CARS AND COVID

Everything was going on normally. We believed nobody can stop reggae, until Covid-19 decided to overturn things. We’ve been forced into a new normal that has affected most, if not all, aspects of our lives. Us in the car community have not been spared.

We are people who love interacting with like-minded people as we enjoy these beloved machines. Cars and Coffee or car meets, track events and other car people interactions cannot be held as before. It’s now been scaled down to a circle meet, two or three people, or virtual meets. Videos are what we can look at to relive memories of track events.

There is also another aspect to cars- the buying aspect. Every car is bought from somewhere, locally or imported. Car dealerships have been steadily increasing over the past few years. This is largely attributed to the fact that demand for new and used cars in Kenya has significantly increased. Importation and selling of cars is a lucrative business in present-day Kenya. However, just like any other sector during this period, importation and selling of cars has been affected by the corona pandemic. How is the current situation? What will the situation be after this pandemic period?

If car sales during this period were converted into an animal, then it would be a tortoise. The pandemic has become a baggage for the economy and the economy builders. A number of people have lost their jobs and others have had their salaries slashed. Of course, with no job or a reduced salary one has to switch to survival mode- feeding and sustaining oneself and the dependants becomes top priority. With no job it would not be wise to purchase a car (not unless it’s for executing a business idea) and in this state I don’t think financing would cross your mind.

Since the pandemic has affected countries across the globe and different measures have been put to combat the disease, importing a car now is slower than before. It’s more expensive too because of the covid-19 preventive measures put in place and the inspection and all that. Another reason to push potential car buyers away.

Not everyone is taking losses though. V8’s and Mercedes are still being bought. I guess that’s what the English wahengas termed as ‘silver platter’. Importation may be slightly expensive and slow but that is not necessarily the case with locally available cars. If your pockets are heavy you might land on a good cash discount when purchasing.

The sales jamaa might decide to take a small loss for the sake of keeping the business afloat and feeding the family. I said might because that may not be the case everywhere. Same discount case applies to people selling off their personal vehicles for whatever reason. If you land on such deals perhaps it’s nature’s way of telling you that you need a new whip. Think abourrit.

As a way of making things a little bit easier for us in this period, our president advised financial institutions to ease up on loan repayment and interest rates and even pardoned some of us in the black books of the CRB. This should at least take away some stress for those owing financers something.

If you’re okay financially and want to buy a car through financing you might consider doing it now. Find a financer with favourable repayment terms and a favourable interest rate and claim that ride you’ve been thinking of.

This cars and COVID topic reminds me of what happened in the USA in 2009 and is likely to happen again. I’m referring to Cash Clunkers. This was a $3 billion stimulus programme initiated by the US government to boost auto sales, put more fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly vehicles on the roads and create more jobs.

It was generally aimed at preventing the economy from taking a huge depression. Basically, they traded in old cars that were less than 25 years old, with a fuel economy of 18 mpg (7.65 km/l) and were drivable, the cars got scrapped and then a voucher of between $3500 or $4500 is given to be used in the purchase of new fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly car.

I don’t think our economy is strong enough (with all the debts we have) to run such a programme- so I presume that we are safe from this. It’s a good plan but only has a short-lived achievement. At least it helped car dealers and manufacturers back then and it gave people jobs and the environment was ‘cleaned’.

From what the president said, we are likely to go back to our regular activities and businesses sooner. Knowing Kenyans as we are, I project that car prices might be slightly higher to recover the losses made in this period (this depends on the individual dealer).

Seeing that importation of cars is still ongoing, at least car dealers will not have to close shop because they are out of stock. Hopefully, sales will go back up and at least things won’t be as bad.