IGNITION

So, the last time WE were at a dealership in Lagos, I believe the guy who attended to me must have been used to seeing too many ‘average joes’. Cos the moment my choice was caught up in the cross-hairs, he started talking to me like he was reading from a book. In a legal setup he’d probably do time for all the lies he told me that day. In fact, on one occasion he admitted thinking that four wheel drive meant high ground clearance and that was it... ground clearance!! Even in my early days as an enthusiast I was more equipped than that.
He knew nothing about high range and low range, nothing about air pressure and differential locks, just the same way I’m beginning to lose many of you now, so I’ll stop.

So that makes me wonder what parameters people use to choose the right vehicles in this part of the world.
You’d be shocked to know that most of these popular car company employees only know how to market cars.  When you come through, they try their very best to sell you an SUV even after you tell them you live very close to the Central Business District and you rarely rub minds with dirt.
 Or they try to sell you a V8 without the knowledge of your mechanic whom you’re not even sure knows how a V8 actually works.

I can go on and on, back and forth but hey, that’s the focal point of this project.  Occasionally we may lose track of the asphalt and veer off the beaten path partly because our ‘asphalts’-more often than rarely (here in Nigeria)-usually end up as off-road trails.

What hard facts do you know about automobiles?
If its not approved on “The Asphalt Project” its not road worthy, scrap what you heard from the uniformed guys.  Just in case blogs aren’t your thing we’ll whisper once a while on twitter, listen @Asphalt_Project.

So as for that bold ‘WE’ at the top, its Ayorinde and David, it doesn’t cover the whole of sub Saharan Africa or even West Africa for that matter. Naija all the way.