Frequent car upgrading as a status symbol

In Kenya, a car is no longer a convenient tool to move from point A to B. It is a statement symbol.

Times are gone when a car was basically a mode of transport to get one going places in pursuit of daily bread.

However today, people have to move, and move in style.

Many urbanites are struggling to impress and are under pressure to constantly upgrade their cars regardless of one’s financial capability.

In the process, we are messing big time.

Remember the drama we witnessed at the onset of cellular phones?

One would walk into a restaurant or pub and place an assortment of handsets in drinking glasses or on the table just to show that he has “arrived.”

With time, everyone could afford a cellular phone and it ceased to be a status symbol.

Even my five year old daughter cannot does not want the handset she has been using and now prefers a tablet.

“I want one like yours” she tells me.

It now seems the show off game has been escalated to mobile adult toys.

According to a financial consultant I spoke to, people who borrow money to upgrade to a second car are most susceptible to defaulting.

Statistics show that those who secure loans to buy a first car service the loan without much ado.

According to her, the problem comes in when one feels that he/she has had enough of the nine year old jalopy that has unfailingly been faithful for the past two years and opts for an upgrade to bigger and newer models.

Of course the running costs for a bigger car are higher at ll levels from insurance premium, fuel to maintenance and repair in the unfortunate event that you are involved in a minor accident that causes the loss of even an indicator.

But a bigger car will also attract higher expectations which also come at a cost.

In addition, everywhere you go people will be keen to fleece you.

The mechanics will size up and fancy their chances of making an extra thousand out of you.

Woe unto you if you have a potbelly primarily triggered by beer and junk food, everyone assumes that you own a supermarket chain.

For sure, it looks like indeed Kenyans are in a “rat race” quite literally on the road.

Last month, we published an article in which we argued that Kenyans are going for newer numbers.

This fascination with newer number plates is also part of the new show off culture on the road.

The banks have also realised that Kenyans are gullible.

Anyone who has studied basic Economics will tell you that a private motor vehicle is a liability. It does not bring in any revenue.

Actually, it is one of the biggest expenditures in a motorist’s budget.

Yet, we have Kenyans who secure loans to buy cars for private use! A car to drive to work in the morning, park it there in the sun for the whole day and drive it back home and then wait for the end of the month to service the bank loan.

Just like the great Chinua Achebe said that since men have learned to shoot without missing, a bird has learned to fly without perching.

The banks too, have learnt a lesson.

Since we have been told a car loan is a bad debt, the banks have baptised such unpalatable terms to “Asset Finance” and as Ricky Nelson sang in Fools Rush In, some motorists are rushing towards unsustainable motoring habits.

@tonyngare