(First Posted October 18, 2013) (CC reader Daniel Cleaveley sent in some shots he took on a recent road trip in Tanzania and Kenya. Lots of JDM vehicles, which he identifies for us).
I’m from a semi-rural town in Victoria, Australia, but I have some close friends whose mum is from Tanzania originally, and I’ve been fortunate enough to go there with them a couple of times. It’s a great part of the world – everyone is very friendly, and it’s not quite as poverty-stricken as many other places in Africa. This means that cars are becoming easier for more people to afford; however, as there aren’t many used cars already in the country, a majority are imported second-hand from Japan, with Toyota being the most popular marque by far. As such, there are large numbers of cars that were unfamiliar to me – it’s fascinating to see all these JDM models in such an alien environment.
(Above) In central Dar-es-Salaam, behind a Mercedes-Benz S-Class and a Toyota Harrier. On the other side of the road, the typical traffic jams that plague the city, with Suzuki Escudo, Toyota Corona, Toyota Nadia, Toyota HiAce, Toyota Prado, Mitsubishi Canter, Mitsubishi Pajero, and Toyota LiteAce.
Heading out of the city, with a Chinese tuktuk, Mazda2, Kia Sportage and Toyota Coaster in the left lane; Toyota Sprinter and Toyota LiteAce Noah in front; and on the other side of the road, a Toyota Chaser, a couple of Toyota Vitz, and a Toyota Corona.
Still heading out of the city, with a Toyota WiLL Cypha (Now that’s a rare find one I wouldn’t have expected to see there-Ed) and Toyota Starlet parked, a couple of Toyota Coasters in front and a Toyota LiteAce Noah going the wrong way down the outbound carriageway.
Roadworks, behind a Nissan X-Trail with a Toyota Corona and Toyota LiteAce Noah on the other side.
You can be sitting in a Toyota Prado doing 100km/h in the rain and buses will still overtake you around blind corners or just below the crests of hills. I didn’t notice any Chinese cars in Tanzania (although there were a few in Kenya) but there were lots of Chinese buses (like this one) and commercial vehicles.
Toyota HiAce, with the offsider hanging out the door drumming up business.
A Mitsubishi Rosa and Toyota Coaster. Many buses and vans still have Japanese writing on the side, but not normally to this extreme.
The next couple of photos were taken while in Tanga: Typical roadwork scene, with concrete bollards being craned into position, and a Toyota HiLux going the other way.
Taken with my waterproof/drop-proof traveling phone, so excuse the poor quality. Another typical scene – there were lots of places, both in and out of towns, where there were piles of sand or gravel in the middle of the road. The car on the left has stumped me (possibly a Toyota Spacio?) but the one on the right is a Toyota LandCruiser Cygnus.
The next photo was from just outside Mombasa in Kenya: All the driving instruction cars I saw were of approximately this vintage and quality – either vans like this Isuzu (Fargo or Como – not sure which) or things like barely-running first-gen diesel Toyota HiLux Surfs. If you can learn to drive in a third-world country in a vehicle like this, you’ll be right! Not sure what ‘unik’ means but ‘poa’ in Swahili means ‘cool’, with the slang used much the same as in English.
Yeah thats a Cresta in the last shot looks like typical Kiwi traffic minus the Falcons and Holdens my sister has been touring the same places recently currently in South Africa,
When we lived in Malawi and Mozambique from 2007-2010, we saw the same mix of JDM oddities, plus a few South African built ones, and, rarely, a Peugeot or Citroen. Toyota Caldina and Nissan Rasheed wagons were very popular, as were Emina and Lucida vans.
We drove a 1998 Toyota Town Ace Noah all wheel drive turbo diesel five speed which was very versatile (it could haul a ton of maize in a pinch, or eleven people, though it had only eight seats), but also very crude.
I’d typed this the other day but it mustn’t have shown up – a Citroen C4 wasn’t what I expected to be overtaken by! Probably not like the ones you would’ve seen. The only car I’d think it would be harder to find parts for is the Rover 75 I saw in Tanga….
When I was in Tanzania for the first time, in 2008–9, there were still a lot of Peugeot 504s in the farming areas in the mountains (on the way to Arusha) but they seem to have been replaced by old Toyota Mark IIs now.
Thank you for doing this; seeing what is in other countries is always intriguing and you have given us some insight into something we ordinarily would not see.
Are the Chinese buses Lifan, by chance??
I don’t remember if there were Lifan buses – the one in the photo is a Yutong ZK6116D, according to the badges. The majority of large trucks and buses all seemed to be Scania, with a few Mitsubishi, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, but I do definitely recall seeing quite a few Chinese ones as well.
There must be still a lot of these around in Africa, the 1959-1995 Mercedes L-series trucks. You can best describe them as the Mercedes-Benz equivalent of the Mack R model.
(Photo: H. Bender)
Neat post – thanks for sharing
The Toyota Corona looks to be our Camry from a few generations ago.
I love the Toyota Coaster Van/Buses, I remember seeing many in Hong Kong a couple of years back. They look old but new in a weird Jetsons sort of way – Something about the positioning of the lights and the overall rounded-ness of the shape I think.
I think the later Coronas are the same as the Toyota Carina – not a car I’m familiar with as the Corona was only sold in Australia up until the late 80s (T140 series).
Toyota Coaster vans are quite common in Australia – although we didn’t get a lot of the more crazy JDM models, it’s interesting how many vehicles were sold in our tiny market that aren’t offered in places like the US.
Australia didnt have the FWD Coronas but they were the best seller across the ditch in NZ where we also got the Chris Amon local assembly model with a special suspension tune and galvanised body, all these JDM cars are common to NZ roads including the buses though those are being weeded out of the commercial fleet now over safety concerns mostly age related they do make very good motorhomes.
One of the things I liked about the cars in Tanzania is that every 4×4 has a promotional spare wheel cover, often for quite obscure companies or brands – I made sure I got one from a local bank to take back for my parents’ LandCruiser.
The same Land Cruiser model as this one:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/coal-1999-toyota-land-cruiser-captain-stubing-your-ship-awaits/
Very obvious though that the one in Tanzania is not the “Soccer Moms Edition”.
It has the solid front axle not the IFS for starters! Just noticed the Vic rego plate, plus the LPG sticker – the 4.5 inline 6 perhaps?
Wow, yeah, that is just like mine! And, uh, yeah, outiftted a bit different that our Soccer Mom edition! 🙂
Our spare wheel was underneath I believe.
There’s another Land Cruiser 100 model in one of the pictures. A grey one,
parked on the right side of the road. It sure looks more like yours…
A Land Cruiser with a gasoline engine, that’s a needle in a haystack here.
Most of them have a 3.0 liter 4 cylinder turbo-intercooled diesel (90-120-150 series.)
Toyota’s 1KD-FTV engine.
I think that one is the LandCruiser Cygnus (JDM version of the Lexus LX470).
Land Cruiser 100 series = Land Cruiser Cygnus = Lexus LX470
(in essence)
Because petrol is moderately expensive in Australia, lots of larger petrol cars are dual-fuel (especially in Victoria) – converted to run on LPG. My parents’ LandCruiser originally had the spare wheel underneath; however, it (and the sub fuel tank) were replaced with the LPG tank. 100L of petrol and 100L of LPG, from memory. At the moment, petrol is around $1.50/L where I live while LPG is about 70c/L, so even though you chew through the LPG quicker than petrol it’s still a lot cheaper to run a car that way.
Thanks for sharing these photos from your travel trip. 🙂
I spotted on Youtube, these clips showing vintage scenes of Johannesburg during the 1950s and early 1970s including the car landscape of the era.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItzW1-OoElM
I’m from Tanzania and I thought I could help you guys identify some of the cars in the pictures. In the second picture from top, the white saloon on the other side of the road is a Toyota Mark II (not a Toyota Chaser). In front in a Nissan Civilian bus. The bus in the middle of the road in the third picture from top is an Isuzu Journey (not a Toyota Coaster), while the car nearest to the camera in the bottom picture is a Toyota Chaser (not a Toyota Cresta).
I took a similar trip in 2016, and I swear it seemed like approximately 90% of the cars on the road in that part of the world are Toyotas.