• Country: Tanzania, United Republic Of
  • Date: 2017-06-12

CAR FROM JAPAN
MERIT ON JAPANESE CARS

I have known Japanese cars for a long period of time, years in fact, since 1969 to date; they are in the quality or state of deserving well; worth; and excellence. That is what I call, merit. And I will explain!

As I said, I started to know Japanese made motor vehicles in the year 1969, because that was the year Japanese cars and lorries were seen in the small Town of Moshi, where I live, on the lower slopes of Moutain Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Before that year, motor vehicles; lorries and cars that were used to ply on the roads in Moshi Town and on the roads in the rural villages of Moshi District, were made and imported from European Countries like Great Britain, Germany, and France. I do not know why these countries supplied Tanzania, by then Tanganyika with a variety of cars and lorries, but I guess it was because Germany and Great Britain colonized Tanganyika at different sequential intervals. France did not colonize Tanganyika, but the neighbouring countries to the West of Tanganyika. So, having French made cars in Tanganyika in those years was a sign of good neighbourhood with either the British or the Germans.

Some of the motor vehicles from European countries I remember to have seen on the roads in Moshi District were Austin lorries, Ford lorries, Bedford lorries, Leyland lorries, Albion lorries, Ford Cortina cars, Cortina GT cars, Ford Anglia cars, Ford Corsair cars, Land Rover station wagons and pick-ups, Peugot cars and pick-ups, Renault cars, Mercedes Benz cars, Vauxhall cars and Opel cars. Mercedes Benz cars were driven by well to do people and government ministers while the rest of the car owner population drove the other brands of cars. Land Rovers were used by both, usual people and government ministries and its agencies. Government agencies are called Parastatal Organizations. These are the organizations which are owned by the government by majority shares, if not all a hundred per cent shares.

Most religious missionaries, parishes and churches used the Land Rover mostly because of slippery roads during rain seasons, since Land Rovers have four wheel drive gears.

The coming of Japanese cars and lorries to Tanzania has brought some changes to the community mindset on car ownership attitude. Up to now, there are many different makes of Japanese cars and lorries on the same roads that European made cars and lorries were and are plying, but now out numbered by Japanese made cars.

Some of the Japanese lorries and cars I see in my home town Moshi, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania are different models of Toyota make, Mitsubishi make, Suzuki make, Isuzu make, Hyundai make, Honda make, Hino make, Nissan make, Mazda make, Subaru make, Daihatsu make, and so forth.

I remember the first Japanese car seen in the Town of Moshi where I live, was a Toyota Stout, imported by a car dealer Agent in our area, called KJ Motors. Prospective buyers, one after another, went to the car show room to see this new make of a pick-up. Some people started to question, why is the bumper made of hard plastic material instead of hard steel iron like that of a Land Rover? Why is its mudguard made of hard plastic material instead of hard aluminium sheet like that of a Land Rover? How will it be panel beaten in case of damage on road accident? The prospective buyers were comparing the Toyota Stout pick-up with the Land Rover pick-up they were used to for many years. They did not know technology changes and coupled with efficiency! But what they noticed was that; the luggage space of the Toyota Stout was wider than that of a Land Rover, and price of the Toyota Stout was cheaper as compared to that of the Land Rover pick-up.

One local brew seller and a business man decided to buy one Toyota Stout pick-up for a test. He deployed the vehicle into his businesses and after two months, he went back to KJ Motors to buy to second Toyota Stout pick-up. From there on, other businessmen one after another went to buy Toyota Stout pick-up after seeing how the local brew seller used his two Toyota Stout pick-ups to conduct his business more efficiently and more profitably in reduced number of trips, because the Toyota Stout could carry more luggage than a the Land Rover.

As time went-on, more and more people; businessmen and farmers bought that make of a pick-up and from there-on the pick-up Toyota Stout became very famous and more popular. Up to now, that make of that vehicle is still loved by many Tanzanians, it is only that Japanese no longer manufacture Toyota Stout pick-ups; those hard and tough pick-ups they manufactured in those years.

Farmers, one after another, started to buy Isuzu lorries in place of the Bedford lorries they were used to. To their surprise, they recorded higher efficiency on Isuzu lorries, different from the Bedford lorries they owned by then. In other words, they noticed greater or higher performance by the Isuzu lorries as compared to the Bedford lorries.

Slowly, use of Japanese made motor vehicles; lorries and cars spread to greater community and even to the government this time. Government ministries and its agencies started to use Japanese made motor vehicles. At first, Land Rover was the most popular government used vehicle in those years, but then the Toyota Land Cruiser took over. Even now, still Japanese made cars are the most used by many people in Tanzania.

Now, coming to me, I feel I am addicted to Japanese made cars. I have owned and driven Japanese cars for the past twenty eight years since 1989 up to now. Before then, I used to have and drove Land Rovers but since 1989 when I owned a Toyota Corolla car, a JAPANESE USED CAR, my first car made in Japan, I have gone-on changing cars but to JAPANESE USED CARS only. My second Japanese car ownership changed to Mitsubishi Pajero, and now I have changed to Suzuki Escudo due to petrol use economy. That is why at my introduction I said I know Japanese made cars, and so, this is my explanation on the same.

Our present government advocates construction of industries in Tanzania, and the government has pledged to support any person or company which is desirous of putting up a factory in Tanzania. Now due to this fact, I find it useful to advise Japanese car manufacturers, through “CAR FROM JAPAN”, to think of establishing a car assembly plant in Tanzania. Given the vast land the country possesses, coupled with the fact that the government is willing to support investors in industries, I appeal to your company to start thinking of what to do in Tanzania, and also persuade other companies, as far as car assembly in future Tanzania is concerned. I believe market for cars is there. I do not have market data for cars sold in Tanzania and to neighbouring countries, but I think the data can be obtained in Japan from companies exporting cars to Tanzania.

If this, my advice is comprehensible, I persuade that first come is first served.

Richard J. Kessy,
P.O. Box 1898 Moshi, Tanzania.
E-mail: richard.kessy@yahoo.com
Mobile Phone: +255 754 253 214

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