Your recent article on old cars was so informative. Per now I cannot afford a new and good car so have always dreamed of buying a second-hand Toyota Hiace 1995, 1996 series. For me I love 2.0 with or without turbo. It is a four-wheel drive with good ground clearance and good luggage space. What would you say about this car, the durability, cost of both purchase and maintenance, and can it still be imported? VM Ogolla
I understand your dream, but you may need to adjust it to fit reality. Kenya law bans the importation of vehicles more than 8 years old, except by special licence as a vintage collector’s item.
There will be no Hiaces of the series you want on the mitumba market that are less than 20 years old. You would need to source one that is already in Kenya but will be hard pushed to find one that has been moderately used and well looked after.
Whether it is configured as a minibus or a minivan, the probability is that it has not been a “private car”. Most likely it will have been used as a run-all-day commercial vehicle and, by the age of 20-30 years in that role, it could have travelled more than a million kilometres!
Every “working” part of it is likely to have been replaced at least once and maybe several times. If it is being sold now, it is probably because it is about due for another major overhaul.
Toyota are better than most makes for the consistency and availability of their spare parts. More than 10 years ago their then chairman, ironically called Mr Suzuki, decreed that every model in the Toyota range (there are many dozens) should use the same components to the greatest possible extent.
His question to designers and engineers: Why should the indicator switch on a Toyota town runabout be any different from the indicator switch on a Toyota limousine?
Why should we tool up for 100 versions of a component when we could have the scale economy of just one? Why should spare parts distributors order dozens of different versions of each item (and hold mountains of slow-moving or dead stock to ensure availability for “any” customer) when they could order an all-the-same batch of each item and assure availability to “every” customer at a fraction of the investment in stock and storage?
Of course there are design up-dates from time to time, so a 30-year-old model might stretch that principle a bit. But Toyota is by far the best-selling brand in Kenya, so there are plenty of dealers and garages that know the brand inside out and will have come across many older models. Used parts are also likely to be more plentiful.
Your dream is not impossible, but it is also not advisable. Every motorist has a 'dream car'. It is almost never their first. So don’t make a rod for your back.
Start where your immediate needs and budget can find a viable match in the market and work your way up from there. When the time comes, a dream car will be waiting for you. Enjoy the journey.
