Praia from behind the wheel

Ever heard of a Capital City with practically no traffic congestions, no traffic lights and no trouble finding parking space? A city where most roads are made of cobble stones? A city where most cars are well-kept and meticulously clean? No? The city is called Praia, Capital of Cape Verde. However, some of these unique characteristics are about to change.

Praia is a small city – a friend I met visiting from India actually compared Praia with the size of a university compound outside Calcutta where she studied. Limited size can have its drawbacks when it comes to cities – but one of the big advantages is definitely that traffic can be kept under control. Unlike in other Capitals cities in the world, serious traffic jams are extremely rare here, and it is generally no hassle to drive around. No congestions, no car-jackings, no car-thefts.

One of the few annoyances you are likely to experience is hordes of would-be car-cleaners, eager to wipe your vehicle free from dust and “protect” it while parked in return for a modest donation (regardless whether your car is clean or not, and that it is not clear at all why it would need protection in the first place).

Apart from that, the only thing to be really concerned about is probably safety – as in all parts of the world when it comes to car traffic. But even on this aspect, my guess is that Praia is better off than many other cities. While it would be an exaggeration to say that people in general drive well here (the large number of car dents and scratches speak for themselves), at least there is a tendency to drive slowly, thereby minimizing the risk for more serious accidents. This is in stark contrast to for example Kenya, where drivers tend to be completely reckless, leaving it “up to God” who will make it to the end stop and who won’t.

Compared to the miserable state of car fleets I have seen in some other major African cities, such as Dakar, Dar Es Salam or Nairobi, where even new cars and taxis are worn out quickly due to poor maintenance and reckless driving, Praia’s cars are strikingly modern, expensive, well-maintained and clean. Toyota is the most popular car brand here, and when taking a tour in Praia it is likely that the first vehicle you will encounter is a large Prado or Hilux, a beige Corolla taxi, or a Hiace minibus (popularly called “Yass”), cramped with people.

I am actually quite puzzled over the great number of flashy 4WD:s to be seen here, knowing that the average Cape Verdean will probably never be affluent enough to own a car, let alone a new one. Also considering the high importation taxes and transportation costs, making a car about 30-50% more expensive than in Europe. Who can afford to buy such cars? When asking around, people shrug their shoulders, some of them alluding to drug money and money laundering, others to lucrative tourist investments (fortunately, customs corruption is not mentioned).

Whatever the explanation, there is no doubt that the number of cars on the streets of Praia are growing rapidly, and therefore the unique absence of traffic chaos might soon be but a memory. When I arrived here two years ago, I almost never experienced traffic jams, and I rarely had troubles in finding parking lots. Nowadays, there is more often than not a waiting time at most major cross-roads, as cars line up from all directions, and finding a parking space is sometimes more difficult than it used to be, especially on the Plateau which is rather cramped with people during daytime.

As it happens, I was actually fined for careless parking in the Plateau, while doing some grocery shopping at the main market place. At first, I was of course quite unenthusiastic about receiving the ticket. I had not really expected to get a parking fine in Cape Verde, as I thought that the police would have other priorities, and people generally tend to park their cars rather wildly here. But then I chose to apply a more positive approach on the matter. Not to say that I was jubilant about paying the fine (5.000 escudos, a considerable amount by most standards), but I saw it as a positive sign that the traffic police is active, since it might encourage drivers to drive safer and follow the law. For instance, the police will (hopefully) not only issue parking tickets but also abate drunk-driving, which is a big concern here, especially weekends (I personally try to avoid driving Fri/Saturday nights and Sat/Sunday mornings to minimize the risk of being rammed by a drunkard).

But more cars on the streets of Praia is not the only indication that traffic is increasing. Another sign is the growing number of tutoring cars. Nowadays, it is almost impossible drive around in Praia without being stuck for a while behind a slowly moving vehicle with the sign “Instrucao” or “Exame” on the roof. The interest among Cape Verdeans in obtaining a drivers’ license seem to be booming.

Besides from the absence of traffic jams and very old and worn down cars, the relative ease with which you will find a parking lot, and the number of tutoring cars and aggressive car-cleaners, there are also a few other ways in which Praia distinguishes itself from behind the wheel.

One is the complete absence of red lights. I have only seen two sets of traffic-lights in the whole of Praia – and none of them works! I admit that, for the moment, traffic lights are really not needed, but given recent developments this is probably about to change. My guess is that the authorities soon need to reconnect the few lights that are in place, and maybe install a couple more.

Another typical feature in Praia is the cobbled roads. This requires high maintenance, and groups of road-laborers (surprisingly, some of them female) are frequently spotted along the road-side, working hard to level pot-holes and restore loose blocks of stone. The cobble-roads of Praia will soon be but a memory however, as the whole city is about to be paved in a major modernization project. The Plateau has already been done, and Prainha and Achada St Antonio are bound to be next. Personally, I have mixed feelings about this – I actually find cobbled roads kind of charming, but I also realize that they are not optimal for keeping the car in good shape.

Overall, driving around in Praia is a pleasant and laid-back experience. Apart from some aggressive car-cleaners, there is perhaps only one major disadvantage: if you are late for an important meeting, you can’t blame the traffic – for that, you probably have to wait a few more years.

My relationship with Toyota

It is interesting to see how attached you can get in a short time to a product that you never owned or felt the need for before you actually bought it. Home computers, cell-phones, the internet, MP3 players and TVs are products and services that have only existed a few decades or even years, and yet many people would go so far as to say that they “can’t live without them”. I am myself sort of addicted to my computer and the internet service. In fact, when I experience an internet problem, I literally feel depressed. I don’t even dare to think about how I would be affected by a future hard disc failure.

Another apparent example of this kind of addictive product is the car. It seems that many, if not most, people don’t actually “need” a car until they actually buy it – after that however they easily become very attached to it. Again, I pick myself as an example.

For 36 years I lived a perfectly happy life (and presumably healthier due to all the biking) without owning a car, regardless if I lived in Ekshärad or in New York, in Brussels or in Lund. All in all, I considered cars to be dangerous, expensive, problem-causing (sooner or later they WILL break down) and environmentally polluting status symbols. Excellent as taxis and rental cars, but not as property. Also, for some reason I have come to develop this strange aversion against car salesmen and mechanics.

Some of my family and friends (who were already convinced car-owners) would laugh at my way of reasoning and at times they would try to convince me how much I actually needed a car without really knowing it. When Elias was born, one of them gave it 2 months before we would have a car. In fact, it took one year and three months – and moving to a developing country.

It turned out that the research we made on our future homeland suggested that a car – preferably a four wheel drive – was more or less indispensable for the kind of life we wanted to have here in Cape Verde. So we ended up buying a Toyota RAV4. Why? Because 1) Toyota it is a well known and widely used brand in Africa, 2) Toyota cars are known to be reliable and never break down 3) Toyota are known for taking good care of their customers and fixing problems that nevertheless might happen and 4) the RAV4 is one of the smallest and probably the most fuel-efficient 4WD on the market. (As you will see, some of these assumptions turned out to be false.) Toyota was also one of the relatively few brands actually represented in Cape Verde, and it is not considered a status brand and therefore relatively reasonable in terms of the price.

We bought the car in June 2006. And, yes – I have to confess that it didn’t take very long before I started to feel rather attached to the RAV. My previous doubts about being a car-owner tended to be less present as soon as I turned the ignition key.

Before we signed the contract, we wanted to make sure that it was covered by a worldwide warranty. Just in case. And the local car dealer in Brussels ensured us that the warranty was world-wide for three years. Six months later however, out of the blue, the break system suddenly broke down due to an underlying manufacturing failure. The estimated repair cost was around 2-3000 euros. And to our astonishment, the local Toyota garage refused to accept our warranty.

We immediately contacted the car dealer in Brussels who reconfirmed that the warranty should be valid also in Cape Verde. They then referred us to Toyota Belgium and Toyota Europe (customer service), who were rather unhelpful and would accept no responsibility in the matter. Instead, we were advised to contact Toyotas main office in Japan, which we did on several occasions both through fax and email. We never got any response.

At this stage, the situation looked rather grim. How could it be that nobody in Toyota took any responsibility for a major manufacturing problem on a brand new car? It was quite absurd. In a final and almost desperate effort, I called Toyota Sweden for advice, even though they had nothing to do with this. And for the first time my case was taken more seriously. I was given another helpful contact at Toyota Europe, and after that things finally started to move in the right direction.

It took an incredible eight weeks to fix the car, but at least Toyota Cape Verde finally changed their mind and accepted the warranty. I still don’t really know why but I suspect that my most recent contacts with Toyota Sweden and Toyota Europe might have had something to do with it.

I come to realize that this car issue has taken up a great deal of my focus and energy for the last few months. Upon reflection, it is not easy to understand why I got myself so worked up about something that I previously didn’t care much for at all. Of course – being stranded for almost two months without a car in a developing country, where taxis are unreliable and unsafe, especially when traveling with a small child, is not ideal. But probably much off the agitation actually derived from the feeling of being deceived, disrespected and dismissed by so many of the Toyota representatives. Nobody we talked to assumed direct responsibility for the issue. Toyota Japan didn’t even bother to answer us. Moreover, we weren’t even given a proper apology – a simple “Oh by the way, we are really really sorry that you bought a product from us that didn’t work” would no doubt have made some tangible difference.

OK, so Toyota got their act together in the end, and I am glad that they did. Our car was repaired and covered by the warranty. Nevertheless, the time it took and the way the warranty issue was handled was no doubt disappointing. My long term committment to being a car-owner and my relationship with Toyota is therefore a bit uncertain. Maybe the “car addiction” kicks in again, and all my disbelief will be forgotten and my confidence in Toyota will be recovered in a blink. Or perhaps I was right all the time: cars (including Toyota cars) are just expensive trouble, and its better not to become addicted in the first place. Time will tell.