An Aqua in Pakistan: A Monthly Diary

Good to know! The excuse I get here is "dust", and yes, there is a lot of it. The oil's terrible, corners get cut... you know how it is.

Country's lovely, shame about the people.

Temperatures are still in the mid-30s (just over and around 90 in Fahrenheit). The humidity's over 60% for most of the day though. The forecast had been for rain the entire week, but it seems to have given up after Sunday. Climate change, you ken how it is.

The Americanism is a product of schooling and much too much television. When you're raised on a steady diet of Transformers and G I Joe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters cartoons, you can't help sounding American.

Spellings are a problem though, because I default to British, while my browser and Word keep defaulting to US English.

 

"It's quiet." "A little too quiet." "It's Raph!" "Yeah, a little too Raph... Ow!"

September's been pretty quiet, in comparison to how hectic August was. The girl's turned two, the boys are back in school, and we've gotten back into our regular routine. But everything has been rather low-key. We got a cake for our daughter's birthday, and a few presents, but just celebrated at home since my wife's family was mostly out of the country. The boys have been mostly good about getting ready for school in the morning, so there hasn't been much drama there. I finally jogged 5km in my morning run for the first time since I resumed my routine this year. I had an office trip to Karachi last week. Oh, and they banned plastic bags in Islamabad, a move that everyone admires, but criticises because the government didn't provide any warning, or any alternatives.

The monsoon rains extended all the way into September, so we were still sleeping with the air conditioners all the way until the end of the month. It wasn't that it was especially warm (the maximum temperature was around 35°C (95°F)), but it was humid (around 80% in the morning). It's only in the last week or so that the nights have gotten to 20°C (68°F), so yes, the temperatures are still out of whack.

Setting the Scene: The Search Part III

The first time we drove an Aqua was about 4 years ago, I think. Our younger son was still in diapers, and the girl was a distant gleam in our eyes. I'd defined our requirements, and was trying to get a feel for what cars were going for in the market. I wasn't very serious about it though, because my wife wasn't keen on financing, I wasn't keen on borrowing money from her family, and we didn't have enough money in the bank. So, I'd call around, ask prices, and make excuses on why this car or that was unsuitable.

My wife, tired of my dithering, found someone who was selling an Aqua in the next housing colony over, and fixed up a time for us to go and look at it. So, we grabbed my father (because I didn't know much about what to look for in a car), and drove out to look at the car.

It was a black Aqua, a G trim, which means that it was with "all the fixings". No sunroof, because I don't think they have those in the Japanese models, but push-start, rear window wiper, electric windows, reversing camera and controls on the steering wheel. It was still unregistered; the man said he'd imported it, but decided he'd rather have a Honda Vezel instead. At this time, people were slowly but surely turning the import of cars into a business. By the time 2018 drew around, every second or third car in Islamabad was an import, but that was still in the future. At the time, Aquas and Vezels were still rare enough that they'd draw comment if you saw one.

He showed off the car, popped open the hood, showed us the boot (no spare tire, only the tire-repair kit, as was the norm). And then he handed me the keys, and told me to take it for a drive. And didn't offer to join us.

This was surprising, to say the least. Islamabad isn't a sewer like Karachi, but it isn't as though crime is unknown here. It's worse now, as the cockroaches abandon their nests and are moving to greener pastures (i.e. here), but we've been robbed twice in the 40+ years we've been in Islamabad, and my wife's house has also been burgled. So, for someone to just hand us the keys to his car, not knowing who we were, and where we'd come from was odd. I mean, yes, we had my father with us, and two children, but that doesn't really mean much.

So I drove around a bit, not really knowing what to expect, and not knowing what to look for. All I knew was that it was incredibly smooth, and so incredibly different from our Santro. There was power-steering, so I didn't have to fight to turn the wheel. It was light, so it didn't tire me the way my father's car does (even though it has power-steering). It was comfortable.

In the end though, we couldn't afford it. The guy wanted too much money, more than we could afford at the time. Is it ironic that when we finally bought an Aqua a few years later (an L trim) for the same price? The rupee had dropped, the dollar had risen, and we'd sold the car by then, but still, a strange coincidence.

Month 9: September 2019

Distance Travelled: 1225.0 km (761.2 mi)
Indicated Mileage: 24.5 km/l (57.6 mpg US)

The car's barely been out this month, it seems. I drove it to take the kids to school, and to and from office, and that's about all. My wife's family has been out of the country, so she hasn't had a reason to take the car out. If she's met with friends, it's been locally, and if it was during office-hours, then she would've taken my father's car. I only had to fill up the car twice this entire month, and I still have enough fuel to make it through this week (maybe).

What with the weather becoming more pleasant, and the routine driving, the Aqua's average has been improving. I've been getting averages of upwards of 24 km/l (56.5 mpg US) going to office and 35 km/l (82.3 mpg US) coming home. And I often think about Top Gear, and how critical Jeremy Clarkson was of the Prius (and other hybrids).

I remember that he once had a Prius (the older one, the one with the 1.5 litre engine) drive against a BMW M-something on their race-track at 112 km/h (70 mph), and showed that the BMW had a better average. In retrospect, I'm not surprised, because at that speed, the 1.5 litre engine would have stayed in the red, especially since the car had to keep slowing down for the turns. And Jeremy concluded, "It's not the car, it's how you drive." Well, yes, but the car helps. It's like the NRA's "Guns don't kill people, people do." The gun helps. Shouting "bang" at people isn't going to do much, as Eddie Izzard once pointed out...

What Do the Stickers on Your Car Say About You

• Stickers with your name on them - "Look at me! Look at me!"
• Political slogans, or posters of political parties - "I rely on others to tell me what to think."
• Lyrics from Indian songs - "I have no creativity."
• No stickers (not even from the dealership) - "I recently had the car painted."
• A prancing horse, or a Ferrari sticker - "My car is really slow."
• Prayers, or appeals to God or Prophets - "I'm a really bad driver; if you're close enough to read this, well, all you've left is a prayer."

 

Sorry, I totally missed this in my rush to post.

The Aqua isn't all that uncommon, at least in Islamabad and Karachi. Lahore didn't have too many, mostly because the driving in Lahore is horrible, and people wouldn't want to keep cars that aren't built domestically.

Actually, hybrids don't rate a second look anymore. Japan donated a number of them to our traffic police, and people have been importing them in large quantities in the past few years. That's stopped now, because of the additional taxes and restrictions, but there are still plenty in the local market.

She'll sometimes complain that she wants to drive when we're out together; if it's rush hour, she leaves it to me though, because I'm used to the traffic. But she almost never calls it "her car". I refer to it as "her car", but she calls it "our car". To be honest, the main reason she wanted a good car because she didn't want me to get stuck while driving to and from the office.

 

I've never really liked stickers on the car either, and I keep thinking that I should get the dealer sticker off the rear bumper, but it's so unobtrusive that I forget.

What I've written though, is more applicable to Pakistan. Your mileage may vary. Every region or country has their own thing.

For instance, even though Pakistan is officially a Muslim country, you do get a number of non-Muslim concepts that percolated through our long associations with Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs. Numerology is very popular, and so you get people who have the number 786 plastered all over their cars as a shortcut of "Bismillah".

 

When We Ride, We Ride In Style

I visited Colombo for the first time ever this year. It used to be easier for Pakistanis back in the day, because you could get a visa on-arrival, but now, we have to apply for a visa online. It's not very complicated, or time-consuming, but there it is, nevertheless. And as a first-time visitor, the Immigration Officer had to call around to verify that I was who I said I was. Still, it was a lot better than Malaysia, or Thailand, who insist on bank statements, and police certificates, and tax certificates, and signed statements from God before they'll consider my visa application.

Such is life.

Flying out is also interesting, because there are so few direct flights from Pakistan to Eastern countries. So, whenever I want to fly East, I first spend 3 hours flying West, to Doha, or Dubai, or Abu Dhabi, and then fly East. At least the carriers are nice, and I can catch up on various movies that I couldn't watch with the wife and kids. For instance, I watched the latest season of Top Gear, and lamented what an absolute shambles it is, with the dimwitted cricketer, and the comedian trying to talk cars when they don't know anything about cars.

Travel's changed over the years. When I first travelled to the US on my own, I had to look for public email terminals and public phones to let the family know where I was (if I could). And even earlier, when I travelled to Uzbekistan, I think I only spoke to my family once, when a sympathetic camp counsellor was able to get me a 5 minute phone call with home. Now, I have (limited) WiFi on the plane, I have free WiFi at every airport, I have international roaming (paid for by the company)... I am constantly in contact with my family, reporting on when the plane lands, when I trot past baggage claim, when I reach the hotel, when I buy chocolates so that my wife will let me back into the house.

The downside is that I'll still get calls from people at the office, and I have to tell them that I'm travelling, and can't cater to their problems until I get back.

Anyway, October's wrapped up with all of us in Islamabad and Rawalpindi stuck at home, because the government's blocked half of the routes in and out to cater for a protest march. Bloody politicians. Maybe if any of them had ever worked for a living, they wouldn't keep making trouble for the rest of us.

Setting the Scene: The Search Part IV

It was only last year, in 2018, that we started taking our search seriously. The Santro got sold (for a lot less than I would have liked), and I was driving around in my father's Baleno, which worried my wife. The windshield has strange marks all over it, the headlights are very dim, and it's already had a catastrophic failure of its front axle. So, the pressure was on.

There were a couple of Aquas that we looked at, of course (because we were a bit stuck on them), but it was mostly Toyota Corollas, old Honda Civics, and a Toyota Vitz (Yaris in other markets) that was so awful that it's soured my wife on the entire line. There were also a pair of Honda Fits, which were attractive, but too old for consideration.

I tried to get my wife to drive as many of them as possible, because while I could evaluate mechanical fitness to some degree, I needed her to tell me if they would be good to drive. She liked the Civic, she hated the Vitz, she was neutral about the Toyota Tank (which is a rebadged Daihatsu Thor, based on the Passo), and was overall negative about the Corolla. So, I considered her input to be very important.

If there is once car that I wish we'd picked up it was the Honda Freed. The Freed is a mini-MPV, with a 1.5L hybrid engine. The one that we found was a top-of-the-line seven-seater version, with captain seats for the front and rear passengers, and a bench seat at the back. It had those sliding doors which could be controlled from the driver's side control panel, had that handbrake you engage with your foot, a reversing camera... it had the lot. It wouldn't been a trial to park, and I'm sure that it would've been terrible to manoeuvre in morning traffic, and there's no luggage space when all of the seats are folded down, but I wanted it so bad. The Aqua is superior in every way (including mileage), but I just loved the rear seats and the driver console of the Freed.

In the end, our mechanic told us that it had been repaired extensively, and would've given us a lot of problems, so we dropped it. I suspect that his objections were spurious, and wanted to get us to buy a car from one of his friends, but what's done is done. And we had a much better car on the horizon.

Month 10: October 2019

Distance Travelled: 2045.3 km (1271.0 mi)
Indicated Mileage: 24.8 km/l (58.3 mpg US)

It seems as though the mileage isn't as good as it should be, and that's true. I started the month maintaining a mileage of 30 km/l (70.6 mpg US), and was confident that I could maintain it. But then, we drove the car to Lahore on the Motorway, and the mileage for those 800+ kilometres (500+ mi) was roughly about 21 km/l. So, the fact that I've ended the month at better than 24.8 km/l should give you an idea of how great my mileage has been within the city. I've just recorded my best mileage for a single petrol tank this month, a solid 27.3 km/l (64.2 mpg US).

But the Motorway trip was fun, even if it ruined my average. I finally got the wife to let loose, and drive the car as fast as she could. And she did, maintaining an average speed of 140 km/h (87 mph), and getting up to 150 km/h (93 mph) when I wasn't looking. It's a miracle she wasn't caught, but I think she was cunning about it, drafting behind Prados, Fortuners and other disreputable types to hide herself.

Lahore was pretty annoying, however. My trip unfortunately coincided with the Sri Lankan cricket team's visit, so we had to deal with traffic, roads being blocked and so on. It didn't affect me all that badly, seeing as I was in a meeting with a customer all day, but my wife was upset because she'd been planning on taking the kids to various tourist spots around the city. She finally managed it on one of the days there wasn't a match, and apparently had a nice time... without me.

On the way home, my wife got better mileage. She said she'd figured out that accelerating hard and then letting the car drift improved your mileage. She was a bit deflated when I told her it was known as "pulsing and gliding". I think she'd been hoping that she'd invented a new technique.

But a lot of the hypermiling techniques have now become second-nature, after 10 months of driving the Aqua. I accelerate gradually off the mark. I'm constantly watching the cars ahead of me, keeping sufficient distance so that I can glide (or brake gradually) to a halt rather than slamming the brakes. I feel as though I'm a more considerate driver now, if only because aggression gives me worse mileage.

Random Musings on Hybrid Technology

• Hybrids have more in common with electric cars than petrol cars concerning how you drive them, because you get worse mileage on highways than within the city. You aren't able to recover energy through regenerative braking, so you do worse.
• On the other hand, being able to fuel-up anywhere does make them superior to electric cars.
• On the gripping hand, the performance of hybrids is worse than either pure electric, or pure petrol cars. But I wonder if that's a fault of the technology, or the transmission, because let's face it, as much as I like CVT, it's not very good at acceleration.
• But I do believe that for conventional cars, hybrids are the ultimate evolution of the combustion engine... even if it is just a transitional technology.

 

Winter Isn't Coming

November started out with a planned protest that didn't go anywhere. The religious crazies came out in full force, but since they didn't have the backing of the army, they just sat around until the rains forced them away. And then, near the end of November a bunch of people got killed in a shootout amongst themselves (I have no idea what it was about), so they blocked up the road until the paramilitary types chased them away. And really, that was about all that happened.

We've switched the kids' school, and we're happier about the new school. The place where they had been studying had been an oasis when our eldest was of school age, because it was the only decent campus in the area. But now, there are choices, and I think we've made the right decision. And the best part is that I don't need to drive over half-built roads, avoiding bumps and part-time drivers, and d***heads in Toyota Fortuners.

The new route is very stressful for my father and my wife, though, when they had to drop the boys off in the morning last week while I was in Karachi. I've been dealing with morning traffic for the past 10 years, but they just found it shocking.

Meanwhile, it's November, but only in the last week have the night-time temperatures dropped below 10 °C (50 °F). We all know who to blame for this, of course. If only Arya Stark had thought a little bit before killing the Night King. But these modern girls, you can't tell them anything.

Setting the Scene: The Discovery

One day, on the way back from the office, the missus calls me up. We'd set a budget for the new car, and she said, what if we had a bit more money? What car would we get? And I told her that we should get an Aqua.

She asked why, because she'd been expecting me to suggest a Nissan Juke. I mean, I like the Juke, and it's got a bit more clearance, but I figured that the Aqua would also be cheaper to maintain (no belts), and it had become common enough in the market that there would be people around to whom I could show it to if we ran into trouble. And the wife said, good, I'm glad that's settled.

So, it turned out that the rupee falling against the dollar was a good thing (at least in the short run). My wife had a bit put away (mostly from changing her brother's cash from when he used to visit from the US), and she'd inherited a bit. One of her friends had had an Aqua imported through a car dealer, but then she offered it to us instead. I never got the straight of it, but I think they were moving elsewhere, so they didn't want it in the end? By the time we got it, the car had been at the dealership for some six months or so (which became relevant when we got it registered, and had to pay a fine).

It was silver, which was a good start. Our Santro was silver, as is my father's Suzuki Baleno. Silver is a nice, neutral colour which isn't black or white. It was an L-trim, which wasn't so good, but all of the windows were electric rather than just the ones up front, so that was okay. There was a spare tire, rather than the silly "tire repair kit", which was a bonus. No cameras, and no rear window-wiper which was okay, I guess? I had cameras installed eventually, and I've done without the rear wiper for 11 months now without missing it.

There was another Aqua on the lot. It had that weird dark purple tone that we really liked (but knew would be horrible to paint should we scratch the car), and it was a higher trim (but still missing cameras, and with a spare tire). But it was more expensive, and the tires were older, and it had more on the odometer, so we passed on it.

There were a few scratches on the outside (minor ones), and the inside wasn't the best. But it was in good shape mechanically, and the guy made us a good price.

And that was that.

Month 11: November 2019

Distance Travelled: 1531.9 km (951.9 mi)
Indicated Mileage: 26.8 km/l (63.0 mpg US)

Expectations are funny things. I was stuck in traffic last Friday, and I got home with the mileage-o-meter reading "20 km/l" (47 mpg US), and I was complaining about it. Another time, I was driving home with the wife, and I was complaining that I'm at 40 km/l (94 mpg US) at a certain point on the commute, and the traffic that comes after drops my average to 30 km/l (70.5 mpg US), and she said, "So?"

I was in Karachi last week, and one my colleagues has just bought a Kia Sportage. It's an AWD crossover, with a 2.0L engine. Very nice looking.

"What sort of average do you get?" I asked.

"About 9 km/l (21 mpg US)," he replied.

"Not bad," I said. "Isn't that what you get in a Civic?"

"Yes. And it's more comfortable, and has a lot more extras."

And then he asked how my Aqua was doing, and I told him that my last fill-up was at 27.1 km/l (63.7 mpg US).

The following silence was very uncomfortable.

Random Things That Don't Fit Nowhere

• After 11 months, I'm finally at the point where I now "know" the car. I understand how to accelerate, and brake, and turn without having to overthink things. I can judge stopping distances and accelerating distances, so I can drive a lot more smoothly.
• Hyper-miling is now second-nature. When I set out, I'll accelerate slowly, but I'll build up speed, and then glide, and then pulse along to my destination.
• I've also gotten a bit silly about letting the wife drive her car, because I keep worrying that she'll "ruin my average" with her very aggressive driving.
• After 11 months of my driving, the car's computer is finally starting to reflect reality. The difference between the average displayed and the average I calculate is now less than 1 km/l (2.3 mpg US).

 

Well, yes. Of course.

I'm still slightly suspicious of it, y'know? I keep wondering if it's misreporting the distances. I've checked it a number of times against Google Maps to calculate how many kilometers I've actually done, and that's always been pretty close to what it actually is. It always catches me off-guard, seeing how far I've travelled in a single month.

I have empirical evidence that it's tracking the number of kilometers correctly, but then why is the mileage slightly off? Is it a conspiracy between it and Google Maps? Is it taking something else into account that I'm missing, calculating as I am from fill-up to fill-up?

 

Two Critical Hits

Back in the day, 2020 was considered to be an important future milestone, for Pakistan, for instance, to launch their first space station (yeah, right). In 1995, it was far in the future, and it's amazing how far we haven't come. And lest you mock us, I'd remind you that the in the Japanese cartoon Beast King GoLion (the anime they based Voltron on), the world was supposed to be destroyed by a nuclear war in 1999. So, y'know, trying to predict the future is a mug's game.

Anyway, I'm a bit delayed with my posting, but I have been busy. The company was nice enough to force my manager into giving all of us leaves until January 5th (because the offices in the US and Canada would have been closed anyway), so I've been busy about the house. I've been off the internet for the most part, aside from downloading episodes of The Legendary Defender (good!) and The Dragon Prince (really awful). The news has also been fairly boring, y'know, aside from the volcano eruption near New Zealand, and protests happening everywhere.

A lot of the magazines I'm subscribed to (electronically) have been doing countdowns of games and movies for the past decade because we're moving to a new one, though that's a bit confusing for me. I always thought that the new decade starts on 2021, not 2020. It's all a bit arbitrary anyway. Dates and times are a human construct; I don't think that the Universe really cares what the date is.

I've spent the holidays getting the house fixed up, cooking, cleaning, trips to the doctor for the family, and bathing my mother, who's feeling poorly. I didn't get to laze about the way I hoped I would, but I did sleep in quite a bit. I've also been missing out on my morning exercises, though that's also because it's really chilly in the mornings, and I'm starting to feel my age.

Month 12: December 2019

Distance Travelled: 1560.5 km (969.6 mi)
Indicated Mileage: 24.9 km/l (58.6 mpg US)

I haven't been driving the car much. About mid-way through December, one of the guys at work told me that he preferred taking Careem (that's the Middle East version of Uber, by the way, moreso since Uber bought them out earlier in 2019) for customer meetings because then he doesn't need to worry about parking, and as a technical sales, he can expense it anyway. And that got me thinking about a couple of services that had been launched in Pakistan, Air Lift and SWVL.

I don't think either of those are in Europe or in the US/Canada. They're essentially how public transport is supposed to work; you give your pickup location and your dropoff, it gives you options for buses or vans that will go by both spots (as well as telling you how far they are on foot or by car), and what time they'll leave. When you book a seat, it'll tell you how much. The vehicle will only stop where there's a fare; no overcrowding, no unscheduled stops. The vehicles are clean, and it's mostly used by professionals, rather than, shall we say, "rabble".

Air Lift isn't out in Islamabad yet, but SWVL is. I like the service, and I especially enjoy not having to drive. My wife complains that it takes very long, but it gives me time to read a bit, and watch a couple of shows of something on my phone. So long as I don't have to put up with traffic, I'm happy. I'm planning on using it full-time this year.

The wife's had the car to herself mostly, and she's finally fixed the front bumper that she banged up earlier in 2019. She's done so by smashing the car into a dog, and busting the entire front bumper. I was very unhappy about it, but it is her car, and I was just relieved that it didn't happen on my watch.

Summing Up the Year

Everyone has this list, of cars that they love. The funny thing about my list is that I know that most of the cars that I love are actually terrible. I don't think I'd want to drive any of them, let alone own them.

1. The Lamborghini Countach is probably the most beautiful car ever made, but it was ridiculous. It was noisy. The rear visibility was non-existent. The windows barely opened, probably to make up for the fact that the air-conditioning didn't work. The rear spoiler didn't do anything (aside from add weight). It probably wasn't very fast. And in order to parallel park it, you had to open the door and lean out of it.
2. The DeLorean DMC-12 gets a lot of love because of its starring role in "Back to the Future". But it was mostly a bad car, plagued with problems, from the underpowered engine, to the trouble with the alternators, and the unpainted body-panels. The new company that has the license has been talking about an all-electric DMC-12 since 2014, but I think they're still unavailable.
3. The Lotus Esprit Series 4 was a decent car, by the standards of the day. But Lotus is famously short for "Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious".
4. The Ford Mustang (generation 1) is, I think, the only successful car that I love. But I know that I wouldn't want to own a car from the 1960's, because it'd be incredibly primitive by modern standards, and I do need my luxuries. And would it really be worth it to convert an older Mustang with modern technology? And don't talk to me about the newer ones. The ones from after 2005 haven't been bad looking, but they really can't compare with the original.

None of these cars were ever practical, and while I love how they look, I don't think I'd want to keep them. Where would I keep them? Where would I drive them? How would I afford the fuel?

For the longest time, hybrids were in that list as well. Unlike the others, I felt that I could live with one, though of course, I didn't think I'd be able to keep one. There wasn't an infrastructure in Pakistan to support them, and they were expensive. And then we got one, and y'know what? It's been perfect.

I loved the Aqua from the first time that I drove it, and I still love it. It's quiet, and comfortable. It's quick when I want it to be, and incredibly economical at all other times. It's a hatchback, so it'll fit into most parking spots, but it's roomy on the inside. It's light on maintenance. And it scratches my competitive itch, because I don't feel the need to race other people. If someone speeds by, I don't immediately try to catch up and flash my headlights at them. I just think to myself, "You may be driving faster than me, boyo, but I'm easily doing three times your mileage." I mean, with a 1.5L engine (and 99bhp), I probably could catch them up, but why bother? I've already won.

I've truly enjoyed owning the Aqua, and it is only with the greatest of reluctance that I'm handing it back to my wife. And I've been avoiding driving it as much as I can, because I don't want to give it up. But public transport is cheaper, and easier on my blood pressure.

Will I continue with writing here? I'm not sure. I don't expect Toyota to spring up with an endorsement deal now that they've cut off the Prius C altogether. But then, that wasn't the point, was it? I just wanted to share with everyone the joys of driving a hybrid in a country, that maybe wasn't ready for it at all.