CAR CLINIC: Looking for a Bimmer with only Sh300,000 sure is a dicey affair

Hallo Baraza JM!

I have a question and your invaluable advice will be highly appreciated. I do not own a car but plan to get one soon. I have little knowledge about them and, as a campus student, little cash to spend on one.

My budget is between Sh300,000 and 350,000 and I am interested in getting a 1989-1990 BMW 520i (I am a die-hard BMW fan). Is that a good buy? If not, which options should I look at (I love big saloons)?

Whether or not a 27-year-old E34 (it is an E34, right?) is a good buy depends on one thing only: the condition of the car. Anything else calls for the kind of commitment and decision-making that ends relationships. At that price, you are open to the vagaries of fate: you could land a well-kept example from a “departing expatriate”, but then again, you could also be buying a carcass that will cause untold grief to you, your pocket and your mechanic. The world of classic cars is a wild and unpredictable one.

Other big saloons of Teutonic genealogy include the Mercedes-Benz E Class, particularly the W124. Avoid this one. Senselessness has led it to achieve sudden cult status within the country, meaning two things: 1. Prices have shot up; and 2. Opportunists are palming off rolling rust-heaps on unsuspecting punters like you. At Sh300,000 to Sh350,000, you will be buying junk and putting it right is something you need to sacrifice a lot for.

I once saw an E39 BMW on sale for Sh380,000 somewhere on social media. Quick consultations revealed that a further Sh150,000 would bring it to respectable status which, given what it is, is not a bad outlook. Alternatively, face East. Japanese cars. Toyota Crowns or Mark IIs. Nissan Laurels or Cedrics or Glorias (if you can find them). They are big enough saloons, aren’t they?

Hi Baraza,

Thanks for the good work you are doing, helping us who are not so car savvy with the small details. I have one question: I want a second-hand car that costs  about Sh600,000, whose consumption is economical, that isn’t too big or too small. A spacious car for a working mother that can transport two kids and a substantial amount of shopping. That isn’t too cliché. Do you have any advice that can help?

No, not really; I don’t have any advice that can help.

You are not the first, and you are also most likely not going to be the last, to frame a query in this fashion. I have a standard answer for it: give me more.

I need more to work with. You want me to compare two or more cars? Sure. You want a recommendation for a car with very particular duties in mind? Done. But “second-hand, economical, not too big, not too small, spacious, child-friendly and a grocery ferry” covers a wide range of motor vehicles, and I cannot begin to list them here. If I did, the moment I leave out one option its sellers will be up in arms declaring, “Baraza has something against us!” and might picket for an Act of Parliament banning me from ever giving car advice again. How big is big? How small is small? How many kids are we talking about here? How big are they? How substantial is the shopping? Two bags of rice is “substantial” enough for me. What kind of economy do you want?

Narrow down your choices. Surely you do have a few specific cars you have your eye on. Let me know what they are, then we can use your criteria to arrive at the perfect candidate. In the meantime... er.... throw a dart at a newspaper and buy whatever you hit. Or something.

I join fellow readers and fans in applauding your very informative and educative write-ups on things cars, engines and choices. For the past 15 years, I have driven no other car apart from a Nissan B12 and Nissan Wingroad. They are the most reliable cars I have driven – 100 per cent reliable. So I have no experience with any other make. Now I want to upgrade and a friend has offered a Grande Legacy Toyota Mark II. He tells me the girls will be impressed. Another one tells me I will neither find nor afford the spare parts. 

You live in a strange and nebulous world, my friend. You are the first to give a Wingroad a clean bill of health in this column. What’s your secret (besides maintenance, that is)?

Which girls are these you are trying to impress? I visited this car-as-a-lure topic earlier with a pair of German executives and the results of my research were eye-opening, to say the least. My advice? Ask the girls what they like and then go and buy it. Satisfaction is not guaranteed: the kind of girl who is attracted by a car rather than by the man inside it is as reliable as a wet matchbox and just as useless; perhaps you are barking up the wrong tree. Then again, there are those who write relationship columns who are better placed to expound on this, so let us move on to your next question, which is spares.

There are a gazillion Toyota Mark IIs in various states of disrepair all over the country. There is also the fairly obvious fact that the brand name is Toyota. Spares will be a problem only if you live on a desert island with no civilisation to speak of.

Of questions unasked (but will still be answered): a Mark II is not a bad car at all. If fuelling makes you queasy, stick to the 2.0 litre, nobody will notice the difference. Should you buy it? As a car, sure, why not? As bait for loot-seeking gold diggers with a financial gleam in their eye, I can’t really tell.

Hello Baraza,

I am an ardent fan of your column.

Your response to Eric the Subaru Legacy GT left me me yearning to read all about the details of the fantastic and unbelievable BMW board meeting you mentioned. Kindly let me in on that.

M’Kiugu

I believe you saw that piece eventually. Quite a show, huh? Donald Trump’s "The Apprentice" can only dream of scripting drama like that. Keep it here for more motoring material that you will not find anywhere else.

Hi Doc

I wish to know the economical advantages of turbo-charged petroleum engines over naturally aspirated engines if any. Why is it that some people, when selling their cars, stress this point (mostly Subaru owners).Secondly, I see many new models  in production also have naturally aspirated engines despite the craze for VVTI and EFIS I’d wish to know if there is something new on the new carburetors that the manufacturing companies still hold on to.

The economical advantage of a turbo engine lies in its fuel consumption. In comparison to a naturally aspirated unit with the same output (torque and power), the NA engine will burn more fuel to achieve that result. Turbos help not just with performance, but also with downsizing an engine, which means less weight and fewer cubic inches of capacity, which in turn means better economy. However, when someone selling a Subaru insists on the presence of a turbo (or two), economy is rarely on their mind; what they actually mean is “Buy this rumbly monster and outrun lesser mortals on an open road! Your days of being randomly overtaken by clichéd Toyotas and tiny Mazdas are over! Show them who the  boss!

 *Disclaimer: attention from the police and ill-advised writers of social commentary may be side effects you need to watch out for.” At least that is what I thought when I got taken in by an ad for a turbocharged Subaru.

Nobody does carburettors anymore, at least not in the mainstream. Nowadays, everybody more or less uses fuel injection, complete with variable valve timing. However, you are right: there is something new on carburettors and this is it: A carburettor is essentially a narrow air pipe with a hole on the side to let fuel through. The added complexity is to maintain air-fuel ratios in accordance with engine load to cover all the possible permutations between idling and wide-open throttle. To further optimise this, carburettors were developed with multiple barrels (basically more carburettors melted into a single mega-carburettor), a perfect example being the Rochester Quadrajet, a four-barrel monstrosity that saw duty in General Motors engines from the mid ’60s to the mid ’70s. There were smaller primary barrels for better throttle response and improved fuel economy, with larger secondaries for when you need to pass the aforementioned lesser mortals and keep the Arabs happy with your wide-open throttle.

Carb makers went mad from 1975.  Pushrods, cams, controllers, hot-idle compensators, timed canister purge ports, air-valve dashpots, aneroid metering rod assemblies, thermostatic coils and electronic devices found their way onto the not-so-simple-to-begin-with carburettor. The electronic controls were to keep it clean on cold running, improve reliability on hot running, safer when upside down (rollover) and less smelly on idle. The end result looked like a prop from a 1916 movie about the year 2016. It was nicknamed “Quadrajunk”.

So, which cars use this Quadrajunk out of the factory, you might ask? None, actually. New carburettors are sold as aftermarket items for backyard engine builders, and it is only Americans who buy them since they are sold there anyway. They are strapped onto big, block Chevy or HEMI V8 crate engines, which are then used to go racing (drag-racing, to be exact). For some reason, these carbs are easier to work with when squeezing several thousand horsepower from a single engine, which you then use to cover a quarter mile in way less than 10 seconds.

Hi Baraza,

I am addicted to your column. Thanks for the good work you are doing. I have a few inquiries:

 1. Between the Premio (new shape) and the Axio, which is better  in terms of fuel consumption and comprehensive service.

2. In terms of performance, which is  more convenient for mild off-road trips.

3. As a great fan of manual transmission gears, can I find a 2009 manual transmission Premio? I have only seen an Axio. In terms of cost, is there a difference between the manual and the auto for the two cars?

4. I learnt that the Axio is 1500cc and the Premio is 1800cc. What is the effect of this on performance and maintenance for each car?

Please advise considering it will be my first car. I just finished  school the other day. I’ll be grateful for your advice.

“No child left behind”, George Bush once said about his country’s education policies. I will also apply it here, because to any other eyes, your questions appear to have fairly obvious answers that should be glossed over to the advantage of more interesting stuff. Or should they?

1. What engine sizes are we discussing? What driving styles? These, more than model names, will determine fuel economy. They will also determine “comprehensive service”, seeing how bigger engines tend to cost more during service time while stressed engines require shorter service intervals and/or replacement of more items during the service itself.

2. Mild off-road, you said. How mild is mild? The actual answer is “none”, but then also it is “both”. These are saloon cars meant for town-bound shuttling with the occasional highway jaunt (hence “none”) and they do have similar ground clearances and approach and departure angles (hence “both”).

3. It is unlikely you will find a 2009 Premio with a manual box because that way, you will be looking for a modified car. They all left the factory with two pedals (not counting the foot-operated parking brake). In terms of cost, there usually is a difference between the  manual and automatic versions of a car, but seeing how we are dealing with the second-hand market, price variance depends on a million other things (mileage, condition, location, year of manufacture, how greedy the seller is) besides transmission type.

4. See 1 above. Since you have specified the engine size: the 1500 will be nudged out ever so slightly by the 1800, performance-wise. Maintenance should not be different.

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