Toyota has been around longer than one tends to think. 86 years. Its origin is in the loom and weaving business. Sakichi Toyoda sold the production rights to the world’s first automatic loom for 100 000 pounds in 1929 (approx. R171 million in 2023), He gave the proceeds to his son Kichiro to start building cars….
On any given Sunday at a braai fire somewhere between Agulhas and Zeerust an oke, having had just enough rum and coke will stop moaning about the Springboks and declare: “South Africa’s roads are *****d!” At this signal, all the other rum and coke philosophers will confirm this and then tell their own road horror…
When I grew up in the 1960s the older generation split themselves into two camps: Ford men or Chev men. The South African accent often pronouncing it Fort or Chef. Wayward religious and political and sports affiliations were at times condoned, but switching from Ford to Chev, or vice versa, was never forgiven. Growing up…
In the old days if you wanted to be opinionated – you had to take the trouble of putting your thoughts down on paper, finding an envelope and stamp, and mailing it to a newspaper. There a person with journalistic experience would read it and decide whether it was spurious or whether it would add…
Life Stats is a fun exercise to do if you have a few minutes.
Try it by clicking on the link. Then type in your date of birth, and it will give you interesting statistics about your life so far. For example, I’ve lived 22 000 days…
Too Little too Late When someone says Too Little Too Late it’s the same as saying I told you so. And anyone who has been in any long-time relationship knows, that is just the tip of the mountain of resentment. Yes, South Africans are resentful about the energy crisis in this country. In short, that…
The difference between truth and falsehood is four fingers. This is according to an ancient myth. It sounds mysterious but it is not. If you measure the distance between your ear and the corner of your eye, it is four fingers. It is a poetic way of saying: Seeing is believing, hearing not so much…
Q: What EV do you drive? A: BMW i3 Q: How long have you had it? A: Since 2017 Q: How much did you pay for it? A: 650k Q: What is its range? A: When it is fully charged and set for comfort mode it has a range of 198km. Once you start driving…
An Idea Whose Time Has Come. I’ve never liked that expression. It’s a bit clumsy. It’s also a bit ‘I told you so’ in tone. But we use it because it says what we want to get across. It seems that the EV is an idea whose time has come. It seems inexorable that EV sales…
When you fill up an ICE vehicle, it’s either diesel or petrol, and it takes about 5 minutes to fill the tank – end of discussion. But when you need to recharge an EV there’s a lot to discuss: trickle charging, fast charging, and ultra-fast charging. On top of that there are variable costs attached to…
