The Cars

A WALK WITH UGANDA

 A series of conversations about Uganda in the 1960s

THE CARS

Looking at pictures of central Kampala in the 1960s one thing stands out even more than the quaint cars of the era:  the streets seem empty.  And, by todays; standards, they were.  The Government’s annual report for 1963 recorded some 40,000 vehicles on Ugandan roads; a  car was still a rare commodity.

Rare, and expensive.  In rural areas in 1962 most villages did not contain a single car-owner.  Even a bicycle was a sign of some affluence.  The most affordable car was, then as now, a used car.  The Morris Minor, a design dating from 1948, was a cheap and reliable example of such a car, and could be had for about shs 4000.  At a time when shs 400 a month was very good wage, this was a major expense. Indeed, a basic iron-roofed house could be built for about the same price.

The used car market was perilous one.  Repair costs were often ruinous and derisive expressions such as “aguze kulundiramu nkoko” (he’s bought an expensive henhouse) would be heard; the implication being that the jalopy would not be long on the road and would end up rusting in the yard, with chickens roosting in it.  A popular song had a wife was cautioning her husband against buying a used car, mentioning an acquaintance that had been ruined by one.  She went:
 “Ddaali wange, eyo ngo,
 yalya Kasule, kata emutte”
 (Darling, that’s a leopard, just like the one that mauled Kasule). 

Owners of used cars developed very close relationships with their mechanics.  The mechanics, in turn, became miracle workers.  Often self taught, working with rudimentary tools and jury-rigged spares, they kept the old clunkers on the road for unbelievable numbers of years.

For most buyers, the purchase of a new car was only possible on credit, with the car paid off over three or four years.  This was one of the perks of the senior civil service.  According to one of my professors at Makerere the dealers would actually seek out the new graduates with “Sign here sir, and pick out the car you want” offers, since the loans were guaranteed by the government.  In those days a degree or diploma guaranteed a well-paid job.

So what cars did they buy?

This tiny market was shared by over a dozen makes.  Even under British rule before 1962 the market had been wide-open thanks for a set of agreements called the Congo Basin Treaties.  So, even before independence British-ruled Uganda had a car market dominated by German and French cars. 

The major British makers, BMC (Morris-Austin), Ford UK, GM UK, and Leyland, had products covering the whole market range but were not dominant in any sector except off-road vehicles and trucks, where much of the purchase was governmental.  The government agencies such as Police, Army and UEB had, of course, purely Land-Rover fleets for their four-wheel drive vehicles and Bedfords for their heavy trucks.

The most affordable models of the 1950s, the Morris Minor and the tiny Fiat 600  had been overtaken by the VW beetle, a car whose basic design actually dated to the 1930s!  By the 60’s the Beetle, cheap and easy to repair, was clearly the most common model on Ugandan roads.  BMC’s  Mini, whose innovative  front-wheel drive design was  two decades newer than the VW, just wasn’t roomy enough for a low income country where cars were expected to routinely carry five adults. 

 The beetle was a People’s Car project of the German government in the 1930s; the war prevented mass production and the company, its factories bombed out, nearly collapsed in 1946.  Somehow it survived to become one of the pillars of the German economic recovery and remains Europe’s Number One carmaker.  The 1933 basic design by Ferdinand Porsche, with an air-cooled  rear engine, was built till 2003..

The mid-size family car range was a crowded field, with Peugeot’s 403 and 404 competing with Ford’s Cortina, the Morris 110, German Ford’s Taunus, GM’s Opel Record and the Fiat 1500.  The family saloons of the era were marketed more for practically than performance, and an ad for the Peugeot 404 from 1962 emphasizes the high number of trouble-free miles the owner had run up in one year; in those years 50’000 miles without overhaul was a pretty long lifetime for an engine.  In this contest Peugeot gained an early lead; the stodgy 403 was succeeded by the 404, offering a high level of refinement, comfort and a 1600 cc engine with sprightly performance. 

Ugandans like speed, so the 404 became a hit. The 404 station wagons became the dominant taxis on the more profitable routes, such a Kampala-Masaka and Kampala-Jinja, where they routinely cruised at 80mph.  Less lucrative routes, such as the one from Mpigi into the interior counties of Butambala and Gomba, were as late as 1969 only served by ancient Morris Oxford saloons which would be loaded with 10 passengers.  Four would share the front seat with the driver while six crammed into the back seat; you had to see it to believe it.  (Note for non-African readers, in much of Africa a “taxi” is a car functioning as a bus would, carrying many passengers on a fixed route.  A taxi carrying one person on an individually negotiated basis is called a “special hire” in Uganda).

 Minivans, which now dominate the taxi market, were yet to appear.  VW’s Kombi van, despite being roomy, somehow never made inroads into the taxi market.

The most affordable new cars in the early 60s cost shs10’000 and above; the other end of the market being dominated by Mercedes-Benz.  At over shs 40’000, the most affordable Mercedes still cost more than the top-of-range offerings by other makers such as the Citroen DS, Vauxhall Victor, Opel Kapitan, Taunus 20M, BMW 1600 and Ford Zodiac. 

Both the luxury and  near-luxury segment were small-volume affairs till the appearance of a surprise hit, the Peugeot 504.  It was bigger and more powerful than the 404 and had a unique body-style.  The handling, comfort and performance were surprisingly good, and the reliability on African roads proved exceptional.  The first models appeared in 1968 and production in France continued till 1983.  Due to strong demand production in Nigeria and Kenya continued till 2006, and in China till 2009.  In Nairobi the 504 became the iconic “must-have” car of the upper middle class (the super-rich meanwhile gaining the tribal name of “Wabenzi”).  The 504 was so popular with car-thieves that the Nairobi distributor, Marshalls, installed a secret fuel-cutoff switch as a standard in the 1970s.  If not pressed, it would stop the car about a mile after starting.  In the 1970s The 504 wagon became the standard long-distance taxi in Kenya but not in Uganda, which had suffered an economic collapse.

the iconic 504

 
the angular shape of the 404 came from the Italian designer Pininfarina.  A fuel-injected version, the 404 Injection, was super-fast.

There was a Chevy dealership in Nairobi up to the 60’s and a few of the huge cars made their way into Uganda, where the only used cars sold were typically from Kenya. But these were bit players in the market, together with Volvo, BMW, Saab, Jaguar and even Australia’s Holden. 

Two small players who appeared in the early 1960s were harbingers of the future of the industry:  Nissan  offered one tiny Saloon; Toyota offered a full range of three saloons, tiny Corolla, midsize Corona and a near-luxury Crown plus a pickup.  All were decidedly unexciting cars.  A James Bond film in 1968, “You only live twice”, featured the star driving a Toyota sports car.  The model was not available in Uganda but the Kampala dealership took the opportunity to plaster “James Bond drives Toyota” onto ads for the film.  The idea of an exciting Toyota did not take hold, and the idea of Japanese vehicles as stolid workaday cars was not overturned till the 1970 East African Safari Rally with the appearance of Nissan’s giant killers, the Datsun 1600SSS and the 240Z.  The previous lead contenders for “fun-family car”, the Peugeot 404 and the Cortina GT, were blown away by the 1600SSS; it was faster, louder and much more fun to drive.  The era of Japanese dominance had arrived.

The Datsun success was not just a local affair; they were an even bigger hit in North America, where the 1600 (marketed as the 610) virtually created a new class of “sports sedan”.  The 240Z aroused the compact sports car segment where the MG, an aging British design, had had little real competition. 

With its successors, the 260Z and 280Z the car became the then best-selling sports car line in history, while the 1600 rapidly became the most popular sedan in Uganda.  The expensive 240Z sold in small numbers; notable owners included Shekar Mehta, a young millionaire who became the first Ugandan to win the East African Safari.  Another belonged Nasser Sebaggala, who frequently announced himself to be a “young millionaire” and would much later gain fame as the populist Mayor of Kampala who got arrested and convicted of forgery while on a visit to the US.

 
Fun, fast and popular, the Datsun 1600SSS