economy if the driver accelerates from stop say in gear 2.
Take a personal survey, how many of your friends still drive manuals? It’s likely you own an auto or plan to buy one pretty soon. Die hard manual ‘freaks’ will always argue over the advantages of driving a ‘manual’ that its fun, its fast, its economical etc. in response I ask is the bugatti veyron not fun? Is the bugatti veyron not fast? Ok maybe it’s not economical but who cares? It’s capable of doing 252MPh, 400Kmh! and its an auto.

Thinking about buying a new car!!!!!!

Newer doesn't always mean better....

nothing will exemplify this more than this review where Jeremy Clarkson compares the new Honda Civic Type R against its predecessor....

Hope you find it as entertaining as i do....