There are touching stories of popular and richest sportsmen in the world like Anthony Joshua that first tried to represent Nigeria in boxing but got frustrated doing so just because there is no proper system in place. No Nigerian sports body would have given him the platform he now has today from developed countries.

We found out also that there are 5 ways Nigeria ruins the future of our cars on a daily basis in many ways we would be talking about today.

You see cars like and you wonder what went  wrong 

Just like most Nigerians, you have a story of how Nigeria has made one or two things more difficult than it ought to be for you. On social media daily, people talk about how they got denied international jobs because Yahoo Yahoo boys and their lifestyle have given Nigerians a bad reputation in the outside world. Today, you will be seeing how our cars suffer from the mere fact that they are being driven in Nigeria daily.

You see some of these things but don’t pay attention to them and that is because you are slowly starting to see it as a normal thing.

5 Ways Nigeria Ruins the Future of our Cars

1. Every car goes off-road due to bad roads

Do you know how shocked the manufacturers of Toyota cars get when they see a Corolla driving on one rough Iyana-Ipaja street in Lagos?. These cars are not built for roads like that and this is why you keep hearing weird displeasing sounds like “gba gba” and “gbo gbo” all the time when you drive. There are no perfect cars for Nigerian roads. 

These cars were never built for roads like this

Remember the Honda sickness that makes it oversteer and embarrass its owner on every Nigerian road? It is mostly caused by rough driving on bad roads. The manufacturers took very long to correct this issue because it normally won’t happen on good roads. If it was an issue that happened on good roads, then Honda would have recalled the cars and fixed the problem since the 2006 Honda Accord.

For this reason, our cars age untimely and make the value drop quickly. Bad roads destroy the lower parts of our cars. Scratches and bruises everywhere.

2. Recalled cars can’t go back to the manufacturer

A lady on Instagram lost her 2013 Mercedes-Benz GLK to fire a few hours after she bought it in Lagos from a car dealer. Everyone kept saying her village people are after her and her achievements but that was not the case at all.

GLK on fire in Lagos 

The 2013 GLK was recalled by Mercedes-Benz over a possible fuel leak that could lead to a fire and that was exactly what happened to her car. It is almost impossible to ship a recalled car back to the manufacturer once it gets to Nigeria and this is a big problem for the future of our cars. That GLK for example didn’t even have a future in the hands of its new owner because it could not be sent back.

The Nigerian ports are one of the most complex ports to bring in a car through. We can’t even think of how crazy it would be sending a car out of the country. It will probably cost more than times two of the car because we don’t produce and export anything apart from crude oil. The shippers would charge very high to take anything across the shores of Nigeria because they rarely ever do.

3. Super and high-end luxury cars lose value

The way supercars and high-end luxury cars lose value in Nigeria will make you reconsider all your childhood dreams of owning 10 Bugattis and 25 Ferraris. The first thing wrong is that you never get to maximize the benefits of having a supercar except for the ‘showcar’ aspect.

Of course, you will turn heads when you drive on roads but it is very hard to give these cars premium maintenance within the country. This is why you buy a supercar at 120 million. After 2 years, you are begging people to pay you 30 million for the car because nobody is ready to put so much money in a money pit all in the name of having a passion for cars.

These cars were seized and their value will drop easily

This is not the fault of Nigeria but we can tell you that every passionate potential supercar technician has migrated to Canada for better opportunities.

The way the government ignores raw talent is the major cause of this. Every year, we see young Nigerian engineers make it to the news for building a car and still, we never see the government put this talent to good use.

4. Import duty can buy a new car

The import duty and customs fee on foreign used cars should be one of the things every Nigerian should protest against. You buy a car for ₦800,000,  ship for ₦400,000 and then you have to pay about ₦1,200,000 to clear the car before use within the country.

It took even Davido months to bring in his Bentley and Lambo because of import duty

The price for the duty and customs is meant to be 75% of the car’s worth but there are fixed rates for the cars based on the average prices of the car. This means that even when you get a car cheaper abroad or even free, you still have to pay money that can buy another car as customs and clearing duties. Crazy!  

>>> Davido's Houses and Cars is second to none

5. Heavy traffic pushes cars to limits

The traffic in cities like Lagos makes a lot of cars have a ruined future. The average driver does not switch off a car while in Lagos traffic and this traffic can last between 1 hour and 7 hours. While you are in traffic for a long time, have you noticed that even while the A/C is on, the car starts to get hot?.

When cars spend time in traffic like this daily, the wear and tear increases

This is because there a lot of cars heating up at the same time and making the environment heats up.

Conclusion

Now, you should understand the 5 ways Nigeria ruins the future of our cars on a daily basis. Most of these things are unavoidable and this just means our cars would never age well if we want to drive them regularly. However, the level of abuse our cars face varies from state to state. There are regions in Nigeria with a lot of good roads and the area you reside in also matters a lot.

The best practice to make your car age properly is to reside and always drive within areas that have very good roads, maintain your car adequately and never be caught slacking on giving your car the premium quality of parts it needs.

At NAIJAUTO.COM we care about your knowledge as a driver. You should also see the details on how to maintain every car brand in Nigeria from the common Toyota, Honda, Mazda to BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and others.

>>> Get brand new, foreign used, and locally used cars on our car for sale section. Do check them out!